Hey There (You with the Gun in Your Hand)

Fifty-one

We were walking through the casino in Harrah’s when I said, “I saw Marilyn Monroe in here earlier tonight.”

“Yer shittin’ me.”

“I shit you not.”

“What was she doin’ here?”

“She’s shootin’ a movie with Clark Gable,” I said. “The Misfits.”

“Wow. She look good?”

I thought of the handkerchief in my pocket with her lipstick on it. “She looked great.”

We went up to our room to collect what few things we’d brought with us, which included Jerry’s back-up gun.

We packed up and he took out the.38 and showed it to me.

“Still don’t want it?” he asked.

“Considerin’ everything that’s happening,” I said, “I’ll take it.”

“You know how to use it?” he asked, handing it to me.

“I know.”

I tucked the gun into my belt, where it felt foreign, but comforting.

We had finished packing our bags and were heading out the door when the phone rang.

We looked at each other. The reason we were getting out was because people knew where we were. We weren’t sure if Sloane and his two friends were in either of those cars, but it was a good bet.

“Gonna answer it?” Jerry asked.

“No,” I said. “They might just be checkin’ to see if we’re here. Let’s go!”

We left the room and hurried down the hall.

“Wait,” Jerry said, at the elevators. “There must be another way off this floor and to the lobby.”

“A freight elevator. If this place is anything like the Sands it’ll be this way.”

“What about a stairway?”

I looked on either side of the elevator and saw a door.

“That’d be it, but we’d come out right by the elevators. This way.”

I led him back up the hallway, past our room, to where I hoped we’d find the freight elevator. We had to go through a door, but we found it.

“We take this to the first floor and then we duck out the back,” I said.

The door opened and we got in. As the door closed Jerry eased his.45 from his shoulder holster.

“No harm bein’ ready,” he said.

I put my hand in my jacket pocket and closed it over the.38. I was very tense when the door opened, but relieved when there was no one there.

We came out into a hall. I got my bearings and said, “This way,” moving away from the casino toward the back of the building. We found a door that took us out to the parking lot.

When we reached the car and got in-me behind the wheel-Jerry slid his.45 back into holster and said, “Where are we goin’?”

“Tahoe.”

“Why not back to Vegas?”

“That’s probably where they’d expect us to go.”

“We gonna find the helicopter pilot-”

“Forget it,” I said. “We’ll drive. It’s only forty or fifty miles.”

“Can we check into a hotel then?” Jerry asked.

“No, we’ll go to the Cal Neva. Frank left me a key for the cabin whenever I wanted.”

“So what do we do when we get there?”

“I’m gonna talk to Sammy, tell him exactly what I think is goin’ on, and why I want out.”

“Mr. G.”

“Yeah?”

“What happens if they won’t let us out?” he asked.

“You’re out, Jerry,” I said. “We can get you back to Vegas and put you on a plane to New York.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll have to try to convince them that I haven’t seen any incriminating photos of the President, and I don’t want to.”

“How’re you gonna do that?”

“I’ll have to go through Peter Lawford, I guess. I don’t know if Frank can get to anybody in the administration.”

“What if you can’t get in touch?”

“I’ll have to, somehow,” I said. “Maybe Jack Entratter can help me.”

“I can still make those phone calls, you know,” he said. “Find out about the hitters?”

“Yeah, okay, do that when we get to Tahoe. You might come up with something I can use.”

We drove in silence for a while. I was tired, but so keyed up that my eyes were wide open.

“Mr. G.?”

“Yeah?”

“What about Mr. Giancana?”

“What about him?”

“He might be able to help you.”

“He’d never get to the Kennedys,” I said. “Maybe before Jack was President, but not now.”

“You never know if you don’t ask.”

I took a quick look at Jerry, then put my eyes back on the road.

“Why would he do that for me?” I asked.

“I think he liked you when he met you last year.”

“Have you seen or talked to him since then?”

“No.”

“I wouldn’t even know how to get in touch with him.”

“I got a number you could call.”

I hesitated, almost asked him if he’d make the call for me, but instead I said, “I’ll give it some thought.”

“You need to get some help wherever ya can, Mr. G.,” he said. “I know that, Jerry,” I said. “Okay, I’ll give it a lot of thought.”