card short of a royal flush which pays 250 to one.”
“Ooh,” Shahla said, taking another look at the cards. “So I have one chance in…”
“Forty-seven of drawing the jack of spades because five cards have already been played from a fifty-two card deck.”
“I want to go for it.”
They stared at the cards for a while, not wanting to spoil the anticipation. Finally, Shahla drew one card.
“I can’t look,” she said. “Tell me…”
Tony peeked at the credit counter. It was going crazy. She had drawn the jack of spades. “You did it.”
Shahla jumped up and down screaming. Then she threw her arms around his neck and lifted her legs off the ground.
“Calm down,” Tony said laughing, as he tried to keep his balance. When she let go of him, he pressed the button to cash out and scooped the quarters into the cup. “If you look too much like a teenager, you’ll blow your cover.” He started toward the cashier.
“Where are you going?”
“Now, we’re really going home.”
“But I might win some more.”
“You’ll get the opportunity to know what it feels like to quit when you’re ahead. That will give you empathy for your callers who can’t do that.”
Shahla grumbled, but Tony was adamant. He pocketed the three twenty dollar bills, plus a five and a couple of ones that he received from the cashier, telling Shahla that he would give the money to her when they got home.
She threatened to take more money out of her purse, but Tony said, “I’m leaving, and I’ve got the car.” He walked away.
Shahla caught up to him and said, “You are really mean. I’m never going to Las Vegas with you again.”
“Shhh,” Tony said suddenly, turning to face her. “Look over my right shoulder.”
Shahla peeked over his shoulder and said, “It’s Paul. And he’s got a girl with him. Should we go talk to them?”
“Wait. Describe the girl.” Tony kept his back to Paul and the girl.
“She’s blonde. She’s quite tall. And pretty. She looks something like…Joy.”
“That was my impression, too. Of course, it probably means nothing.”
“That he likes girls who look like Joy? Or maybe he really hates them.”
“What are they doing?”
“They’re going over to where we just came from, where those video poker machines are. He’s got his arm around her neck, as if he’s aching to strangle her.”
Tony turned his head and could see the pair, walking diagonally away from them. Paul did have his elbow resting on the girl’s shoulder, with his forearm curled in front of her neck. Innocent though it might be, if you could picture him as a killer, it looked scary.
“We should follow them,” Shahla said urgently, taking the thought right out of his brain.
“But if we want to learn anything, we need to be incognito.”
“I look different from what I did at the coffee shop. Turn your T-shirt inside out.”
Tony glanced down at the front of his shirt, which had the words “San Diego” on it and a picture of a beach and palm trees. If Shahla could undress in public, he could too. He pulled the shirt over his head and put it back on wrong side out.
“Now put on your dark glasses.”
He took them out of the case in his pocket and put them on. He glanced at Shahla. “Put on yours, too, so he can’t see your eyes if we get close to them. They’re a dead giveaway.”
Shahla took her dark glasses out of her purse and put them on. She said, “One thing more. I’m going to change your hairstyle. Sit down there.” She pointed to a chair in front of a slot machine.
Tony did as he was told. She took a comb out of her purse and fooled with his hair. She chuckled and said, “There. He won’t know you now.”
“What have you done?”
“Don’t worry. It looks good. I got rid of your cowlick.” She put away the comb and said, “How shall we do this?”
“It would be nice if we could get close enough to listen to what they say.”
They approached the video poker machines and saw Paul sitting in front of one. The girl stood beside him with a hand on his shoulder. The adjoining video poker machine was free.
“Do you think we can sit at that machine without being recognized?” Tony asked, speaking softly.
“You sit down, and I’ll sit on your lap, facing away from them. If we don’t say anything, Paul won’t recognize us.”
Tony took a few quarters out of his pocket that were left over from their play. He approached the machine from behind Paul and sat down in the chair while Paul was engrossed in a deal. Shahla quickly jumped up on his lap with her back to Paul. All Paul would be able to see of Tony if he looked over was a profile. Tony noisily threw his quarters into the tray and put one in the slot. He would play slowly so they could mostly listen.
He had to play with one hand because the other one was around Shahla’s waist. He was conscious of Shahla’s closeness to him. At first, Paul and the girl said nothing. He could tell from the noises of their machine that Paul was playing steadily.
After a couple of minutes, Paul said, “I’m not having any luck today. I found an interesting cliff overlooking the city. Come on, I’ll show it to you.”
Paul got up and walked away with the girl.
“He’s going to push her off a cliff,” Shahla said, jumping down from his lap. “We’ve got to stop them.”
CHAPTER 20
“I left some money in the machine,” Tony complained as they tried to keep the two in sight.
“Hurry up,” Shahla said, taking his hand so they wouldn’t get separated while navigating their way through a line of people who were waiting to see a show. “We don’t want to lose them.”
“This might be totally innocent.”
“Or it might not be. The way he talked about the cliff…”
Paul and the girl went out the door of the hotel. Tony and Shahla followed them as fast as possible. Outside, swarms of people walked along Las Vegas Boulevard in the light of the still-hot setting sun.
“Which way did they go?” Shahla asked.
“I don’t see them. Oh, there they are.” Fortunately, Paul’s head stuck up above the crowd. “They’ve turned on Tropicana.”
Tony and Shahla weaved their way through the pedestrians, trying to regain visual contact with Paul and the girl, who had disappeared around the corner. The pursuers also turned right onto Tropicana Avenue and saw the other couple again, loping along at a swift pace. The girl seemed to have no trouble matching Paul’s long strides.
“Maybe they parked in the same lot we did,” Tony said. He slowed down as the traffic thinned, away from the Strip. Fewer people between them and the pursued made their chances of being spotted greater. Shahla dropped his hand and slowed down beside him. He noticed that she wasn’t even breathing hard. She must be in good shape from cross-country.
Paul and the girl walked past the lot where Tony’s car was parked.
“We’re going to need a car if we want to follow them into the hills,” Tony said, hesitating as they approached the entrance to the parking lot. “But if we get the car now, we’ll lose them.”
“You get the car,” Shahla said. “I’ll stay behind them.”
“How will I know where you are?”
“I’ll call you. My cell phone is in my purse. Give me your number.”
