Every day the same ritual. She'd become part of the fabric. Some of the employees found it funny, others a little sad. Look, there goes Roxanne and her silver dollars. She kisses them for luck, you know. If anyone deserves to win the jackpot, it's her.
She slipped into the alcove and stared at Joe Smith's vacant stool. How careless of Nick to pull him out. When the casino's surveillance cameras had been updated, Nick had installed dummy cameras over One-Armed Billy, too cheap to rewire the ceiling at this end of the casino. Nick was his own man, and now he was going to pay for it.
Roxanne stepped up to Billy and held onto the giant arm while she removed the tennis ball and dropped it into her purse. For a split second, she caught her reflection in the polished brass. Words could not describe the look of exultation on her face.
She hesitated, savoring the moment before she released the giant arm and set the bells off that would bring Nick and the rest of the gang running. They'd see her jumping up and down, and once the initial shock wore off, they'd be happy for her good fortune. Everyone loved a winner, and everyone was going to love her.
Roxanne was sure of it.
But when she tried to release Billy's arm, her fingers became stuck. A man's hand had clasped itself over hers and was holding Billy's arm in place.
"Let go," she begged.
"No," the man said.
"Please."
But the man would not let go. She did not have the courage to look him in the eye, and instead looked into Billy's polished brass. It was Valentine, his face a bloody mess. Behind him, Wily stood in the alcove's entrance, filming her every move with a camcorder.
"I was hoping like hell it wasn't going to be you," she heard Valentine say.
27
You've got some balls," Bill Higgins said a few hours later, sitting on the edge of the mammoth granite desk in Nick's office and blowing steam off a cup of coffee.
Valentine sat on the couch, an ice pack pressed to his forehead. One of his judo exercises required him to stand on his head a few minutes a day to keep his neck strong, and he supposed this was why the cowboy had not split his skull open with the steel pipe. Bill was showing little sympathy, their twenty years of friendship about to go up in flames.
"You ride into my town like Wyatt Earp," Higgins went on, "conduct your own investigation, then nail the bastards without consulting the GCB or the police. I should haul you in."
"I called you first, didn't I?"
"So?"
"It's your collar," Valentine mumbled.
"My collar?" Higgins laughed derisively. "I can't take this in front of a judge without a story to go with it. It's nobody's collar until you explain to me what's going on."
Rising on shaky legs, Valentine went to the window behind Nick's desk and stared down. Eight police cruisers jammed the Acropolis's front entrance, their bubbles throwing an eerie red light onto the gawking crowd pushing at the wooden sawhorses. Three thousand miles away, he imagined another crowd was gathered, staring at a body lying beneath a sheet. His son's.
Valentine felt the pain well up in his chest. He needed to be alone for a while, to stare into the darkness. But if he didn't explain to Bill what had happened, Fontaine and his gang might walk. And no matter how bad he felt, he was not about to let that happen.
"How about I start at the beginning?" Valentine said.
"You mean when you rode into town?"
"No, I mean when this really started."
"I'm all ears," Higgins said.
"Ten years ago, Nick fell in love with Nola," Valentine began. "One night, they go on the catwalk and start screwing. A fight breaks out below. The guard who baby-sits One-Armed Billy comes running, and Nick goes ballistic. Nola's not stupid and she makes the connection. The guard beside Billy isn't for show. He's for real."
"The flaw Sherry Solomon was taking about."
"Right."
"Why did Sammy Mann say it didn't exist?"
Valentine shrugged. "Nick probably swore Sammy to secrecy- didn't want to risk losing his license."
"Okay."
"Jump to six months ago. Nola goes to Mexico, falls back in love with Sonny. She tells Sonny about the flaw, and they decide to rip Nick off.
"Nola leaves Mexico. Sonny thinks it through, realizes the scam is flawed. Nola knows too much; she'll never pass a polygraph. So Sonny changes the plan. He gets plastic surgery, then finds a look-alike and sends him to Tahoe."
"And that's who Little Hands whacked."
Valentine nodded. "Sonny, aka Frank Fontaine, moves to Vegas. He scouts the Acropolis and hears about Roxanne's ritual of playing Billy every day. He also learns that Roxanne hates Nick. Seems they had an affair-"
"Who told you that?"
"I saw an album that Nick keeps of all the ladies he's slept with. Roxanne was in it."
Higgins shot him an angry look. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Valentine shrugged.
"You fell for her."
Valentine shrugged again.
"You sly dog."
Old blind dog was more like it, Valentine thought.
"Roxanne joins the team," he went on. "They rehearse, then try their scam last week. Fontaine beats the house silly, hoping he'll get barred so he can start a fight. It's all a ruse to get Joe Smith out of his chair so Roxanne can rob Billy. On the third night, Fontaine gets his wish, and Sammy Mann bars him. Fontaine starts brawling, but Joe Smith stays put. The whole thing's a dud."
"I'm with you so far," Higgins said.
All the talking was giving Valentine a headache. They were up high enough to see behind Caesars, and he watched a legion of shirtless men dismantle the canvas ring where Holyfield had beaten his unworthy opponent. In a week, they'd show a replay on TV, and he'd make it a point not to watch it. It was never the same after it was over.
"Go on," Higgins prodded him.
"Nola gets arrested. Fontaine springs her, brings her into the gang. Then hatches a new plan. He puts Nola in a motel. She calls Nick, who rescues her and takes her back to the Acropolis. Nola fingers the gang to Nick. Nick sends his men into the casino, not realizing it's a ruse to get Joe Smith out of his chair."
"You're saying Fontaine set himself up," Higgins said.
"Uh-huh."
"But we arrested him. What kind of plan is that?"
"He'll be out of jail in a few hours," Valentine said.
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because he didn't break any law," Valentine said, wishing Bill would wisen up so he could go find Gerry's body. "Reading a blackjack dealer isn't illegal. And you can't prove Fontaine grabbed Nola at the house."
"But Nola fingered him."
"To Nick. I'm sure her story will change when she talks to the police."
"But Fontaine started a brawl in the casino."
"Nick's men started the brawl. Look at the video. The only thing Fontaine's gang did was resist Nick's men. And Fontaine didn't even do that. The only law he broke was stepping foot in Nevada, which you can only fine him for."
Higgins considered Valentine's point. "Jesus," he muttered.
"Am I right?"
"Of course you're right. Stop rubbing it in."
"Sorry."
Higgins made a face. "When I brought you the hangers, you realized Nola had been planning this a long time, didn't you?"
Valentine nodded.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I was afraid you'd tell Roxanne."
"You suspected her?"
Valentine nodded again.
"Why?"
"Because I'm sixty-two and she's thirty-eight," he blurted out, his eyes fixed on the sea of flashing neon that defined the Vegas skyline. "I wanted to believe she liked me, but deep down I knew it wasn't real."