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“What are we gonna do with this fool?” Lula wanted to know. “I’d take him back, but I got my photo shoot tomorrow morning. I’m sleeping here so I wake up fresh as a daisy. Grandma said I could bunk with her. She’s got that big of suite w
ith a pull-?out couch.”
“I’ll take him,” Connie said. “I haven’t got my gambling mojo going today. Let me borrow your Firebird, and I’ll give you my thousand.”
“Deal,” Lula said. “I’m feeling hot. I probably don’t need the extra thousand, but I’ll take it just in case.”
We dragged Major to his feet and walked him out of the casino into the parking garage. We got shackles out of the trunk of Lula’s car, trussed Major up, and put him into the backseat. Connie got behind the wheel, and we watched her drive away.
“That was lucky,” Lula said. “We caught a scumbag. And we didn’t even kill him.”
The casino was relatively empty when we returned to the gaming floor. The day-?players were settling themselves into their buses. The night-?timers were sitting in traffic on the Parkway. Attendants quietly swept carpets and collected empty glasses. The big Daffy Dog was silent.
“I’m going to the cafe for a burger,” Lula said. “How about you?”
“I need to get back to Grandma. I left her alone with the money.”
I hustled back to the gaming floor, and I saw Briggs before I saw Grandma. He was standing behind her, as always, but he wasn’t guarding the duffel bag. Grandma was playing the poker machine, and Briggs was back on his heels, looking bored. And the duffel bag was missing.
“Where’s the money?” I asked him.
“I put it in the hotel vault,” Briggs said.
“It’s not like I could spend it,” Grandma said, punching the play button. “I figured I might as well put it away where it was safe. Then Randy don’t have to carry that big heavy bag around. We’re almost done here anyway. It’s amazing how fast you can go through a thousand dollars when you got the knack for it.”
“Have you won anything?”
“Not a darn nickel. It’s just as good, though, on account of I want to get back to the room to watch some television.
Starting at seven o’clock, there’s reruns of Dancing with the Stars.”
I left Grandma and Briggs and walked over to Snuggy and Diesel. Snuggy was playing blackjack, and Diesel was standing behind him.
“How’s it going?” I asked Diesel.
“I don’t think it looks good for the horse.”
“Snuggy hasn’t got a lot of chips in front of him.”
“He consistently gets great cards, but he’s the worst blackjack player ever.”
“Why don’t you want to play?” I asked Diesel.
“Can’t. I’ve won here too many times. If I sit down, I’ll be asked to leave.”
“They can do that?”
“They think I cheat,” Diesel said.
“Do you?”
“Yeah.” Diesel smiled down at me. “I liked the tag team wrestling exhibition.”
“You could have helped!”
“You were doing okay without me. Who was the guy you took down?”
“Billy Major. He’s a Trenton pimp who got caught in a drug sting. Vinnie bonded him out, and then Major failed to appear for a court appearance. It was dumb luck that Connie spotted him.”
