Meet The Finders
Everyone calls her “Gamble.” Probably because her first name throws so many people off, and if you call her by her middle name you’ll get The Stare. Gamble’s a former Marine, Colorado mountain kid, and the half of the operation that assumes everyone’s lying until proven otherwise. Because in her experience, they usually are.
Gamble doesn’t take anything at face value. She verifies everything, trusts almost no one, and knows exactly how a fair fight between her and a bigger human would end, so she never fights fair. She trains Brazilian jiu-jitsu at Iron Tide downstairs, rides a black Honda Rebel that men make faces at and call “ball-less,” and has absolutely no intention of ever getting in the ocean unless Daisy’s dying.
Which is a problem, because Daisy is a surfer. So Gamble stands on the beach humming the JAWS theme and doing the math on response times.
She is the “I’ll just shoot him” to Daisy’s good cop. She is also, though she’d deny it under oath, the softest person in Las Playas when it comes to the people she considers hers.
- Goes by: Gamble. Very few people use her first name.
- Do not call her: Josephine, her middle name, or any variation of it. Not Jo, Jo-Jo, or Josie, either. That was a phase because her mother has feelings about “Conor.”
- Ride: Black Honda CMX500 Rebel. Yes, the beginner bike. No, she doesn’t care.
- Greatest fear: Sharks. Well, specifically, sharks near Daisy.
- Second greatest fear: Daisy’s abuela.
- Feelings about tamales: Complicated.
Her friends call her Dez. Most of Las Playas calls her Dez, and she’s perfectly happy with this arrangement. The select few that call her Daisy feels more special that way. Dez is the brains of the operation, and the half that actually likes people (Conor just pretends). She’s working with a journalism degree, a few years as a paralegal, and one deeply satisfying exit from a terrible job that taught her two things: she’s frighteningly good at digging up the truth, and she’s never working for someone who doesn’t deserve her again.
Where Conor assumes everyone is lying, Dez assumes everyone has a story, and she can usually get them to tell it. She’s the good cop, the people-reader, the one who talks first and lets Conor glare second. She also has a soft spot for the clients who can’t pay, or can’t pay much, and that is why their freezer is full of tamales.
Dez surfs in the Red Triangle’s sharky waters without a second thought, then refuses point-blank to get on Conor’s motorcycle. She doesn’t see the contradiction. Conor sees nothing else.
- Goes by: Dez. Daisy is reserved.
- Raised by: Her grandparents, Abuela and Abuelito. They adore her and will fight you about it.
- Ride: An aging VW Golf she’s had since High School. Surfboard strapped to the roof, surf stickers on the windows. It runs. Mostly. The check engine light is a suggestion.
- Greatest fear: That stupid motorcycle.
- Not a fear: Sharks. Ocean puppies. “They’re just big fish, Conor. Are you afraid of fish?”
- Tattoos: Many. Unrelated. All with different stories. Ask about the shark.
