Chapter 3

I settled back into a routine. Every two weeks, I took the extra day to get together with Fraser. I had almost forgotten being abducted and forced into this life. To be honest, it didn’t matter to me how I became Jacquie, as I was enjoying my work. I was very good for the house, as all of my winnings were for the house, and I won a lot.

One Saturday, Sandra told me that we would have a visit from a group of Saudi men, in town on diplomatic business. She said that one of them was one of the problems, as he bet big, and won a lot of money from the house, but wouldn’t tell me which one. That evening, I was held back until they had sat at a poker table. I was sent to relieve the croupier and we opened a fresh pack of cards.

Tonight, I was equipped with a pair of contact lenses that allowed me to see a dot on the cards under the extra bulb in the chandelier. The casino was prepared for this visit, and there were extra security men on hand. The Saudi bodyguards had not been happy to surrender their weapons at the metal detector, but we expected that they may have non-ferrous weapons as well.

The situation was further complicated with Fraser present, as part of a diplomatic group, including his Minister. The games went my way for a while, with the Saudis getting more and more agitated. One of them, one of the lesser members, wasn’t happy, and I could feel his anger at not winning. I asked the control to target him, then, a hand or two later, realised that he could be a lightning rod for one of the others.

One of the leading Saudis was looking too comfortable, not like someone who had lost thousands over the last half-hour. I asked control to reset their observations on him and waited for the switch. It happened a few hands later, which I had calculated had given him a good hand. He looked at his companion, then gave a sigh. The angry one threw his hand in and left the table. When I looked at the cards around the table, the Saudi had one without the dot.

I didn’t even have to report it, as a group of security men were approaching the table. When they asked the Saudi to come with them, he complained loudly, with a few of the bodyguards pulling out ceramic knives. Our group had tasers, which they used, and the room descended into chaos. I, and all the croupiers, had been trained in such a situation and guarded the current pot, telling the rest of our players that the hand had been cancelled. I gathered up all the marked cards and put them into a bin.

Fraser, and his Minister, were there to attempt to calm the diplomatic situation, but the evidence was plain. Our cameras had captured the moment that the Saudi had swapped cards, giving himself a winning ace. With the robes that he wore, it was easy for him to have a plastic card holder under them.

The upshot of the evening was that the Minister called the PM, to explain the situation, and the Saudi was flown home the following morning, with his entry to the country cancelled for a very long time. He was accompanied by his accomplice, with the others in his party claiming that they were not aware of the cheating, but just thought that he was a lucky guy.

It took about twenty minutes for the room to settle down, with my table taken over by one of the other girls and I was given the rest of the evening off. I had done my job, and it reminded me of the contract that I had agreed to. I wasn’t going to be free until all of the cheaters were banished.

The ace was added to my trophy board, and I got a bonus next payday. When Fraser came in a couple of nights later, he told me that the particular Saudi had been a thorn in the side of his peers, so suffered the fate of thieves in his country. I hoped that he was left-handed, as it was all he had now. The next time I had the evening off, Fraser took me to dinner in a restaurant with a band and asked me if I could leave the casino and live with him.

So much for romance, but I suppose that getting married wasn’t as popular as it used to be. I told him that I was sorry but had entered into a long-term contract with the casino. He wanted to know why, so I told him that I was very sensitive to body language, and that I could pick card cheats as they wound up to do the deed.

“So, you warned the house about that Saudi?”

“Yes, we do have very sophisticated surveillance, but a good cheat makes very small movements. All I do is warn the watchers who to concentrate on at my table. I’ve only picked three since I’ve worked there, and the Saudi was the biggest one I’ve warned about.”

“What do your spider senses tell you about me?”

“That you’re better than any other actor in the world, or else you do love me. Before we go any further with our relationship, there is one thing you have to know. I’m unable to have children.”

After that, I watched his eyes. There was a moment of surprise, then sadness, then acceptance.

“Thank you for telling me. Fortunately, my parents live in Scotland, so I’m not being pestered to produce grandchildren. We could always adopt, that way we can get one that suits our lifestyle.”

“Oh! Come on! An off-the-shelf brainiac who wants to go into politics! I’d rather have a sporty girl who can play for Chelsea.”

He laughed and then led me out to the dance floor where we held each other as tightly as we ever did, swapping likely careers of our adopted child between kisses. We went back to his apartment where we made wonderful love, with him not using his usual condom. For me, it made a lot of difference, and I was a bit noisy.

It was getting towards Christmas, and I was told that I would be on duty during the festive season but would get two weeks holiday in early January. When I told Fraser, he said that he would apply for some leave, as the House wasn’t sitting until later in the year. He asked me if I could arrange a table for Christmas lunch in the casino dining room.

This far out, that was easy to do, so I booked a table for four, as he had asked. In the period leading up to Christmas, I picked out two more, low-level, cheaters and wondered if the other bigger fish were avoiding us. I asked Sandra, and she told me that she was only warned close to a visit, if we knew that the person of interest was in town. Our security followed the activities of the known problems, as well as the society pages for likely events that would attract them to the city.

I was working at a baccarat table on Christmas day when I saw Fraser with a couple. They looked old enough to be his parents and my heart sank. Fancy bringing your parents to meet your girlfriend while she was working as a croupier. He gave me a wink, but didn’t come close, leaving the room just before the end of my stint. I had asked for an extended lunch, and it had been approved.

I went and freshened up, then girded my loins to meet my guests. I walked into ‘The Warren’ and saw them sitting at the table, with drinks already served. As I joined them, Fraser stood up and gave me a hug and a kiss.

“This is Jacquie Kennedy, my true love. Jacquie, these are my parents. My father is Lord Gordon Ashworth, and my mother is Geraldine.”

“Hello, Lord and Lady Ashworth. Welcome to the Bunnies Casino. I apologise for my having to work on Christmas day, and I do have to go back into the gaming room in an hour. I hope that’s only a lemonade at my place.”

His father stood and took my hand.

“It is, Jacquie. I was surprised when my son told me where we would be eating today, telling me that his girlfriend was working. I wondered if he had taken up with a waitress, but I recall seeing you at one of the tables and was taken by your beauty.”

“Thank you, kind sir. I work as a croupier, a specialist in card games. Are you down from Scotland?”

His mother was the one to answer as the two men had a short battle at who would help me sit.

“Fraser had mentioned a steady girlfriend, and we came down to see who had taken his heart. I must say that I never thought that he would be dating someone who worked in a casino. I had always thought that a man in his position would have found a career woman.”

“So, Lady Ashworth. What part of my job do you consider as not being a career? I was recruited into this job from a city position as a statistician. I’m here because I can predict probabilities in card games, as well as being good enough to have been a competition player. I have an Honours Degree in statistics and earn more than most office staff.”

“Mother! Jacquie is one of the best croupiers in the country. I saw, myself, when she exposed that Saudi prince a couple of months ago. You would have read about him being expelled from the country. I was in that room, next door, when he, and his security detail, pulled out knives in a public place. It was bedlam, and took me, and my office, some weeks to paper over the cracks in our friendship with the Saudi administration.”

“I’m sorry, Jacquie. I wasn’t trying to put you down. It just seemed such an odd place for you two to have met.”

“We actually met at a theatre in the city. I was there with a few other girls on a night off.”

The waitress came around with the menu and we ordered our lunches. After that, the discussion became more normal, with me finding out that his Lordship was a retiree from a city broking firm, so we started talking about markets and trends for a while, until Fraser and his mother had to interrupt. I made do with the turkey main course and had to bow out of the pudding and custard, saying that I had enjoyed meeting them but had to get ready for my next session at a table. We all stood, and I was hugged by all three of them, then left them to their desserts and brandies.

A little later, they came in and the two men sat at my table. They stayed until I was relieved, with Fraser losing a little, and his father winning a bit. He must have been a keen player in his younger days, drawn to it in the same way I was. There was a sparkle in his eyes as he stood up when I was relieved.

“Jacquie. I’ve played a lot of poker in my day, and you’re up there with the best of them.”

Fraser had gone off to find his mother, so I took a chance.

“You’re a good player as well, sir. I did see you wishing you could have replaced a card or two, though. Did you cheat a bit when you were younger?”

He looked angry, then laughed.

“My goodness, girl. No wonder you’re here. If you could see through me so easily, the house is safe. You’re right, I did cheat, at times, especially when I was playing guys from an opposing company. I’m glad that you hadn’t been born then. Don’t tell my son. He stands to gain my title when I die, and you are a wonderful girl to be a Lady in a few years. I’m happy that we met and will welcome you to the castle when you visit in a week or so.”

“I thought that Fraser was taking me somewhere sunny.”

“Didn’t he tell you? The bad lad. We have you pencilled in for a week, then I think he has other plans. He’s a chip off the old block. I used to make plans on the run and only tell others at the last moment. I met Geraldine that way. I had planned a group trip to the Maldives, and she was the only one that turned up at the airport. It did turn out for the best.”

I gave them all a hug and kissed both men on the cheek before going off to the rest rooms. When I came out, they were gone. Fraser came back in the evening, taking a seat at my table. When I was relieved, we spoke for a few minutes.

“Darling, I’m sorry that I surprised you with my parents. They popped into town unannounced.”

“So unannounced that you asked me to book a table for four, so we had more room to put our side plates?”

“Ah! All right, I thought that they may come south, so made a contingency plan. You were a hit with them, especially my father. Mother was a bit more reticent. I think that she would have preferred that I was seeing somebody from the society pages.”

“That’s all right. Maybe we can bond better when we’re all rattling around the family castle. At least I know to pack something warm, and not just for sunny climes.”

“Father told you about that, did he? It won’t be too bad, my darling. Just a week to see our future home, should I take on the reins when he passes. That won’t be for many years yet. After that, we have a booking to the Maldives for a week.”

“He mentioned the Maldives as well, is this you as being a ‘chip off the old block’?”

He laughed and then we kissed so that I could have a break. It was during the few days before New Year that I caught my next cheater, and it was a very strange experience, indeed.

We had just moved into the evening sessions when a couple came in and looked around. She was in evening dress, with a huge bangle on her right wrist, a large-faced watch on the left. He was in a suit, so I guessed that they may have come in before, or after, a dinner engagement. There were a couple of spare seats at my table, and he took his coat off and hung it on the chair before he sat down. Under the coat, he wore a wonderful brocade waistcoat, tight enough that he didn’t have any space to hide anything.

As I dealt the first hand, he rolled up his sleeves. Now, this is something that fires all sorts of alarm bells in my head. Either, he was a professional gambler, used to showing that there was, indeed, nothing up his sleeve, or it was a double bluff, and he had another way of cheating.

We played for about forty minutes before I started to get how he was winning more than he lost. At one point, he looked away to see where his partner had gone, and I could see a little through one lens. He was wearing plain glass spectacles. His partner had a bit of a routine. She was wandering around, looking at other tables and the roulette, but brought him a drink about every ten minutes. I pressed my comms button and asked the control guys to get Silvester to meet me in the rest room on my next break.

When I entered the rest room, Silvester was sitting on a sofa.

“What’s the problem, Jacquie?”

“The guy with the waistcoat at my table, is he on the cheater list?”

“No, he isn’t. That’s Jedidiah Humbolt. He’s a professional in town for the big poker competition after the New Year. I believe that there’s over a million to the winner. Don’t tell me he’s cheating! There’s no way he could conceal anything unless he was a magician.”

“I’ll tell you what I think, then you can run with it if you want. When I was young, a friend and I both had a toy which our fathers had when they were children. They were aviator goggles with a speaker built into the headband. There was also a small two-way with a range of about fifty feet. We would be out on our bikes, and he would speak to me on the radio. I think that Jedidiah has a similar set-up in his glasses. They’re plain glass, by the way. It won’t be a speaker, but the frames are chunky enough to hide a receiver, with a speaker that could just vibrate against the bone.”

“Who is telling him what other players have?”

“The girlfriend has a chunky bangle on her wrist, and she seems to touch her hair or face a lot. She brings him a drink and then wanders off, usually around the table at a safe distance. She may be wearing magnifying contacts, as she tends to stay away from larger objects. All she needs to do is tell him who has the best hand at the table, and he’s professional enough to work with that. The radio must be very low power, and probably they use random changing frequencies that are linked. If I were you, I would keep a camera and directional microphone on her and, if I’m right, she’ll be recorded telling him who to watch out for.”

He put his hand to the bud in his ear.

“Brendan, did you get that?”

He listened and then looked at me.

“If you’re right, it’s going to blow holes in the professional scene. You go up to the control room and help Brendon catch anything on tape. I’ll check you off with Sandra and watch the proceedings from a distance.”

I went up to the control room through the door in the restroom, with Silvester sliding out into the gaming area. Upstairs, Brendan got me to zoom in on the items that I thought were radios. With the girlfriend, we designated the bracelet as the target, and linked a directional microphone to it. We watched as the play continued, one screen showing the bangle, one showing him at the table, and the radio receiver on a roaming monitor.

I was starting to think that I was crazy when she went and bought him a lemonade, then took it to him at the table.

“How is it going, darling?”

“Good, my sweet. Clear as a bell. Just a little while longer and we’ll call it a successful evening. A million quid, here we come!”

The hand was being dealt as she straightened up. She walked away from the table before she made a circuit. She lifted her right hand to her face and the microphone picked up her words, clear as day.

“Two to your right. Pair of nines and pair of queens.”

At the same time, the radio gave out a mash of static. I was watching him, and he gave no sign of hearing that, but started playing the guy to his right, until they were the only two betting. Brendan was talking to Silvester and Silvester told him to make sure he had everything on tape. The man left the table with his chips, and nothing was done to stop him. Silvester came up to the control room and made sure we had the evidence.

“Right, Jacquie. That was some catch. We won’t take him in, as the only money he took away was off other players that we have the proof for. What will happen, is that I’ll take this evidence to the organisers of the competition and leave it to them to catch him in full view of his fellow competitors. I saw nothing amiss from the ground, but the video and audio is damning. I would say that they were testing the equipment here, thinking that if they can get away with it in such a monitored room, it will be uncatchable at the competition. Be ready for a trip to the city before you take your holiday.”

I went back on duty after the next break, doing what I did best. I thought about what had happened and realised that him being arrested during the competition will have him blackballed for life. I smiled as I dealt the cards. Some days, the hand you get isn’t the one you expected.

On the Saturday morning, I was in a Range Rover with Silvester, heading for Windsor, where the organiser of the poker competition lived. In the meantime, I had researched Humbolt, finding out that he was a regular competition player, earning a lot but never taking away the big prize. Obviously, this time was to be his big payday.

When we were invited into the house, Silvester introduced me as the casino’s secret weapon, and asked Chuck, the organiser, to forget that I existed after this meeting. We sat in his office, and I related the evening that we had discovered the cunning plan. Silvester had the video and audio on a USB and Chuck watched it several times.

“This is taking things to a whole new level, Sil. If this type of cheating gets well known, we would have to install some expensive security tricks. Just the use of multi-frequency radio is not something I thought we’d ever see.”

“We didn’t stop him leaving, just so we could bring you this evidence. Now you know what he’s going to do, you can take some precautions, such as removing all non-players from the room.”

“That won’t do. It would spoil the ‘family atmosphere’ that separates a competition from outright gambling. How does the woman see the cards from that distance?”

“We think that she is wearing contacts with a magnifying lens. You can see that she never goes near anything and is always moving away from other people. It’s a problem that he has no need to cheat in the usual way, just by knowing the best hand is enough.”

“Leave it with me. Thank you, Jacquie, for discovering this plan. I wonder if I can organise an accident that causes her to need some aid from our paramedics, then discover her contacts and the radio. It will need to look natural. Then, we can talk to him and see what’s hidden in those glasses frames.”

On the way back to the casino, Silvester took me to lunch at one of the best hotels. It was a place that the old Jack had wondered about, never thinking that he would have been sitting at a table, wearing a good dress and being bought lunch by a nice man. Even the toilets had gold-plated taps.

The following week, after the New Year celebrations, Fraser picked me up and we loaded my bags into the car. He had been to the casino to see the New Year in with me, and I had managed to wheedle the details of our holiday out of him so I could pack the right outfits.

He took me to his apartment, where we made love before having lunch. He left the car in the garage, and we had a taxi to the station, where we boarded a train to take us to Edinburgh. His father picked us up and drove us to the family castle. I say ‘castle’, but it turned out to be a large Georgian house, set in twenty acres of woodland, and tastefully refurbished with all modern conveniences. It was near Kinross, north of Edinburgh.

We were shown to a room with a big bed, and then went down to the library to sit with Gordon and talk about the festive season just past. Before dinner, Fraser took me on a tour of the house, and I fell madly in love with it. My preconceptions of a cold and draughty stone edifice were knocked down by the elegance, the comfort, and the central heating.

Marianne Gregory © 2024