He produced it. It was a Mirage key. Room 1011.1 gave it back to him.
"You here alone?"
"Yeah."
I spoke to Hawk.
"You want to give him time to break the bank?"
"Sure."
"Think we can keep Marty Anaheim off his back? If he shows up?"
Hawk turned his head slowly and looked at me from the other side of Anthony. He smiled.
"We could do that," he said.
CHAPTER 17
Anthony took his system back to the blackjack tables. We sat at the bar and watched him. Hawk was sipping Krug, from a fluted glass. The bottle was in an ice bucket on the bar. I had a beer.
"You think he's got a system?" Hawk said.
"Don't know," I said.
"He doesn't seem to be counting."
"Maybe one of those progressive betting systems," Hawk said.
"Casinos love them."
"Anthony was born to lose," I said.
"He'll play till he does."
Hawk nodded more in agreement with himself than with me.
"So how come we didn't just grab him and call Julius?" Hawk said.
"And then what?"
"Then it's up to Julius," Hawk said.
"I don't want to leave it up to Julius," I said.
"Or Shirley," Hawk said.
"Her even more," I said.
"So who we leaving it up to?"
"There's something wrong here," I said.
"Anthony did seem to be thinking 'bout Marty Anaheim a lot."
"He reacted different to that name than the others," I said.
"When I first brought up Gino's name, you notice, Anthony didn't have any reaction. He didn't react to Gino until after we mentioned Marty."
"You believe him he didn't take no money from Gino?"
"He swore on his mother," I said.
Hawk smiled.
"That did it for me," he said.
"You got a friend at the hotel," I said.
"You are an ace detective," Hawk said, "figure that out."
"We didn't have to register and everything's free," I said.
Hawk grinned.
"You don't miss nothing, do you, Bawse."
"Nothing," I said.
"So maybe you could ask her if Anthony is registered here with anybody."
"How you know my contact is a her?" Hawk said.
"Ace detective."
We were quiet. Hawk took the bottle from the ice bucket, poured a little more Krug, and put the bottle back in the ice bucket.
"You think there's something between Anthony and Marty?"
Hawk said.
"We been looking at Marty Anaheim and seeing Gino Fish," I said.
"What if Gino's got nothing to do with it. What if it's Marty?
Gino didn't seem too sure about Marty when he came to see me."
"So what's that got to do with Julius?" Hawk asked.
"Maybe nothing. Maybe there's two sets of things going on.
Julius you can figure. Anthony stole some money from him and it makes him look bad. Julius wants the money and Anthony back without anyone knowing about it."
"And Marty?"
"I don't know. If he's not working for Gino on this… be kind of hard to drag Anthony back to Boston, he doesn't want to go," I said.
"Sure," Hawk said.
"That be really hard for just the two of us, him being such a bad ass and all."
A woman wearing a designer baseball cap and carrying a coin cup slid into the bar beside Hawk. She ordered a bourbon oldfashioned, looking covertly at Hawk while the bartender mixed it.
When it came, she put it down in three swallows and headed back to the slots.
"Okay," I said, "so we can drag him back to Shirley if we wanted to. Let's wait and see first if we want to."
"During which time we hang around and protect him from Marty Anaheim. If Marty were to show up. For whatever reason, which we don't know, that Marty might have. If Anthony needs protection from Marty."
"Which he thinks he does," I said.
"Or which he lets us think he thinks he does," Hawk said.
"Unless we misinterpret."
"Unless that," Hawk said.
Hawk was looking at the casino floor as he talked. His face was expressionless. His eyes always seemed to see nothing and everything simultaneously. After a minute he looked back at me and grinned.
"You know what you're doing?" Hawk said.
"No."
"But you trying to do the right thing, soon as you know what it is," Hawk said.
"Yes."
"And meantime we going to fuck around with Anthony until we find out who to save."
"That's my plan."
"So we going to cover him twenty-four hours a day, you and me?"
"I don't think he'll run," I said.
"Why not?"
"He's not going anywhere," I said, "until he loses all the dough.
We'll sort of cover him while he's playing."
"So Marty Anaheim won't come and scare him to death," Hawk said.
"Marty's pretty scary," I said.
"What you going to do about Julius," Hawk said.
"I told Anthony I wouldn't blow the whistle on him yet."
"Yeah but Julius paying us," Hawk said.
"I'll let him know we've located Anthony, see what he has to say."
"And if he say bring him right back?"
"I'll tell him, soon."
"And if he say now?"
"I'll tell him, soon."
"You got to do it your way," Hawk said, "don't you."
"I don't do kidnappings."
"The hell you don't," Hawk said.
"I seen you do more than kidnappings, you think it's what you should do."
I shrugged and took a sip of beer. I had nursed it so long that what was left was warm. I pushed the bottle away.
"For something important, maybe," I said.
"Not for Julius Ventura's money. Not to send Anthony back to Shirley."
"You decide," Hawk said.
"Who else," I said.
Hawk grinned.
"Don't ask me. I don't worry 'bout things like that. I just do what I feel like."
"So why you asking?"
Hawk smiled his still smile.
"You ever think about running for Pope?" he said.
"Some," I said.
CHAPTER 18
It was suppertime. Hawk had the first watch on Anthony and I was in my hotel room waiting for the volcano when Ventura called me.
"What the fuck's going on?" he said.
"Just fine thanks, and yourself?"
"Never mind the wiseass shit, what'd you call me for?"
"Let you know that your son-in-law is in Vegas."
"My daughter with him?"
"Your daughter?"
"Yeah, asshole, my daughter, you know? Shirley? She out there?"
"I haven't seen her," I said.
"Well, she's not here," Ventura said.
"How long's she been gone?" I said.
"She had Jackie drive her to the airport an hour ago."
"If she's on her way here, it'd be a little soon to expect her," I said.
"What are you, a fucking travel agent? My wife's driving me up a fucking tree about it."
"Why would she come here?"
"Her asshole husband's there ain't he?"
"How would she know that?" I said.
"I only found him about three hours ago."