And I’d twist up my face into a grin, and say I was happy, and hate her with my mind,
brain, soul and guts, and tell myself my time would come. It was just a matter of waiting for
the right opportunity.
But she didn’t have it entirely her own way. She found to her surprise that no one at the
casino wanted a woman boss, and when I say no one, I mean not only the staff, but the
millionaires and their wives, kids, girl friends and hangers-on.
She started off by sitting in Reisner’s office, ready to do business with the visitors, ready to
tell the staff what to do and what not to do. She got a big bang out of sitting behind that desk,
throwing her weight about and giving orders, but it didn’t last long.
The first visitor she had was Gallway Harris Brown, the steel millionaire. He came bursting
into the office like a runaway train: a short, fat, purple-faced bird with battle in his eyes and
cuss words queueing up behind his lips.
I happened to be in the office at the time, admiring the view, while she was lording it at the
desk.
She smiled at him as he came pounding in, but he took as much notice of her as he would
the invisible woman. He burned a trail across the carpet towards me.
“Hey! You, Ricca ?” He had a voice like a sea captain. It pretty near shattered the windows.
I said I was Ricca.
“I’ve no hot water in my cabin this morning. What kind of dump are you running?”
Still smiling, but her eyes snapping, Della came over.
“Perhaps I can help you …” she began.
That’s as far as she got. He jumped around and glared at her, cutting her off with a wave of
his hand.
159
“Listen, young woman, when I make a complaint I deal with men, understand? This guy’s
Ricca, isn’t he? Well, then, you keep out of it. I’m going to swear at him.”
There was nothing for her to do but to take three graceful steps to the rear and try to look
ornamental. She was smart enough not to argue with a thousand dollar profit a week. But in
spite of her smile, she looked as if she been bitten by a snake - a rattlesnake at that.
I smoothed him down and had his water fixed. I said if it ever happened again, he would
have the whole of his stay with us on the house.
“That’s a bet, Mr. Brown,” I said. “No hot water; no cheque. Right?”
He snorted, stamped around, then finally grinned.
“That means I’ll get hot water.”
“You’ll get hot water.”
It seemed the way millionaires liked to be treated. He went around telling the story, and the
other visitors came to me with their troubles.
“You go to Ricca,” he said. “He’ll fix it. That guy’s a smart crook.”
And they did come to me. They stopped me in the corridors or on the terrace or in the bar,
and I fixed things for them. When they went to the office and I wasn’t there, they said they
wanted me and would be back. Louis didn’t pull any punches, either.
“Better let Mr. Ricca handle the staff, Mrs. Wertham,” he said. “It works better that way. A
man can handle this set-up better than a woman.”
She was smart enough to see that the business would suffer if she continued to boss it, and
she turned the office over to me.
“Go ahead, Johnny. You’re in charge of the casino now. But don’t get any big ideas. I’ll
keep the keys, and when you want money I’ll open the safe.”
She also kept control of Bay Street. They didn’t know Paul was dead, and they were scared
of her. She went over there three evenings a week to watch her interests, as she called it, and
they needed watching. That suited me fine. While she was there, I was with Ginny.
