"Hello? Who is this? Do you know what time it is?" the groggy voice on the phone barked. It was barely past 7:30 in the morning.
"Good morning sir, I'm so sorry to bother you so early" the caller stammered over the intrusion, "This is Tim Russell, I'm the night manager at the casino." Tim was speeding up his delivery trying to minimize his risk of getting fired. "You asked me to call you immediately if there was unusual activity at the casino?" he pressed on without taking a breath.
"Hold on a minute Tim, let me turn on a light" Jim Wix said in a more normal tone. Tim tried not to hyperventilate into the telephone. "Okay" Wix said, "What's this about?"
"Well Mr. Wix, just after 6:00 this morning, a fellow named Jack Hudson from the White Collar Crime Unit up in Sacramento showed up and wanted to count the cash on hand. His credentials checked out, so I let him in to count."
"What the hell!! How could you just let him in and give him access to the vault!" Wix was clearly agitated and Tim started to shake a bit.
Tim reverted to stammering "I called the Unit in Sacramento and he checked out and I had my people with him every minute. He just counted and left." Tim hoped he could save his job, it paid fairly well.
Tim fidgeted while Wix paused on the phone, either thinking about what just happened or planning on how to kill Tim. After a few moments Wix came back on the line "You did okay Tim" Wix said almost casually. "Did Hudson say anything abnormal while he was there?"
"No Mr. Wix, he just counted and left. We have the normal amount of money so there was nothing to find."
"Thanks for the call Tim" Wix said and hung up abruptly, leaving Tim listening to the dial tone for a moment before realizing the call was over. Maybe he still had a job, he hoped.
Jim Wix lifted himself heavily out of bed and padded off to the bathroom to do the needful while deep in thought. Wix knew there was nothing to find at the casino, but a snooping Fed was a red-flag warning. Something was up and he knew for certain the threads he and Davies had dangling out all over the place could be pulled and land them both in jail. Maybe now was the time to pull the plug, he mused. He reconsidered, no, not yet. Possibly circle the wagons but not bail out. There was too much money involved. He had to call his partner, Vern Davies, right now.
The phone rang about five times. "Hel- " Jim cut him off. "Hey Vern, this is Jim. Wake up, we've got work to do."