'Your wife's with Anthony Meeker,' I said.
'Tell me something I don't know.'
'You know where?'
'At the Mirage,' Marty said.
'You know Julius is there too?'
Marty didn't say anything.
'Julius is going to kill Anthony,' I said.
'He better hurry.'
'Julius's daughter, Shirley, was killed Sunday,' I said.
'Cops found her in a vacant lot up the Strip a little.'
'Yeah?'
'Julius is upset,' I said.
'He blames Anthony.'
Marty said nothing. Below us on the Strip, cars moved steadily in both directions. Across a short spread of scrub desert, Route 15 was busy with trucks and cars and RVs heading west to California and east to Utah and the northwest corner of Arizona.
'I'm under the impression,' I said, 'that you and Anthony were in on some scam together.'
'Lying little fucker tell you that?'
'I got that impression.'
'It's bullshit.'
'So why are you here?'
'I'm going to kill him and take my wife back.'
'He didn't do anything to you,' I said.
'She did.'
'Don't matter who did what. He dies. She comes back.'
'And if she doesn't want to come back?'
'She'll come back.'
'Or?'
'No or. She'll come back.'
'And you'll forgive her,' I said.
'Fuck forgiveness. Forgiveness got nothing to do with it,' Marty said.
'She's with me, you unnerstand? That's how it is.'
'Maybe not,' I said.
'You going to get in my way?' Marty said.
'You kill Shirley Ventura?'
'Why the hell would I kill Shirley Ventura?'
'What was the deal with Anthony?'
'I got no deal with Anthony, asshole. He collected money for Julius, passed some of it along to Gino.'
'Through you?'
'Everything goes to Gino through me,' Marty said.
'Makes it easy to skim,' I said.
'Any skimming was done by Anthony.'
'Bibi says you and Anthony were playing a two-man game,' I said.
'You're a fucking liar,' Marty said.
'Bibi don't know nothing about my business.'
'Says you introduced her to Anthony,' I said.
'Says she ran off with him to get away from you. Says you're a. pig.'
It was a gamble to get him mad enough to say something wrong.
It didn't work. He didn't say anything. He swung at me. He telegraphed it some, and I was able to turn my hips against the railing as it came. The punch landed on my right cheekbone, and rocked me backwards, and sent me staggering along the railing. Marty could hit. If I hadn't half slipped it I would have gone down. I could feel the shock of it through my head. Everything darkened and for a minute I didn't see well. The railing helped keep me up.
