Jimmy Chen and Clayton Radcliffe pulled into the parking lot of Cascades Casino. Jimmy was behind the wheel of his favourite vehicle, a Hummer. It was a huge vehicle which offered him a sense of safety and power that he craved and it barely fit into the parking space. They were here to talk to one of their connections at the casino, a crooked manager who was known to help the criminal underworld launder money.
This wasn’t the first hit job for either of these two men, but they were always overly cautious about the details, neither one wanted to kill an innocent victim; in this case a woman. Riddick had given them several pictures of Julie Koop, and they wanted confirmation about the identity.
They made their way into the casino through the main entrance and past security. They both looked sinister and the kind of men you wouldn’t want to mess with. Jimmy had acne scars on both cheeks and cold dark eyes although he had no problem attracting pretty women. Clayton on the other hand wasn’t the kind of guy that caught the eye of most women but he didn’t care, he was married and that was enough for him. His wife loved his money, as all women do.
They made their way toward the back of the casino past endless rows of ringing machines and people leaning over blackjack tables looking miserable. They were here for one reason and one reason only: to find out all they could about Julie Koop.
When they got to the back of the casino they were met by a short fat man in his late fifties. Mike Sampson, who went by Mikey, was well aware of who Jimmy and Clayton were since casinos are hotbeds of criminal activity and money laundering; and he had worked with both of them before.
As the three men got close enough to talk, Jimmy took off his dark black sunglasses.
“How ya doing Mikey?” he said.
“Busy as hell,” Mikey responded.
The three men said nothing else and made their way into a back office behind the cash cage. They entered a small, rather empty room and closed the door behind them. Mikey had had all the security cameras from this particular room removed so he could conduct his business with local cocaine dealers. Over the years, Bronson Riddick and his associates had laundered over ten million dollars at this one location alone.
“What’s up, fellas?” Mikey asked slightly nervously.
Mikey wasn’t fond of working with these kinds of men but had gotten himself in way too deep. Even though Mikey received a small percentage of the money laundered through the casino, it was more than enough to buy himself a house on a lake and put his two daughters through college. It was blood money and he knew it, but any guilt that he felt, he had learned to numb himself off to; he pushed the guilt down and went on with his life.
Mikey was as average a human being as you could ever hope to meet, and he hated his dull suburban lifestyle. He had a wife he didn’t like, and whom he hadn’t made love to in decades. His life consisted of a drab, dull routine, and in a small way these dealings with the criminal underworld made him feel like maybe, just maybe he was somebody. It was a tiny injection of excitement in an otherwise boring life.
Jimmy was carrying the brown manila envelope with the pictures of Julie Koop that Riddick had given him the day before, and he handed them to Mikey.
“Do you know this woman?” he asked.
Mikey slid the pictures out of the envelope and studied them for just a few moments. He recognized Julie Koop instantly.
“Yeah, I do. That’s Julie Koop. Used to be quite the regular around here. Had herself a little bit of a gambling addiction for a while there, and used to love sitting at the high roller tables, blackjack mostly. There are always men all over her. She was rarely alone. Sexy. “
As Jimmy and Clayton listened intently to Mikey he went back to studying the pictures of Julie.
“She self-excluded herself last year. She cleaned herself up pretty well. Doesn’t gamble anymore, but God knows what kind of debts she ran up. 300 grand I heard.”
Mikey handed the pictures back to the two men standing in front of him.
“Do you know who she was borrowing her money from?” Jimmy asked.
“Yeah. Jason Leather. Low-level coke dealer that got shot to death last year in a turf war.”
At that moment, Jimmy and Clayton knew why Bronson Riddick wanted Julie Koop dead. Jason Leather was borrowing his money from Riddick, and then lending it to gamblers at the casino. Now that Leather was dead, Bronson Riddick was picking up the responsibility of collecting from anyone who had outstanding debts to Jason Leather. It was Riddick's money, and that’s why Julie Koop was now on his hit list. It made sense.
“So they were bridge loans,” Clayton said.
Even though Mikey knew better than to ask for any kind of details, in his gut, he knew why Jimmy and Clayton were inquiring about Julie. The two men standing in front of him were putting off a very cold vibe, and Mikey knew damn well that Julie’s days were numbered; he knew she’d soon be dead. He had a cold sick feeling in his stomach. It was moments like these that he realized just what kind of company he was keeping and the risk that he was taking working with Bronson Riddick‘s crew. Men like Jimmy and Clayton were cold blooded killers.