“Your airline found your luggage,” she said.

On the scale of one to ten, it was a minus two. Then he remembered that the shirt he was wearing was his last clean one. That made it a plus two.

“Great,” he said. “Where is it?”

Lou Ann removed a piece of paper from the counter and read from it. “Your suitcase was in Portland. The airline is routing it to Los Angeles. It should be here sometime tomorrow.”

He thanked her and went to the elevators. While he waited for a car, he took out his cell phone and stared at its face. No messages. No Gerry. For all he knew, his son was in another city, or buried in the desert. He’d called Bill Higgins twenty minutes ago to see if the FBI had maybe found his son. Bill had said they hadn’t.

The elevator doors parted. As he stepped in, a hand clasped his shoulder. He spun around and stared at Wily. He was so tired, he hadn’t heard him approach.

“Mind some company?” Wily asked.

“Only if you don’t mind my yawning.”

Wily said he didn’t. As they rode up to the penthouse, Valentine removed Amin’s photograph from his pocket and showed it to the head of security.

“Ever see this guy before? He’s a card-counter.”

Wily studied the photo. “No, but he shouldn’t be too hard to track down.”

Valentine didn’t think he’d heard Wily right. The doors parted, and they got out.

“How you going to do that?”

“Easy,” Wily said. “The casino subscribes to FaceScan. They have the face of every known card-counter in a database in their computer. I’ll give them your picture, see what they turn up.”

Valentine had a feeling the FBI had already tried that, but there was always the chance they’d missed something. He slapped Wily on the arm.

“Anyone ever tell you how smart you are?”

Wily feigned embarrassment. “Look, there’s something I need to talk to you about. As a friend.”

“What’s that?”

Wily hemmed and hawed. Valentine didn’t think he could have made a speech if his life depended upon it. Finally, Wily gave up, and walked down the hallway to Valentine’s suite. “Give me your key,” he said.

Valentine gave him the plastic key. Wily swiped the door and pushed it open.

“This is what I want to talk to you about,” he said.

Valentine entered the suite. The living room was filled with flower arrangements, their fragrance strong enough to knock over a horse. A card was propped up on the coffee table, addressed to him. Picking it up, he tore the envelope open.

It was a Valentine’s Day card with a big heart in its center, only his name had been added to the front. A Tony Valentine’s Day card. It made him smile, and he opened it and read the note.

I THINK I’M FALLING IN LOVE WITH YOU

Wily told him to sit on the couch, then got two Diet Cokes from the mini bar. Valentine held the card in his fingers and stared at Lucy’s proclamation of love.

Wily made the couch sag and handed him a soda. Valentine took a long swallow. He’d read that the artificial sweetener in Diet Coke stimulated the body’s craving for sugar, and was bad for you. It was a shame it tasted so damn good.

Wily cleared his throat. “Look, Tony, what I’m going to say isn’t easy. But you’ve got to hear it. For your own good.”

“Go ahead.”

“Lucy Price is bad news.”

“You think so?”

“Yes. Know what her nickname is?”

“No.”

“The Blowtorch. She burns everyone she gets near.”

Valentine put the card on the coffee table. “I really don’t want to hear this right now, okay?”

Wily took a long pull on his soda and stared at him. “Know how many times I’ve wanted to say that to you over the years? About a hundred. Know why I didn’t? Because I realized that everything that comes out of your mouth is true.”

“Are you suggesting I shut up and listen?”

“Yeah,” Wily said. “Hear me out.”

“Go ahead,” he said.

Wily put on his serious face. “It’s like this. Lucy Price couldn’t stop gambling if her life depended on it. She’s lost everything. House, car, family. Six months ago, her husband took their kids and moved to Utah. He got a job and sent her an airline ticket. She won’t join him.”

“Who told you this?”

“Her husband did. He used to work here. He begged her to get help, but Lucy wouldn’t go. She doesn’t think she has a problem. She’s a lost cause.”

“Don’t say that.”

“You like her, don’t you?”

Valentine thought about it. “I’d like to,” he admitted.

“Don’t.”

“You make her sound like a leper.”

“The casinos in Las Vegas have a program for compulsive gamblers. If a person with a problem asks us, we’ll bar them when they come in. Over a thousand people have signed up. It started up in Canada, works great.”

“So?”

“Lucy wouldn’t sign up,” Wily said.

“You tried?”

“About a dozen times.”

Valentine finished his soda. What a wonderful time he was having in Las Vegas. He’d lost his son, gotten his face slashed, and now this. He stared at the open card sitting on the coffee table. I THINK I’M FALLING IN LOVE WITH YOU. Did Wily know how precious those words were? Wily had a wife, probably got to hear sweet nothings whenever he wanted. He didn’t know what it was like to be alone.

Wily glanced at his watch, then rose and went to the door. Taking the surveillance picture of Amin from his pocket, he said, “FaceScan’s office is on my way home. I’ll drop this off, ask them to run it through their computer.”

“Thanks. I appreciate it.”

“Call them in a couple of hours. They get backed up on weekends.”

“I’ll do that.”

Wily’s fingers were on the doorknob. Lowering his voice, he said, “I’m sorry, Tony, but I had to tell you,” and walked out of the suite.

38

Valentine drove to Lucy Price’s condo in Summerlin thinking about his conversation with Wily. Wily had called Lucy a lost cause. He didn’t believe that. No one was truly lost. That was the one thing he’d learned growing up Catholic. There was always a shot at redemption.

Pulling into her driveway, he realized he should have called, and let Lucy know he was coming. After what had happened last night, she’d probably gone and bought a gun. He saw the front door open. Grabbing the paper bag off the passenger seat, he climbed out of the car.

Lucy stayed in the doorway. Her skin did something magical in the daylight, its glow soft and mysterious. He came up to her and she kissed him.

“Did you find your son?”

“Still looking. I had to come and see you. Thanks for the flowers.”

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