“Last one standing wins.” I sighed. “I understand. It’s just a little chilling to hear you talk like that.”
“It’s been a long time since I was a meek little secretary.”
“I never thought of you as ‘meek’.”
“If you say so, Cal. Come on, let’s get you on the firing range.”
“While you’re doing that,” Meche said, “maybe I should try to find out where Hector is.”
“His casino tower is directly above these headquarters,” Eva said. “That’s the best place to start looking.”
“All right,” Meche said. “Meet me there, Manny.”
“Volunteers quickly for dangerous work,” Eva said approvingly after Meche had gone. “She could be very useful to the cause.”
“As far as I’m concerned, she is the cause.”
Eva gave me an appraising look. “C’mon, Cal. Let’s see what you can do with that gun.”
It turned out Eva was right. The sproutella gun did recoil different from a normal gun. Although similar to a gas-powered BB gun, it had a lot more kick, and aiming was a lot harder than I had expected.
“These darts don’t have the range of a lead bullet, sweetheart,” Eva said when I couldn’t hit the target anywhere near the bull’s-eye with the water-filled ‘blanks’ used on the firing range. “They’re bigger and heavier, so they drop pretty quickly. You have to aim high. The further away you are, the higher you have to aim.”
“I’m planning to be very close to Hector when I shoot him, you know.”
“You still have to know how to handle that thing, and you’re not going anywhere until I’m convinced you do.”
That took a while, but eventually I was able to hit what I was aiming at. The breakthrough came when I figured out that I needed to feel like I was overcompensating for distance. When Eva was satisfied, I put on a shoulder holster under my coat and got ready to go.
“Good luck, Manny,” Eva said.
“Thanks,” I said. I buttoned my coat, checked that my tie was straight and headed for the door. But before I got there I stopped and turned back to Eva.
“Look,” I began, “I might not come back from this, so… I think I should apologize now.”
She cocked her skull. “What for, Cal?”
“Well, I’m not sure exactly. It’s just that,” I took a deep breath and let it out, “I know I was kind of an asshole all those years ago, so I think I should try to make things right before—”
“Manny,” she said earnestly, “I’m not sure what the problem here is.”
“I’ve been getting wise to myself the last couple of years,” I said, “and I don’t like what I see. People have gotten hurt because I wasn’t paying attention to anything besides me. I’ve been worried maybe you were one of them. Somehow. I don’t know. I hope not. But I can’t walk out this door without—”
“Don’t worry about it, darling,” she said. “If you had done anything you shouldn’t have, you’d have known about it long before now, believe me. You were always aces with me. If things had worked out different…” She trailed off wistfully and shrugged.
I didn’t care about what might have been, so I said, “Well, that’s good to know. I couldn’t take it if I’d done anything to hurt you. Not on top of everything else. You know.”
“Sure, Cal. I know. Well, you’d better take off. Mercedes is probably getting worried.”
“Right,” I said, turning to go out the door. “Hold my calls.”
“Asshole!” she called out after me with a laugh.
I came out of the sewers into an alley near the intersection of 42nd and Corley. It wasn’t hard to spot Hector’s casino. It was labeled plain enough in bright neon equaling Times Square multiplied by Las Vegas cubed. I felt a little exposed on the street, but I dismissed that. I was in the big city. I hadn’t been here in years. No one should recognize me. Hell, no one even looked at me as I emerged from the alley and walked to the casino. I went into the lobby and was ignored by the sullen-looking hat-check girl, too. That suited me, but I recognized then what a good asset I’d had in Lupe (and I hoped the overeager kid was somewhere safe and jacked on sugar). If I could go back to my club as it had been, I might even have begged her to give me every last crazy detail of her latest coat-check scheme just to have gotten another taste of those good old days. But, of course, that wasn’t possible. Emphasizing that fact, Hector’s casino was even more garish inside than outside. I guessed he didn’t have someone like Lola to help coordinate the colors. I shoved aside the reflexive guilt I felt about her and focused on trying to find Meche. I followed the loudest noises and found myself in a huge room filled with slot machines. Figures. Might as well have a big neon sign out front saying We Got No Class. I scanned the room, trying to spot the green and black tartan outfit Meche had on. I expected it to stand out against all the red and gold in the room, and it did. I saw her toting a bucket of coins.
“Meche,” I said as quietly as I could as I came up beside her.
“Manny,” whispered back, “what kept you?”
“I needed more practice than I thought. What’ve you found out?”
Meche stopped walking and looked quickly around. “Hector’s here,” she answered. “He has an office in the penthouse suite. There’s an express elevator in the rear of the casino, but it’s guarded by a big red demon. You can get by only with a password.”
I was impressed. “Hey, you’ve really been putting your time to good use.”
“My new boyfriend likes to talk,” she said.
“You’re new… what?” I stammered.
“Jealous?” she asked, ‘grinning’ wickedly.
“Uh…”
She let me off the hook. “It’s that little guy way over there.” She pointed. “He knows the password. He’s even got it written down. So he says, anyway.”
“OK, so what is the password?” I asked when she didn’t spill it.
Meche shook her head. “I don’t know. He won’t tell me and I don’t dare press him any more than I have. But I’ve got an idea. While I was getting more change for Mr. High Roller, I heard some people talking about a toga party at the Hotel Romano next door. Maybe I can get him there. You can follow and go through his suit after he changes.”
“You’re trickier than I thought,” I said.
“Well, I’ve been watching you operate.”
I winced. “Wicked left,” I said.
Meche shrugged. “I’d better get back before he runs out of coins. Again.” She shook her head.
I followed, but when we got nearer to her ‘boyfriend’ I went “Whoa!” and quickly turned around.
“What is it?” Meche asked.
“That’s Chowchilla Charlie,” I answered. “If he recognizes me, we’re sunk.”
“Chowchilla Charlie?” Meche asked, startled. “So he’s the guy— Do you think he’s in with Hector?”
“He must be… if he really knows the password,” I said. “I knew that suitcase full of counterfeit tickets wasn’t his.” But I was still confused by the kabuki he and Max had performed with it.
“You’ll just have to try to keep out of sight while I get him to the Romano.”