Hotline to Murder

CHAPTER 19

“There’s the Sahara. The Riviera. Oh look, Circus Circus.” Shahla excitedly craned her neck and read the names of the hotels as they crawled past them, stuck in the Saturday afternoon traffic on Las Vegas Boulevard. “Can we go inside just one?”

“You know you have to be twenty-one to gamble,” Tony said. He had put the top of the Porsche down to enjoy the sun. It was easier to cruise slowly along in the car than to face the hassle of parking and walking in the heat.

“What are they going to do, card me? It didn’t look as if they were watching too closely at the Tortoise Club.”

“But we didn’t do any gambling there.”

“I can look older. I brought a dress with me. It’s in the trunk, er, the front.”

“We’re stuck in traffic, and there’s no place to change.”

“I can handle it. Open it up so I can get my bag.”

Shahla started getting out of the car.

“Shahla. What are you doing?” When he saw she wasn’t going to stop, he said, “Stick your fingers under the hood to release it. And when you shut it use two hands.” And do it gently.

Shahla went around to the front of the Porsche, oblivious to the stares of the other motorists stuck in traffic. Tony had no choice but to unlatch the hood. Shahla grabbed her small traveling bag and brought the cover down hard enough to make Tony wince. She was back in the car in thirty seconds.

“What are you going to do now?” Tony asked as he inched forward.

In answer, Shahla unzipped the bag and pulled out a dress. “It’s my mom’s. We wear the same size. Don’t you think it will make me look older?”

“Yes, but as you can see there’s no place to change.”

“Don’t look.”

To his amazement, she pulled her top up over her head in one fluid motion. Sure, she was wearing a bra, but all the tourists in their SUVs, towering over them, had a good view of her as they looked down at the little Porsche. And telling him not to look? She might as well tell a bear not to hibernate.

“I saw the ads for the nudie shows,” Shahla said as she unzipped her jeans. “Las Vegas is a pretty casual place.”

It was no easy job for her to wriggle out of her tight jeans in the enclosed space. She had to lift her legs and place her bare feet against the windshield of the car in order to accomplish it. Some senior citizens in a tour bus watched her, fascinated. Maybe they thought she was part of the entertainment on the Strip. Several guys in a van opened their windows and cheered. It was a good thing Tony was stuck in traffic, or he would have been in danger of wrecking the car.

She had an easier time getting on the dress. She pulled it over her head and worked it down, slowly, until eventually it reached her knees, and she became the picture of modesty.

“There,” she said. “How do I look?”

“Like a million dollars. You should be on display in a casino to show what a million looks like.”

“I’m not through.”

Next, Shahla took her long hair and wrapped it into a bun. Then she applied a little more lipstick and some eye shadow to what had been an almost makeup-free face. She turned to face Tony.

“What do you think now?”

“Okay, I give up. We’ll go to New York-New York. I heard they have some video poker machines that have a good payoff.”

It took a while, but Tony was eventually able to park within walking distance of the hotel. Shahla took his arm as they knifed their way through the crowds of pedestrians outdoors, despite the September heat, and finally made it into the air-conditioned interior of the hotel.

“It’s so big,” Shahla said, craning her neck in all directions, as they strolled through the gaming area, which was like an irresistible force that oozed its way into all corners of the building not taken up by restaurants, theaters, or shops.

They stopped beside one of the blackjack tables, where a bored dealer was dealing out of a shoe to a couple of bored players.

“Can we play this?” Shahla asked as one of the players displayed an ace-king combination and collected his reward from the dealer.

“Not here,” Tony said. In spite of her transformation, it wouldn’t be wise to let Shahla be scrutinized by a dealer and the unseen employees who watched all the games on video monitors. In addition, the minimum bets were far too high to allow her to play just for fun.

They wandered around, looking at the other games. They watched the roulette wheel spin, and Tony explained some of the bets at the craps table. They read the information about the shows that were playing. Shahla was interested in everything.

Finally, Tony realized that the afternoon was moving along, and they would be very late getting home. He told Shahla they had to go.

“We haven’t tried gambling yet, ourselves,” she said. “You promised.”

“We’ll play a little video poker.”

Tony led her to the area that as nearly as he could tell was where Paul had talked about. After some wandering around, he spotted a cluster of video poker machines in a relatively isolated place. He checked the payoffs on one of them. Sure enough, it paid eighty to one for four of a kind. It also had a slot that accepted bills. He inserted a five dollar bill and twenty credits appeared on the monitor.

“Do you know how to play poker?” Tony asked as he figured out which buttons to press.

“No.”

“Your mom is never going to forgive me for corrupting you, but here goes. This kind of poker is called five-card draw because you get dealt five cards, and then you can draw to replace any or all of them. Aces are high, deuces, that is twos, are low. You have to get at least a pair of jacks to win. Other winning hands, in order of increasing value, are two pairs, three of a kind, straight, flush, full house, four of a kind, straight flush.”

“Now tell me that in English.”

“In English, what we’re always trying for on this machine is four of a kind, because it pays eighty to one, which is better than most machines. We use our other wins to maintain our capital so we can go for the big one.”

Shahla caught on much too quickly. Soon she was pressing the buttons herself, and playing with minimal guidance from Tony concerning how many cards to draw. After ten minutes, she hit four eights and screamed as the credit counter tallied up the score.

“Congratulations.” Tony pushed the button to get the cash out of the machine. Quarters came gushing into the tray. He picked up one of the paper containers available for that purpose and scooped all the coins into it. He said, “Now we can go home.”

“Already? We’ve only just begun.”

“Any time you hit a sizeable jackpot, you cash out and start over. That way you keep your perspective. Even when you’re only playing for quarters. But this is a good time for us to leave. We’ve got a long ride.”

When they exchanged the quarters for bills, Tony figured they were about seventeen dollars ahead. Not much, but winning was better than losing.

Shahla said, “Of course, that money belongs to you because we were playing with your money to start with. Now I want to play a little with my own money so I can keep the winnings.”

She pulled a five dollar bill out of a small purse she carried.

“What if you lose?” Tony asked, but Shahla was already returning to the machine, where she inserted the bill in the slot.

“This is a good experience for a listener on the Hotline,” Shahla said. “After all, many of our callers have addictions of one kind or another, or compulsions, as they call them. I want to see what it feels like to lose. Will I want to throw good money after bad?”

Tony decided to let her lose her five dollars, and then they would leave. There wasn’t going to be any testing of compulsions. He stood by her side while she sat in front of the machine.

After playing a dozen hands, Shahla got an interesting deal. “Wait,” Tony said as she pressed the buttons to hold all her cards. “Let’s take a look at this.”

“I’ve got a flush,” Shahla said. “Five spades.”

“I know, but look at what else you have. You have the ace, king, queen, and ten. In other words, you are one card short of a royal flush which pays 250 to one.”

“Ooh,” Shahla said, taking another look at the cards. “So I have one chance in…”

“Forty-seven of drawing the jack of spades because five cards have already been played from a fifty-two card deck.”

“I want to go for it.”

They stared at the cards for a while, not wanting to spoil the anticipation. Finally, Shahla drew one card.

“I can’t look,” she said. “Tell me…”

Tony peeked at the credit counter. It was going crazy. She had drawn the jack of spades. “You did it.”

Shahla jumped up and down screaming. Then she threw her arms around his neck and lifted her legs off the ground.

“Calm down,” Tony said laughing, as he tried to keep his balance. When she let go of him, he pressed the button to cash out and scooped the quarters into the cup. “If you look too much like a teenager, you’ll blow your cover.” He started toward the cashier.

“Where are you going?”

“Now, we’re really going home.”

“But I might win some more.”

“You’ll get the opportunity to know what it feels like to quit when you’re ahead. That will give you empathy for your callers who can’t do that.”

Shahla grumbled, but Tony was adamant. He pocketed the three twenty dollar bills, plus a five and a couple of ones that he received from the cashier, telling Shahla that he would give the money to her when they got home.

She threatened to take more money out of her purse, but Tony said, “I’m leaving, and I’ve got the car.” He walked away.

Shahla caught up to him and said, “You are really mean. I’m never going to Las Vegas with you again.”

“Shhh,” Tony said suddenly, turning to face her. “Look over my right shoulder.”

Shahla peeked over his shoulder and said, “It’s Paul. And he’s got a girl with him. Should we go talk to them?”

“Wait. Describe the girl.” Tony kept his back to Paul and the girl.

“She’s blonde. She’s quite tall. And pretty. She looks something like…Joy.”

“That was my impression, too. Of course, it probably means nothing.”

“That he likes girls who look like Joy? Or maybe he really hates them.”

“What are they doing?”

“They’re going over to where we just came from, where those video poker machines are. He’s got his arm around her neck, as if he’s aching to strangle her.”

Tony turned his head and could see the pair, walking diagonally away from them. Paul did have his elbow resting on the girl’s shoulder, with his forearm curled in front of her neck. Innocent though it might be, if you could picture him as a killer, it looked scary.

“We should follow them,” Shahla said urgently, taking the thought right out of his brain.

“But if we want to learn anything, we need to be incognito.”

“I look different from what I did at the coffee shop. Turn your T-shirt inside out.”

Tony glanced down at the front of his shirt, which had the words “San Diego” on it and a picture of a beach and palm trees. If Shahla could undress in public, he could too. He pulled the shirt over his head and put it back on wrong side out.

“Now put on your dark glasses.”

He took them out of the case in his pocket and put them on. He glanced at Shahla. “Put on yours, too, so he can’t see your eyes if we get close to them. They’re a dead giveaway.”

Shahla took her dark glasses out of her purse and put them on. She said, “One thing more. I’m going to change your hairstyle. Sit down there.” She pointed to a chair in front of a slot machine.

Tony did as he was told. She took a comb out of her purse and fooled with his hair. She chuckled and said, “There. He won’t know you now.”

“What have you done?”

“Don’t worry. It looks good. I got rid of your cowlick.” She put away the comb and said, “How shall we do this?”

“It would be nice if we could get close enough to listen to what they say.”

They approached the video poker machines and saw Paul sitting in front of one. The girl stood beside him with a hand on his shoulder. The adjoining video poker machine was free.

“Do you think we can sit at that machine without being recognized?” Tony asked, speaking softly.

“You sit down, and I’ll sit on your lap, facing away from them. If we don’t say anything, Paul won’t recognize us.”

Tony took a few quarters out of his pocket that were left over from their play. He approached the machine from behind Paul and sat down in the chair while Paul was engrossed in a deal. Shahla quickly jumped up on his lap with her back to Paul. All Paul would be able to see of Tony if he looked over was a profile. Tony noisily threw his quarters into the tray and put one in the slot. He would play slowly so they could mostly listen.

He had to play with one hand because the other one was around Shahla’s waist. He was conscious of Shahla’s closeness to him. At first, Paul and the girl said nothing. He could tell from the noises of their machine that Paul was playing steadily.

After a couple of minutes, Paul said, “I’m not having any luck today. I found an interesting cliff overlooking the city. Come on, I’ll show it to you.”

Paul got up and walked away with the girl.

“He’s going to push her off a cliff,” Shahla said, jumping down from his lap. “We’ve got to stop them.”