Joe had briefed me well about casino security tactics in the back room. He'd said that the very first thing they'd do was try to intimidate me. I figured the big brute in front of me was probably thinking he could just scare the living shit out of me by his presence alone. I was only twenty-two years old and looked even younger.

"You got any ID on you?" he asked.

I gave him my Nevada driver's license.

He looked it over and laid it on the desk. "I wouldn't have even thought you old enough to legally enter the casino," he said with that same trace of sarcasm. "I'm sure all the convicts up there in Ely will just love getting a piece of your ass." Ely was Nevada's harshest state prison. I knew he was pressing the intimidation tactics.

He got up and went to the bank of file cabinets. From the top sliding drawer he pulled out a voluminous book that I later lame, was called the Hanson Mug Book, a compilation of known casing cheaters distributed to the online casino by the Hanson Detective Agency based in Las Vegas and headed by an ex-Vegas cop named Clip Hanson. He had gotten the brilliant idea of exclusively service casinos and so had an immediate client base. Instead of tailing faithful spouses like most of the other private dicks in town, Han and his half-dozen associates chased slot, card, and dice cheater thieves and pickpockets, and various other organized and inorganic online casino scammers.

The brute laid the book on the desk and sat back down. opened it to the page where my name and photo would have be' alphabetically, then nodded as he closed the heavy book with a sounding thump. He put my driver's license inside the folder I on his desk.

"You're not in the book," he said with a smirk. "Well, you are now, my friend." He leaned back in his chair. "My name is Garrison.

I'm the head of security and surveillance for Caesars casino here at Lake Tahoe. If you come clean now, I'll see what I can do for you with Gaming Control. It's up to them how far they want to press the matter in front of a judge."

"I have nothing to say to you," I said flatly.

The radio on top of the file cabinet crackled, and Garrison paused to take in the transmission. I garnered that they were searching for a guy with long blond hair who was loose on one of the upper floors with a stolen master room key. At least I wasn't their only concern, I thought.

Garrison turned his attention back to me. "You know, all you have to do is tell us who your buddy is that pastposted that bet for you, and you'll probably end up getting a walk on this."

"I'm here alone," I said. Despite everything Joe had told me, I knew there were certain things I could say under interrogation. Telling Garrison I was alone was not something that could eventually be used against me in court, even if it was a lie.

Garrison laughed sardonically. "You want to be alone? It's going to be you who does the time alone." He reached over and picked up the phone at the edge of the desk. He said into it as his eyes fixed on me, "Bring them in."

I didn't know who he was having brought in but assumed that it must have been some of the players from the table. Somebody had probably ratted out the move just after I left with the chips. That would explain why they came after me so fast.

My theory proved to be correct, but in a million years I never would have guessed who their rats were. The door swung open and the pit boss came in first, followed by the two rats and the floorman who'd been working the roulette table. When I saw Veronica and Julie come into the room, I nearly died. My disbelief turned quickly into anger.

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