taking? Yours and mine? Can’t you see that?”
“No, I can’t. What are you getting at?” Looking at the intent, set expression on her face I
suddenly felt my mouth go dry.
“With me behind you, Johnny, you could run this place. Between us we could clean up a
fortune. Do you really think I’m so cockeyed as to imagine Reisner would let us walk off
with the reserve?”
I was getting rattled now, and I came and stood over her.
“But that was the idea, wasn’t it? That’s why you brought me here!”
“That’s what I told you,” she said, and swung her legs off the divan and stood up. “I wanted
you to see the set-up. It was a bait to bring you here. Well, you’ve seen it. Haven’t you the
itch to take it? And you can. You can take over right away - if you have the guts.”
I lit a cigarette; My hands were unsteady: whether from excitement or fear I didn’t know.
“So there’s no half million ?”
“Of course there is. That goes with the casino, but we can’t walk off with it. Take over the
casino and you take over the reserve.”
“And Reisner? What’s he supposed to do? Welcome me with open arms? Dust off his desk
chair for me? A moment ago you said he was going to put a bullet in me.”
“I said if you had the guts, Johnny. Reisner must meet with an accident.”
Well, it was out now. At the back of my mind I had known this was coming. The way she
had talked all the morning pointed to it, but I had refused to believe it. Now the cards were on
the table, face up.
I stubbed out my cigarette, not looking at her.
“Get rid of Reisner,” she went on as calmly as if she were discussing the weather, “and the
casino and Bay Street automatically fall into our laps. By the time Ricca tries to move in it’ll
be too late. Once we get our hands on the reserve and books, he’ll have to make a deal with
us. We’ll keep Lincoln Beach. He can have Los Angeles, and Levinsky can have Paris. Then
we’re set for life.” She moved closer. I could smell the perfume in her hair. Her hands slid up
to my shoulders while she looked into my eyes. “What are you going to do about it, Johnny?”
121
I knew right away what I was going to do about it. She had made one mistake, and she
didn’t know it. She was certain she had sunk her hook in too deep to come out, but she
hadn’t. All right, I was sold on the place. The idea of taking control of a set-up like this was
something that got me by the throat, but not at that price.
“You talk about an accident,” I said, “but it won’t be an accident: it’ll be murder.”
She continued to look at me, her face as set and as cold as granite.
“It’s your life or his, Johnny. As soon as he finds out you’re not Ricca he’s coming for you
with a gun. You’ve got to get in first. That’s not murder: it’s self-defence.”
I shook my head.
“Don’t let’s kid ourselves. It’s murder.”
She moved away from me and walked over to the window.
“This is what we tell Hame,” she said, her back to me. “Reisner has been dipping into the
reserve. We came down to check the books. He is caught, and he knows it. There’s no out for
him, so what does he do? He walks to the window of his office and keeps walking. They find
him lying on the terrace with a broken neck.”
“Do you think Hame would believe that? Reisner’s not the suicide type.”
“He would believe it. It would cost money, but he’d believe it. Use your head, Johnny. The
casino is yours if you’ve got the nerve to take it. All you have to do is to give Reisner a push.
That’s not asking much, is it?”
“It’s murder,” I said. “And I’m not touching it. I don’t care how much it pays off. It’s
