Pontoon
Episode 15 of the June Murders
Tad Zeus had driven to Reno the night before and had already spent the day making sure that his Russian guests had everything they needed at the casino hotel. He’d smiled and laughed at conversations that warranted neither, but he needed everyone to believe that they were having a great time. Fortunately, the casino had hosted his clients before and knew their tastes. They had eaten well with caviar that they declared to be as good as back home. This comment had excited so much chatter and laughter in Russian that Tad suspected it was not entirely a compliment. But then again, some of these guys had the money to get what they wanted wherever they were. If they wanted Beluga caviar, they got it.
Stephan Bogdanovich Likhodeyev was obviously the leader of this rat pack, Zeus thought, as he watched the others court him, sharing gossip and stroking his ego. Stephan was in his late thirties with thick hair, a black moustache and beard, and an athletic frame, maintained by a personal trainer and toned by twice daily massages. He favoured Italian tailoring. It had been Stephan’s father who had used his Communist Party connections to win the lucrative oil and gas drilling rights in the new Russia that made Stephan an oligarch. The son’s role had been to find ways for this fortune in rubles to become wealth in other currencies. He had lived for a while in London…
