It Was a Very Bad Year

SEVENTY-TWO

For a long time I’d been of the opinion that prostitution in Las Vegas should be legalized. Not so much the street trade, like Darla, but the girls who worked the hotels and ranches out in the desert. Once that was done, Las Vegas would become the place people could go to get anything they wanted.

We kicked up a lot of dust as most of the drive was on dirt roads. Eventually, we came within sight of a structure and I put my hand on Jerry’s arm. He braked and let the car idle.

‘That it?’ he asked.

‘Should be.’

‘Don’t look like much.’

‘Some of them actually look like a ranch,’ I said, ‘but this one. .’

This one looked like a worn out double-wide. There were a couple of cars parked out front.

‘Let’s back up some, just till we’re out of sight,’ I said. ‘Then we’ll walk the rest of the way.’

He put the Caddy in reverse. We only had to go about twenty yards. I directed Jerry to pull off the road. If anyone came along maybe they’d think we’d gotten stuck and had to walk.

We got out of the car and, since we were in the desert, left our jackets in the car. I could see Jerry’s.45 tucked into the back of his pants.

Once we started out on foot I looked around, imagining that this was the same view a cowboy would’ve seen a hundred years ago when he was out here on a horse. That is, until we once again came within view of the trailer.

‘Let’s circle and come in from the back,’ I suggested.

‘Good idea.’

From that angle we could see how large the structure actually was. An extension had been built on the back, which probably housed rooms — or cribs — for the girls.

We couldn’t walk right in and pretend to be customers. Irwin had seen both of us, would know us on the spot. Of course, we could’ve taken the chance that he wouldn’t notice us till too late, but with girls and customers around some innocent people could have gotten hurt if there was gun play.

And there were customers. We saw a few cars parked alongside the trailer’s extension. And there were those two out front. Some of the cars must have belonged to employees, so I was hoping the interior wasn’t going to be too crowded.

There was a back door at the very end of the extension, but if we went in that way we’d probably have to bypass every room in the place.

‘There’s gotta be another door, maybe on the other side,’ Jerry said.

We circled completely around the building and, sure enough, found a side door about halfway up the extension. There were also three motorcycles parked there. Not only was Irwin probably inside, but the Rienzas, as well.

We’d done this before, even though neither of us was an expert at breaking and entering. There were windows on either side of the door. The window on the right was blocked with something, so it was probably a crib. The window to the left was clear, and the room appeared to be an office. We saw a desk, a lamp, and a sofa. We could only see half the sofa, though, so we saw half a man lying on it — the bottom half. However, that half was clad in lime green pants, and white shoes.

‘That’s him,’ I whispered.

‘Gotta be,’ Jerry said.

Instead of having the bad luck to have to use the back door, we ran into good luck. Once we got through this side door we’d be right next to the room Barney Irwin was in.

Jerry dropped to one knee and started working with his lock picks. I kept looking both ways — actually, all ways; left, right, behind us and above. I was sweating, and it wasn’t just from the sun beating down on us. The back of Jerry’s shirt was soaked through, but knowing him that was from the sun.

Irwin might still be dressing like a buffoon, but we’d discovered he was more than that. This might not be as easy as we’d hoped. It wasn’t necessarily just girls, customers, other employees and Irwin inside. He could have a couple of mugs with him.

I heard the lock go snick and patted Jerry on his damp shoulder. He was getting better at that.

He stood up, looked at me and indicated he would take the lead. I nodded. He slid his.45 from his belt, held it in his right hand, and put his left hand on the door knob.

He looked at me. Again, I nodded, and he opened the door.