“My regulars, yeah, they do. Guy calls, says he wants the Saints minus seven thirty times. What’s he betting?”
“Beats me,” Raylan said. “But what if the guy loses and says he never made the bet?”
“I got him taped. I got miles of it. I ask the guy, does he want to hear himself putting it down?”
“You say you gave Jackie backup money. She says you didn’t.”
“Come on-nobody coverin for her? She don’t have enough to pay a win, she calls me. The ones bet with her know she’s in the business; she loses, she pays. They know me. Listen to what I’m tellin you, all right? Jackie don’t lift the twenty and takes off with it. She borrows my eighty percent to play big-time and loses it. Gets picked up in a raid and walks away. Somethin she oughtn’ve done. Now she’s workin to recover what she lost so she can pay me back, and that’s all I know.”
“She gets square with you,” Raylan said, “then what? She gives herself up?”
“She be picked up before too long, way before she gets to Vegas. Understand, Jackie wants to play her way to the Poker World Series. See, but once you spot Jackie at a table anywhere, you look twice. You might even watch her play for a while, wonderin who she is. Jackie won’t get anywhere near Vegas.”
Raylan said, “She’s not one of the girls in the bank tapes, I know that.”
“I bet they chicks can’t pay the rent,” Reno renws said, “and will die for some blow. I think a dude’s usin them for his needs. They not chicks’d think of banks, they too loose. Any time now they gonna walk out and see policemen waitin behind cars holding guns. See, not one of those girls has Jackie’s way of movin. The cops find out they don’t have her and act surprised. ‘Man, the girl sure looked like her.’ All the time Jackie’s at a table someplace peekin at her hole cards.”
“Y ou don’t think she’ll give herself up.”
“She won’t have to,” Reno said, “she’ll get picked up on the warrant and brought back here. I get one of my lawyer buddies, I doubt she does any time. Jackie don’t have a record of any kind, knows how to act polite.”
“You don’t walk on a fugitive warrant,” Raylan said. “They got the stuff on you. What you have to do is find her, get her to come in before she’s picked up. She tells her story and might only get a year or so probation.”
“You want you could help me out,” Reno said. “You the one knows how to find people.”
“I’m giving you a break,” Raylan said. “I find her before you do, she’s under arrest.”
Chapter Twenty-five
Harry took her to the races at Keeneland and sat at his table in the Blue Grass Room: Jackie having crab legs and a Guinness, Harry, a pair of lobster tails and a double whiskey collins, while they watched the races on a rainy day, staring at the giant screen. Harry had won close to five thousand betting across the board on most races. Jackie wasn’t that interested in picking horses. She made side bets with Harry and took him for half of what he’d won. Harry said, “I’m getting an idea how you win at poker. You don’t bet your hand, you bet on the serious guys at the table folding.”
Jackie said, “What’s the difference?”
She was looking past Harry, seeing a woman with teased blond hair, cool in dark shades of designer sportswear, and a guy following her through the dining room, trying to keep up in his tan suit that looked like a uniform. Closing in, the woman was looking at Jackie, not smiling until she turned to Harry and said, “Carol Conlan, Harry,” placing a hand on his shoulder, a wide porcelain bracelet slipping on her wrist, “how’re you doing?”
Holding his drink Harry took time to come around enough to look up at Carol telling him, “The last time I saw you was the day you won the Maker’s Mark. Remember?”
“Running Black Boy,” Harry said, “I won three hundred thousand off that stud.”
“What I meant,” Carol said, sounding pouty now, “you do remember I was here?” Smiling now to show the pout was for fun.
“Yeah, Cuba and I did our routine and I sat down at your table. But hey, I want you to meet Jackie Nevada, my guest.”
Jackie watched Carol raise her eyebrows and say, “Really,” surprised for a moment.
“I want you to know,” Harry said, “I have a keen interest in this little girl.”
“Sounds like fun,” Carol said.
Harry said, “Guess what she does.”
Carol took a moment. “She’s a jockey?”
“You aren’t even close.”
“But she has something to do with horses,” Carol said. “She whispers in their ears and they nod their heads?”
“She’s got nothing to do with horses. Jackie’s out in the world associating with people.”
“She’s an exotic dancer,” Carol said.
Jackie smiled and looked at the guy in the tan suit, pretty sure it was a uniform. She said to him, “What do you think I do?”
He said, “Somethin I believe must draw a crowd.”
“Once in a while,” Jackie said.
“Boyd knows all kinds, good and bad,” Carol said. “It’s why I keep him handy. Harry, you know I owe my life to Boyd.”
Harry was still holding his drink. He said to Carol, “That was a tragic situation. I guess there was nothin else your boy could’ve done but shoot that miner. What was his name, Otis something?”
“I couldn’t move,” Carol said. “Boyd stepped in front of me drawing his revolver-”
“I read in the paper,” Jackie said, “it was an automatic, a Glock? If you’d like to know what I do, I play poker. Harry staked me when I was down, just about out, and takes me to poker games.”
“I put up ten grand,” Harry said. “This was after she’d lost twenty thousand to some boys I happen to know. I was curious and had a feeling about Jackie, the way she talked about poker, on intimate terms with the game, and I decided why I d)'›“I punot? I gave her ten big ones, and said you lose it, I’ll drop you off at the next crossroads. Well, the little girl’s been on a hot streak, a few clubs in Indiana, two whole days in Louisville playin some boys don’t know what hit ’em.” He said to Jackie, “Tell Carol how much you’re up.”
She said to him, “You know you never helped me count my winnings?”
He said, “You poor thing,” and to Carol, “Louisville, Jackie put a wad of bills in the bank and got an ATM card. You want to know for how much? Ask her, she won’t tell me.”
“Well, if she was playing against high rollers,” Carol said, “and you say she was on a streak, I’ll guess…” Carol paused, looking at Jackie. “You’re not saying a word, are you? If you talk about it, I might think you’re bragging, so you keep it to yourself. That’s admirable restraint for a young girl… twenty-one years old? You’ve been playing poker all your life, haven’t you?”
“About seven years,” Jackie said.
“You started when you were-”
“Sixteen,” Jackie said, “playing online.”
“That’s close to all your life. You always play for money? What’s the point if you don’t, right? I suppose at school.”
“Butler,” Jackie said. “I played every night.”
“Do you cheat?”
“No.”
“You mean you don’t have to. You read people.”
“It’s unavoidable,” Jackie said. “You check out mannerisms while you’re deciding on the odds.”
“All there is to it,” Carol said. “We should get together, play a little poker.”
“She’s busy,” Harry said.
“When she’s not,” Carol said. “Have a drink and chat.”
“I’m actually twenty-three,” Jackie said.
Carol gave her a nice smile. She said, “Does it matter?”
N ow at Carol’s table in the middle of the Blue Grass Room, Boyd wasn’t saying a word, hyinem'› ands folded
