It Was a Very Bad Year

by Robert J. Randisi

  She suddenly looked troubled by something.

  ‘Uh, Eddie . . .’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘You’re not going to . . . oh, never mind.’

  ‘We’re not going to what?’ I asked. ‘Look at the photos before we bring them to you?’

  She nodded.

  ‘I ain’t gonna look at ’em at all, Miss Dalton,’ Jerry said. ‘And Mr G. is only gonna look to make sure they’re the right ones.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I didn’t mean—’

  ‘It’s OK,’ I said. ‘Don’t worry about it.’

  ‘Jerry,’ she said, ‘you can call me Abby, you know.’

  ‘No,’ I said, ‘he can’t.’

  In the end he was calling her Miss D.

  We talked a bit about JFK, his presidency, and his assassination, and then we walked her back up to her room. On the way I offered one more time to take her to see Tony Bennett.

  ‘Thanks,’ she said, ‘but I think I’ll just turn in early. When you hand me those pictures tomorrow I’ll head back to Hollywood. I need to get back to work or Joey might divorce me.’

  ‘Hey, that’s funny,’ Jerry said. He looked at me. ‘See, Joey’s got the same name on the show—’

  ‘I know, Jerry.’

  When Abby closed the door and left us standing in the hall Jerry said, ‘You wanna go inside with her, Mr G.? I can go downstairs . . .’

  ‘No, Jerry,’ I said, ‘Abby and me, we don’t have that kind of relationship. Let’s go check on Billy.’

  ‘OK, Mr G.’

  Billy was gone.

  ‘Goddamnit!’ Jerry raged. He stormed around the suite. ‘What the hell—’

  ‘Maybe he just went downstairs.’

  ‘I thought I scared the hell outta that boy!’

  ‘Well,’ I said, ‘he’s your cousin. If he’s anything like you – and I mean, beyond the physical – then he doesn’t scare easy.’

  That seemed to mollify him a bit. He stopped pacing and stared at me.

  ‘You might be right about that, Mr G.’ He sat down heavily on the sofa. ‘But where did he go?’

  ‘If he went downstairs he’s not going to be able to play,’ I reminded him.

  ‘But what if he goes somewhere else?’

  ‘They won’t give him any credit,’ I said. ‘What’s he going to play with?’

  ‘Oh shit!’ He sprang up off the sofa and ran into one of the bedrooms. ‘Crap!’ he shouted, and ran back out. ‘He took the five grand I stashed for you.’

  ‘Abby’s money?’

  He nodded.

  ‘If he gambles five grand and loses, somebody’ll give him more on credit. And then I’ll have to tell Abby something.’

  ‘I gotta find him, Mr G.’

  ‘Before he spends Abby’s money.’

  ‘If he does,’ Jerry said, ‘I’ll make it good, Mr G. I’ll pay her back. But I gotta find ’im.’

  ‘OK,’ I said, ‘let’s go.’

  TWENTY-FIVE

  We searched the Sands first, but there was no sign of Billy. I took Jerry to meet Mike Dotelli, for two reasons. I wanted to hear from Mike if he’d seen Billy again. And I wanted Jerry to know who had screwed with his cousin.

  I waved Mike out from behind the pit.

  ‘What now?’ he asked.

  ‘This is Jerry,’ I said. ‘It’s his cousin you put in a seventy grand hole today.’

  Jerry glowered at Dotelli, who reared back a bit.

  ‘H-he put himself in a hole.’

  ‘He’s a kid,’ Jerry said, ‘You never should have okayed him. If I ever hear that you do it again, I’ll come back and tear your arms off. Am I clear?’

  ‘What? Clear?’ Mike looked at me for help. ‘Is he serious?’

  ‘Dead serious,’ I said.

  ‘Jesus.’ Mike looked at Jerry. ‘Yeah, yeah, that’s clear.’

  ‘OK, then,’ I said. ‘Have you seen him again today? In the past hour, maybe?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Mike said, ‘yeah, he came back down, tried to play some more.’

  ‘Did you let him?’ Jerry demanded.

  ‘N-no, no,’ Mike said. He looked at me again. ‘Jack came down and read me the riot act. No more credit for kids. And he said not to let this particular kid play anymore, even with cash.’

  ‘OK,’ I said, ‘so where did he go?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Mike said. ‘He left, Eddie. He just . . . left.’

  ‘Damn it!’ Jerry said. ‘He’s gonna try another casino.’

  ‘Don’t worry, Jerry,’ I said, ‘don’t worry. We’ll find him. Come on.’

  Outside we split up. I went left, to the Flamingo. Jerry went right, to the Desert Inn. Billy couldn’t have gotten much further than that. With five grand he should still be sitting at a table in one of those casinos.

  I entered the Flamingo and headed for the craps tables. I didn’t see Billy. I spoke to a pit boss and a couple of dealers I knew, described the kid, but they hadn’t seen him. I hoped Jerry was having better luck at the Desert Inn.

  He was. I got there in time to see Jerry practically carrying Billy out the door by his collar. The kid was almost as big as his cousin, but I swore Billy’s feet weren’t touching the floor.

  ‘. . . it easy, cuz,’ Billy was saying. ‘Jeez. I tol’ you I was gonna give you back your money as soon as my system kicked in.’

  ‘You asshole,’ Jerry said. ‘I don’t care what kind of system you got, you don’t steal from me!’

  ‘It wasn’t stealin’,’ Billy argued. ‘It was borrowin’.’

  ‘Borrowin’ without permission is stealin’,’ Jerry said. ‘Believe me, I know. And you don’t borrow from family.’

  Sometimes Jerry’s values were skewed, but he kept to them. Breaking somebody’s legs was OK if they deserved it, but he wouldn’t steal without a very good reason, and he sure wouldn’t steal from family.

  And it must have confused him that he could put a scare into anybody but his own cousin.

  When Billy saw me he tried to plead his case.

  ‘Eddie, tell ’im,’ he said. ‘You know about systems.’

  ‘What I know, Billy,’ I said, ‘is that they don’t work. Casinos love jerks like you, who think they can beat the house.’

  ‘Yeah, but my system’s gonna work. I know it is.’

  ‘Test it out with your own money,’ Jerry said. He handed me the envelope with the five grand, which confused Billy, but we didn’t explain it to him just then.

  We started to walk toward the Sands, Jerry still holding on to Billy’s collar, although the kid’s feet were now touching the sidewalk.

  ‘How the hell do you plan on payin’ back seventy grand?’ Jerry demanded.

  ‘With my winnings!’ Billy argued. ‘Come on, cuz, it’s gonna work. I’m gonna make us both rich. Just let me play your five G’s.’

  Jerry shook him by the collar, as if he was holding a wet cat.

  ‘You’re gonna go to the room and stay there, and you ain’t gonna leave unless I say so.’

  ‘Hey, I gotta eat—’

  ‘Order room service,’ Jerry said.

  I was pretty sure room service was comped, since Jack had given them the suite, but I kept that to myself. Who knows what kind of food bill the kid could have piled up? After all, he was Jerry’s family.

  TWENTY-SIX

  It had been a long day.

  As I walked through the casino and hotel lobby everybody still seemed to be in shock. TVs and radios were still tuned to news channels, waiting for the latest word on the assassination.

  As I drove home I was thinking about Frank, and how much he thought of JFK. I never had the same high opinion – and, in fact, was not that crazy about any of the Kennedy clan I’d had dealings with – Joe, Jack or Bobby. But I felt bad for Frank because, from his point of view, he’d lost a good friend. I would have called if I’d known where to get ahold of him. I wondered if he had returned to Palm Springs?

  I stopped and picked up s
ome takeout fried chicken. I didn’t feel like sitting in a restaurant with a bunch of people who were in mourning, so I just sat in my own kitchen and had a snack alone. Then I turned in, hoping the next day would be better for all of us.

  I was supposed to meet Irwin and Jerry in front of the Bank of Las Vegas branch on Simmons. I wondered if we’d made a mistake letting Irwin go. But when I pulled up in front there he was – easy to spot because he was wearing a paisley shirt – standing alongside Jerry.

  And Billy.

  ‘He showed up,’ I said to Jerry.

  ‘I knew he would.’

  ‘What’s Billy doing here?’

  ‘I couldn’t trust him,’ Jerry said. ‘I thought I’d show him a little bit of what I do.’

  I glanced over to where Irwin and Billy were standing. Billy had an unhappy frown on his face, but obviously to Irwin it was more of a threatening look. He seemed very uncomfortable standing next to the younger, bigger man.

  ‘What’d you tell Billy?’

  ‘Just to look mean,’ Jerry said, ‘and not to talk.’

  ‘Let’s go in, before Irwin changes his mind,’ I said. ‘He could give us a hard time in the bank, start yelling or something.’

  ‘He’ll be fine,’ Jerry said. ‘Maybe I can’t scare my own cousin, but this guy is scared.’

  We entered the bank, approached a teller’s window. Billy and I hung back, but Jerry went to the window with him. Irwin told the girl he wanted to access his box. She was pretty, and wary of him, and I had no doubt that he’d made a couple of efforts to get her to pose for him in the past. Today he was all business.

  It went surprisingly well – surprising to me, anyway, but apparently not to Jerry.

  Irwin was meek. He went into the safe with a man from the bank, came out with an envelope. We left the bank and, out front, standing by my car, he gave me the photos.

  I stepped away from them, slid the photos part of the way out, meaning only to look at them long enough to make sure they were the right ones. But it was hard to slide them right back in when I got a look at a young, naked Abby Dalton. There were six different prints, but only two full frontal. In the others she was looking back over a shoulder, so that her perfect back and butt were in view. Further down in the envelope were the negatives.

  ‘Mr G.?’

  Jerry startled me, coming up behind me, and I shoved the photos back into the envelope.

  ‘Yeah, OK,’ I said. I looked at Irwin. ‘These better be all of them.’

  ‘He knows,’ Jerry said, ‘that if he ever comes back with more photos, he’ll have to deal with me.’

  ‘Yeah, yeah, right,’ Irwin said. He was a changed man since I left him in the warehouse alone with Jerry.

  ‘Mr G.?’ Jerry asked. ‘We gonna pay ’im?’

  ‘Oh, right.’ I took the envelope Abby had given me from my back pocket. ‘This is what Abby gave me to give you. Take it and be happy.’

  Irwin looked at Jerry first, and when the big guy nodded he accepted the envelope. To my shock and surprise he didn’t count it. In fact, he didn’t even open it.

  ‘Zat it?’ he asked. ‘I mean, I’d like to get home . . . you know, see what else is on TV about the JFK thing.’

  I didn’t think Irwin cared a bit about JFK. He probably had a couple of babes lined up for a photo shoot. I wondered if I should use Jerry to put him out of business for good. Then again, why was it my concern? However he chose to make a living, that was up to him. As long as he left Abby alone.

  ‘Yeah, that’s it,’ I said. ‘Abby doesn’t want to hear from you again, and I don’t want to see you again. Got it?’

  ‘Yeah, yeah,’ Irwin said, looking not at me, but at Jerry. ‘I got it.’

  ‘Good,’ I said, ‘then go.’

  I didn’t know how he had gotten there, but he took off walking down the street, then turned the corner. Maybe he’d parked there.

  ‘We good?’ Jerry asked.

  ‘Yeah, yeah,’ I said, ‘we’re good. Might as well get back to the Sands and deliver these to Abby.’

  Jerry and Billy had taken a cab to the bank, so we piled into my Caddy, Jerry behind the wheel and Billy in the back seat.

  As we pulled away from the bank Billy leaned forward and said meekly, ‘I’m hungry.’

  I looked at Jerry, who returned the look and said, ‘I could eat.’

  ‘OK, sure.’

  ‘The Horseshoe.’

  We weren’t far from there, and I knew Jerry liked their coffee shop, so I said, ‘Why not?’

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  Jerry suggested calling ‘the dick’ to join us at the Horseshoe Coffee Shop. I called from a pay phone and Danny was there waiting when we got there.

  ‘Get it done?’ he asked, as we joined him in a booth.

  ‘Done,’ I said.

  ‘Those the photos?’ He jerked his chin at the envelope in my hands.

  ‘I didn’t want to trust leaving it in the car.’

  There was no way one side of the booth would have accommodated both Jerry and Billy, so I got in on one side with Jerry, Billy joined Danny on the other side, and they shook hands dutifully.

  ‘Is he the runt of the litter?’ Danny asked Jerry.

  ‘How’d you know?’

  ‘Huh?’ Billy said.

  ‘Forget it,’ I said.

  ‘So this is a celebration breakfast?’

  ‘Celebration second breakfast,’ I said. But my first one had only been toast and coffee, so I went for eggs with the works.

  Danny had steak and eggs, while the cousins demolished a couple of stacks of pancakes each.

  ‘So?’ Danny asked, halfway though.

  ‘So what?’

  ‘We get to see what’s in the envelope?’

  ‘Nope,’ I said.

  ‘What’s in the envelope?’

  ‘That wouldn’t be right,’ Jerry said.

  ‘Just a peek,’ Danny said.

  ‘What’s in the envelope?’ Billy asked, again, pouring syrup on to his second stack.

  ‘Never mind,’ Jerry said. ‘It just wouldn’t be right.’

  ‘You haven’t seen them?’ Danny asked Jerry.

  ‘No.’

  Danny looked at me.

  ‘He wouldn’t look if I gave them to him.’

  ‘What a gentleman,’ Danny said.

  ‘What’s in the damn envelope?’ Billy asked.

  ‘None of your business!’ Jerry snapped.

  ‘Jeez,’ Billy said.

  ‘What’s with the cousins?’ Danny asked.

  ‘Family tensions.’

  ‘I’d hate to be at the reunions,’ Danny said.

  ‘There,’ Jerry said, ‘you’d be the runt of the litter.’

  The waitress came to clear the wreckage when we were done, and we all got seconds and thirds on the coffee.

  ‘So, what’s the next step?’ Danny asked.

  ‘Just get these to Abby,’ I said. ‘Then she’s on her way back to Hollywood, and we have our lives back.’

  ‘I guess we should all get back to our lives,’ Danny said. ‘I mean, after what happened yesterday.’

  ‘Why not?’ I asked. ‘We get a new president an hour later. The government goes on, so should we.’

  ‘Anybody talk to Sinatra?’ Danny asked. ‘See how he’s handling this?’

  ‘Entratter found out where he was when he heard,’ I said. ‘On the set.’

  ‘And now?’

  ‘I guess they closed it down, for the day at least. I don’t know where he is now.’

  ‘Mr S. is a pro,’ Jerry said. ‘He’ll be back on the set today or tomorrow.’

  ‘Probably,’ I said.

  Billy looked over at the envelope beneath my elbow and asked, ‘Come on, what’s in the envelope?’

  Outside the Horseshoe, Danny asked, ‘You guys gonna do some gambling down here?’ He was looking at the cousins.

  ‘Yes!’ Billy said.

  ‘No!’ Jerry said. He grabbed his cousin by th
e scruff of the neck and walked him away.

  ‘What’s that about?’

  ‘The kid got himself in the hole seventy grand.’

  ‘Yikes. Who gave him that much credit?’

  ‘It was a mistake,’ I said.

  ‘You?’

  ‘No, not me. A lunkhead Entratter promoted to pit boss.’

  ‘Has he met Jerry?’

  ‘Yes,’ I said, ‘he’s not gonna make that mistake again.’

  ‘Well,’ Danny said, ‘at least now I understand the family tension.’

  ‘I’ll talk to you soon,’ I said.

  ‘Yeah, sure,’ Danny said. ‘Thanks for breakfast.’

  He went to his office, which was only a few doors away, and I joined Jerry and Billy in the Caddy.

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  We drove back to the Sands. Jerry dragged Billy up to their suite, and I went to Abby’s room. When she opened the door I held the envelope out to her.

  ‘Oh God!’ she said, grabbing it with one hand and my arm with the other. She pulled me inside.

  ‘Make sure they’re all there,’ I said, ‘but I think he was too scared to hold any back.’

  ‘Scared?’ she said,

  ‘You don’t want to know,’ I said. ‘Just check.’

  She opened the envelope, slid the prints out and looked at them one by one. Then she looked further and found the negatives.

  ‘All there?’ I asked.

  ‘Looks like it.’ She slid them back in. ‘Did you, uh, look at them?’

  ‘Just took a peek to make sure it was you,’ I said, lying just a little.

  She hugged the envelope to her chest. She was wearing a sleeveless dress, the length of which came to mid knee. There were suitcases by the door.

  ‘Catching a plane?’ I asked.

  ‘In two hours, I had hoped,’ she said, ‘so I guess so. I don’t know how to thank you.’

  ‘It was my pleasure, Abby.’

  ‘Joey says you don’t take money, but—’

  I waved her off. Suddenly, she took a few steps and grabbed me in a tight hug. She smelled great and we stood that way for a few moments.

  ‘Well,’ she said, backing away, ‘I guess I should head for the airport.’

  ‘I’ll have a bellman come up for your bags,’ I said, ‘and take care of checking you out.’