'I can't.'
'The gold necklace is a nice touch,' I said.
'Thank you.'
'You're welcome.'
Susan's eyes narrowed slightly, and she looked at me sort of sideways as if squinting into the sun.
'You want to canter on into the bedroom,' she said.
'Buckaroo?'
'You sure you want to do that now?' I said.
'The volcano's due to go off again in fifteen minutes.'
She smiled the smile at me, the one that could launch a thousand ships and burn the topless towers of Ilium. She walked slowly toward me.
'So are you,' she said.
CHAPTER 19
The next morning Hawk joined us for breakfast.
'Where's Anthony?' Susan said.
'Never comes down till noon,' Hawk said.
'He play till four fifteen this morning.'
'Poor thing,' Susan said.
'It's only seven-thirty. You must be exhausted.'
'We don't get tired, Missy,' Hawk said.
'Just sing some songs, and keep on picking cotton. Little guy in the hat getting kinda frazzled though.'
Bob, the waiter, brought Susan one pancake with honey. Hawk and I had steak and eggs. I had some decaf.
'Why do they just keep watching him,' Susan said.
'Why doesn't somebody act?'
'My guess is it's because he's winning,' I said.
'If the little guy is watching him for Julius, or Gino, or Marty, or any combination thereof, they want their money back. Figure they'll wait until he wins as much as he can.'
'And he'll start to lose eventually, won't he?' Susan said.
'Don't know his system, but Lennie Seltzer tells me he's a loser.
And everything I know about him supports it.'
I was finished with my breakfast. Hawk was eating his last piece of toast. Susan poured another gram of honey onto her pancake and took a second bite.
'You got a view on losers?' Hawk said to Susan.
'You mean once you've eliminated stupidity and bad luck?'
'Which is eliminating big,' Hawk said.
He sipped some of his coffee. It reeked of caffeine.
'With many people for whom gambling is an obsession, there's a lot of guilt,' Susan said.
'They know it's obsessive, and destructive. They see it as a vice. And they are angry with themselves for doing it.'
'Like alcoholics,' Hawk said.
Susan nodded.
'Yes, and as is sometimes the case with alcoholics, the vice becomes its own punishment.'
'So they gamble 'cause they have to, and lose to punish themselves,' Hawk said.
'Something like that,' Susan said.
'Sometimes.'
'If you right, and Lennie Seltzer right, and we right, Anthony bound to lose and when he start to lose they may just whack him.'
'Who?' I said.
'Find out when he starts to lose,' Hawk said.
'I was hoping for prior to,' I said.
'You seen any sign of the woman he's registered with?'
