Ed Krause opened his eyes, realized he didn’t know how long he’d been out, still just lying there on the desert floor. He was starting to feel cold, which he didn’t remember from before. And while some of the stars above him seemed to have changed position, there was no sign yet of dawn to the east.
Just the glorious, heavenly effect from the lights of Vegas.
Ed shifted his head on the sports-jacket pillow as best he could, to be able to stare at those lights, the promise of real money and seeing a place he’d always wanted to visit. Last two times he’d coughed, though, blood came up, so right now he wouldn’t bet on even seeing morning.
You’re gonna bleed out in this fucking desert, you might as well stay focused on the prize, huh? Shows… lions… show-girls… magic acts… tigers… casinos.
The Vegas lights started to go funny against Ed’s eyes, so he closed them.
Help the imagination, you know?
Slick cars like Maseratis, Ferraris, Rolls-fucking-Royces. Cruising the Strip, just like they did in the movies he’d seen. All the filet mignon and trimmings you could eat, all the Jim and Coke you could drink. Call-girls that’d make Brandi with an “I” look like fucking Spam.
Action of all kinds, nonstop. The genuine “City That Never Sleeps.”
Only you’re never gonna see it now.
Vegas, Las Vegas. Grieving…
“The house doesn’t beat the player.
It just gives him the opportunity to beat himself.”
– Nicholas (Nick the Greek) Dandalos
“A Smith & Wesson beats four aces.”
– American proverb
COPYRIGHT ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
“Introduction,” copyright © 2005 by Michael Connelly
“The Sunshine Tax,” copyright © 2005 by James Swain
“Passline,” copyright © 2005 by S. J. Rozan
“Dust Up,” copyright © 2005 by Wendy Hornsby
“The Kidnapping of Xiang Fei,” copyright © 2005 by Dennis Lynds
“Killer Heels Kill Twice as Dead,” copyright © 2005 by T. P. Keating
“Iggy’s Stuff,” copyright © 2005 by J. Madison Davis
“A Temporary Crown,” copyright © 2005 by Sue Pike
“The Gambling Master of Shanghai,” copyright © 2005 by Joan Richter
“House Rules,” copyright © 2005 by Libby Fischer Hellmann
“Rolling the Bones,” copyright © 2005 by Tom Savage
“Oddsmaker,” copyright © 2005 by Edward Wellen
“The Dope Show,” copyright © 2005 by K.j.a. Wishnia
“Death of a Whale in the Church of Elvis,” copyright © 2005 by Linda Kerslake
“Neighbors,” copyright © 2005 by John Wessel
“The End of the World (As We Know It),” copyright © 2005 by Lise McClendon
“Nickels and Dimes,” copyright © 2005 by Ronnie Klaskin
“Even Gamblers Have to Eat,” copyright © 2005 by Ruth Cavin
“The Magic Touch,” copyright © 2005 by A. B. Robbins
“Catnapping,” copyright © 2005 by Gay Toltl Kinman
“Miscast,” copyright © 2005 by Noreen Ayres
“Lightning Rider,” copyright © 2005 by Rick Mofina
“Grieving Las Vegas,” copyright © 2005 by Jeremiah Healy
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
JAMES SWAIN is a native of New York, and went to college at New York University, where he studied with Ralph Ellison and Anatole Broyard. His first job out of college was as a magazine editor. Swain moved to Florida in 1982. For the next twenty years, he ran a successful advertising business. During that time, he continued to write, and published three books of nonfiction about magic, as well as a novel. In 2001, Swain began publishing a series of books about retired policeman Tony Valentine, who captures people who cheat casinos. Swain is considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on casino scams and swindles.
S.J. ROZAN is the author of eight novels in the Lydia Chin/Bill Smith series, and of the standalone Absent Friends. Her work has won the Edgar, Shamus, Anthony, Macavity, and Nero awards for Best Novel and the Edgar Award for Best Short Story. She is a former Mystery Writers of America National Board member, a current Sisters in Crime National Board member, and President of the Private Eye Writers of America. She lives in lower Manhattan.
The New York Times found the work of Edgar Award-winning author WENDY HORNSBY to be “refreshing, real, and raunchy.” Published internationally, and in many languages, she has written seven mystery novels and a collection of short stories, Nine Sons and Other Mysteries. A native of the western United States, she holds graduate degrees in Ancient and Medieval History and is a professor of history at Long Beach City College.
MICHAEL COLLINS writes the Dan Fortune detective series that began in 1967 with Act of Fear. The most recent Fortune book is Fortune’s World, published by Crippen & Landru, 2000. A collection of non-Fortune stories, Spies and Thieves, Cops and killers, Etc., was published in 2002 by Five Star Publishing.His awards include an MWA Edgar and two other nominations; three Shamus nominations; the PWA Lifetime Achievement Award; and the Marlowe Lifetime Achievement Award from MWA SoCal. He has published another twenty-four detective novels under the pen names Mark Sadler, John Crowe, William Arden, and Carl Dekker, and three nonmystery novels under his real name: Dennis Lynds.
Currently living in London, T. P. KEATING has found that the glitz of Vegas is visible the world over. If only the Vegas weather could be exported too! This story is dedicated to his wife, Marielle. She is his sympathetic reader and sole authority on what constitutes a killer pair of heels.
J. MADISON DAVIS has published seven novels, six nonfiction books, and over thirty short stories. He has been nominated for the Best First Novel Edgar and twice for the Best Novel Oklahoma Book award. He is a former president of IACW North America, and a professor of professional writing at the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma. His latest novel, Dead Line, is an original Law and Order story. His novel The Van Gogh Conspiracy is scheduled for publication in the summer of 2005.
SUE PIKE lives and writes in Ottawa, Canada. Her stories have appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Storyteller, and several collections of short crime fiction, including Cold Blood V, Bloody Words, and all five Ladies’ Killing Circle anthologies. She is the coeditor of Bone Dance, a collection of musical mysteries published by RendezVous Press, 2003. “Widow’s Weeds” from Cottage Country Killers won the Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis Award for Best Short Story of 1997.
JOAN RICHTER, a former New Yorker who now lives in Washington, D.C., got her start in mystery fiction in a creative writing class taught by Ellery Queen’s legendary first editor, Frederic Dannay. She spent two years in Kenya with the Peace Corps, was a stringer for the New York Times metropolitan section, and worked for American Express, where she was a delegate to the United Nations’ World Tourism Organization. She has traveled extensively throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa,and continues to explore the world. Her fiction often draws upon her experiences with foreign cultures.
LIBBY FISCHER HELLMANN writes the Chicago-based series featuring video producer and single mom Ellie Foreman. An Eye for Murder debuted in 2002 and was nominated for an Anthony Award. A Picture of Guilt was released in 2003; An Image of Death in 2004. All three were simultaneously published by Poisoned Pen Press (in hardcover) and Berkley Prime Crime (mass market). Her short stories have appeared in American and British magazines. When not writing fiction, Libby produces industrial videos and trains individuals to be better speakers. She lives in the Chicago suburbs with her family and a beagle, shamelessly named Shiloh.