It Was a Very Bad Year

TWENTY-SIX

It had been a long day.

As I walked through the casino and hotel lobby everybody still seemed to be in shock. TVs and radios were still tuned to news channels, waiting for the latest word on the assassination.

As I drove home I was thinking about Frank, and how much he thought of JFK. I never had the same high opinion — and, in fact, was not that crazy about any of the Kennedy clan I’d had dealings with — Joe, Jack or Bobby. But I felt bad for Frank because, from his point of view, he’d lost a good friend. I would have called if I’d known where to get ahold of him. I wondered if he had returned to Palm Springs?

I stopped and picked up some takeout fried chicken. I didn’t feel like sitting in a restaurant with a bunch of people who were in mourning, so I just sat in my own kitchen and had a snack alone. Then I turned in, hoping the next day would be better for all of us.

I was supposed to meet Irwin and Jerry in front of the Bank of Las Vegas branch on Simmons. I wondered if we’d made a mistake letting Irwin go. But when I pulled up in front there he was — easy to spot because he was wearing a paisley shirt — standing alongside Jerry.

And Billy.

‘He showed up,’ I said to Jerry.

‘I knew he would.’

‘What’s Billy doing here?’

‘I couldn’t trust him,’ Jerry said. ‘I thought I’d show him a little bit of what I do.’

I glanced over to where Irwin and Billy were standing. Billy had an unhappy frown on his face, but obviously to Irwin it was more of a threatening look. He seemed very uncomfortable standing next to the younger, bigger man.

‘What’d you tell Billy?’

‘Just to look mean,’ Jerry said, ‘and not to talk.’

‘Let’s go in, before Irwin changes his mind,’ I said. ‘He could give us a hard time in the bank, start yelling or something.’

‘He’ll be fine,’ Jerry said. ‘Maybe I can’t scare my own cousin, but this guy is scared.’

We entered the bank, approached a teller’s window. Billy and I hung back, but Jerry went to the window with him. Irwin told the girl he wanted to access his box. She was pretty, and wary of him, and I had no doubt that he’d made a couple of efforts to get her to pose for him in the past. Today he was all business.

It went surprisingly well — surprising to me, anyway, but apparently not to Jerry.

Irwin was meek. He went into the safe with a man from the bank, came out with an envelope. We left the bank and, out front, standing by my car, he gave me the photos.

I stepped away from them, slid the photos part of the way out, meaning only to look at them long enough to make sure they were the right ones. But it was hard to slide them right back in when I got a look at a young, naked Abby Dalton. There were six different prints, but only two full frontal. In the others she was looking back over a shoulder, so that her perfect back and butt were in view. Further down in the envelope were the negatives.

‘Mr G.?’

Jerry startled me, coming up behind me, and I shoved the photos back into the envelope.

‘Yeah, OK,’ I said. I looked at Irwin. ‘These better be all of them.’

‘He knows,’ Jerry said, ‘that if he ever comes back with more photos, he’ll have to deal with me.’

‘Yeah, yeah, right,’ Irwin said. He was a changed man since I left him in the warehouse alone with Jerry.

‘Mr G.?’ Jerry asked. ‘We gonna pay ’im?’

‘Oh, right.’ I took the envelope Abby had given me from my back pocket. ‘This is what Abby gave me to give you. Take it and be happy.’

Irwin looked at Jerry first, and when the big guy nodded he accepted the envelope. To my shock and surprise he didn’t count it. In fact, he didn’t even open it.

‘Zat it?’ he asked. ‘I mean, I’d like to get home. . you know, see what else is on TV about the JFK thing.’

I didn’t think Irwin cared a bit about JFK. He probably had a couple of babes lined up for a photo shoot. I wondered if I should use Jerry to put him out of business for good. Then again, why was it my concern? However he chose to make a living, that was up to him. As long as he left Abby alone.

‘Yeah, that’s it,’ I said. ‘Abby doesn’t want to hear from you again, and I don’t want to see you again. Got it?’

‘Yeah, yeah,’ Irwin said, looking not at me, but at Jerry. ‘I got it.’

‘Good,’ I said, ‘then go.’

I didn’t know how he had gotten there, but he took off walking down the street, then turned the corner. Maybe he’d parked there.

‘We good?’ Jerry asked.

‘Yeah, yeah,’ I said, ‘we’re good. Might as well get back to the Sands and deliver these to Abby.’

Jerry and Billy had taken a cab to the bank, so we piled into my Caddy, Jerry behind the wheel and Billy in the back seat.

As we pulled away from the bank Billy leaned forward and said meekly, ‘I’m hungry.’

I looked at Jerry, who returned the look and said, ‘I could eat.’

‘OK, sure.’

‘The Horseshoe.’

We weren’t far from there, and I knew Jerry liked their coffee shop, so I said, ‘Why not?’