'You would waste away to a spot of grease. But I will take care of you.'
'Bye. Gotta run.' I waved to her and dashed toward the garage. I have to admit that I learned two things from my father. One was to treat the 'janitors' well because they can help you. Luz's title was actually housekeeper. I invested her IRA for her; it had tripled in value in the last two years, partly because of Dionysus stock. Fortunately, I had sold Dionysus near the top.
The garage had three outside doors, but inside it was big enough to hold at least six cars. The advantage of designing your own house is that you can build in extras like that. My father had torn down the previous house on the lot and built his castle from scratch. He liked nice cars. I could drive any one of them, except the classic Rolls Royce Corniche, in return for helping to take care of them.
The second thing I learned from my father was, regardless of your income, always spend less than you take in if you want to become wealthy. Since I didn't have much income that was difficult to do. But not owning a car was a big savings for me because I didn't have to worry about payments, insurance and depreciation.
My father had driven the BMW this morning, as he usually did. Jacie liked to drive the Mercedes. I often drove the red 1966 Jaguar XKE Roadster, but today I wanted something inconspicuous. The least conspicuous car was a beige Toyota Camry. It had been Jacie's before she married my father, but now she never drove it.
By moving the Mercedes I was able to free the Toyota and back it out of the garage. I activated the electronic gate across the driveway with my remote and drove through the fence. As I started along the street, mindful of the residential 25 mile-per-hour speed limit, I glanced at my watch and realized I was going to be late for my appointment.
Years of living in Palos Verdes had taught me the shortcuts through the maze of curvy hillside streets, so I quickly got to Crenshaw Boulevard where I could make better time and coasted down to Pacific Coast Highway, on the flatland. I arrived at the restaurant only five minutes late.
The restaurant was sparsely populated with patrons. The breakfast crowd was gone and it was too early for the lunch bunch. I wondered whether I could pick out Arrow, but before I had a chance to look around I saw an arm waving from a booth.
The young woman attached to the arm was much too good looking to be in business, but there was nobody else near me she could be waving to so I walked over to her and said, 'Hi, I'm Karl.'
'I'm Arrow. My pleasure. Have a seat.'
We shook hands. She had a firm, dry grip. She indicated the part of the semi-circular, vinyl-covered seat opposite her and I sat down. She wore a red business skirt with matching jacket, over a white blouse. I didn't immediately recognize her ethnicity. Her skin was darker than mine and she had short black hair in tight curls.
'What would you like?' Arrow asked, summoning a waitress. She already had a cup of coffee and there was a glass of water in front of each of us, full of ice cubes, ready to freeze my esophagus.
'Uh…orange juice.'
'Anything to eat?'
'No thanks.' I'd eaten breakfast.
Arrow gave the order to the waitress before I could say anything.
'How did you know me?' I asked her, trying to break the ice.
'Well, number one, you look a lot like Richard-your father. Number two, he has a picture of you on his desk.'
'He does?' I couldn't hide my surprise.
'With your sisters. I would guess it was taken about ten years ago.'
'Oh.'
'But you still look the same. Except your hair is shorter.'
'That was my fake hippy period. So how do you like being one of his slaves?'
Arrow stared at me for a few seconds with her dark eyes, expressionless, then said, 'Look, Karl, I know that you and Richard have had your differences, but if you and I are going to get along, please don't air them in front of me.'
Whoops! Wrong thing to say. 'I didn't mean…'
'I'm sure you know the definition of a slave. And since I have slaves in my ancestry, among the rogues and roues, I know something about slaves. I am not a slave and Richard does not treat his employees like slaves.'
'I'm sorry. But you don't look…'
'What? Black? African-American?'
'Right.'
'Well, actually, I'm a combination.'
'Of what?'
'African-American, Native-American, Asian-American and European-American.'
'What do you check on forms?'
'Anything I like.' She gave a hint of a smile.
I said, 'Thanks for the lecture. I deserved it. I'm afraid I'm only European-American, but I've never seen that on a form.'
The waitress came and deposited a glass of orange juice in front of me. She asked if I wanted anything more. When I said no she put the check on the table. Arrow pulled it toward her.
'Why did you want to meet here instead of at the office?' I asked when the waitress had gone.
'Because, since you've never actually been to the office in recent memory, your appearance there might provoke comment. We don't want anybody to think you have an official connection with Dionysus.'
'But I can't hide the fact that I'm Richard's son.'
'No.' Arrow smiled a full smile for the first time. The room became several watts brighter. 'But if you can gain Ned's trust, maybe that won't matter.'
'We'll see. Anyway, if I'm going to play detective I guess I should do some detecting. Why don't we start with you telling me what you saw at the casino?'
Arrow told pretty much the same story that my father had. When she finished I asked, 'Did you do any gambling while you were there?'
'No. Before I saw Ned we were just walking around, and afterward we left because I didn't want him to see me.'
'What did you think of the place?'
Arrow made a face. 'We went inside from the clean desert air. The first thing that hit me was the cigarette smoke. California is pretty much smoke-free now and I can't stand smoke anymore.'
'I guess Indian reservations don't have to abide by the state laws.'
'And the noise! From jangling slot machines and God knows what else. And all these fat, old people sitting in front of the slots, mesmerized, pouring in their Social Security checks. It was depressing.'
Arrow's description made me laugh. 'I take it you're not much of a gambler.'
'I have been to Las Vegas-once. I put a dollar in a slot machine-four quarters, one at a time. Then I asked myself what I was doing, throwing my money away. I haven't gambled since. Actually, we just went into the casino to try to get a cold drink. I wasn't planning on gambling.'
'Do you know how to play blackjack?'
'I know the object is to get 21.'
'But you've never played?'
'No.'
'Okay, question. You said you thought Ned was betting $500 a hand. What made you think that?'
'I was behind him, but I was close enough so that I could hear him ask the dealer what the limit was, and the dealer said $500. And Ned was betting a lot of chips on each hand.'
'But you don't know the values of the chips.'
'No.'
'And he was playing five hands at a time.'
'Yes. He was the only person at the table.'
