Then he was gone. Gerry swallowed hard and stuck his head into the room. It was a single, with a bed against the wall and a bunch of tubes running into the patient. Tex “All In” Snyder stared back at him with drooping eyes. He looked one foot in the grave, his face ashen. His hand popped up out of the sheet like something in a horror movie. He beckoned Gerry closer, his lips moving up and down. Gerry pulled up a chair and sat beside the bed.
“Hey, Tex, how’s it going?”
“I’m dying,” he whispered.
Tex tried to reach across the bed. Gerry took his hand with both his own.
“You want me to do something for you?”
Tex nodded.
“Name it.”
“You got religion in that bathroom yesterday, didn’t you?” the old gambler said, his voice hoarse. “You went in ready to rob that sucker with me. When you came out, you’d changed. What happened?”
Gerry told him about getting the message from his wife and how the sound of his daughter’s laughter had cleared his head and driven away the bad decisions he’d made. Tex nodded approvingly when Gerry was finished, then motioned for the water bottle sitting on the night table. Gerry placed the flexible straw beneath Tex’s lips and watched him drink.
“I have a half sister in St. Augustine,” Tex said when he was done. “Haven’t seen her in twenty years. I want her to get some money I have stored away.”
“Where is it?”
“In a safe-deposit box. Her name is on the box. She doesn’t know it.”
“You want me to contact her for you?”
“Yes. I would be forever in your debt.”
Gerry got a pad and pencil from the nurses’ station and wrote down the location of the safe-deposit box and the box number, then Tex’s sister’s name and her last known address. He told Tex he’d be able to find her even if she’d moved, the Internet being what it was. Tex reached beneath his cotton pajamas and removed a thin gold chain hanging around his neck. From it dangled a safe-deposit key. He started to give it to Gerry, then hesitated. “Promise me you’ll do it,” he said.
“You have my word,” Gerry said.
“Please don’t rob me.”
“How much money are we talking about here?” He saw Tex glare at him and said, “What I’m asking is, should your sister bring a bag?”
“A million and a half dollars.”
Gerry blew out his cheeks. A small fortune for a sister Tex hadn’t laid eyes on in twenty years. He tore the sheet off the pad and stuffed it into his pocket. Then he took the key out of Tex’s hand. He saw Tex stare at him like he’d just made the worst decision of his life.
“Please don’t rob me,” he said again.
“I’m not going to rob you,” Gerry said. “But I want you to come clean with me.”
“About what?”
“Did Ricky Smith really beat you at the Mint that night?”
Tex flashed the weakest of smiles. “’Course not.”
“You let him win?”
“His partner paid me to lose. Slick guy from New York. I said sure. Good for business.” Gerry didn’t understand. Tex motioned him closer to the bed. “It’s like this, son. I’m a cheater. Problem is, if I win all the time, nobody will play with me. So I lose sometimes to lesser players. Word gets out that I’m getting old and not what I used to be. The suckers think I’m easy pickings and come looking for me.”
The exertion got him coughing, and Gerry grabbed the water bottle. He thought back to the videotape of Tex and Ricky playing. Neither had shown their cards at the same time. Usually that meant one player was bluffing. That wasn’t the case here. Tex had thrown away winning cards and let Ricky steal the pot.
“How much did this guy from New York pay you?”
“Ten grand.”
“Did he have a name?”
“Stanley.” Tex’s eyes darted across the room. Gerry turned around in his seat and saw Clarkson standing in the doorway. The look on his face was not a happy one. He motioned with his hand, and Gerry rose from his seat. Tex grasped the cuff of Gerry’s shirtsleeve.
“Swear on a stack of Bibles you’ll contact my sister.”
“I already told you I would.”
“I don’t trust you.”
Gerry looked into Tex’s face, and their eyes locked.
“Too bad,” he said.
Clarkson took Gerry into the hallway. In a hushed voice he said, “Huck Dubb and his retarded brother showed up at the Holiday Inn a half hour ago. Huck asked the receptionist on duty to tell him what room you were staying in. The receptionist told him you checked out yesterday. Huck didn’t believe him. He and his brother tore the place up.”
“Did my coming here get you in trouble?”
“Yes. I need to get you back to Lamar’s house, pronto.”
“I need to say good-bye to Tex.”
“Your life is in danger. We’ve got to leave right now.”
The detective took Gerry’s arm and began to drag him down the hall. As they passed the nurses’ station, a piercing alarm went off. The nurse on duty stared at a monitor on her desk. She jumped up, ran down the hall, and disappeared into Tex’s room.
Gerry looked at the monitor. A flat line was tracking across the screen. Tex was gone. Gerry crossed himself, then got onto the elevator with Clarkson.
39
Gaylord wasn’t nearly as stupid as he acted. After Valentine examined the rubber bullets, Gaylord pulled a chair up and made Valentine repeat what had happened. He took copious notes and made Valentine clarify points that bothered him or didn’t make sense. It was an old cop trick, designed to trip up a suspect. The sergeant obviously didn’t believe Valentine’s story.
When Valentine was finished, Gaylord picked up the phone and called Polly Parker’s house. He asked for Ricky and spoke to him for several minutes. The questions he asked were the same ones he’d asked Valentine. He jotted down Ricky’s answers, keeping his pad tilted. When he was done he said good-bye and hung up. The look on his face was one of confusion.
“What’s he saying?” Valentine asked.
“Four Cubans he used to know showed up on his doorstep, said he owed them money,” Gaylord said. “They roughed him up and broke some of his stuff. Then you showed up and saved the day.”
“What about the guy I shot in his driveway? Did he mention that?”
Gaylord slapped his notepad on the table. “Ricky said you told him to shut his eyes. He heard you shoot your gun but didn’t see anything. That true?”
Valentine shook his head. Did anyone deal in the truth in this goddamned town? “Yes,” he said.
“So there aren’t any witnesses?”
“No.”
“No witnesses and no body.” Gaylord rose and picked up his notepad. “I wish like hell I knew what was going on here. My gut says you’re telling the truth, but I don’t have anything to corroborate what you’re saying. Understand?”
“Yes, you don’t have a case.”
“Not yet.”
