Wild Card

Chapter 24

Someone once said, the heart is a lonely hunter.

Izzie could not get Betty out of his mind. Trying to track his beloved down, he’d called around Nyack, and discovered she was renting a one room apartment over a butcher shop with freezing cold floors. He got her number from information, and called her every night. Most times, Betty cursed him and slammed down the phone. Once, she’d tortured him by talking dirty, then hung up. She could be rotten like that, but Izzie still missed her. He decided to send her a present. Not just any present, but a true expression of his love. Slipping out of the house in Ventnor one morning while Josh and Seymour were asleep, he drove up and down Atlantic Avenue until he found a pawnshop. The store was called Goldfarb’s, and could have given Fort Knox a lesson in security. Iron bars on the windows, multiple surveillance cameras, a burly armed guard by the door. The owner was a Rumpelstiltskin-like character named Herbie.

“What’s your pleasure?” Herbie asked.

Izzie placed a stack of hundred dollar bills on the counter. Herbie riffled the stack with his thumb to make sure they were all real.

“I’m looking for something special for my girlfriend,” Izzie said.

“She must be quite a lady.”

“She itches where I can’t scratch,” Izzie explained.

Herbie disappeared behind a beaded curtain. When he returned, he was carrying a metal strong box. It was heavy, and he placed it on the counter with a grunt, then popped the lid. Inside was a collection of the most beautiful jewelry Izzie had ever seen.

“Do you ship?” Izzie asked.

Two days later, he phoned Betty. This time, she’d wanted to talk.

“I can’t believe you bought this for me. It’s so beautiful,” she cooed.

Izzie was sitting in the second floor bedroom of the rented house with the phone pressed to his ear. He could hear the ice melting from his beloved’s voice. He had sent Betty a spectacular diamond bracelet along with a pair of fur-lined slippers.

“I wanted you to know how I felt,” he said.

“How many diamonds does it have?”

“Thirty-five.”

She purred into the phone. “One for every year.”

Izzie knew she was older than that, but played along. “That’s right.”

“Are they all real?”

“They sure are. No glass for you, baby.”

“And the metal. Is it silver?”

“Platinum.”

“God. It must have cost a small fortune.”

“It’s hot, so the guy gave me a good price.”

Betty screamed so loud that Izzie had to pull the phone away from his ear.

“You sent me a hot bracelet?”

“Yeah,” Izzie replied. “Whatta you think, I got it from Tiffany’s?”

Betty called him a fucking asshole and slammed down the phone.

Izzie went downstairs feeling lower than a snake’s belly. This long-distance romancing wasn’t working. He needed to drive to Nyack and see Betty, and apologize to her before she tore a hole out of his heart as big as Manhattan.

The first floor was jumping. He and his brothers had brought home a dozen suckers from the casino, and everyone was drinking and smoking and having a good time. They had expanded their operation to include a pool table, which doubled as a craps table, and a second card table, where the suckers could play each other before Izzie cleaned them out. He found Josh in the kitchen fixing a tray of sandwiches. His brother looked worried.

“What’s eating you?” Izzie asked.

Josh said, “Whose idea was it to invite that guy Vinny Acosta?”

“Mine. He’s got a ton of money. And he’s dumb as a fence post.”

“He’s a scary guy. I want to get rid of him.”

“His money’s as green as anyone else’s. Leave Vinny to me,” Izzie said.

By four A.M., all of the suckers had left the house except for Vinny Acosta. He was a scary guy, about six-two and two hundred and fifty pounds, with a nose turned sideways, slicked back hair, and a way of looking at you that made your skin crawl. Vinny had gotten drunk, sat down in front of the TV, and started watching a new cable station called ESPN that showed crazy stuff like sumo wrestling and log rolling. At four, a college basketball game came on, and Vinny killed the set, and came over to the card table where Izzie, Josh and Seymour were sitting.

“Basketball is for fags,” Vinny declared, throwing down a wad of cash. “Let’s play cards.”

Izzie whistled through his teeth. “What did you do, rob a bank?”

“None of your fucking business. Deal ‘em.”

Izzie shuffled the deck sitting on the table, and had Vinny give them a cut. Vinny was watching him like a hawk, and Izzie knew not to try and switch a deck on him. Instead, he held the deck over his Zippo lighter, and sailed cards around the table. It was called using a shiner, and let him see every card as it was dealt. He memorized only one hand — Vinny’s — and signaled it to his brothers when he was finished dealing. If Vinny was strong, they would all drop out. If not, Vinny would be raised and cleaned out.

Vinny had a pair of 7’s. Izzie signaled the hand to his brothers, then glanced at Josh. His brother was sweating. Vinny had him spooked.

Izzie didn’t like it. If Vinny sensed that Josh was nervous, he might realize the game wasn’t kosher. Josh needed to regroup.

“Hey Josh,” Izzie said. “Get me a Coke, will you?”

“Sure,” Josh said. “Anyone else want anything?”

“I want a slow gin fizz,” Seymour said.

The brothers laughed. Vinny, staring at his cards, didn’t say a word.

Josh retreated to the kitchen, and ran cold water over his wrists. They’d made a lot of money since adding the pool table and the second card table. So why did Izzie have to bring this cretin home? They were playing with fire, and were going to get burned. He grabbed a bottle of Coke from the fridge and returned to the den.

Josh approached the table, then froze. Vinny had his back to him, and was staring up at the ceiling. Looking up, Josh saw tiny butterflies dancing above Izzie’s head. It took a moment before it registered what they were. The Zippo had caught the overhead light, exposing the gaff.

Josh looked at Vinny, and saw him start to pull a gun. He’s going to shoot Izzie. Josh figured he had a few seconds to save his brother’s life. Flipping the Coke bottle over in his hand, he smacked Vinny on the back of the head. The bottle disintegrated upon impact, and Vinny fell forward, and hit the card table with his face.

“Why did you do that?” Izzie shouted.

Josh pointed at the ceiling. Izzie looked up at the butterflies.

“Whoops,” Izzie said.

They laid Vinny out on the floor. He was still breathing, and except for a small cut on the back of his head, did not appear to be seriously injured.

“He told me he’s staying in one of the high roller suites in Resorts’ hotel,” Izzie said, calmly smoking a cigarette while Josh and Seymour paced the den. “He must have a key on him. I say we take him back, and lay him out on his bed. Then we pack our stuff, and go find another house.”

“What about the furniture?” Seymour said.

“We leave it.”

“The pool table, too?”

“Yes. We’ve got to move fast. If Vinny comes back, we’re history.”

Seymour stomped around the room in anger. He’d spent a whole week gaffing the pool table so they could cheat at dice on it. It was a thing of real beauty, and was going to make them rich.

“We can’t leave it,” Seymour whined.

“Stop acting like a baby,” Izzie said.

Josh got on his knees, and searched Vinny’s pockets for a room key. The lower buttons on Vinny’s silk shirt had come undone, and Josh spied a thick canvas money belt wrapped around Vinny’s stomach.

“Oh-oh,” Josh said.

Izzie knelt down; so did Seymour. They had seen the money belt, too.

“Better see what he’s carrying,” Izzie said.

Josh undid Vinny’s shirt, then unzipped the money belt. Inside the belt were stacks of brand new hundred dollar bills. Josh removed the money and counted it.

It was a hundred grand.

Josh’s hands began to tremble. He looked into his brothers’ eyes. They were thinking the same thing, and equally terrified.

Vinny Acosta was a runner for the mob.