Murder by Chance (Betty Chance Mystery) by Pat Dennis Read Free Book Online Page A

her purse. She headed back to her hotel room to watch Animal Planet on the Discovery Channel before opening up the latest Alex Kava thriller to read.
    Meanwhile, Betty turned her chips into dollar bills and headed toward the penny slot machines. After three hours of gambling, she walked away twelve bucks and one free buffet ahead. Twelve bucks wasn’t a lot to most people, but for Betty it was a new used-something from her favorite thrift store. Life didn’t get better than that.
    As for Lori sauntered up and down the aisles for a while, wowing nearly every male in the place. Her beauty even stopped a few of the gamblers in their tracks, though they had more of a chance getting lucky at the tables than they did with her.
    Finally, Lori sat down at a three-card poker table, a game she was assured was easy to learn, play and win.
    She’d lost ten dollars on her first hand, but won her second and third. By her tenth win in a row, Lori started to believe there was no way for her to lose. When she walked away from her first poker game two hours later she was eight hundred dollars ahead.
    One week after, she sat at her desk inwardly fighting an overwhelming urge to drive to the nearest casino. Finally, when her anxiety was so intense that it was hard to breathe, she feigned a headache and raced out the door, straight to the Indiana border where riverboat casinos beckoned from the other side.
    It took less than a year to go through the rest of her inheritance.
    After that, it took only one month before she dipped into the company funds.
    Fortunately, no one knew of her little vice, not even her aunt. As Chief Financial Officer, Lori was in control of the company finances. It was easy for her to raid the cash box or write checks to her personal account. After all, no one was looking over her shoulders.
    As she reached the airport’s ticket line, exciting yet frightening thoughts about letting herself take yet another financial risk started to jet ski across her mind. Maybe she should gamble a dollar or two at Moose Bay? What harm could it do? Hitting a jackpot could be the answer to all her woes.
    Besides, there was no way she’d risk more than, say, twenty bucks. Or forty. If she’d put off having her hair styled for a month, she’d save two hundred dollars right there. If she did that, she rationalized, she wouldn’t be losing money if she chose to gamble. Not a dime. And that meant she could actually wager a hundred and still be even and …
    “May I help you?” the female voice sounded, dislodging her ruminations.
    She stepped up to the front of the queue and laid her ID and MasterCard on the counter.
    The agent entered the information into the computer. “You’re booked on Flight 271 to Minneapolis, Miss Barnes. From there you’ll take the Northern Wind Charter and arrive at the Moose Bay airport at 9:37 A.M.”
    “Thank you,” Lori answered, taking back her ID and charge card—the only one with available credit. She didn’t bother to confirm the price of the trip she’d booked an hour earlier online. She couldn’t afford it, anyway.
    Except for the fifty grand she’d invested in Take A Chance Tours, she’d lost every dime she had. Plus, she’d taken out $19,000 for an “advance on her salary” from Take A Chance. She wouldn’t see another paycheck for five months.
    The agent asked, “Miss Barnes? Is there anything else? Would you care to purchase a flight back?”
    “No, thank you,” Lori responded, and headed toward the security checkpoint. She didn’t need a round trip ticket since she’d ride back on the Take A Chance motor coach. Her aunt always kept one seat available.
    Lori placed her bag onto the security conveyer belt. She stepped up to the TSA agent and lifted her arms as his wand navigated her body. As she stepped backwards, she instinctively felt someone staring at her from behind.
    She did a quick turn around and found herself staring into the puppy dog eyes of a thirty-something