Was all that an accident? Had it happened on purpose? Had they made him? He pressed his earpiece.

“Dolly. I lost him.”

“No prob. I got him.” He glanced up. She was on the second floor, watching everything below. “Was that Jack Watson that just walked by?”

“Yeah. I thought maybe…”

“No, no,” Dolly said. “I can’t imagine Watson’s involved in this. Not his style. I mean, Baldy boy is heading for his room because he has an appointment. That’s what I was telling you. He got some entertainment.”

“Namely?”

“Russian girl. Apparently he only likes Russians. Tall ones.”

“Anybody we know?”

“No, but I have a little information. And I got cameras in his suite.”

“How’d you do that?” He was smiling.

“Let’s just say Venetian security isn’t what it used to be. Cheaper, too.”

Irina Katayeva, twenty-two, knocked on the door. In her left hand she held a bottle of wine, encased in a velvet gift bag with drawstrings at the top. A guy of about thirty answered the door, smiled. He wasn’t attractive.

“Are you Eddie?”

“That’s right. Come on in.”

“I brought this for you, from the hotel safe.” She handed him the wine.

Watching all this on his little handheld video monitor, Vasco said, “She gave it to him in the hallway. Where it would be seen on the security monitor. Why didn’t she wait until she was in the room?”

“Maybe she was told to do it that way,” Dolly said.

“She must be six feet. What do we know about her?”

“Good English. Four years in this country. Studying at the university.”

“Works at the hotel?”

“No.”

“So, non-pro?” Vasco said.

“This is Nevada,” Dolly said.

On the monitor, the Russian girl went into the room and the door closed. Vasco turned the tuning dial on his video monitor, picked up one of the inside cameras. The kid had a big suite, close to two thousand square feet, done in the Venetian style. The girl nodded and smiled.