The Police Lieutenant's Wife

Guns 'n Roses

Early Summer, 2015 Las Vegas, Nevada

Harris and Allison were on a flight to Las Vegas. Allison had two engagements there for the new IBM Business partner - TechWave. Both of them had been scheduled by Ivan. Her first gig was to meet with Ivan and the heads of financial and technology for a large casino chain. Ivan was pitching IBM's AML - Anti Money Laundering Solution. It was to be held in a banquet room, and Allison was to assist in the sales.

The second engagement was to a large mixed martial arts fighting association. The aim was to increase pay-per-view ticket sales. This was in conjunction with IBM. It was collaborative, however it was also competitive. A portion was software sales, and a portion was services. TechWave was an IBM software reseller. If they sold both the software and the services engagement, it would be a huge win - it meant a few million dollars for just a few weeks of work.

Harris had a lot of vacation and sick leave stored up. Before he had met Allison he never took time off, much to the chagrin of his parents. He was looking forward to going to Vegas. He told Allison that he liked the craps tables. Allison had never gambled, but she was happy to let him "do his thing." Harris was also very excited for the all-you-can-eat buffets. Allison was focused on work, but she was also hoping for a little shopping.

They landed on a Tuesday afternoon in McCarran. They took a taxi to the Venetian. Allison hit the gym, and when she got back, she got ready for the AML/Casinos meeting. She had not seen Ivan since the Firm in NYC. She dressed in black, put on red lipstick, and she fluffed her hair. As she turned around, Harris snapped a photo with his phone. He said, "You look great!"

"I wish you could come."

"It's your night to shine. Don't worry about me, there are sports on."

Allison laughed, "There are always sports on."

Harris grinned. He was wearing orange shorts to his knees and a white knit polo shirt. He rode in the elevator down to the lobby. Her new boss, Darren and another colleague were meeting her in their Uber and taking her to the event. They showed up about five minutes after Allison and Harris came down.

Darren was a nice man, as far as Allison had experienced him. He was very hands-off. He left all of the managing of Allison, actually, to Ivan, who was still with IBM. Darren and Eric, the colleague pulled up, and Allison caught a bunch of laughter and the tail end of some bawdy jokes. Harris stood over them as Allison got into the car. He said to Darren, "She is precious, and you'll be on your best manners?"

Darren halted, and Eric looked surprised. Darren answered with complete professionalism, "Yes, she's in my care."

Harris watched them drive off.

As Allison walked into the courtyard of the hotel, Ivan was standing on the balcony overlooking a lush garden. He was beaming a big smile, which she had not seen on him before. He waived to her a small waive. She smiled and waived back.

The dinner went off very well. It was wonderfully appointed, and there were several top notch IBM sales people there, whom Allison had worked with before. The presentation, to Allison was quite familiar. The scenarios, on money laundering through casinos were very good. The tech and financial people asked many questions, and the deal was on the way to being made. Allison had been working with Ivan on different scenarios, use cases, and some models prior to the presentation. She felt up to the task of discussing the client's needs.

Ivan would tell Allison to read something from her studies, then he would give her data and assignments. Those would turn into products that could be applied or sold. They would also solve real-world problems. Sometimes he would say to her, "This is a problem I have. This is something I am looking for - my 'needle in the haystack'. How would you find it?" So, she would.

The next day, Wednesday, Allison was at the MMA company, early in the morning. She walked into the lobby and was greeted by several muscle-bound men who were the tech guys. They were MMA fans, body builders and the tech crew. They were smart, but mostly "Excel Jockeys" and were new to data science. They ushered her into the CEO's special conference room. A large mural had been painted on the wall of a gun and roses. Apparently the CEO loved the band "Guns 'n Roses."

Allison hit it off with the tech guys. She was an MMA fan, particularly of some of the female fighters. Allison was big on Ronda Rousey and Holly Holm - the "Preacher's Daughter." She didn't like Bethe Correia, and would root for pretty much anyone against her.

Allison had also, in preparation built a model for them, which wasn't expected. She had applied a social media analytics model with a very specialized set of psychometric assets built on social media data. She had applied it to measure how different fighters were perceived. It provided prediction for where media spots should be placed in print, TV, social media, etc, to boost pay-per-view sales. The sale was won, and Allison got a good bonus out of it. The IT guys from MMA took her photo in the ring that the MMA fighters practiced in, and she was full of excitement to be standing there.

The next day, Harris and Allison had to themselves. Harris wanted to play craps. So after breakfast they went to the casino. Allison was dressed in a cute short and blouse set with high heel espadrilles. After seeing what craps actually were, and declining to play herself, she was bored. She decided to text her girlfriend in South Carolina, Sharon. Sharon was a few years younger than Allison, and she had actually gone to college with Jeremy. When Jeremy and Allison broke up, Allison got to keep Sharon and her husband, Ricardo. Allison felt she got the better end of that deal. Sharon was Italian, sharply funny, an artist, and sometimes she and Ricardo indulged in quite a bit of Italian wine. Allison loved them a lot, but Harris thought Sharon was a lush.

The dealer had told Allison that she could not have her phone near the table, so she found a seat around the corner, just out of Harris' eyesight. She sat down and started texting Sharon. Harris came around the corner within a minute of Allison sitting down, "You need to stay with me." His face was dead serious.

"I am. I'm sitting close to you. I'm just texting Sharon."

Harris wrinkled his nose, his mouth was grim, 'I mean within eyesight, within arms reach. You don't know the kind of people that come through casinos, even in broad daylight. If I can't see you, I won't know if something happens to you. I won't be able to protect you."

Allison looked at him, thinking he was a taking things a bit over-the-top. She started to say something, and then she realized despite his calm demeanor that he was both serious and anxious. "So, I need to be near you while you are playing craps?"

"Yes."

"I see," she said, although she felt puzzled, "I could go back to the room?"

"No, unless I go too." He was looking at her seriously.

"Okay. Well, I guess I'll watch you play craps."

"I'll see if the dealer can get you a chair."

"Great. Sounds fun."

So, Allison sat by Harris for a couple of hours watching him play craps, wondering about this facet of her new husband she had not seen before.