Gift sense tv-1 Page 7

  Their talk drifted back to work. Wily pounded the bourbons in an attempt to keep up with Valentine's need to quench an insatiable thirst he'd had since stepping off the plane. Soon the pit boss's face resembled a big red blister.

  "Sammy thinks this weasel Fontaine set Nola up," Wily said, his tongue thickened by the booze. "Sammy thinks it was all a smoke screen. He thinks Fontaine had something else in mind."

  "Like what?"

  "A big score."

  "Fifty grand is a big score."

  "Not anymore," Wily said, eyeing something floating in his drink. He fished it out with a spoon. "Of all the joints in town, he picked ours. There has to be a reason."

  "And you want me to find out what that is."

  "And him, if you can."

  "That's a tall order."

  "If it's any help, we think he's still in town."

  "Bill Higgins tell you that?"

  "Uh-huh."

  According to a billboard Valentine had seen at the airport, the population of the Las Vegas metropolitan region was hovering at just over one million. As big cities went, that wasn't very big at all. With Nola out of jail and the police watching her, Fontaine was sure to show up sooner or later, and Longo's men would nab him. It was a no-brainer.

  "Double my fee if he gets caught?"

  Wily was too polluted to think it through. Normally, Valentine didn't take advantage of drunks, but this one had comped him the worst fucking room in the house. Raised a Catholic, he believed in making amends, the sooner the better.

  "Sounds good to me," the pit boss declared.

  7

  It was Nola's best friend Sherry Solomon who bailed her out of jail later that afternoon. Sherry was a Southern California blonde with a great face and killer legs. She had migrated to Vegas the same week as Nola, her '79 Volkswagen van stuffed with her things. They'd gone to dealing school together and for a while shared a crummy one bedroom, until they'd both gotten on their feet. Sherry was a survivor and Nola had called her first, knowing that even though Sherry didn't have five grand to post bond, she probably knew someone who did.

  "My ex-boyfriend's brother is a bail bondsman," Sherry explained as she handed the parking attendant three bucks. "Saul Katz. He runs those ugly billboards you see around town. You know: 'Don't bawl-call Saul!' I told him you were square and wouldn't run and leave him holding the bag."

  "Thanks, Sherry," Nola said, wiping tears from her eyes.

  "Hey-you going to be okay?"

  Rummaging around in the glove compartment, Nola extracted a Kleenex and honked her nose savagely. "I spent the last six hours in a room handcuffed to a chair. You know what that feels like? Every guy who looks at you, it's like he owns you. I feel like a piece of meat."

  Ten minutes later, Sherry pulled the car into the Jumbo Burger and ordered their usual fare, extra-large crispy fries and diet orange sodas. Back on the highway, her mouth stuffed, Sherry said, "Raul's screwed, isn't he?"

  Nola punched a straw through the plastic lid in her soda, the sound like a small gun going off. "Sure looks that way."

  "I asked Saul to post his bond…"

  Nola laughed bitterly. "And he said, 'For some stinking wetback? Get real, honey.'"

  "It wasn't like that. Don't get so down on everybody."

  Nola took a long swallow of her drink, then shot her friend a hard, unforgiving look. "In case you hadn't figured it out, I'm fucked, my dear. At least Raul gets to go home. Vegas is home for me. Nick is never going to hire me back, and if they somehow find me guilty, I could do time in the state pen."

  "You going to hire an attorney?"

  "With whose money?" Nola asked. "My house isn't worth squat. Whatever equity I have is in profit-sharing from work, and I can't touch it." Nola put her chin on her chest and fought back another wave of tears. "I don't know what the hell I'm going to do."

  Sherry took the exit for the Meadows and drove past the vacant guardhouse. The identical two-bedroom houses were lined up in neat rows, the sharply pitched roof lines making tepees against the burnt-orange desert. Some days it looked pretty as a picture, others ugly as sin, and she supposed it all depended on your frame of mind. She hit the brakes when she saw a school bus unloading some kids in front of them.

  "There's an ugly rumor going around the casino."

  Nola perked up, a worried look on her face.

  "Wily told one of the dealers that Sammy Mann has a videotape of you and Fontaine having a conversation in the casino parking lot."

  "In the parking lot?"

  Sherry nodded. She drove down Nola's block, the driveways filled with identical Japanese imports. "Nick has cameras everywhere, even outside."

  Nola was sitting up very straight, her face taut and expressionless. "And when did this supposed conversation between me and Fontaine take place?"

  "Three days ago. After we got off our shift."

  Nola stuck out her tongue and let out a Bronx cheer.

  "What's that supposed to mean?" Sherry said, clearly perplexed.

  "It means 'So what?'" Nola said, crossing her arms defiantly. "For the love of Christ, I talk to a hundred people every day when I'm working."

  "But Sammy Mann's got it on video."

  "So what?" Nola said, starting to fume. "The Enquirer runs pictures of famous people standing next to criminals. It doesn't mean they know them."

  "Wily's saying you did it out of spite, that you hate Nick for what he did to you ten years ago."

  "Yeah, yeah, yeah," Nola said, perfectly imitating Nick's annoying yammer.

  "Do you?"

  "Hate Nick? No more than anyone else who works for him."

  "Wily says you were sweet on Fontaine."

  "Fontaine was a nice guy. Aren't those the ones we're supposed to like?"

  "Did you meet him in a bar or something?"

  "For the love of Christ, Sherry. I don't know the guy," Nola practically shouted. "I'd never seen him, and that's the God's honest truth."

  Sherry pulled the car up Nola's driveway and put it in park, letting the engine idle. "Sammy and Wily are putting the heat on everyone in the casino. They're asking lots of questions."

  "Tell them anything?" Nola asked sarcastically.

  "I told them you're the squarest dealer in the joint."

  "Thanks for the thumbs-up."

  Sherry put her hand on her friend's knee and gave it a squeeze. Once, on a stormy Friday night when no decent man in Las Vegas would have them, they'd shared a bed, an experience that had spiritually bonded them, if only briefly.

  "You'd level with me if you knew this guy," Sherry said softly. "Wouldn't you?"

  "You sound jealous," Nola teased her.

  "Come on. I'm trying to help you."

  "Of course I'd level with you," Nola insisted. "You know I can't keep a secret. So the next time Wily bugs you, tell him the truth. I don't know Fontaine."

  Nola's lips brushed her best friend's cheek, then she opened her door. "Thanks for the save, Sherry. I really appreciate it."

  "What are best friends for?" Sherry said.

  Sherry watched Nola disappear into her depressingly plain little house. Her friend was doomed and wasn't doing much to help herself. It made her sick to see Nola throwing her life away, and she put the car into reverse and backed it down the drive.

  Sherry did care, almost as much about Nola as herself, and she waited until she was a few blocks away before sticking her hand beneath the seat and switching off the tape recorder.

  The police had ripped Nola's place apart, then put everything back where it didn't belong. Going to her bedroom, Nola knelt on the floor, pulled a thin cardboard box from beneath the bed, and removed its flimsy lid. A cry escaped her lips.

  Her diary was gone, along with stacks of letters and bank statements and other useless paper she dutifully stored for the IRS each year. Whatever the police hadn't known about her personal life before, they certainly knew now.

  The clothes Raul kept in her closet were also gone, and sh
e guessed the cops had packed a suitcase for him, having decided to deport him once they'd realized she wouldn't play ball. What Nazis they were! Without evidence, they'd resorted to breaking the same laws they were sworn to protect. But Raul would get even. Thousands of illegal Mexican immigrants were slipping into Texas every week, and it wouldn't be long before he'd be back on her doorstep, panting like a lovesick pup.

  The bathroom had been turned upside down. Towels on the floor, her prescription medicine in the sink. She put the bottles back into the cabinet and tossed out those medications that had expired. Done, she ran her finger across the labels, sensing something was amiss.

  "For Christ's sake," she swore.

  Her prescription Zoloft, the little blue happy pills that kept her afloat, were gone. Nola's eyes welled with tears. What were the police trying to do, make her go crazy?

  In the kitchen, a blinking answering machine awaited her. Six messages. She listened to the first five seconds of each before hitting Erase.

  "This is Chantel with MCI-"

  "Hi, my name is Robyn with Olin Mott Studios-"

  "This is a courtesy call-"

  "Fred's Carpet Cleaning here. We're having a special in your-"

  "This is AT amp;T-"

  The last message was a guy breathing. After ten seconds, the line went dead. Barely able to control herself, Nola punched*69 on her phone.

  "Brother's Lounge," a man's gruff voice answered.

  "Tell Frank Fontaine to leave me alone," she screamed into the receiver. "Do you understand? Tell him to stop calling me!"

  "Frank's not here," the man said, his tone indicating he was used to such calls. "Wanna leave a message?"

  "Yes. Tell that pond slime to climb back under his rock and leave me alone. And he can go fuck himself while he's at it."

  "… 'fuck himself while he's at it'…" the man repeated, as if writing it down.

  "And you can go fuck yourself, too," Nola exploded.

  "… 'go fuck yourself, too'…" the man echoed.

  Nola slammed the receiver into the cradle, then ripped the phone out of its jack. Comics. Las Vegas was filled with comics.

  Off the kitchen was a closet she'd converted into a study by laying down a square of cheap carpet and sticking an Office Depot secretary in the corner. It was her private space, and Nola slipped inside the tiny room and shut the door, the sudden darkness calming her down like it always did.

  She booted up her Compaq Presario, the darkness pierced by seven and a half inches of blue iridescence. Entering Windows, she hit the File button. The program had a function that let her view the last eight files that had been opened. Scrolling through them, she realized that the police had already been here. There wasn't much to see, mostly letters she'd never gotten around to finishing and her finances on a Lotus spreadsheet, but their invasion of her in cyberspace seemed the ultimate insult. She erased everything.

  Exiting Windows, she logged onto the Internet through AOL and typed in her password.

  "You've got mail!" an automated voice cheerfully announced.

  Nola looked in her mailbox. One message had arrived dated this morning. The return e-mail address was unfamiliar. She took a deep breath. Who was looking for her now? Nola, Heard you got busted. Sorry (really). You've never been through this before. Here are some things you need to know. The police have bugged your phone. They have probably moved into an empty house nearby and are watching you right now. It doesn't matter that you are innocent. In their eyes, you are guilty, and since they're the law, you are guilty, unless you choose to do something about it. You need to act fast. I dropped a key in your mailbox. It opens a safe deposit box at the First American Savings amp; Loan near your house. Use the money to hire a good lawyer. I forged your name, so you have access. Love, Frank

  She fell back in her chair. Love, Frank? Who did this shark think he was? And how had he gotten her e-mail address? It was a setup, plain and simple. Deleting the message, she shut down her computer.

  She sat in the air-conditioned darkness and stared at the screen's muted afterglow. It faded slowly, a great metaphor for her own predicament. Fontaine was right about one thing. She was screwed. She'd been suspected of cheating, and in this town, that was enough to lose your sheriff's card. Without that little piece of laminated plastic, she couldn't work in a casino. And as sad as it sounded, dealing blackjack was the only real skill she had.

  This is another fine mess you've gotten yourself into.

  Yes, it was. Her inner voice was great at stating the obvious. Another sad chapter in the sorry life of Nola the Victim, an epic novel of stupidity and needless suffering. See Nola lied to, spit on, and treated like a human doormat, only to come back for more like a washed-up fighter who's grown fond of eating punches.

  She needed some air. Going out the back door, she stepped barefoot on the patio and started dancing, the bricks hot enough to fry an egg. Hopping onto the grass, she crossed onto her neighbor's property. The owners, a husband-and-wife dance team called the Davenports, had retired to Palm Springs and left the house with Century 21. It had been vacant for months, and Nola put her face to a shuttered back window and tried to peer in, wondering if the police really were inside.

  She felt the wall hum; something electric was running inside. Curiosity killed more than just cats, and she crept around back and retrieved the spare key from a rock in the garden.

  Clutching the key, Nola contemplated unlocking her neighbors' back door and marching inside, just to see if the police really were there. Did she have the guts?

  No, she decided, she didn't. Instead, she went to the Davenports' two-car garage, unlocked the door, and slipped in.

  Parked inside was an unfamiliar Chrysler sedan. Nola pressed her face to the driver's window. A two-way radio was mounted to the dash. Cops. She shuddered. Score another round for Fontaine.

  Inside the house, she heard a man talking on the phone, his voice gravelly and mean. Nola tiptoed across the concrete floor, remembering all the times she'd watched her neighbors practice their intricate routines, and stuck her ear against the flimsy particleboard.

  "The fuck I know what she's doing. It's been silent since she made the call. Can you believe it? Home ten minutes and she calls a bar where Fontaine hangs out. Of course I got it on tape. The guy's got a twelve-inch schlong is what I think. She neeeeds him."

  Nola brought her hand to her mouth. How in God's name was she going to convince the police she didn't know Fontaine now? The fact that Fontaine had called her first would be irrelevant in their eyes. She was doomed.

  Okay, Frank, she thought, you win.

  She slipped out the garage door and locked it. Retracing her steps, she went into her own house and marched down the hall. Opening the front door, she made a beeline for the mailbox at the curb.

  Despite the heat, it was a beautiful day without a cloud to mar the bright blue sky. She worshiped the sun and fresh air and had stayed in Vegas probably longer than she should have because she got to enjoy these things every day. She would not do well in prison, if it came to that.

  Her mailbox was jammed with junk mail. One envelope stood out. Her address was hand written, and there was no return address. She tore it open and a steel key fell into her palm-and with it, a note. Nola, This is how I signed your name.

  She examined Fontaine's forgery. It didn't look anything like her signature, but that wasn't the point. It was written in simple script and would be easy to duplicate. As crooks went, he was awfully smart.

  But why was Fontaine throwing her a life preserver? What did he gain by helping her prove her innocence? He was a hustler: There had to be something in it for him.

  The sun was making her feel like one of the French fries she'd eaten for lunch. Back inside, she grabbed her keys and entered the garage from the kitchen, hopping into her Grand Am. She kept the garage air-conditioned, so the car was ice cold. For the longest while, she sat behind the wheel, thinking.

  The conclusion she came to was a simple
one. Like it or not, she needed a lawyer, a real good lawyer, one that could buy her time until she could straighten the police out. If the safe deposit box was filled with cash, then she was going to take it. What other choice did she have?

  She fired up the engine and hit the automatic garage door opener. Sunlight flooded the interior. A sense of urgency overcame her, and she threw the car into reverse and skidded down the drive, barely able to see.

  She braked at the curb to check for the neighborhood kids and saw the cops' Chrysler backing down the Davenports' driveway.

  She did thirty through her development, the Chrysler fixed in her mirror. Braking at a stop sign, she watched the car pull up. Inside sat two dudes in their midthirties, one black, the other Hispanic, both wearing Terminator shades and hip street clothes. She wasn't fooled for a second.

  She slowed down, forcing the Chrysler to hang back. The guard booth in front of her development sat vacant, just as it had since the day it was built. A quarter mile away was the entrance ramp for the Maryland Parkway. She spun the radio to her favorite station, classic rock for whining boomers, and with the Stones' "Satisfaction" pumping adrenaline through every vein in her body, punched the accelerator to the floor. The Grand Am let out a beastly roar and she blew past the empty guardhouse.

  Her tires were smoking as she flew onto the six-lane superhighway and was immediately challenged by a sleek Porsche Boxster whose driver was determined not to give up the lane. Freedom was a glorious thing, and Nola was not about to relinquish hers anytime soon.

  Blowing past the Boxster, she was soon doing one hundred and twenty. The cops in their Chrysler were nowhere to be seen.

  8

  The fifty-year-old bellman was waiting when Valentine returned to his room. Without a word, he retrieved Valentine's suitcase and escorted him upstairs to his new digs, a twelfth-floor suite with travertine floors, red leather furniture, and a Jacuzzi sporting eighteen-karat gold fixtures. It was high-roller heaven, the kind of room money couldn't buy, and Valentine called the front desk and left a thank-you message for Roxanne.