Gift sense

4

Nick Nicocropolis's father had been a sponge diver in Tarpon Springs, Florida, as had his father before him. It was dangerous work, perhaps the most dangerous profession in the world, and both men had died a few months apart while plying their trade, his father from the bends, his grandfather from a hammerhead's bite. Neither had carried insurance, leaving Nick to support his mother, three sisters, and an elderly grandmother at the tender age of sixteen.

Quitting high school had been much easier than finding gainful employment. He was small, five-six and one-forty, and because most Greeks were inherently superstitious, no one on the sponge docks would employ him as a diver, which happened to be the only decent-paying work around. So he'd taken to hustling pool in tourist bars and cheating at cards and loan-sharking and running a sleazy escort service and stealing rental cars at Tampa International Airport just to make ends meet. It was nickel-and-dime crap, and he'd humped it until his mother and grandmother were pushing up daisies and his sisters were in school or hitched. Then he'd packed his bags and headed west. The year was 1965.

Thirty-four years later, Nick Nicocropolis could look back and be proud. His childhood had been hardscrabble, but so what? Losing Gramps and his old man in the same year had been rough, but their losses had also taught him lessons that he might otherwise never have learned. It had hardened him, and in that hardness Nick found a strength he had not known he possessed. A callous had formed over the aching hole in his heart, and from that he had grown strong.

"Fontaine disappeared," Nick said, repeating Sammy Mann's words. "In broad daylight, he walked into the parking lot and vanished. How does that work? Trapdoor?"

"I think they use mirrors," Sammy said.

"Who?" Nick said.

"Siegfried and Roy. You know, the elephant."

"Sigmund Freud? Why the hell are you bringing them up?"

"I thought that's what you meant."

In anger, Nick slapped the expansive granite desk in his penthouse office. Biting off the end of a cigar, he spit it into the trash. "Every day, I look out my window at those two Krauts stealing the crowds from my casino. You think I give a rat's ass how they make the elephant vanish? What I'm asking you, numb nuts, is how Fontaine managed to shake the tail you had on him."

Sammy shrugged his shoulders, wishing he knew. Fontaine had sauntered around the casino into the covered parking lot, ducked behind a concrete pillar, and vanished into thin air. The tail never saw him again.

"We think he changed clothes and ducked into another car," Sammy explained. "That's all we can figure. He left his rental with the keys in the ignition."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Nick said sarcastically, "changed his britches and ran. What am I paying you for, anyway? I spend thirty years working my balls off trying to do someone a favor and you let a guy who's ripping me off take a walk. Jesus Christ."

Sammy hung his head in shame. His employer was the last of a dying breed, a hard headed little jerk who'd refused to sell out to the big hotel chains and was now paying the price for his hubris. The Acropolis could not afford to be ripped off on a regular basis without Nick's getting a distress call from the bank.

"Sorry, boss," he said.

"What about the girl?" Nick said.

"We had her arrested this afternoon."

"She post bail?"

"Not yet."

"You sure she was in on it?"

"Sure, I'm sure," Sammy said. "I've got the whole thing on video."

"I saw it," Nick reminded him, sticking the unlit cigar between his teeth, "and I didn't see her doing a frigging thing."

"She was signaling him," Sammy said defensively.

"You're sure?"

"Of course I'm sure."

"Then why didn't you bust Fontaine when you had the chance?"

"Because I wanted to watch the video a few times. I didn't want to accuse either of them before I was sure."

"But now you're sure."

"Now I'm sure."

"One-hundred-percent-positive sure?"

Sammy grunted. There were times when he'd prefer starving on Social Security than listening to Nick's line of crap.

Nick sensed Sammy's displeasure. His unlit cigar took on the appearance of a living thing as it wiggled in his mouth. "What about Gaming Control?" he asked.

"They're not on our side on this one," Sammy said.

"You're shitting me."

"Look," Sammy said, "I can prove Nola was cheating. Every time she checked her hole card, she signaled its identity to Fontaine."

"How?"

"When she was pat, she leaned on the table with her nondeck hand. When she was stiff, she pulled back."

"Will it hold up in court?"

"Wily hired a consultant to back me up. Some retired dick from New Jersey."

"From Jersey? You're shitting me."

"He's supposed to be the best."

Nick chewed away, not liking it. Without Gaming Control on their side, he'd probably lose in court. But that didn't mean he wasn't going to press charges. If word got out he was going soft on hustlers, his joint would be labeled a candy store, and he'd have more cheats at his tables than an outhouse has flies.

"How long she been working for us?" Nick asked.

"Almost ten years," Sammy replied.

"Any trouble before?"

"No, sir. She's been faithful."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Nick yammered like an old Beatles song. "Quit blowing me. Dealers don't turn rotten overnight. She's probably screwed us before."

Sammy's eyes had gotten sore looking through Nola Briggs's evaluation reports. A sheet was filled out by the pit bosses each week that served as the dealers' report card, with marks for attitude, appearance, customer comments, and most important, the dealers' win and loss percentages. Nothing in Nola's records suggested that she'd been anything but a model employee until now.

"I don't think so," Sammy replied.

"You contradicting me?" Nick asked sharply.

"You pay me to tell you the truth," Sammy said. "I'm just earning my money, that's all."

"Glad to hear it." Standing, Nick turned his back on Sammy and looked out the picture window behind his desk. Two weeks ago, he'd had to fire the grounds crew; now the lawns were the color of cinnamon. Once upon a time he'd owned the swankiest club in town, the house of the highest high rollers; then he'd blinked and found himself running a dump that catered to losers and tour groups.

"Why you think she did it?" Nick wondered. "Money?"

"We checked her bank records. She was making ends meet."

"You think it was greed?"

"No," Sammy said. "Spite."

"Toward who? That pinhead Wily?"

"No. Toward you."

Nick stared at Sammy's ghostly reflection in the window. His head of surveillance looked ready for a rest home.

"Come again?"

"Toward you," Sammy repeated. "You fucked her."

Nick did a snappy one-eighty and tossed the unlit cigar, which hit Sammy square in the chest. "Watch your fucking language."

"Yes, sir."

"In what way did I fuck her?"

"You fucked her," Sammy said, "as in sticking your male part into her female part."

"I don't need a fucking anatomy lesson," Nick roared. "Who the hell told you I fucked her?"

"Wily," Sammy said.

"Did he say when this alleged fucking took place?"

"Wily said she showed up on your doorstep about ten years ago. Drove out to Vegas from the East Coast and her car broke down in our parking lot. You happened on her and invited her up to your suite. Next thing you know, wazoom."

"Wazoom?"

"As in you fucked her."

Nick put his hand on his forehead, struggling to find a memory. "Let me guess. This was before I stopped drinking."

"Wily said it happened right before."

"Another ghost in the closet, huh?"

"Afraid so, boss."

Nick shook his head sadly. He had quit the sauce a decade ago and was still paying for it. A drinker of legendary proportions, he'd effectively erased whole portions of his memory, including most of his first two marriages and several torrid affairs, forcing him to rely on Wily and several other longtime employees to remember the wrongs he could not. "You said this girl's worked for me for ten years. How come her face isn't familiar?"

"She works the graveyard shift. She was subbing for another girl when this happened."

"She's worked the graveyard shift for ten years?"

"By choice, according to Wily."

"This is some strange chickie. You sure I screwed her?"

"Wily said it wasn't a big deal," Sammy explained. "It lasted a week. Then something happened and you split up. But Wily said it ended friendly; you gave her a job dealing blackjack and she's been a model employee ever since."

"Until now," Nick said.

"Yeah, until now."

"Let me see the little lady's file."

Nola's file was as thick as Nick's thumb, filled with vacation forms and work evaluation sheets. A recent photo was stapled to the inside page, and he stared at a tasty-looking blonde with high cheekbones and capped teeth. Nothing about her looked familiar, and he found himself wondering if it had been anything more than a one-night stand. An orange GoGo tour bus pulled up in front of his casino and he watched a mob of white-haired geezers pile out and form a conga line, itching to get inside and take a shot at One-Armed Billy. Then it would be off to the Liberace Museum and a box lunch at the Hoover Dam. Across the street at the Mirage, a dozen stretch limos filled the entrance, the high rollers lining up to squander their dough.

"Here's what I want you to do," Nick said. "You track this Fontaine character down and beat him to within two inches of his life. Redo his face, break his legs, whatever you want. Just make sure you hurt him."

"That shouldn't be too hard," Sammy said.

"Good. And make sure everyone in town hears about it."

"Yes, sir."

Nick watched Sammy grow small as he crossed the office.

"Hey," he called after him.

Sammy stopped on a dime. "Yeah?"

"You sure I banged her?"

"Lola in Housekeeping confirmed it," Sammy replied.

Nick winced as his head of surveillance left.

Catching hustlers was the toughest job in Las Vegas, as Sammy liked to tell anyone who cared to listen. They acted just like normal people, came in all shapes and sizes, and could talk their way out of just about any tight situation.

Take the little old lady playing blackjack down below. Using a portable camera with a zoom lens, Sammy had been spying on her from the catwalk for twenty minutes, waiting for her to make her move. She was a sweet old gal, with blue hair and bifocals, somebody's grandmother for sure. She had a nice way about her, too, with a consoling word for her fellow players when they busted, a smile and little burst of applause when they won. Unfortunately, she was a hustler, and it had taken Sammy a while to spot her.

The guy posing as her son was also a hustler, an athletic type in his early thirties with a hundred-dollar haircut and a Ralph Lauren wardrobe. Hanging on Mom's chair, he complemented the old gal perfectly.

His mother had been increasing her bets and now had three hundred dollars on the table. Through his camera Sammy saw the son's shoulders tense, and he zoomed in on his mother's hand. Unlike most casinos, the Acropolis let the players touch their cards. It was old school, but Nick wouldn't have it any other way.

Mom peeked at her hand. A king and a six-a stiff. Tucking the cards under her bet, she expertly copped the six in her left palm, her left thumb remaining motionless during the move's execution. A lot of practice had gone into that, Sammy thought.

Taking her left hand off the table, Mom dumped the six into the open purse in her lap. Her son, who'd been gripping the back of his mother's chair, removed his hand and scooped up the lone king. "But Mom," he said loudly, "you've got blackjack!"

In one continuing action, he added the ace of spades palmed in his hand and turned over both cards. It was pure poetry, and Sammy caught it all in three quick pictures.

"Oh my," Mom squealed with delight. "Would you look at that. Is there a special name for this?"

The dealer, a green kid who'd started the previous week, flashed her a dopey grin, oblivious to what had gone down.

"They call it a snapper," he replied.

"A snapper! How cute!"

The dealer paid her two and a half to one. Pocketing her winnings, she flipped him a fifty-cent toke.

"Get them," Sammy barked into a walkie-talkie.

Hoss and Tiny had been hiding in the emergency exit and came barreling through the door like a pair of hungry bears. Reaching the pit, they pinned the son to the table while knocking Mom out of her chair and onto the floor.

"For Christ's sake, take it easy," Sammy shouted.

The son started yelling like a stuck pig and covered his head with his arms, a telltale sign that he'd been busted before. Mom was lying on the floor, screaming, and Sammy adjusted his earphone, wondering if the reception was off. Mom no longer sounded like a lady, and as Tiny pulled her up, Sammy saw why: Her wig had fallen off along with her bifocals, revealing the shaved head of a local hustler named Doovie Jones. Snatching his wig off the floor, Doovie stuck it back on his head.

"How dare you strike a woman," he shouted indignantly.

More security appeared. Sammy ran up and down the catwalk, checking the other tables. More than one casino had been ripped off by a pair of hustlers creating a diversion while a third hustler switched a shoe or cleaned out a rack of chips.

The tables looked secure. Out of the corner of his eye, he spied Joe Smith poking his big black head out of his alcove.

"Joe," he yelled into his radio, "what the hell you doing?"

"Nothing," Joe replied, his voice riddled with static.

"Get back to your goddamned chair," Sammy ordered.

"Yes, suh."

Wily came on the radio.

"I've got everything under control," the pit boss said reassuringly. "Nothing to worry about."

Sammy could hear him gloating. Nailing two teams of cheaters in the same day had given Wily a swelled head. Sammy knew better: For every pair they caught, ten more were lurking beneath the surface, sniffing the water for blood.

"Don't kid yourself," Sammy told him.

"There are hustlers all over this town," Sammy said ten minutes later when Wily entered his tiny office in the surveillance control room. "You gotta stay on your toes."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the pit boss said sarcastically.

"Keep that up, and Nick will can you."

Sammy slid the report on Doovie across his desk for Wily to read. The report would be given to the Gaming Control Bureau along with a copy of the videotape to be used as evidence in court. Without the tape, the case would be thrown out, as there was no jury in Nevada that would convict a player solely on the basis of sworn testimony. The casinos were not liked, and the locals paid them back whenever they could.

"Looks good to me," Wily said, scribbling his name on the last page next to Sammy's. A button on the phone on Sammy's desk lit up. Punching the button, Sammy took the call over the squawk box.

"Mann here."

"Sammy, so nice to hear you still have a job. This is Victor over at the Mirage."

"Hello, Victor over at the Mirage," Sammy said, gritting his teeth. "What brings you out of your cave?"

"I heard you got whacked for fifty big ones by one of our guests. I called to give my condolences."

There was not an ounce of sincerity in Victor's voice. Victor's boss had once tried to buy the Acropolis and turn it into a parking lot. The establishments had been at war ever since.

Sammy said, "You should screen your guests a little more thoroughly. This guy was a pro."

"He was screened," Victor replied. "Clean as a whistle. You shouldn't have let him keep coming back. Three times? What the hell were you thinking?"

"We were trying to catch the son of a bitch…"

"I heard you let him walk."

"Up yours, Victor."

The line went dead. Sammy had just been anointed chump of the month; he could see Victor on the other end, laughing himself sick.

"We need to find Fontaine," he said. "I'm open to suggestions."

Wily parked his rear end on Sammy's desk, which nearly tipped it. Righting a paperweight, he said, "I've got an idea. Once Nola posts bail, we pay her a visit and have a little chat."

"You mean slap her around?"

"If it comes to that."

"Are you serious?"

"Nothing rough-just enough to scare her."

"That's illegal," Sammy said.

"So?"

Sammy noticed that Wily had become preoccupied with something stuck to his necktie. It looked like a small chunk of steak smothered in yellow bearnaise sauce. The Acropolis served the best $4.99 buffet in town, and Wily never missed it. With a deft touch, the pit boss plucked the offending morsel off the garment.

"Don't," Sammy said forcefully.

Wily hesitated, the piece of meat inches from his open mouth. With a shrug, he let it fall into the wastebasket.

"Any other ideas?" Sammy asked.

"You still think Fontaine's someone you know?" Wily said.

"I sure do."

"Well, this consultant I hired keeps a database of every known hustler around. Maybe he can finger him."

Sometimes Wily surprised Sammy with a smart idea. This was one of those special times. "Who is this guy, anyway?"

"Tony Valentine."

Sammy had to smile. Before he'd gotten religion, he had run with a cooler mob; he had been switching decks on unsuspecting blackjack dealers in Atlantic City when Valentine had busted him one Christmas eve at the old Resorts International. As cops went, Valentine had been a real gentleman about the whole thing, no rough stuff or threats. A pro.

"Let's hope so," he said. "I've got a bad feeling in my gut about Fontaine."

"How so?" Wily asked.

"Think about it," the head of surveillance said, shifting uncomfortably in his chair. "Fontaine whacked us three nights in a row. A smart hustler wouldn't have been so blatant."

The dull look on Wily's face indicated he wasn't connecting the dots. Sammy finished his thought. "He was trying to get caught."

"But that's stupid," Wily said, clearly perplexed. "He had to know we'd nab him or Nola."

"Him, no; Nola, yes."

"You think he used her as bait?"

Sammy scratched his chin reflectively. On the surface, it didn't add up, but who knew what Fontaine was really up to? "He was trying to create a diversion and it didn't work. He bolted, and Nola got left holding the bag."

"What a lousy prick."

Sammy nodded, hearing Frank Fontaine's taunting laugh ringing in his ears. Of the fifty-odd casinos in town, Fontaine had chosen theirs, and Sammy wasn't going to sleep soundly until he knew why.

"He's a shark," Sammy said, "and we'd better find him before he bites us again."