Fly Me to the Morgue (22 page)

I moved up behind her, but before I could say a word the pit boss spotted me. We weren't friends, but we were usually cordial to each other. He had been watching the dealer. Maybe he was suspected of cheating, or maybe he was new.

Charlie was about my age, but that was all we had in common. Mostly because he was a prick.

‘Hey, Eddie,' Charlie said. ‘Whataya doin', checkin' out my dealers?'

‘Hi, Charlie,' I said. ‘No, just spotted a friend. Hey, Adrienne.'

She turned and froze when she saw it was me.

‘Hello, Eddie.'

‘Wanna take a walk?' I asked.

‘No, I can't,' she said, ‘I'm uh, on a—'

‘Don't even try to tell me you're on a roll,' I said. ‘You just ate a twenty when the dealer made twenty-one. You need to take a break, get some air. Believe me, I know.'

Before I knew it Charlie had come around from behind the tables. He was a big guy and he got in my face.

‘Hey, Eddie, it ain't like you to try and steal a mark.'

‘I'm not stealing anybody, Charlie. I just wanna talk to her. She'll be back.'

‘She better be,' he said, jabbing his forefinger into my chest. He was about to do it again when Jerry grabbed the finger.

‘Want me to snap it off, Mr G?' he asked.

‘Hey, Eddie . . .' Charlie said, to me, looking worried.

I looked at him.

‘You know, Charlie, part of your problem is you look at people as marks. They're people. Sometimes they need to take a break. She's takin' a break.' I looked at Jerry. ‘Let him go.'

Jerry released Charlie's finger.

I took Adrienne by the elbow.

‘Let's take a walk.'

‘I'll lose my seat,' she said, ‘my chips . . .'

‘They'll all be here when you get back, right, Charlie?'

‘Yeah, yeah,' Charlie said, ‘right, go ahead. Get some air.'

‘See?' I said to Adrienne. ‘Come on.'

FIFTY-EIGHT

Jerry and I walked Adrienne out on to the street, in front.

‘You told me your brother Eric was a gambler,' I said. ‘I found out Philip is, too. But you didn't tell me that you were, also.'

‘You didn't ask me.' She was rubbing her upper arms, although it wasn't cold. She was feeling the urgency of having to get back inside.

‘You told me you lived in Henderson. So you lied about that.'

‘I didn't lie,' she said. ‘I have a house in Henderson.'

‘We talked with Eric and Philip, Adrienne,' I said. ‘That led us to Vincent DeStefano. You know him, don't you?'

‘Um, yes, I know Mr DeStefano.'

‘Funny,' I said, ‘when we talked to Vince he didn't mention knowin' you. How well are the two of you acquainted?'

She averted her eyes and said, ‘Pretty well.'

I was afraid I knew what ‘pretty well' meant.

He was partners with Philip, Eric was their accountant, and Adrienne was his . . . girl? DeStefano was definitely involved with the entire family.

‘What's Vince's connection with the horse, Adrienne?'

‘The horse?'

‘Chris's horse?'

‘Vince? Nothing.'

‘He's partners with Phil, right? And Phil thinks he's got a piece of the horse?'

‘Phil thinks he's got a piece of everything, Eddie,' she said. ‘He's all talk.'

‘And Eric?'

‘Like I told you, Eric does Philip's books.'

‘Yeah, the real set and the queer set.'

‘I don't know anything about that,' she said. ‘Look, I'm just trying to sell the horse.'

‘Because you need the money?' She didn't answer. ‘You owe money, Adrienne?'

‘Doesn't everybody?'

‘No,' I said, ‘you owe big money, don't you? And the sale of the horse was gonna bail you out? Was Christopher gonna help you when he sold the horse?'

‘O-of course,' she said. ‘He was my brother.'

‘So are Phil and Eric. Were they gonna help you?'

‘They can't even help themselves.'

‘What about Vince? Was he gonna help you?'

‘Vince would help me . . . if I asked.'

‘But you haven't?'

‘No.'

‘Why not?'

‘Because I don't want anything to do with him anymore.'

‘And Phil?'

‘Him, either.'

‘What about Eric?'

‘Eric's confused. He lets Phil use him.'

‘Do you try to help Eric?'

‘Sometimes.'

‘And you all gamble,' I said. ‘You all play blackjack, right?'

‘So?' she said. ‘It's Vegas, right? Look, I have to go back in. I don't have much more time. I have to . . .'

‘Ya have to what?' Jerry asked her.

‘She has to move,' I said. ‘To another casino. She has to play here for a certain amount of time, and then move, right, Adrienne?'

She looked at her watch. This woman was so different from the other one I'd met, the first Adrienne.

‘Can I go?' she asked.

‘Sure, Adrienne,' I said. ‘Sure. Just tell us one thing. Where do we find Phil? We went to his office yesterday, but he ran away from us.'

‘That's no surprise.'

‘What's his home address?'

‘I told you yesterday.'

‘You told us his work address, but we never got around to his home address.'

‘OK,' she said. ‘When I give it to you can I go back in?'

‘Sure,' I said. ‘Sure, Adrienne, you can go back in.'

‘What was that all about?' Jerry asked in the car. ‘That stuff about movin' from casino to casino.'

‘She's chasing the hot table,' I said. ‘Tryin' to find her luck. Some people will sit at one table for days, trying to beat it. Others go from table to table, waitin' for their luck to change. Adrienne is one of those.'

‘That's sick, ain't it?'

‘Maybe it is. I'm not a psychiatrist, so I don't know for sure. Some gamblers are just superstitious. Don't you have any superstitions in your life? Like when you play the horses?'

‘No.'

‘That's because you're too well adjusted, Jerry.'

A well-adjusted leg breaker for the Mafia. Who knew?

FIFTY-NINE

Philip Arnold had a house on Palomino Lane, near Ranchero Drive. It had to be a house, an estate really, that he couldn't afford, unless the whole Arnold family had more money than I knew about. And hadn't mentioned it.

No, it seemed to me all the trouble was stemming from the fact that they needed money. All of them. On the other hand, it looked like Vince DeStefano had all the money he needed. But that was the problem with money. The more you had the more you wanted, the more you wanted the more you needed. I learned that from dealing with gamblers for so many years.

We stopped at the front gate.

‘He's gonna hafta buzz us in,' Jerry said. ‘Since he ran from us yesterday, I don't think he's gonna do that. Especially if he's holed up here.'

‘Let's park away from the gate and look for a way in.'

He backed the Caddy up. We parked under a tree a few hundred feet along the road. Then we got out and began to walk the wall, looking for a likely place to climb over.

‘Wait,' Jerry said after we'd walked a while. ‘I can boost you up here, and then climb.'

‘How?'

‘The wall's crumbling here,' he said, pointing. ‘I can get a foothold.'

‘OK, let's try it.'

He not only boosted me up, but when I put my foot in his cupped hands he almost tossed me over.

I laid flat on top of the wall and extended my hand.

‘I'll pull you down,' he said. ‘I got it, Mr G. Go ahead.'

The wall was seven or eight feet high, but by hanging from my hands first I only had to drop a foot or two. I waited and soon Jerry appeared at the top. When he lowered himself he only had to drop inches.

‘Any dogs?' he asked.

‘I haven't heard any.'

‘I hate dogs.'

‘How can you hate dogs?'

‘When you been chased and got by as many junkyard dogs as I have, it's real easy.'

‘Well, like I said, I don't hear any. Come on. Let's get to the house.'

As we trotted to the house he asked, ‘Think you can get the truth out of him this time?'

‘No,' I said, ‘I think you can.'

When we got to the house it was huge, lots of stucco and stone with many windows and stairways.

‘This guy's got more money than we thought,' Jerry said.

‘Or not as much as he wants people to think,' I said. ‘Front door?'

‘No,' Jerry said. ‘Something with lots of glass.'

‘French doors.'

‘I guess.'

‘This way.'

We went up one of the stone stairways, which led to a path. We followed that around until we found a large swimming pool. That's where we found a pair of French doors.

‘There you go,' I said. ‘You gonna pick the lock?'

‘Yeah,' he said, and put his elbow through the glass. ‘There ya go.'

He reached in, unlocked the door and we walked in.

‘Arnold!' I shouted. ‘Philip, it's Eddie Gianelli.' I looked at Jerry. ‘Find the front door and stay there so he can't run out.'

‘OK.' He took out his .45. ‘Here.'

‘No, you take it,' I said. ‘I'll be fine.'

‘Be careful.'

I nodded, and we split up.

When we had gotten to Philip's office I had half expected to find him dead. Even I was getting paranoid about me and Jerry finding bodies together.

But this time I was expecting to find him worked over. I actually would have preferred that.

I checked several rooms before I found an office, and that's where he was. He was seated behind a huge cherry wood desk. His head was cocked to one side and there was a blood trail from the left corner of his mouth. I checked for a pulse and didn't find any. In fact, his skin felt cold. Jerry would know better than me, but I thought he'd been dead since yesterday. Maybe when he ran from us at his office he'd come straight back here and battened down the hatches.

Only not hard enough.

SIXTY

I found Jerry by the front door and led him back to the office. He studied the body for a moment, touched the skin, felt for a pulse, then straightened.

‘He's been dead since yesterday,' he said. ‘Maybe last night.'

‘What killed him?'

Jerry looked again.

‘I don't wanna move him or touch him,' he said. ‘I see a little blood on his chest. Can't tell if he was stabbed or shot.'

‘A shot might've been heard.'

‘Depends on what caliber,' Jerry said. ‘Depends on what time of day, who was home, what kind of neighbors he has—'

‘I get it,' I said. ‘OK, now we gotta figure out what to do. Too many people know we were lookin' for him. Eric, Adrienne, DeStefano. If we don't call the cops one of them will.'

‘Not DeStefano.'

‘No, maybe even him, if he's tryin' to play the straight citizen here in Vegas. If we don't call the cops – and I mean Hargrove – he'll come lookn' for us.'

‘If we do call him he'll grill us, anyway.'

‘But at least we'll have the fact that we called him on our side.'

‘You could leave and I could call him,' Jerry suggested.

‘No, that would only work the other way around,' I said. ‘Remember, me brains, you brawn. You leave and I'll call them.'

He walked away from the desk and came to stand next to me.

‘We might as well stick together, Mr G.,' he said. ‘Whichever one of us stays, they'll come lookin' for the other one, anyway.'

‘We got another problem, though.'

‘What's that?'

‘We broke in,' I said. ‘I don't think Hargrove will let that go. It'll give him somethin' to throw us in a cell for.'

‘I didn't think of that.'

‘OK, so a bunch of people knew we were looking for Philip, but we could always say we got here, the gate was locked, and we couldn't get in.'

‘So we leave him for somebody else to find?' Jerry asked. ‘Or do we make an anonymous call?'

‘I vote for the anonymous call,' I said, ‘but after we take a look around.'

‘Make sure you don't leave no prints, Mr G.,' he reminded me.

‘What can we do about the wall?'

‘They ain't gonna fingerprint the whole wall,' he said. ‘We just gotta worry about the French doors and anything we touch from now on.'

‘Gotcha,' I said. ‘I'll look around here, you take the upstairs.'

‘I'll find the master bedroom,' he said. ‘Probably won't be anything else important up there.'

‘Let's be as quick as we can, before somebody sees the car and makes a call.'

‘Right.'

He left the office and I got started.

It was hard to search the desk with a dead body seated at it. It was also difficult to rifle through drawers when you're holding a handkerchief in your hand.

I did the best I could, then moved on to the file cabinets. I kept thinking that if I had phony records and real records then I would keep the real ones at home. That was probably why I wasn't a crook. I found a bank statement in a drawer that indicated Philip Arnold had a safety deposit box at a Las Vegas branch of City National Bank.