Mr. Lucky (20 page)

35

F
or a guy who’d just gotten shot in the arm, Lamar was all smiles at the Gulfport hospital. He joked with the nurses and doctors in the emergency room and with Gerry, who’d ridden in the ambulance with him.

“Know why the police can’t solve redneck murders?”

Gerry shook his head.

“The DNA’s all the same, and there are no dental records.”

His demeanor was no different when Isabelle showed up. With a smile he pointed at Gerry and said, “Huck was shooting at
him
and winged me and Boomer and Kent instead. Take this boy to the casino and put some dice into his hands!”

Isabelle somehow found it in her to smile. “The police think Huck’s hiding with relatives. They’re going to search every trailer park until they find him.” She glanced at Gerry. “You need to lay low.”

“I thought that was what I was doing,” Gerry said.

“Out of sight. We’ll keep you at the house with a police guard.”

Gerry nodded. The doctor was stitching up Lamar’s arm. The bullet from Huck’s rifle had torn out a slice of flesh that would probably never grow back. Gerry felt his stomach turn over and saw Lamar wink at him.

“You bring the trash can from the casino?” Lamar asked.

Isabelle reached into the floppy bag slung over her shoulder and produced a small metal trash can filled with used tissues. She handed it to Gerry. “This came from table seventeen. The casino has been losing a lot of money there.”

Gerry took the trash can and pushed aside the top tissues with his fingers. The dealer obviously had a real bad cold. On the bottom of the can were fifteen playing cards, just like his father had said. He stuck the can under his arm and thanked her for bringing it.

“I need to go back to the casino,” she said. “A detective named Clarkson will come by later and take you back to the house. He also wants to ask you some questions about Huck Dubb.”

“I don’t know anything about the guy,” Gerry said.

“Maybe not. But Huck knew where to find you. Clarkson is trying to figure out how. He’ll try to jog your memory, if that’s okay.”

Gerry had been wondering about that himself. The parking lot had been empty when he and Lamar had gone into the trailer, yet Huck had somehow tracked him down.

“Sure.”

“Good. I’ll see you back at the house.”

She gave her husband a smooch on the lips and left. Lamar stared at the spot where she’d been standing and smiled. Gerry didn’t think he’d ever seen a greater love in a man’s eyes than was in Lamar’s. After the nurses and doctor were gone, Lamar said, “First time I met Isabelle, she was wearing a red blouse in the casino. I explained to her that the surveillance cameras see right through red fabric, and the boys upstairs were admiring her. Know what she did?”

Gerry shook his head.

“She found out how long I’d been on the job. It was my first day. So she knew I hadn’t been watching her. I asked her out the next week.” He pointed at the trash can. “You still think you’re going to win that bet?”

“Sure do,” Gerry said.

Lamar yelled through the curtains separating them from Kent and Boomer.

“Hey, boys, get your wallets and get in here. It’s show-time.”

It was a miracle that all three men’s wounds were superficial. They knew it, and exchanged plenty of good-natured ribbing and high-fiving. Then Gerry made them take their money out, and the laughter subsided.

Gerry got a second trash can and carefully removed the tissues from the can Isabelle had brought from the casino. When he was done, he pointed at the handful of playing cards lying in the bottom of the casino trash can. He said, “See these cards? They’re from the blackjack game at table seventeen. They’re all babies.”

Babies were low-valued cards, the twos through sixes, and favored the house.

“How do you know that without looking at them?” Lamar asked.

“It’s how the scam works,” Gerry said. He shook the can, and the cards flipped faceup. As he’d predicted, they were all babies. “Here’s the deal. The dealer is required to spread all the cards faceup on the table before he starts. That way, the players—and the cameras—can see that all the cards are there. If any high cards were missing, the house’s edge would be unbeatable. If babies were missing, the players would have the edge.

“So the dealer starts with all the cards. But he has a cold. So he puts a box of tissues on his table. That’s his shade.”

“His what?” Boomer asked.

“Shade. It’s a hustler’s term for misdirection. The dealer is palming babies out and dropping them in the wastebasket. He palms them when he’s putting cards into the discard tray. Then he grabs a tissue to blow his nose. The tissue hides the palmed cards. He drops the tissue and the cards into the wastebasket.”

“So he’s shorting the shoe so it favors the players,” Kent said.

“Exactly.”

“Looks like we win forty big ones,” Boomer said.

Lamar was examining the can and didn’t appear ready to give in. “Just hold on a second. Every night, the blackjack dealers are required to count their cards. I’ve personally supervised them. Table seventeen has never come up short. If the dealer is palming babies out, why didn’t it show up in the count?”

There was real skepticism in his voice. Gerry smiled. “The dealer adds them back.”

“How?”

“As he counts, he drops some on the floor. At the same time, he kicks the can over. He picks up the cards he dropped and adds the babies.”

“What if they’ve got snot on them?”

Gerry’s smile grew. “I guess he blames it on his cold.”

Lamar rolled his eyes. Kent and Boomer started braying like mules, and Lamar reluctantly handed them his money.

“Isabelle tells me you’re an authority on casino cheating,” Clarkson said.

They were standing outside the hospital, Clarkson a smoker and needing a fix, Gerry joining him because he suddenly needed one as well, the events of the day having caught up to him like a tidal wave that he could no longer outswim. Clarkson was in his thirties, tall and broad-shouldered, and looked every inch a cop.

“My father’s the authority. I’m just learning the ropes.”

Clarkson exhaled two purple plumes through his nostrils. Gerry liked the way his answer had come out. And it wasn’t a lie.

“Any idea how Huck Dubb found you so easily?” the detective asked.

There was an accusing tone in his voice.
He thinks I called him
, Gerry thought. It was perfect cop logic. The trailer was a hideout; no one outside of the police and the Mississippi Gaming Commission agents knew about it. No one, except Gerry.

“I didn’t call him, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

Clarkson smiled; only, it wasn’t a smile. More a widening of his mouth as he sucked in a monster cloud of smoke. “Did you call anyone else?”

“My father. I was stuck on a scam that Lamar had showed me, so I called him, and he doped it out for me.”

There it was again: the truth. It didn’t hurt nearly as much as he thought it would.

“Nobody local?” Clarkson asked. “Like the hotel or something?”

“Nope.”

“Your father nearby?”

“Slippery Rock, North Carolina.”

Clarkson used the dying cigarette to light another. “Might your father have called someone?”

“We have our disagreements, but nothing like that.”

Clarkson grimaced at the stupidity of what he’d just said. The cell phone in Clarkson’s pocket rang. He pulled it out and flipped the phone open. “Detective Clarkson, at your service.” He listened for a moment, then cupped his hand over the mouthpiece. “It’s Isabelle. She’s getting takeout from Best Steaks in the South and wants to know what you’d like.”

Gerry found himself grinning. He had eaten there last night and assumed that
Best Steaks in the South
was their slogan. He thought back to the menu and tried to pick the least expensive thing. For all he knew, Isabelle was paying for it.

“Hamburger, medium rare, onions,” he said.

Clarkson relayed his order, then asked for the same, well done. Gerry watched him say good-bye and put the cell phone away. Then he stared out at the hospital parking lot. It was a crystal-clear afternoon, the sun mirrored in each of the cars’ rooftops. His father had told him he sometimes had epiphanies and was able to make sense out of situations that seemingly had none. Gerry realized he was having one now and that his fingers and toes were tingling.

He looked at Clarkson. “I just figured it out,” he said.

“What’s that?” the detective asked, grinding out his butt.

“How Huck Dubb knew where to find me.”

Clarkson got in his face. “How?”

“I had dinner at Best Steaks in the South last night. After I left, the Dubb brothers tried to kill me. Someone in the restaurant called them. That same person saw me go into the trailer today and called Huck.”

“But you said the parking lot was empty when you entered the trailer.”

“It was.”

“Then how did this person see you? I’ve been in that restaurant plenty of times. There aren’t any windows.”

“There’s a surveillance camera on the corner of the building,” Gerry said. “I saw it last night. The rat in the restaurant is pointing the camera across the street at the casino. He saw me go into the trailer and called Huck.”

Clarkson gave him his best aw-shucks smile. “Damn! You sure you weren’t once a cop?”

Gerry shook his head. He watched Clarkson whip out his cell phone and call his superiors. Within a minute, he’d arranged to have the steakhouse raided. The tingling sensation in his fingers had not gone away, and Gerry stared at his hands. Then he realized what it was. No one had ever mistaken him for a cop before. He imagined his mother up in heaven, looking down and smiling at him.

36

H
uck Dubb was sitting in the study of his grandma’s house, staring at her computer. He’d bought it for her last Christmas and used it to send and receive e-mail. Most of the men he ran with had similar setups. They had computers at relatives’ houses, and nothing was in their own names. His grandma entered the study. She’d been wearing a bathrobe and slippers for the past ten years of her life. She was holding a fried steak sandwich on a paper plate.

“Eat this,” she insisted. “You’re looking puny.”

“Don’t want it,” he said.

“Don’t talk back to me, boy. I said, eat it.”

His grandma had practically raised him and his retarded brother; disobeying her was an insult to all the sacrifices she’d made. He took the sandwich and bit into it. The effort made his wounded ear hurt. He’d rubbed cocaine on it, and the pain had gone away. But that was the little pain. The big pain was still raging out of control inside of him.

“You want some iced tea?” she asked. “I made it extra sweet.”

“Do I have a choice?”

“Huck.”

“Love some,” he said.

She shuffled out, and he resumed staring at the computer. On the screen was a live feed from the surveillance camera outside Best Steaks in the South. The camera had pan/tilt/zoom lenses and was focused on the parking lot across the street. His cousin Buford, who owned the restaurant, had been sending him the feed for weeks. What Huck was hoping for was a repeat—Gerry Valentine coming back to the trailer, and Huck jumping into his car and going and shooting the son of a bitch.

Two sedans pulled up to the restaurant. Four cops jumped out of each. They drew their sidearms and entered the restaurant in single file. Huck’s cell phone rang. He stared at the caller ID. It was Buford.

“You watchin’ this?” his cousin asked.

“Yeah,” Huck said. “Where you?”

“In my office at the restaurant, staring at my computer. What am I gonna do?”

“Get a lawyer.”

“They’re gonna call me an accomplice. They’re gonna kick my balls in. You shouldn’t have sprayed that trailer, you stupid son of a bitch.”

“He killed my boys,” Huck said.

Buford slammed down the phone so hard that Huck jerked it away from his head. On the computer, he saw a cop break off from the group. Climbing onto the fender of a car, the cop started to dismantle the camera. Huck rose from his chair and snapped the suspenders keeping his overalls up. “Shit,” he said.

“Huck!”
his grandma bellowed from the kitchen. She was deaf in one ear and couldn’t hear out of the other, yet somehow heard through walls when Huck swore.

“Sorry, Grandma.”

“No swearing in this house. Not while I’m alive.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Come in here quick. I’ve got something for you.”

He crossed the small house in a funk. If they were sending eight cops to close down Buford, they probably had a small army guarding Gerry Valentine. He’d blown his chance to kill the man who’d killed his boys. His ear was hurting from where he’d been shot, but it didn’t hurt nearly as much as his heart.

He found Grandma in the kitchen holding a tall glass of iced tea. Having something from her kitchen was her cure for whatever ailed you, and he took a big swallow. The drink was so cold it made his fillings hurt.

His retarded brother, Arlen, sat at the kitchen table, eating a bowl of frosted corn flakes. Their mother had done drugs, and Arlen had paid the price. Arlen lived in an alternative universe. When everyone was sleeping, Arlen was awake; when everyone ate dinner, Arlen ate breakfast. Physically, the brothers were about the same and had worn each other’s clothes all their lives. It had been easy, being they were rarely awake at the same time. He petted Arlen on the shoulder and saw him lift his bovine eyes.

“What you want?” Arlen asked suspiciously.

Huck had once stolen dessert from Arlen and had never been forgiven.

“Just checking up. How you doing?”

“Breathing,” Arlen said, clutching his spoon.

“How’d you like to go on a trip? Leave Gulfport for a few days.”

“Dunno.”

Huck knelt down beside him. He glanced at Grandma stirring a pot on the stove. In a low voice, he said, “I need you to help me. I need to pay a man back. I’m gonna kill his family. I think they live someplace down in Florida. I need you to help me kill them.”

“Kill ’um how?”

“Guns and knives,” Huck said.

“Can I watch?”

“Yup.”

A spark of life flickered behind Arlen’s eyes. Huck had taken Arlen to jobs before. The prospect of seeing someone shot or sliced open always brought his brother up from his stupor. His spoon hit the bowl of cereal with a loud
plunk
!

“When?” he said.

Huck had always known that the life he’d led and the things he’d done would one day catch up with him. It was the reality that all criminals lived with, the hot wire that ignited their blood. So he’d prepared, and buried jars of money in different places around town, each stuffed with thousands of dollars in crumpled hundred-dollar bills. He’d buried two jars in the backyard of Grandma’s house, and he dug them up with a garden hoe, then unsealed them while Arlen stood beside him, holding a flashlight.

“We’re rich,” Arlen said.

Huck shoved a hundred dollars into his brother’s hand and saw his face light up. Then Huck went inside the house and dumped the jar onto the kitchen table. Grandma was standing at the counter peeling potatoes and stared at the money.

“It’s yours,” Huck said.

“What for?”

“I’m buying your car.”

“Car ain’t worth that much,” she said, throwing a handful of peeled spuds into the vat of boiling water sitting on the stove. “Go ahead and take the car. I don’t use it none. You can give it back to me when you get back.”

“I may not be getting back,” he said.

She took a handful of potatoes out of a paper bag and started the process over. “You fixin’ to stay in Florida for a spell?”

“Don’t have much choice. Police looking for me.”

“Summers down there are mighty long. You gonna send Arlen back?”

“Yeah. He never liked the heat.”

“Well, okay,” she said.

He went outside and backed her ancient Ford Fairlane out of the garage. Popping the trunk, he got a pair of illegal short-barreled shotguns from her toolshed, along with a metal strongbox filled with ammunition. Arlen had gone into the house and emerged wearing his camouflage hunting vest with his collection of rubber knives and plastic toy guns. He jumped into the passenger seat and slapped his hands on his knees. Huck stared at him.

“You say good-bye to Grandma?”

Arlen frowned the way he did when he was reminded of his own stupidity. It was a sad face, almost a pout. “No,” he sputtered.

“Think we should?”

“Guess so.”

Huck got out of the car and led his brother back into the house. Grandma was at the counter fixing peanut-butter-and-banana sandwiches. They were Arlen’s favorite thing in the whole world. She put four into a bag along with a thermos of iced tea. Then she handed the whole thing to Arlen, took her grandson’s head into her hands, and kissed him good-bye.