Taking her hand and placing it in the crook of his arm, he said, “If I haven’t said so already tonight, you look stunning, darling. Do you have our buy-in?”
Having never gone undercover before, she took her cue from him. “Right here, sweetheart.” She patted the silver clutch.
“Excellent. Let’s go win some money.” He led her to the door, knocked once, and then greeted the large man who answered. “Ferrell. First time here. Do we give you the buy-in, or do we pay inside?”
The man jerked his head toward the interior of the room. “Pay at the desk and get your chips.”
There was a reception desk set up just inside the door. An elegant woman dressed in a white sheath, her blonde hair done up in a chignon, stood beside a large podium, as though she’d been waiting to greet them. Katie looked beyond her, taking in the plush interior with its wood-paneled walls and its rich carpet of reds and greens, the dark colors no doubt chosen to camouflage spilled drinks. A bar of dark cherry wood stood in one corner, and Katie wondered if the drinks were complimentary or incredibly expensive.
“Welcome to Alexander’s,” she greeted them. “And you are?”
“Nick Ferrell. And this is my wife, Kelly.”
“Nice to meet you,” Katie said, although the blonde hadn’t introduced herself.
The woman consulted a ledger. “And the buy-in?”
Katie removed the envelope of cash from her purse and handed it over.
The blonde smiled. “We always set couples up at different tables. Not that you would, but some couples have devised ways to undermine the other players. Mr. Ferrell, you’ll be at table one; and Mrs. Ferrell, you’re at table three.”
“Thank you.” Ray nodded toward the two stacks of chips. “Let me step over here and give my wife a kiss for luck, and then we’ll take our seats.”
“All right.” The woman smiled broadly as Ray led Katie a few feet away.
Putting his hands on her waist, he drew her close.
We’re putting on a show, Katie reminded herself as Ray’s mouth covered hers. A show…that’s all…
“If you need to talk to me,” he whispered, “rub your nose with your left index finger, and then excuse yourself to go to the bathroom. I’ll use the same signal. Got it?”
“Yes.”
He lifted his head and said loudly enough that the receptionist could hear, “I’m serious. Don’t bankrupt us.”
“I won’t,” she said and giggled theatrically. “I promise.”
“All right.” He gave her a quick peck on the lips. “Keep your head about you.”
They went to the receptionist, got their chips, and took them to their tables. Since the games hadn’t started yet, Katie took a seat at the designated round table that could accommodate up to eight players. Like the paneling and bar, it was made of cherry with a green baize in the center. Before each player were rounded slots for chips and brass beverage holders.
Katie nodded to the man and woman already at her table. “Hi, I’m Kelly. Go easy on me. Unlike my husband, I’m still an amateur.”
“Gina,” the woman said, extending a manicured hand with long red nails. “I’m actually better than my husband at this, but don’t tell him I said that. He’s at table two.”
“My husband is at table one,” Katie said.
“I’m here solo,” the man said. “Albert Whitlock’s the name. If either of you gals gets in trouble, I’ll try to give you a hand.”
Katie and Gina shared a look of restrained disdain. Gina had already said she was good. Besides, how was Albert going to help either of them if they got in trouble? What had he even meant by that?
Glancing toward the door where she’d first entered, Katie drew in her breath as Phyllis—Dr. Elliott’s assistant—breezed in. Would she recognize Katie? Had she ever worked with Ray?
“Is anything wrong?” Albert asked.
Katie looked in Ray’s direction and rubbed her nose with her left index finger. “Uh, no. But I think I should run to the little girl’s room before we start to play. Do you know where it is?”
“To your right,” Gina said. “We’ll watch your chips. And don’t worry, you’ve got plenty of time before the game starts.”
Katie brandished a wobbly smile, grabbed her silver clutch, and hurried to the alcove that housed the restrooms. Seconds later, Ray joined her.
“I didn’t think we’d be conferring so soon,” he whispered.
“We have a problem. Phyllis from the medical examiner’s office is here!” Katie hissed.
“Which one is she?” he asked.
“You don’t know her?”
He shook his head. “I heard there’s been some turnover since I retired. I’m not sure I’d be acquainted with any of the office’s current support staff.”
“So, she won’t recognize you,” Katie said.
“No. Why? Will she recognize you?”
“Maybe. I was there yesterday with Seth. That’s how I knew her.”
He glanced into the room. “What’s she wearing?”
“A green silk blouse and black pants.”
“All right. She’s sitting at my table.” He looked at Katie. “That’s good. I’ll see if I can get her talking about Jamie. Kiss me before you go back. Then when you get back to your table, freshen up your lipstick. That explains us meeting up like this if anyone noticed. We’re newlyweds—married April fourth.”
“You’re really milking this,” Katie grated.
“It’s for a good cause, right?”
“Yes, it is.”
They shared yet another kiss, and Katie was flushed when she went back to the table. As Ray had instructed, she got out her lipstick and compact and reapplied her lipstick.
“I’d know that flush anywhere,” Gina said, with a husky laugh. “I believe somebody’s getting lucky tonight whether she wins at cards or not.”
Blushing, Katie said, “We’re still newlyweds—married April 4.” She slowed her breathing. “It feels like we’re still on our honeymoon.”
“How did you meet?” Albert asked.
“I’m an insurance adjuster, and we met when his daughter—now my stepdaughter, although she’s not thrilled about that—had a fender-bender.”
“Stepkids.” Gina rolled her eyes. “Don’t get me started.”
“How many do you have?” Katie asked.
“Four. Not all of them are brats, but the two that are cause as much trouble as they possibly can.”
A younger man approached their table with his chips. “Hello. I’m Connor Davis. I’m told this is my table.”
“I’m glad of it,” Albert said. “Not that I’m anything less than delighted with our female companions, but it’s good to have another gentleman at the table.”
Katie glanced over at Ray’s table. He was already conversing with Phyllis from the medical examiner’s office, but he winked at Katie. She was glad he was keeping an eye on her. She was beginning to wonder what she’d gotten herself into.
Chapter 16
An older woman, much more casually dressed than Katie took her place at the table. “Hi, everyone, I’m Hazel. Who are you?” They all introduced themselves with Gina giving Katie a sidelong glance. Clearly, she thought Hazel should have spiffed up.
The last player to join them was a guy Katie immediately pegged as a yuppie, judging by his gray three-piece suit with a matching tie. “I’m Greg,” he said and didn’t bother with any of the niceties, instead signaling for the waitress.
As she took Greg’s order for a screwdriver, a distinguished-looking gentleman with silver hair and dressed in a black tux took his place at the dealer’s seat. The newcomer patiently waited for the other players to place their drink orders and for the waitress to leave before sitting down.
“Good evening and welcome,” he said. “Tonight, we’ll be playing five-card stud.”
“Five-card stud?” Gina asked. “Nobody plays that game anymore.”
“I assure you we do, madam,” the dealer
said. “We change our weekly game to provide our players more of a challenge. Five-card stud is the original form of the game.” He went on to explain the rules of the game for those who were unfamiliar.
“I’ve only ever played Texas Hold ‘Em,” Gina grumbled.
“Do you wish to continue with the game?” the dealer asked.
She nodded and looked around to see where the waitress was with her vodka tonic.
Katie wondered which game Jamie might’ve been playing and with whom. If the game was changed weekly, he wouldn’t have been playing five-card stud the previous week. She pondered how to broach the subject of Jamie Siefert and his death.
“We’ll begin the game now.” The dealer broke open a new deck of cards and shuffled them twice, then distributed the cards around the table. Each player received one face-up card and one face-down card.
The first hand was a yawn. Katie waited as the cards were dealt and, seeing there was no hope of winning, was the first to drop out. The opening ante had only cost her a hundred bucks. Just another four hundred to lose.
Game two wasn’t much more interesting, but it was the men who folded, leaving Katie and Gina to toss twenty-dollar chips into the pot until at last Katie called, with more than three hundred in chips before them.
Gina laid her final card on the table. The ace of spades.
Katie had a deuce.
It was the fourth game when Katie’s luck changed.
The dealer shuffled and cut the cards, dealing one to each player. Katie’s face-up card was the eight of clubs. She peeked at her face-down card and saw that it was the ace of clubs.
In the second round, she got the face-up queen of hearts. Round three brought her the ace of spades.
A pair of aces—which was great. None of the other players appeared to have anything that would beat her…at least, not yet.
Her last card was dealt face down. It was the eight of spades. She increased her bid accordingly, feeling confident no one at the table could beat two pair, aces high. Gina and Connor folded, but Albert, Greg, and Hazel hung in there until the end.
When the players flipped all their cards face up, the dealer pronounced Katie the winner “with the Dead Man’s Hand.”
“The what?” she asked.
“The Dead Man’s Hand,” he said. “Haven’t you heard of it?” He explained the legend that Wild Bill Hickok was holding two pair—aces and eights—clubs and spades when he was murdered. “There has been a lot of speculation as to the identity of the fifth card, but nothing definitive.” He smiled. “So, young lady, either you’re very lucky…or you’re doomed.”
Everyone laughed, but Katie had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. What were the odds of her drawing that hand? Did the dealer cheat somehow to give her that hand to issue her a warning? Maybe he’d been the dealer for Jamie the week before and knew Katie was the owner of Tealicious. Anything was possible.
Or maybe she was just paranoid.
As the dealer shuffled the cards for the next hand, Katie asked, “Did any of you hear about the guy who died on Victoria Square last week? My husband knew him, and that’s how we found out about this game. Apparently, he played here last week.”
“Jamie Seifert,” Gina said. “Yeah, I heard about his death on TV. The health department should shut that tea shop down.”
Katie took a sip of her white wine to tamp down her annoyance before she spoke. “I heard he was poisoned, but it would have had to have been a very fast-acting poison for him to have ingested it at the tea shop. Plus, none of the other patrons got sick.”
“Are you some sort of detective or something?” Albert asked.
Katie froze. “Uh, no, but a friend and I lunched at that tea shop one day last week, and I’ve been feeling antsy ever since,” she said.
“I can imagine,” Gina said.
“I remember Jamie,” Connor said. “He won a bundle last week.”
Katie’s eyes widened and her gut tightened, hoping she hadn’t just given herself away.
“Fat lot of good winning did him,” Greg said. “The poor guy’s luck definitely ran out.”
Three nerve-wracking hours later, the evening came to an end. Katie carried an ungodly amount of chips in a canvas bag provided by the dealer to the receptionist to cash them in.
The cool blonde gave her a warm smile. “It appears Lady Luck was with you this evening, Mrs. Ferrell.”
“She certainly was,” Katie said, trying to keep her expression bland. She’d won just over twenty-one thousand dollars. Though she was over the moon, there was no way she wanted to draw additional attention to herself. Even considering the amount the governor would take for the tax payment, she’d have enough to pay Seth back for the buy-in, fix the floor at Artisans Alley, and buy into the warehouse. She still didn’t have any idea who might’ve killed Jamie, but she’d met several people who had played poker with him and probably more than once. She looked forward to comparing notes with Ray.
Then it occurred to her: Where was Ray?
Turning back to the ballroom, she zeroed in on his table. He sat slumped in his chair with a half-empty glass of neat bourbon in his right hand, and it was obviously not his first drink of the evening. He faced Phyllis, as though enraptured by her every word. Either that or he was in a stupor.
Unwilling to risk Phyllis recognizing her, Katie headed for the ladies’ room to “freshen up,” a term which in this instance meant “wait for Phyllis to leave.”
Gina entered as Katie sat in front of an antique vanity reapplying her lipstick. “Hey, congrats tonight.”
“And to you, too,” Katie said. “You didn’t do too badly yourself.”
Opening her purse, she smiled at Katie in the mirror. “Up five grand. I’d say we did much better than our husbands.”
Katie groaned. “How much is Ray—” Quickly correcting her mistake, she added “—my ray of sunshine down?”
Gina smirked. “I don’t know, but he’s soused to the gills. Will he be angry that you won and he didn’t?”
“He shouldn’t be.” She frowned. “Will your husband be angry with you?”
“Oh, yeah, but I’ll buy him dinner at his favorite restaurant tomorrow night and he’ll get over it.” Gina opened her purse and withdrew a business card, handing it to Katie. “I enjoyed chatting with you tonight. Give me a call sometime, and we’ll have lunch.”
“Will do.” Katie dropped the card into her clutch. “I’d better get out there and get Nick before he makes a bigger fool of himself than he already has.”
Laughing again, Gina said, “Ugh, sounds like the honeymoon is over.”
“At least for tonight,” Katie agreed. “I hate it when he drinks.”
“I hate it when Tony drinks, too. And when he loses.” She applied her lipstick. “When he drinks and wins, he’s fine. When he drinks and loses, he’s a total jerk. He throws around blame and acts like he wants to kill somebody.”
Katie raised an eyebrow. Were Gina’s words an indictment?
She forced a smile. “Hope to see you again soon,” Katie said and left the room. Once outside, she was relieved to see that Phyllis had gone. Ray was staggering around, probably looking for her.
Spotting her, he headed her way, arms outstretched. “Wifey! Come give us a kiss.”
“I’m not giving you anything but a ride home.” Furious with him, she held out her hand. “Keys, please.”
He dug in his pocket and produced the keys. “You’re bootiful when you’re angry.”
“Let’s go.” She took his arm and propelled him past the amused staff and out into the parking lot.
“C’mon.” He leaned closer, his bourbon breath turning her stomach. “You know you wanna give me a little kiss.”
Unlocking the SUV, she said, “Get in the car. Now!”
“Why are you so mad?” He snickered. “Oh, well. We gonna have make-up sex?”
“I’m going to kill you if you don’t get into the car right this minute,” she said angr
ily.
Still chuckling, he swayed over to the passenger side of the SUV and hauled himself into the vehicle. Katie got into the driver’s side, adjusted the seat, put on her seat belt, and made Ray do likewise.
“Yes, Mother,” he said.
She kicked off her shoes in order to drive, tossing them onto the passenger side floor. She started the engine and pulled out of the parking lot.
“Issa coast clear?” Ray asked. “How you think we did, Katie? Kelly? Katie Kelly? Kelly Katie? Wifey? Love of my lifey?” He cackled.
It took all of Katie’s willpower not to stop the car and strangle him on the spot. “Don’t talk to me.”
“Ever?” He grabbed her right hand and kissed it. “I have to talk to you. You’re my best friend.”
“Don’t touch me while I’m driving. Do you want to get us killed?”
“I’d never hurt you, Katie,” Ray simpered.
“Why did you drink so much?” she demanded. “We were at that game to get information on who might’ve killed Jamie.”
“I know.” He paused. “So, I can talk to you now?”
“If you speak to me sensibly, you can. Do you think you can do that?”
“Maybe. No promises.”
Katie let out an exasperated breath. “How did you do poker-wise?”
“I lost.” He blew out a hundred-proof breath. “Including Seth’s buy-in money, I lost two thousand dollars. Oh my God—how am I gonna pay Sophie’s tuition in January?”
She braked at a traffic light. “I’ll give it back to you,” she grated.
“You will?” he asked, sounding hopeful. He unbuckled his seat belt and slid close enough to kiss her cheek. “You’re the best wife ever.”
“Get back in your seat and buckle that seat belt. Now!”
“Yes, dear.”
Katie’s hands tightened on the wheel, wishing she could fly the car across the county, instead of having to drive for at least another twenty minutes. How could Ray have been so undisciplined? Had he been so irresponsible while working vice? What if he’d blown his cover—their covers?
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