I'm a fool to kill you

ONE

Las Vegas, Sept., 1962

The dealer’s name was Rachel. She was young, pretty, stacked.

The only thing that kept her from being showgirl material was that she was too short. So we lucked into getting her as a blackjack dealer-and I lucked into getting her at one of the tables in my pit.

I hadn’t had anything to do with hiring her, and I didn’t much mind having her at one of my tables, but even from where I was standing I could see that she was — at best — inept. Not only was she clumsy with the cards, but she wasn’t standing when she was supposed to stand, or hitting when she was supposed to hit. In short, she was a looker, but she was costing us money.

I waved over Zack, one of our regular dealers, and told him, ‘Relieve Rachel.’

‘I’d love to relieve her of-’ he started, wiggling his eyebrows.

‘Just do it, Zack.’

‘But. . it ain’t time.’

‘Yes,’ I said, ‘it is. And then send her right over to me.’

‘Uh, sure, boss,’ he said, once he realized I was serious.

He went over and tapped her on the shoulder. She frowned at him, listened to what he had to say, then looked over at me. I nodded. She put her cards down, clapped her hands together once, then left the table.

‘Mr G., I-’

‘Take the rest of the day, Rachel.’

‘But. . why?’

‘We’ll have a talk tomorrow morning.’

She stared at me and asked, ‘Like. . over breakfast?’

‘What?’ Then I realized what she meant, and felt stupid. ‘No, no, it’s nothing like that, kid. Geez, I’m not hittin’ on you!’

‘Oh. Well then, wha-’

‘I’m the boss, right?’

‘Right.’

‘So I’m tellin’ you to take the rest of the day off, with pay, come to work tomorrow, and then we’ll talk. OK?’

She stared at me like she still didn’t think I was on the up-and-up, then said, ‘OK, Mr G.’

‘Good. Now get outta here.’

She shrugged, turned and walked away. Every male head within sight of her shapely butt watched it leave, including me. Then I turned and saw the dealers all looking at me, wondering if I was fucking her.

‘Deal!’ I growled at them. Now all I had to do was figure out what to do with her, because she was never going to make a good blackjack dealer.

Later in the day Dean Martin showed up at the blackjack tables. He, Frank and Sammy were all in town to play the Sands. It wasn’t the entire Summit — not without Joey and Peter — but it would do. The Copa Room would be filled the next three nights.

‘Hey Dino,’ I said.

‘Eddie G.,’ he said, shaking my hand warmly. ‘Good to see you, Pally.’

He looked sharp in an expensive suit, his only jewelry a watch and a pinky ring on his left hand.

‘You wanna play a little? Or deal?’ Dino was known to deal a little blackjack and pay the pretty ladies off on 22.

‘No, not today,’ he begged off. ‘I’m just here checking on a friend. Well, the friend of a friend. . of a friend.’

‘You’re making me dizzy.’

‘You know how it works. Friend of a friend of a friend?’ He had a cigarette in his right hand, held it between his forefinger and middle finger and used his thumb to bend his nose.

‘Oh, a friend of Momo’s?’ Momo was Sam Giancana, number one man in the mob in those days. And a good friend of Frank’s. He would like to have been friends with Dean, but the wise guys didn’t fascinate Dean the way they did Frank. If Dean was doing a favor for Momo, his favor really was for the Leader.

‘Now you got the picture, Pally. So where is she?’ He looked around. ‘I’m supposed to check on her.’

‘On who? Where’s who?’

‘Rachel.’

I swallowed and asked, ‘Rachel?’

‘Yeah, she’s supposed to be the new dealer. Didn’t Jack tell you?’

‘He told me he hired her,’ I said. ‘He didn’t tell me why, or who she was. Who is she?’

‘Just somebody’s. . niece.’

Right, I thought, somebody’s Goumada was more like it.

‘So where is she?’

‘I gave her the rest of the day off.’

‘Isn’t this her first day?’ Dean asked.

‘Well, yeah. .’

‘Oh boy,’ Dean said, ‘was she that bad?’

‘No, I just — we need to find somethin’ — I have to talk to Jack in the morning about her.’

‘Look, Eddie,’ Dino said, ‘you don’t have to hide anything from me. I’m just doin’ somebody a favor by asking.’

‘The truth is,’ I said, still being careful, ‘she needs more training.’

‘More training?’

‘Some training,’ I said. ‘She needs training. . in something.’

‘She as good looking as I heard?’

‘Oh yeah. .’

‘Well, OK,’ he said, spreading his hands. ‘Listen, you wanna get some dinner later?’

‘Sure.’ When would I ever turn down Dean Martin’s invite to dinner?

‘Good,’ he said. ‘There’ll be a car out front after the show.’

‘What about Frank?’

‘He’s got Nancy and the kids in town, gonna be spending time with them.’

‘And Sammy?’

‘Yeah, May’s with him, so it’ll just be you and me. That OK?’

‘Fine with me, Dean.’

‘Good, see you then.’

Dean waved, turned and walked back across the casino floor.

I was going to have to approach this very carefully with Jack. Although I wished he had told me we were dealing with some mob boss’s ‘niece.’ But the bottom line for Jack should also be that she was costing the casino money. All I was going to do was suggest that we get her some training as. . something.

I got called back to the pit to OK a limit increase, and then got busy the rest of my shift. Afterward, I went to the locker room where I kept some extra clothes and changed into something appropriate for having dinner with Dean Martin.