As usual, Gronevelt had Cully make them both drinks, the usual scotch. Then Gronevelt said, “Johnny Santadio is flying in tomorrow. He wants to know just one thing. Is the Gaming Commission going to approve his license as an owner of this hotel or are they not?’
“You know the answer,” Cully said.
“I think I know it,” Gronevelt said. “I know what you told Johnny, that it was a sure thing. That it was all locked up. That’s all I know.”
Cully said, “He’s not going to get it. I couldn’t fix it.”
Gronevelt nodded. “It was a very tough proposition from the word ‘go,’ what with Johnny’s background. What about his hundred grand?”
“I have it for him in the cage,” Cully said. “He can pick it up whenever he wants it.”
“Good,” Gronevelt said. “Good. He’ll be pleased about that.”
They both leaned back and sipped their drinks. Both preparing for the real battle, the real question. Then Gronevelt said slowly, “You and I know why Johnny’s making a special trip here to Vegas. You promised him you could fix it so that Judge Brianca would give his nephew a suspended sentence on that fraud and income tax rap. Yesterday his nephew got sentenced to five years. I hope you have an answer for that one.”
“I haven’t got an answer,” Cully said. “I paid Judge Brianca the forty grand that Mr. Santadio gave me. That’s all I could do. This is the first time Judge Brianca ever disappointed me. Maybe I can get the money back from him. I don’t know. I’ve been trying to get in touch with him, but I guess he’s ducking me.”
Gronevelt said, “You know that Johnny has a lot to say about what goes on in this hotel, and if he says it’s important that I let you go, I have to let you go. Cully, you know that I’m not in my old power position ever since I’ve had that stroke. I had to give away pieces of the hotel. I’m really just an errand boy now, a front. I can’t help you.”
Cully laughed. “Hell, I’m not even worried about getting fired. I’m just worried about getting killed.”
“Oh,” Gronevelt said, “no, no. It’s not that serious.” He smiled at Cully as a father might smile at his son. “Did you really think it was that serious?”
For the first time Cully relaxed and took a big swig of scotch. He felt enormously relieved. “I’ll settle for that deal right now,” Cully said, “just getting fired.”
Gronevelt slapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t settle so fast,” he said. “Johnny knows the great work you’ve done for this hotel in the last two years since my stroke. You’ve done a marvelous job. You’ve added millions of dollars to the revenue coming in here. Now that’s important. Not only to me but to guys like Johnny. So you’ve made a couple of mistakes. Now, I have to admit they are very pissed off, especially about the nephew going to jail and especially because you told them not to worry. That you had the full fix on Judge Brianca. They couldn’t understand how you could say such a thing and then not come through for them.”
Cully shook his head. “I really can’t figure it,” he said. “I’ve had Brianca in my pocket for the last five years, especially when I had that little blond Charlie working him over.”
Gronevelt laughed. “Yeah, I remember her. Pretty girl. Good heart.”
“Yeah,” Cully said. “The judge was crazy for her. He used to take her on his boat down to Mexico fishing for a week at a time. He said she was always great company. Great little girl.”
What Cully didn’t tell Gronevelt was how Charlie used to tell him stories about the judge. How she used to go into the judge’s chambers and, while he was still in his robes, go down on him before he went out to conduct a trial. She also told him how on the boat fishing she had made the sixty-year-old judge go down on her and how the judge had immediately rushed into the stateroom, grabbed a bottle of whiskey and gargled to get all the germs out. It was the first time the old judge had ever done this to a woman. But, Charlie Brown said, after that he was like a kid eating ice cream. Cully smiled a little bit, remembering, and then he was aware of Gronevelt going on.
“I think I have a way for you to square yourself,” Gronevelt said. “I have to admit Santadio is hot. He’s steaming, but I can cool him off. All you have to do is come through for him with a big coup, right now, and I think I have it. There’s another three million waiting in Japan. Johnny’s share of that is a million bucks. If you can bring that out, as you did once before, I think for a million dollars Johnny Santadio will forgive you. But just remember this: It’s more dangerous now.”
Cully was surprised and then very alert. The first question he asked was: “Will Mr. Santadio know I’m going?” And if Gronevelt had said yes, then Cully would have turned down the deal. But Gronevelt, looking him right in the eye, said, “It’s my idea, and my suggestion to you is that you tell nobody, not anyone, that you are going. Take the afternoon flight to LA, hook up to the Japanese flight and you’ll be in Japan before Johnny Santadio gets here and then I’ll just tell him that you’re out of town. While you’re en route, I’ll make all the arrangements for the money to be delivered to you. Don’t worry about strangers because we are going through our old friend Fummiro.”
It was the mention of Fummiro’s name that dissolved all of Cully’s suspicions. “OK,” he said. “I’ll do it. The only thing is
I was going to New York to see Merlyn and he’s meeting me at the plane, so I’ll have to call him.”
“No,” Gronevelt said. “You just never know who may be listening on the phone or who he may tell. Let me take care of it. I’ll let him know not to meet you at the plane. Don’t even cancel your reservation. That will throw people off the track. I’ll tell Johnny you went to New York. You’ll have a great cover. OK?”
“OK,” Cully said.
Gronevelt shook his hand and clapped him on the shoulder. “Get in and out as fast as you can,” Gronevelt said. “If you make it back here, I promise you that you will be squared away with Johnny Santadio. You’ll have nothing to worry about.”
– -
On the night before Cully left for Japan he called up two girls he knew. Soft hookers both. One was the wife of a pit boss in a hotel down the Strip. Her name was Crystin Lesso.
“Crystin,” he said, “do you feel in the mood to get thrashed?”
“Sure,” Crystin said. “How much will you knock off my markers?”
Cully usually doubled the price for a thrashing, which would mean two hundred dollars. What the hell, he thought, I’m going to Japan, who knows what will happen?
“I’ll knock five hundred off,” Cully said.
There was a little gasp at the other end of the wire.
“Jesus,” Crystin said. “This must be some thrashing. Who do I have to go in the ring with, a gorilla?”
“Don’t worry,” Cully said. “You always have a good time, don’t you?”
Crystin said, “When?”
“Let’s make it early,” Cully said. “I have to catch a plane tomorrow morning. OK with you?’
“Sure,” Crystin said. “I assume you’re not giving me dinner?”
“No,” Cully said. “I have too many things to do. I won’t have time.”
After hanging up the phone, Cully opened the desk drawer and took out a little packet of white slips. They were Crystin’s markers, totaling three thousand dollars.
Cully pondered on the mysteries of women. Crystin was a good-looking girl of about twenty-eight. But a really degenerate gambler. Two years she had gone down the drain for over twenty grand. She had called Cully for an appointment at his office, and when she came in, she had given him a proposition that she would work off the twenty grand as a soft hustler. But she would take dates only directly from Cully with the utmost secrecy because of her husband.