entrapment. I’m going to get the best lawyer this two-bit town has. You’ll rue the day you pulled that crap with me. And so will that DA.”
“If you get a lawyer, then I’m going to formally charge you, and your brothers. And so far, I haven’t done that.”
Izzie thought it over. “You offering me a deal?”
“Maybe.”
“Whatever it is, it’s got to include my brothers.”
“How touching.”
“I’m not kidding around. All or none.”
“It will include all of you.”
Doyle entered with two steaming cups of coffee, then left. Valentine handed one of the cups to Izzie, and watched him gulp it down.
“I finally remembered you,” Izzie said when the coffee was gone. “You came up to the Catskills with your folks one summer. Thought you knew how to play ping pong.”
“I beat you,” Valentine reminded him.
“Yeah, but Josh creamed you. Took all your money, as I recall.”
“Josh was good.”
“He took lessons. This might sound funny, but my brothers and I wanted to recruit you. We were trimming the bus boys on the weekends at poker. We wanted you to act as our take-off man.”
“What’s that?”
“The take-off man wins the money from the suckers. He has to be a square john that everyone trusts.”
“Sounds right up my alley,” Valentine said.
“That’s what we thought. Only you had the hots for Lois Fabio.” Izzie let out a laugh. “God, was she a little tart.”
Valentine lowered his cup. “How so?”
“I got her on the golf course one night and tried to hump her in a sand trap. She let me take off her bra, but not her pants.”
“She showed you her breasts?”
“Yeah. They weren’t that great.”
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me she was your wife?” Izzie wailed ten minutes later, holding an ice pack to his swollen left eye.
Valentine’s hand was singing with pain. If they kept reminiscing, he might end up killing Izzie, so he decided to get to the point. “Two nights ago, you and your brothers dragged a guy through the lobby of Resorts’ hotel, and our surveillance cameras caught you stuffing money back into his shirt. Who was he?”
Izzie lowered the ice bag. “Some guy named Vinny.”
“What was his last name?”
“I don’t remember.”
“How did you meet him?”
“I picked him up inside the casino, and brought him over to the house. There was a misunderstanding, and Josh broke a bottle over his head.”
“A misunderstanding?”
“Yeah. We decided to take him back to his hotel room. While we were dragging him through the lobby, the money fell out of his shirt. Being an honest person, I put it back.”
“Was he wearing a money belt?”
“I believe he was.”
“How much was in it?”
“A hundred big ones.”
“That’s a lot of cash to be carrying around. You think the guy was mafia?”
“Beats me.”
“What happened when you got him into his room?”
Izzie’s ice pack had sprung a leak and was trickling down his forearm. Turning it upside down, he reapplied it to his eye. “Vinny woke up. Didn’t remember a damn thing. We got him a beer from the mini-bar and turned on the TV. He really had amnesia. We shot the breeze for a while, then left.”
“I want his last name, Izzie.”
“Why don’t you call the hotel and ask them?”
“The name.”
“I told you everything I know,” Izzie said angrily.
“No, you didn’t.”
