“A couple of grand, easy,” Sonny replied.
“I’ve got nine hundred bucks to my name. Can you lend me the rest? I’ll pay you back. You know I’m good for it.”
Sonny shook his head from side to side. “I’d give you the money if I thought it would do any good.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s over, Jack.”
“What’s over?”
“Ralph’s in town for his monthly visit. He’s coming by later to check up on things. He’s going to see this and go ape shit.”
Ralph was the Sunset’s long-distance owner, a nasty New York banker who enjoyed yanking Sonny’s chain. Ralph had not wanted to rent me the room because of Buster, but had decided that having an ex-cop living above the bar was a good insurance policy.
“Can’t you hide the damage from him?” I asked.
“How am I going to do that?”
“I don’t know, say you’re having the room fumigated.”
“Ralph always checks the building, Jack. He’s going to see this, and then he’ll explode. You know how he is.”
“There must be something we can do.”
“Like what? Join the Foreign Legion?”
My cell phone chimed. It was Black Cloud calling me back. I answered.
“I’ve gotten clearance for you to visit the Hard Rock’s surveillance control room,” Black Cloud said. “The surveillance director said you can come in, and he’ll help you find the guy who was stalking the college students. How soon can you get over here?”
I hesitated. I needed to clean up Buster’s mess, and salvage my situation with the Sunset. But at the same time, if I didn’t get over to the Hard Rock, I’d lose my chance to learn the identity of one of Sara Long’s abductors.
“I’m on my way,” I said.
“Call me when you’re near, and I’ll come downstairs to greet you.”
“I will. Thanks, Chief.”
I said good-bye and folded my phone. Sonny had grabbed the mattress and was struggling to pull it back onto the bed. I went to the doorway and saw him glare at me.
“Don’t tell me you’re leaving,” Sonny said.
“I have to. I’m on a case.”
“You’re not going to help me clean this place up?”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t.”
Sonny pulled the mattress onto the bed and began shoving the stuffing back into it.
“Take your stuff,” he said.
I froze in the doorway. “Are you evicting me?”
“No, but Ralph will, and then you’ll have to come back and get your things. Take them now, Jack. It will be easier.”
“You don’t know what Ralph will do. He might just laugh it off.”
“Fat chance. Take your stuff, or Ralph will throw it in the Dumpster.”
The finality in his voice was unmistakable, and I realized that this was the end. I had lived above the Sunset for over a year. Sonny and the good-natured drunks who supported the bar had always been there for me. The Sunset was my home, and they were my friends, and it had just gone up in flames. I grabbed my clothes out of the closet along with a cardboard box that contained my old cop stuff and headed for the stairwell.
“Wait,” Sonny said.
From the night table he picked up the stack of missing person files that had been my bedtime reading. Then he went into the bathroom and grabbed my shaving kit.
“Don’t forget these,” he said.
Sonny crossed the room and handed the items to me. His eyes mirrored the pain that I was feeling. I wasn’t just losing a friend; I was losing one of my best friends. Sonny patted Buster, then gave me a bear hug.
“Good luck, man,” he said.
CHAPTER 14
I threw my worldly possessions into my car and drove to the Hard Rock. Traffic on 595 was the usual madness, and I darted between lanes while trying to focus on the task at hand. My wife believed that everything happened for a reason, and I wondered what was the reason behind this sudden turn of events in my life.
Exiting on 441, I headed south into Hollywood, the massive casino looming in the distance. Back when I was a kid, the Seminoles had made money giving airboat rides to tourists and putting on rinky-dink rodeos with the headlights of their pickups used to light up the ring. Now they were on top of the world and worth billions.
Entering the casino grounds, I called Black Cloud on my cell. He was there to greet me when my car was taken by the valet. He was a big man, with jet-black hair that cascaded onto his shoulders and a chiseled face that looked like something you’d see on a statue in a park. He’d done two tours of duty in Vietnam and come home with shrapnel in one of his legs. He walked with a limp but refused to carry a cane.
“It’s been too long,” Black Cloud said, pumping my hand.
“You look good,” I said.
“You’re lying. I look old and tired. What’s with the dog?”
“He’s my partner. Can I bring him inside?”
“Sure. We don’t have a problem with dogs.”
I followed him into the bustling casino. Everywhere I looked, little old ladies with arms like Popeye were yanking on slot machines, while men chomping on cigars were risking hundreds of dollars on the turn of a card. I couldn’t look at it without remembering the cow pasture that had been here not that long ago.
Once inside an elevator, Black Cloud activated the control panel with a special key, and we were delivered to the fourth floor where the surveillance control room was located.
“Welcome to the inner sanctum,” he said.
We walked down a short hallway to an unmarked steel door with a surveillance camera perched above it. Black Cloud knocked loudly, then faced me.
“We have a small problem,” he said.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“There’s a sting going on inside the casino. Our security team is trying to nab a group of cheaters. You’re going to have to wait until they’re done.”
“Any idea how long?”
“Could be awhile. These people have stolen a lot of money from us. We need to catch them before they do it again.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. I’d already wasted most of the day, and every lost hour increased the chance that I’d never find Sara Long. Before I could reply, the steel door swung in and a short man wearing a black turtleneck greeted us.
“Hey, Chief,” the man in the turtleneck said.
“Hey, Harry,” Black Cloud replied. “Any luck catching those cheaters?”
“Not yet.”
Harry ushered us into the room and shut the door. Dark and chilly, the surveillance control room was crammed with sophisticated surveillance equipment that watched the action in the casino. A gang of technicians sat in front of a row of computers, staring intently at the flickering screens.
“Harry, I want you to meet Jack Carpenter and his dog,” Black Cloud said. “Jack is an ex-Broward detective and a friend of the casino. He’s also part Seminole, so watch what you say around him.”
