After his wife split, Gabe had chosen to redecorate with expensive grown-up toys. An elaborate train set filled the living room; a slate pool table was in the den; and Ping-Pong, foosball, and pinball were in the family room. It was the perfect man cave, and his crew usually enjoyed a few games before getting down to business.
Not today. They sat at the kitchen table, as still as an oil painting. It was weird without Travis. The big man was the life of the party, and his loss left a void. Wanting to lift the mood, Billy said, “Show us the gaffed coin you created for the Super Bowl coin flip.”
Gabe produced a gold coin from his shirt pocket. The size of a silver dollar, it had the Vince Lombardi Trophy on one side, the participating teams’ helmets on the other. Gabe explained how the coin’s extra thickness had allowed him to insert a capsule of mercury and a micro-transmitter in its center. On Gabe’s iPhone was a special app with two buttons. The red for tails, the green for heads. Pepper was given the honors and flipped the coin into the air.
“Heads,” Billy said.
Gabe pressed the green button. The coin hit the table showing heads. “I’ve tested it a thousand times. The micro-transmitter shifts the mercury to the opposite side, producing the desired result. It never fails.”
“How far away can Cory and Morris be with your iPhone to make it work?”
“Three hundred feet max. If they sit in the first few rows of the stadium, no problem.”
“Call a scalper and buy two front-row seats on the fifty-yard line,” Billy said to Cory. “You and Morris are going to the Super Bowl next Sunday.”
“Not Mexico?” Cory asked.
“No. I came up with a way to dispose of Travis’s body that will leave you and Morris in the clear.”
“Cool,” Cory said.
The words cast a pall over the others. Billy studied their faces before speaking again. “Travis was a dumb bastard, but that doesn’t change the fact that we all liked him. If you have something you’d like to get off your chest, do it now.”
“I just don’t understand why Travis broke bad on us,” Misty said. “We were his friends. His situation was different having a wife and kids, and we went out of our way for him.”
“I know you did,” Billy said.
“And we covered for him,” Pepper added. “Remember that time at Harrah’s when Travis threw the dice down the table, and the palmed pair hidden in his hand fell on his chips? I pulled my titties out of my blouse and swung them in the employees’ faces to give Travis a distraction so he could clean up. I don’t pull my titties out for just anybody, you know.”
“You saved his ass,” Billy said.
“Damn straight I did. So why did Travis turn on us? I know Travis told Cory it was because you criticized him, but hell, we all criticized him. That wasn’t the real reason Travis screwed us. It had to be something else.”
Billy didn’t see the point in kicking a dead horse. Travis should have been happy with his deal. The big man had run with Billy the longest, had made the most money, lived in a nice house, had two new cars, and took his family on great vacations. But Travis had a dark side that the others hadn’t seen. He had frequented hookers and picked fights in bars with strangers. And the big man had stolen from every casino he had worked for. Nothing had ever been good enough for him. Travis had been destined to blow himself up; it was simply a matter of when.
“Some dogs just like to roll in shit,” Billy said.
His crew nodded agreement. Vegas was filled with self-destructive people. The catch was that none of them had recognized this flaw in Travis.
Billy was glad to have that out of the way, and he got down to the business at hand.
“I’ve got a plan to get rid of the body, save Leon, and also put the screws to that little rat bastard Broken Tooth,” he said. “Call it killing three birds with one stone. It will work a little differently than our casino heists. Cory and Morris will pair up, as will Pepper and Misty, while Gabe will run solo. I’m not going to share your roles with the others, in case one of us gets busted by the gaming board.”
“The gaming board is involved in your plan?” Cory asked.
“That’s correct.”
“But I thought you were on their Most Wanted list.”
“I am. But that doesn’t mean I can’t get them to help us. I have something the gaming board wants, and they should be willing to work with me.”
“Why are you keeping us in the dark?” Gabe asked.
“It’s for your own protection. If you don’t know what the others are doing, you can’t give up the information if you get hauled in.”
“Got it,” Gabe said.
“Didn’t I see this in a movie once?” Misty asked.
“Reservoir Dogs,” Pepper said. “Will we have aliases like Mr. Pink and Mr. Brown?”
“Not this time,” he said. “I want each of you to pack a suitcase. Once Leon is out of danger, you’ll need to hightail it out of town. Cory and Morris will head to Phoenix to get ready for the Super Bowl scam. Gabe, I suggest you go with them in case your trick coin malfunctions before the game and needs fixing. Pepper and Misty, you can go wherever your hearts desire.”
“We can stay with my girlfriend in LA,” Pepper said.
“That works. There’s one more thing. I live by the cheater’s code, and I expect you to as well. People think it’s funny that criminals would follow a code, but it’s what keeps the profession alive. You’ve got to have rules, even if you’re in the business of breaking the law.
“One of the most important rules is that a cheat should never put another cheat in a compromising situation. If a cheat gets caught, he should never rat out his partners. And a cheat should never intentionally screw up another cheat’s score. Those two things are forbidden. In the old days, you’d get a bullet in your head for breaking these rules.”
He paused to let the words sink in, then continued. “I should have killed Travis the moment I figured out he’d betrayed us. Travis put all of us in harm’s way, not just Leon. But I loved the big guy, so I held back. That was my mistake, and I’m sorry.” He looked at Morris. “And I owe you an apology.”
“You do?” Morris asked.
“I owe you an apology because I didn’t do my job. If I’d handled this differently, you wouldn’t have had to shoot Travis. That was my responsibility, and I’m sorry, man.”
“Thanks, Billy. That means a lot to me.”
“You’re welcome. Now, let’s go rescue Leon and set things right.”
Thirty-Four
“Frank, you know how badly I want you to get my job,” Bill “Trixie” Tricaricco, director of field agents for the Nevada Gaming Control Board, said. “You’ve paid your dues, my friend. But I can’t just hand it to you like a baton at a relay race. You have to earn it.”
Grimes went stiff in his chair. What the hell had Trixie just said? Grimes had arrested more casino cheats than any of his peers. If the report card was graded based upon number of busts, then Grimes got nothing but straight As. And then there was the matter of Trixie and Grimes having murdered a contract killer named Wilmer Haney and his despicable son and burning the Haneys’ house down to hide the crime. Didn’t that count for something?
“But I’ve earned it,” Grimes protested a little too loudly.
“But what have you done for us lately?” Trixie said. “I know that sounds trite, but it’s the truth, Frank, and you haven’t had a bust in a while. That’s not like you.”
“I thought I was a shoo-in. You said so yourself.”
“I did. But that was before Little Miss Debbie Do Good stole your thunder. That young lady is a force to be reckoned with.”