Vision Quest

11. The Following Monday Part 2 Lunch

POV: Roger

    Around noon I got a call from Ritu. She was with Marie, and they were worried about Donny. They wanted me to meet with them at the sub shop and they would explain.

When I got there, the girls were at a table eating. I grabbed a soda and joined them. "What's the problem?"

"So, you said Donny didn't show up at your apartment last night?" Marie asked. She was clearly upset. I nodded and she continued. "Something Donny told me yesterday has me worried for his safety and maybe even Ritu's."

She definitely had my attention now. "What did he tell you?"

"Donny said he recognized the guys he thought were following us Friday night. He was pretty sure they are connected to the illegal slot rigging that is going on. One of them cornered him on Saturday and told him he had 24 hours to recover their money from Ritu or else. Donny figured they had mistakenly rigged the payout to Ritu's machine thinking she was working with Donny who they had mistakenly assume had been recruited into their efforts."

"But Donny wasn't involved with them, was he?" I asked.

"He told me he wasn't. He said he knew most of the guys involved and would not have been surprised if they had approached him to join them, but they hadn't yet. He said he never would have become involved with them, because some of those guys were very scary people.

"After the guy threatened Donny on Saturday, Donny realized, there must have been a miscommunication that had several of those guys thinking Donny was on board with them. He guessed that one of their guys was supposed to bring him on board to recruit people not connected to the casino to get the payoffs from rigged machines.

"Even though that had not actually happened, when they recognized you as Donny's roommate, they jumped to conclusions, and you can guess the rest. I'm worried they have done something to Donny, and they may come after Ritu or you next."

"What should we do?" Ritu asked turning to me for an answer.

"You are not going to like this, but I think the safest thing to do is to drop out of sight for a few days at least until we find Donny. Can you go home to your parents for a while?"

"Are you kidding? There is no way I'm explaining this to my parents! We may be dealing with dangerous criminals, but you are talking about me explaining to my parents how I'd gone on a date with a convicted criminal, illegally won a jackpot gambling and now was hiding from the gangsters the jackpot was intended for. Honestly, I would rather face the gangsters."

After thinking a bit, I suggested, "well, we could start our vision quest a little early."