It took her awhile, and while I waited I could see how nervous she was. There was one hell of a lot of tension inside that pretty little body and it would probably be a good idea for her to talk some of it out. I was ready to listen. That was me — Lend-an-ear Lindsay, always willing and able to help out a damsel in distress.
“I’m in trouble,” she said. “Bad trouble.”
“Police trouble?”
She hesitated, then shook her head no.
“What kind?”
“Money trouble.”
“There’s another kind?”
She shrugged. “It’s hard to explain, Mr. Lindsay.”
“Ted.”
“Ted. I don’t know how to start.”
“Just plunge in. And by the way, what do I call you? Cinderella Sims sounds too good to be true.”
“It’s my real name. People generally call me Cindy.”
“Cindy Sims,” I said, trying it out. It sounded fine. I liked it.
“There were six of them,” she said, getting started again. “Five men and a girl. I had a job as a cashier at West of the Lake — that’s a gambling joint at Tahoe in Nevada. It’s called West of the Lake because there’s Lake Tahoe and the club is to the west of it.”
“Go on.”
“They were a confidence mob. You know, con men. Only I didn’t know it at the time. I thought they were just a party of tourists. That’s what they told me and I didn’t see any reason why it should be anything else. They said they were playing a practical joke on this other guy but they were actually trying to bilk him. I didn’t find this out until later.”
I digested this. She put out her cigarette and went on a little further.
“The man’s name was McGuire. I don’t know what he did. He was from Texas and I think somebody said he was an oilman or something. Everybody from Texas is an oilman. At least it seems that way. One of the men, a man named Eddie Reed, came to me and told me they were playing a joke on McGuire. They were offering him phony chips at a discount for him to turn in. He’d come in, buy a few thousand dollars’ worth of chips, fool around at the roulette wheel, and then cash the stack.”
“So?”
“So he would come in with chips that he hadn’t paid for. Say he comes in with three thousand dollars’ worth in his pocket, buys another three thousand worth, and breaks even on the wheel. When he cashes I give him six thousand. He’s three thousand ahead, minus what he has to pay for the chips.”
I thought it over. “Okay,” I said. “It doesn’t make sense. You can’t make phony chips that pass a Vegas house. They work pretty hard on monogram and color and everything else in the book. Those chips are as individual as fingerprints. I don’t get it.”
She grinned. “Neither did McGuire,” she said. “And the girl — she was a busty blonde named Lori Leigh — she kept him from getting much of anything, except what she had to offer. She was working with them from the inside, living with McGuire and wearing him out at night so that he couldn’t think straight during the day. I found this out later, you see. I didn’t understand any of it at the time. I thought it was a joke, the way Eddie Reed said it was.”
“Okay,” I said. “Go on.”
“The thing about the chips,” she said, “is that you couldn’t tell them from real ones.”
“I don’t believe it.”
“Let me finish. You couldn’t tell them from real ones because they were real ones. Reed and the others had bought them from the house and hadn’t bothered to cash them in. Now do you see it?”
“No.”
“I’m glad, because neither did I. Not then. You see, Reed told me it was all a joke on McGuire. They were pretending to give him this method of cheating the house, when actually the house wasn’t losing a nickel. Reed wanted me to act like everything was perfectly okay when McGuire cashed in his chips. I was supposed to take it in stride if he seemed nervous or anything, instead of pushing the panic button the way we’re supposed to if something seems strange.”
“So?”
She stroked her chin. “Now it gets complicated.”
“It can’t get any more complicated than it already is.”
“It does, though. Want to hear more?”
“Go on.”
“After McGuire and Lori Leigh were steady bed partners, Reed got to work on McGuire. Played the slots next to him and got to talking with him. He played it just right, made McGuire look like a big man in front of the girl and McGuire ate it all up. They had dinner a couple times and Reed let it slip that it didn’t matter how much he gambled, he couldn’t lose anything. McGuire wanted to know why and Reed told him how he bought perfect fakes at fifty cents on the dollar. That way he had to come out ahead, even with the normal house percentage against the player.”
“And McGuire bit?”
“Evidently. He kept asking Reed to let him in on it. He was the kind of gambler who doesn’t belong in a house, always looking for a little of the best of it. He liked to gamble, but he liked it better if he couldn’t lose.”
“I know the type.”
“So did Reed. After a while he let himself be persuaded to buy some chips for McGuire. McGuire really had to talk hard to get him to agree. He was so completely sold it was ridiculous.”
“Keep talking.”
“Reed sold McGuire a hundred dollars’ worth of chips, ones he’d bought himself at the house a few days back. McGuire played with them, came out as little ahead, and cashed them in. They were perfectly legitimate, so naturally I cashed them. That was easy enough.”
“And?”
“More of the same. Next night it was two hundred bucks’ worth and McGuire was really getting hungry. He was loaded, but that kind of guy never has as much money as he’d like to have. He wanted more and he must have figured this gimmick as a steady source of income.”
“I think I’m beginning to get it.”
“From here on it’s simple. McGuire wants to buy a big load of fifty and hundred buck chips. Reed says he can’t handle the deal himself but he knows the men who can. Naturally they’re other members of the con mob. Reed makes the contact and they agree to let McGuire have a hundred thousand worth, cash in advance. McGuire figures to stay in Vegas the rest of his life, gamble every night and come out ahead every night.”
“He must have rocks in his head. A man can’t lose every night and cash out a winner every night without the management figuring which end is up.”
“Of course not. But don’t forget McGuire had Lori keeping his bed warm. He wasn’t in condition to think straight. Besides, he was convinced he could win money on his own hook. He had a system for roulette. Everybody does.”
I sighed.
“Okay,” I said. “They’ve got McGuire forking over fifty grand for a hundred grand worth of fake chips which, obviously, don’t exist. What do they do next? Just skip town? I suppose it would work but it might be pretty sloppy.”
She shook her head. “They were cuter than that,” she said. “Reed left and the guy who was supposed to be swinging the deal also left. Another guy, the one who was supposed to be partners in the deal, stayed with McGuire. Then two other guys break in.”
“Also part of the con mob?”
“Of course. Only they’re posing as police officers. They say they’ve overheard the whole thing, Reed and the other one are in jail, and they’ve come to arrest the partner — his name was Finch — and, also, McGuire.”
“Keep talking.”
“Finch explains that he and McGuire don’t know anything about it, that they got roped in without understanding the setup. The cop starts to soften and Finch pushes it. He offers a bribe. One cop wants to take the money and the other one doesn’t. They put on a nice little act until the ‘decent’ cop comes out ahead. Finch makes the payoff, flashes a roll and pays off both the cops. This makes it look better than if they asked McGuire for the money.”