The Good Thief's Guide to Vegas (10 page)

The man-mountain was carrying a key card in his meat-slab hand. He barely frowned when he saw me, displaying all the concern a bull might show a fly, and then he held the card out to the little guy as if he was handing a ticket stub to a child.

‘Oh swell. Did Josh give you his card?’ The little guy squealed the line insistently, in the most awkward of prompts. Even so, his friend didn’t pick up on it in the most seamless fashion imaginable.

‘Huh?’

‘I said,’ added the little guy, motioning at me with a nod of his head, ‘did Josh give you his card so we could wait in his room.’

‘Oh. Yes. That is right,’ the man replied, in his awkward Euro-English. ‘Josh give me his card so we could wait in his room.’

‘Well, that’s great.’ The little guy showed me just how many teeth were crammed inside his gums. ‘Say, thanks for your help. We’ll just go ahead and wait inside.’

‘And you’ll keep the noise down?’

‘Sure thing.’ He waved a doll-like hand. ‘Don’t even worry about it.’

THIRTEEN

‘Have they gone?’ Victoria whispered.

‘Sounds that way.’

‘They weren’t inside for very long.’

I separated my ear from the glass tumbler I’d been holding against the communicating doors to Masters’ suite and checked my digital watch with a pulse of torchlight.

‘Just under five minutes.’

‘What do you think they were up to?’

‘Mischief, I imagine. But it wouldn’t hurt to check.’

Setting the glass down, I took my pick and my screwdriver from my spectacles case. Turning the lock for a second time was simple, and I didn’t bother asking Victoria to shine the penlight over my shoulder. I worked by touch alone, and I doubt I’d have been any faster with a key.

The lights were still on in Masters’ suite and his key card was still in the receptacle by the door, but it hadn’t seemed to tweak the curiosity of the little man and the gym giant. So far as I could tell, they hadn’t been concerned by the unwound coat hanger I’d left on the kitchen counter, either. Who knows, maybe the little man hadn’t been tall enough to spot it, and perhaps his gym buddy had been too distracted by the wonders of a room that looked to have been built to his exact proportions. Either way, I was grateful that they hadn’t stayed for too long, and after snatching up the coat hanger, I conducted a quick search.

So far as I could tell, only one thing had altered. A note had been left on the desk over by the picture windows. The message had been written in blue ink on a sheet of hotel stationery and it had been printed in a rushed, slanted hand.

CALL MAURICE, OK? HE’S KIND OF PISSED
.

I knew just how Maurice felt, but sadly, I had no idea who he was. I guessed Josh did though, because no contact details had been added to the note.

I asked myself which one of the men had left the message, and I had an inkling it was the little guy. He’d taken the lead role out in the corridor, so it made sense that he would have penned the message. I also thought the use of capital letters could be significant – perhaps he wrote that way to make up for his height.

Since I didn’t have my gloves on any longer, I used the tie-cord of the robe I was wearing to carry the note across to Victoria. She was standing on the threshold of the rooms, one foot in each suite, as though she was unsure which space she felt more uncomfortable in. She scanned the note, and shrugged and frowned in much the same way as I had, and then I returned the note to the desk and nudged Victoria back into the darkened suite. I gently closed the communicating door and allowed the snap lock to engage. The blackness seemed complete all of a sudden.

‘So who’s Maurice?’ Victoria asked, as I fumbled for her hand and pressed the coat hanger into it.

‘No idea.’

‘One of the twins, maybe?’

‘I doubt it. Masters already knows they’re looking for him, and why would anyone mention just one of them in a note?’

‘Neither one of them looked like a Maurice to me.’

‘They’re both identical, Vic.’

Through the darkness, I heard the distinct note of a raspberry.

I felt my way over to the kitchen area to put on my clothes and had ditched the robe and was zipping the fly on my trousers before Victoria spoke again.

‘Charlie, was one of those men really a . . . you know?’

‘Short individual? Why would I make something like that up?’

‘You wouldn’t. It’s just a bit surprising.’

I buttoned my shirt and put on my jacket, then reached for my socks and began to hop around as I pulled them on.

‘It’s reassuring in a way,’ I told her. ‘It’s good to know that crooks come in all shapes and sizes.’

‘You think they were crooks?’

‘They didn’t exactly have permission to be next door.’

‘Maybe they really are Josh’s friends.’

‘Yeah, his crook friends.’

I ducked behind the breakfast bar to tie my shoes. While I was crouched there, I collected the Houdini biography from the floor and slipped it back down into my trousers. I straightened and flattened my hair, then gathered together my surgical gloves and blew air into them.

‘Are you putting your gloves back on?’

‘Yup.’

‘Can I ask why?’

‘Because we’re not done yet.’

‘But I thought we were just hiding in here?’

‘We were. But you know what they say about gift horses.’

‘Leave them alone and get away while you still can?’

I snapped the plastic of my left glove against my palm. ‘Relax. This won’t take long.’

‘It’s funny. You wouldn’t believe how many times a man has said those words to me after slipping a pair of surgical gloves on.’

I clicked on my penlight and shone the beam at Victoria’s face. The room was blue-black around her.

‘Humour in the face of danger? If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were a natural at all this.’

Victoria covered her eyes with her spread fingers. ‘A momentary slip. Can you hurry up?’

‘Funny,’ I said. ‘Women very rarely say those words to me.’

I breezed past Victoria towards the bedroom and returned the robe to the closet, then started to feel my way through the clothes that were hanging from the rail, checking the pockets. I didn’t find anything useful, so I dropped to my knees and parted a few skirts until I located the room safe. I shone my penlight on the keypad and summoned some inspiration. I began with 111, then 1111, then 999 . . .

‘Why bother?’ Victoria asked, from just over my shoulder.

‘We need the money.’

‘Not if we find Josh.’

‘Finding him isn’t going to be easy. It looks like he’s running from a murder. We don’t know where he went. We don’t know the city.’

‘But we have this Maurice clue. We have this . . . little fellow, and his muscular friend.’

I softened my tone. ‘I really think we need to focus on our second option, Vic. At least for a little while.’

‘But you’ll never be able to steal the kind of money we need.’

‘Maybe not directly.’

The safe wasn’t opening. The codes I was punching in were having no effect whatsoever. I aimed the torch beam at the credit-card reader beside the keypad and growled to myself.

‘Can’t you pick it?’

‘If I had some of the kit I keep in my bag downstairs, then yes. But not with the gear I have on me.’

I reached out a finger and began to punch in some new codes. 911, 1234, 9876 . . .

‘Charlie, what did you mean when you said you might not be able to steal the money we need directly?’

‘Oh,’ I replied, shooting for carefree. ‘I figure I can at least steal a good stake.’

‘A stake? For what?’

2222, 3333, 4444 . . .

‘Oh no,’ Victoria said, cracking me on the back of the head. ‘That’s a terrible idea.’

‘You haven’t let me explain.’

‘I don’t need to. You think you can win the money. At poker.’

Her voice was laced with scepticism. I didn’t like the way it sounded.

‘I’m better than you think. Honestly.’

‘You lost a fortune earlier tonight.’

‘I made an error of judgement. I know what to do differently now.’

‘Too right. Don’t sit down in the first place.’

I rocked back on my heels and rested on my buttocks, then wrapped my arms around my knees and hugged them to my chest. There was a question I’d been thinking about posing, and now seemed as bad a time as any other.

‘How much money do you have in your bank account?’

Victoria cracked me on the back of the head again. ‘I can’t believe you’re asking me that.’

‘I’ll pay you back, you know.’

Victoria paced to the far side of the room. I heard her flick the finger of one hand into her gloved palm. Maybe she was picturing my forehead where her palm happened to be.

‘It’s nowhere near enough. And I can’t get at it anyway. It’s Saturday night, Charlie. Sunday tomorrow.’

‘You can pull something out though, can’t you?’

‘The maximum I can withdraw is two hundred and fifty pounds a day.’

‘Close to four hundred and sixty dollars. What about credit cards? I don’t have any.’

It might have been dark, but I had a fair idea of the expression on Victoria’s face, and was glad that I couldn’t see it.

‘I have one,’ she said, in a terse voice. ‘But my credit limit isn’t as big as you might like.’

‘But it’s a start, right?’

‘A pretty measly start. And set against the money we’d need? Frankly, it’s ludicrous.’

‘Which is why I was trying to get inside this safe. Plus some others. If I can steal a big enough stake, I could maybe get us somewhere.’

Victoria glanced towards the illuminated display on the bedside clock. ‘In twenty-two and a half hours?’

‘Hey, if you have any better suggestions, I’m willing to listen.’

We looked at one another in the dark and I felt the room grow even blacker around Victoria. Eventually, she crossed her arms and let go of a sharp breath.

‘Blackjack,’ she said, as though she was tossing the idea carelessly aside.

‘Sorry?’

‘Statistically, you have a better chance of winning. The house edge is reduced.’

‘But if I can find a no-limit poker game . . .’

‘You could lose all your money again.’

I hummed, and for good measure, I hawed. ‘To tell you the truth, Vic, I’m not all that great at blackjack.’

I waited for her to tell me the same could be said of my poker, but instead she dropped onto the bed alongside me and stared at her hands in her lap. She didn’t say anything for a long moment, and I punched another code into the keypad. Same result. I was beginning to think it was time to check the suitcases and bedside drawers.

‘Here’s what we’ll do,’ she said finally. ‘
I’ll
play blackjack. I’ll start with our stake money and see how things go for the first few hours. And meanwhile, you can do what you do best.’

‘This is no time for me to hammer out a quick novel.’

‘Idiot.’ I received another crack on the head. ‘We’ll go to a different casino. I can’t imagine the Fisher Twins will let us play here. And while I play, you can . . . you know.’

‘Steal things?’

‘If you want to be crass about it.’

I turned and reached for Victoria’s curled fingers. There was no response, almost as though she hadn’t fully engaged with what she was suggesting. As though she’d switched off.

‘Are you okay with this? The gambling and the stealing?’

Victoria didn’t speak. I was about to ask what had come over her when she slid off the bed onto her knees and extended a finger towards the keypad. She punched in four digits, and a moment later, the safe whirred and clunked and the word
OPEN
appeared.

‘Fifty-fifty,’ she said, as the door sprang back. ‘Pretty good, eh?’

I groaned and gave myself an imaginary crack on the head for being such a dunce. Then I shone my penlight inside the safe. The contents weren’t anything to write a love song about. I found an MP3 player, a digital camera, a gold necklace and a curled bundle of dollar notes. I reached for the notes and counted them off. One hundred and ninety dollars. I passed them to Victoria, who juggled them like a hot coal, and then I rested a finger against my chin and considered my next move.

The electrical equipment and the necklace were valuable, sure, but I didn’t have the time to track down a likely pawnbroker or a dive bar where I might sell them on. We needed cash or casino chips, and we needed them fast. In the hour it might take me to shift the valuables, I could break into another two hotel rooms, with the chance of finding just what we were after.

With my mind made up, I closed the door to the safe and re-entered the code so that everything (aside from the money) was locked away, and then I took a quick peek around the rest of the bedroom and the bathroom before telling Victoria that we were done.

‘We can leave?’

‘Absolutely. In fact, I’d positively recommend it.’

‘Well, that’s a relief.’

I smoothed the bedcovers where Victoria had been perched, and then I straightened the clothes in the closet and shut the closet doors. I shone my penlight around the room to make sure we hadn’t left anything behind, and then I shone the light in Victoria’s face.

‘I do wish you’d stop doing that,’ she said, squinting.

‘Where’s the coat hanger?’

‘Oh. I might have left it in the other room.’

She was right about that. I found the coat hanger on the glass dining-table. I eased it up inside the sleeve of my jacket, and then I led Victoria to the front door and put my eye to the peephole. Assuming my diminutive friend wasn’t waiting on the other side, all looked to be clear, so I hauled back the door and waved Victoria through.

We were making our way down the service stairs before I paused between levels, reached inside my trousers and removed an item that made Victoria’s eyes boggle.

‘For you,’ I said, handing her the Houdini biography.

‘Oh Charlie, I really wish you hadn’t.’

‘Well, I had.’ I shrugged. ‘And unless you want to put it back, it’s yours now.’

‘And when exactly am I supposed to find the time to read this?’

‘When we’re out of this mess. Or maybe before. Houdini was the king of escaping sticky situations, right? Perhaps you’ll pick up a few tips.’