'You've seen a lot of hustlers over the years,' Valentine said. 'How would you rate Fontaine's play?'
'One of the best.'
'But no one knows who he is.'
'Yeah,' Sammy said. 'Creepy, isn't it?'
The pager clipped to Sammy's belt went off. He checked it, then pulled out a small cell phone and made a call.
'That was Wily,' he said, hanging up. 'He's down in Nick's office. Looks like we have a breakthrough.'
Valentine had never been fond of snitches. Although most law enforcement agencies depended heavily on them for information, they were still parasites, barely human types who spent their lives clawing on the glass, forever on the outside looking in.
The lady sitting in Nick Nicocropolis's lavish office was a perfect example. Her name was Sherry Solomon, and on the surface, she was a real dish-cute face, nice figure, an easy, engaging smile. A pretty nifty package until you looked hard and saw the bags under the eyes and realized she was pushing forty and the charms she'd lived on all her life were starting to fade. She was afraid for her future, so she'd taken to selling out her friends. Before Nick's secretary escorted her in, Nick Nicocropolis asked Wily if he'd ever slept with her.
'Never,' the pit boss had replied sharply.
Nick looked relieved. He explained to Valentine that his memory was shot, and that he could no longer rely on it to keep a record of his sexual conquests. The legendary lover Don Juan, Nick's boyhood idol, had died being unable to name a single lover. Nick didn't want that to happen to him, which was why he'd kept Wily around for so long. Hearing this news, the pit boss tugged uncomfortably at his collar.
Valentine nodded and said nothing. Over the years, he had met his share of oddball casino owners, and Nick fit right into that group. A little guy with a Napoleon complex who'd probably jumped on every female who'd ever shown the inclination. Nothing new there.
Sherry played her tape for the four men. Wily sat beside her, nodding his head enthusiastically. Nick sat at his desk, rolling dice on the blotter. He smirked when the tape went silent.
'So?' the casino owner said.
Wily jumped in. 'Nola hates you. You can hear it in her voice.'
'A lot of people hate me,' Nick reminded him.
'It shows motive,' Wily said.
'She was laughing at me,' Nick said, throwing a seven. 'What's this 'yeah, yeah, yeah' crap? Is this some inside joke?'
His employees' faces turned to stone. Standing behind the desk, Sammy cleared his throat. 'It's what you say when you get excited, Nick. 'Yeah, yeah, yeah.''
Nick looked flummoxed. Valentine could tell that he had absolutely no idea what his head of surveillance was talking about. Never tell the emperor that he has no clothes.
Nick looked to Wily for help.
''Yeah, yeah, yeah,'' Wily chorused like a parrot.
'Why are you saying that?' Nick said, getting furious.
Wily grinned oafishly. ''Yeah, yeah, yeah'. It's what you say when you get riled up.'
'I don't say 'yeah, yeah, yeah,'' Nick said heatedly. 'I never say 'yeah, yeah, yeah.' That's horseshit. I say 'yeah,' like everyone else. So don't go around saying that anymore, okay?'
'Sure, Nick,' they all said.
'Now where were we? Oh yeah, the tape. I think you're going to have to do better, honey.'
Wily nudged Sherry Solomon with his elbow. 'Sherry, tell Nick what you told me this morning about Nola.'
Sherry folded her hands in her lap and looked straight ahead, her pose reminiscent of that of a naive schoolgirl.
'Well,' she began, 'Nola and I roomed together for a while. This was right after you and she split up. I heard her say things that were scary. Nola has it in for you.'
Nick's face turned serious. 'She does?'
'She wants to ruin you.'
Nick gave her a stony look. 'Just what did I do to Nola Briggs besides give her a job and try to take care of her that made her want to hurt me?'
'You pierced her soul.'
'I did?'
Sherry nodded solemnly. 'She wanted to go to a shrink and get it off her chest, but she didn't have any dough, so she spilled her guts to me. Anyway, she talked a lot about paying you back one day. In spades.'
'She's got revenge on her mind?'
'Yes. She said there was a flaw in the casino's security system, and if she could figure out a way to exploit it, she was going to take you for a bundle.'
'Nola actually said that?'
Sherry Solomon nodded her bleached blond head.
Nick turned and looked at Sammy. 'What flaw?'
'I don't know what she's talking about,' Sammy replied.
Nick looked back at Sherry. 'What flaw?'
'She never told me,' Sherry explained. 'But I do know this: She said you took her up on the catwalk one night, and while you were screwing her, she looked down and saw it. She was going to tell you, but the next day you dumped her.'
'You don't think she was just talking tough?' Sammy said, clearly disturbed by this piece of news.
'That's not like Nola,' Sherry said.
'But this happened ten years ago,' Nick said. 'I mean, time heals all wounds, doesn't it? Why now?'
'Something happened to Nola six months ago that triggered it,' she explained. 'She broke up with a guy and got real depressed. Started missing work, sleeping in all day. I stopped by one afternoon and found a pamphlet from the Hemlock Society in her house. She was thinking of killing herself.'
'This is some messed-up chickie,' Nick said, his gaze now fixed squarely on Wily. 'How come you didn't pick up on any of this?'
'She seemed okay to me,' the pit boss said sheepishly.
Nick fixed his gaze on Sherry. 'So what happened?'
'She took a Mexican vacation,' Sherry replied, 'and came back a new person. I asked her what happened, and she told me she'd finally found a way to pay you back.'
'Did she say how?' he asked.
'No, sir, she didn't. But then this Fontaine character showed up, and I started to wonder. I mean, he's her type, and it's her table he keeps going to.'
'And what type is that?'
'Dark, ethnic, lots of fun.'
'That's Nola's type?'
'Yeah. Gets her juices flowing.'
'Yeah, yeah, yeah,' Nick said, swiveling his chair around so he was facing the window, his brown and deteriorating empire laid out before him like a faded Hollywood movie set. 'So what you're telling me is, she's a threat to me and everyone who works for me.'
Sherry began to answer, then halted, her lips trembling. Opening the purse in her lap, she removed a cigarette. By the time it had reached her lips, Wily had a flame waiting for her. She took a deep drag and the tension melted from her face.
'What I'm telling you,' she said evenly, 'is simply this. Nola hates you. It's the kind of hatred men don't understand. You pierced her soul. She told me she could never look in the mirror after what you said and see herself the same way. So now she's paying you back.'
Nick spun around, not appreciating his employee's lecturing tone. The dice hit the wall and came to rest on the carpeted floor at Valentine's feet. Snake eyes.
'For what?' he said angrily. 'What did I do? Tell her she had bad breath? Call my bookie after I had my
