The last game (5 page)

“Now I know who you are.” Alvaro said. “You
were accused of robbing millions . . .”

Dante cut him short. “They couldn´t prove
anything.”

“
But everyone knew you were guilty.“ Hector
said. “And that was only one of the thousands of swindles you were
involved in.”

Despite the measured tone of Hector´s voice
Alvaro detected an inner anger in his words. If the rumors were
true, Dante had made an empire out of all sorts of illegal
activities: bribery, extortion . . . the list was endless. He´d
been accused of everything, but had always wormed his way out of
trouble. They´d never been able to put him in jail. It had only
ever gone as far as paying huge fines, but given Dante´s fortune
that was of little consequence.

Alvaro felt better. Now he had a better idea
of who he was up against. He couldn´t buy friends at this
table.

“Well, I don´t think we´re here to judge
anyone´s past.” Alvaro said, trying to water the mood down. “We´ve
come here to play, after all.”

They began to play poker again. Judith won
the first hand. She collected her chips and began to shuffle the
pack. Alvaro noted her hands trembling. She was obviously nervous
and this became more obvious when the cards fell out of her
hands.

“Don´t worry.” Alvaro said, helping her pick
them up. “It can happen to anybody.”

Except to Alvaro of course. But he didn´t say
that. He was a professional and was doing his best to make sure the
others didn´t find that out.

Judith was becoming a big problem for Alvaro.
Her shy smiles made him feel like protecting her. She looked so
vulnerable, so defenseless and yes, very, very attractive. A little
thin perhaps but she was just right for him. Everything about her
attracted him but he had to get those thoughts out of his mind as
soon as possible .They were playing cards, weren´t they? She was an
opponent. No more or no less than anyone else around the table. He
needed to keep his mind on the job.

Hector didn´t look at his second hand either.
He threw one chip onto the table and when someone upped him he
dropped out. Dante looked on disapprovingly, but won the hand and
seemed pleased with himself dragging his winning chips across the
table.

The girl had started building again, a new
plastic wall sat on the table. She seemed happy, laughing to
herself, almost as if someone had told her a joke that had pleased
her. Her ponytails bounced as she moved excitedly on the chair. She
gave the impression of being inexhaustible while Zeta lay with his
head on the floor at her side, his eyes closed. But the dog wasn´t
fooling Alvaro, he knew he wasn´t asleep. If anything caused the
little girl on the chair to be irritated, he would bare his fangs
again soon enough.

It was Alvaro´s turn to deal. He took the
pack and started shuffling, being careful not to show his normal
flourish. He offered his rivals a blank smile, but none of them was
paying him any attention.

“Are you going to spend the whole night
shuffling?” Dante grumbled. “Deal the cards!”

“Right now.” Alvaro said.

There was no point waiting for another hand.
The time had arrived to find out who he was up against, and more
importantly to see if the girl was going to interfere with his
plans. If that was going to be the case, the sooner he found out,
the better.

He began dealing the cards, deciding as he
did, that he would cheat for the first time. Everything would go
well, he´d been preparing for this for a long while, and his
technique was perfect.

* * * * *

CHAPTER
FOUR

It worked perfectly. Alvaro had arranged the
cards when he shuffled them and knew what was in each of their
hands. Now he wanted to see what they were going to do with what
they had.

Just as he thought, the girl hadn´t
interfered. He wouldn´t have to worry about the dog.

The only problem continued to be Hector who
really didn´t seem part of the game. Alvaro couldn´t understand
what he was doing and had no idea at all about what was behind his
filthy exterior. He didn´t touch his cards again. Simply threw a
chip into the middle of the table and then passed.

“I´ll up that.” Alvaro said looking at Dante
as he threw five red chips into the pot. “Let´s see if I´ve got
some luck this time.”

Dante looked at his cards for a few seconds
then gave Alvaro an arrogant look. “Let´s make it more
interesting.”

He raised Alvaro´s bet with a green chip. The
first that had been used in the game. It was the biggest bet of the
night. It wasn´t enormous but without any doubt, juicy.

“
I
´m out.” Judith said, throwing her cards in.

That was prudent, Alvaro thought. He knew she
had two pairs, queens and fives. A good hand, but not good enough
to put everything on the line. It was the right decision, perhaps a
little too cautious.

“I´ll raise you.” Alvaro said, pushing one
green and three red chips forward.

Dante´s reaction was much more revealing than
Judith´s.

“
Don´t be stingy, Doc.” He said, smiling.
“Let´s see how far you´re capable of going.”

Without taking his eyes off Alvaro for a
second, Dante picked a yellow chip up and moved it slowly across
the table.

The show was on. And it was a real learning
curve for Alvaro. He knew exactly what Dante had in his wrinkled
hands. Only a sad pair of fives. Alvaro admired Dante´s bluff. He
was acting his heart out, and doing it very well. He showed no
signs of nervousness.

Alvaro had three eights in his hand and
could win the biggest hand of the night without any problem. But he
decided not to do that, just yet. He wanted Dante´s ego as big as
he could get it. There´d be bigger pots to win later on. He threw
his cards in. “Too much for me.“

He´d learnt a lot about their tactics. Useful
information that he´d put to advantage as the night wore on. He
knew where Dante was coming from. Alvaro wasn´t going to do
anything suspicious. He only had to wait for a winning hand when he
wasn´t the dealer.

“That was very easy.” Dante said delighted,
raking in the winnings. “I don´t know why I thought your balls were
bigger?”

“Well, the truth is I needed better cards to
go with the balls I´ve got. What were you holding?”

“
Ah, ah. You should have kept raising your
bet if you wanted to know what I had. That´s my secret. You don´t
want me to reveal my strategy, do you?”

That wasn´t necessary. Dante was a classic
case. He couldn’t cover his enthusiasm up after having won with an
inferior hand. The pleasure of winning with a bad hand gave his
self-esteem a sudden upward lift. He was already beginning to look
like he felt invincible. He was dying to tell everyone at the table
that he´d won with nothing more than a pair of fives.

Alvaro preferred not to answer Dante. In the
next hand he received some bad cards and passed. Hector did the
same again. It was almost as if he wasn´t playing. Alvaro decided
to ignore that and try and breach the wall of indifference
surrounding his enigmatic opponent.

“You don´t seem too interested in the game.”
He said casually. Hector didn´t bother to answer. He was still
looking at the girl. “I don´t get it. You haven´t played one hand.
You haven´t come here for no good reason. I imagine, judging by
your appearance, you´ve done the same thing all your life. Maybe .
. .”

“Put a lid on it.” Hector interrupted him.
“My motives are my affair and I´m not going to share them with
you.”

“
How can talking with me hurt you? When
everything´s said and done, we´re in the same boat. Why don´t you
want to talk?”

“
Because what you think doesn´t interest
me.
Bother the other two with your verbal rubbish if you want,
leave me out of it.
Why don´t you hassle the girl for a while? You like her,
don´t you?”

Was it that obvious? Alvaro didn´t think so.
And yet Hector had picked it up, which meant he was a shrewd
observer. That wasn´t good news. And it didn´t seem possible to get
him to talk about himself, which was even worse. Alvaro felt
confused. Why would a person who took such little interest in his
own appearance be sitting at this table? He wasn´t a street bum,
that was for sure. Alvaro had seen plenty of homeless people at the
hospital and Hector wasn´t like any of them. He had a few things in
common with that poor herd of humanity but there was a glint in his
eye that set him apart. He was hiding something. And he didn´t know
why, but Alvaro suspected that fierce determination lay behind his
dirty façade. Hector knew very well what he was doing there and
nothing else bothered him. That was the reason for his impenetrable
indifference.

The girl was the key! Hector had hardly taken
his eyes off her since she´d appeared. What did she want here?
Everyone knew who she was, so it wasn´t her identity that had
captured Hector´s attention. Maybe it was the fact that she was
only a girl with this strange pet beside her. Alvaro remembered
that it had been suggested that his host would be a woman, but he
hadn´t expected running into a sweet little thing like this. Still,
even allowing for that, Hector´s interest in her was hard to
understand.

He looked at him again. He was still
looking at her, at her hands to be precise. She was building a
castle now, or was it a house? Alvaro began to watch what she was
doing carefully. And the more he looked the more amazed he became.
The shadow coming off the blocks changed when she touched them and
returned to its original position when she took her hand away. It
was very strange. And watching that underlined the peril of
touching her.

Dante´s voice boomed across the table, almost
as if he´d forgotten for a second where he was. “You´re up to
something, sweetie. You´re little girl act doesn´t fool me.”

“You´re a liar.” Judith said, collecting the
chips. “If you think I´ve done something, prove it or shut up.”

Dante smashed his fist onto the table. “I
don´t think it, I´m convinced. And I don´t have to prove it to
you.”

Alvaro stood up and walked towards Dante.
“Get a hold on your tongue my friend or you´ll pay the
consequences.”

Dante had gone too far. To intimidate a
pregnant woman like this was simply too much for Alvaro. He could
do and say what he liked in his own corrupt world where his money
no doubt demanded obedience from those around him, but he wasn´t
going to get away with treating Judith like this here.

“What do you think you´re doing, Doc?” Dante
asked. “What happened to this friendly chatty fellow of a few
minutes ago? It would seem the princess over there has really got
to you.”

“Don´t start crying every time you lose. Be a
man for once in your life. If she´s played better than you, accept
it!”

Judith´s soft, weak voice interrupted them.
“The girl wouldn´t have allowed me to cheat.”

“There, see!” Alvaro said, even though he
knew she was lying. The girl had done nothing when he´d been
cheating.

“You weren´t following the game, Doc.” Dante
informed him, ignoring Judith. “But I was. And I´m saying that this
bitch with her sweet angelic face, is a dirty cheat.”

“Shut up! You´re very rude.” The girl shouted
suddenly. There was a sudden silence in the room. A look of panic
crossed Dante´s face. He wasn´t moving a muscle. “Very rude! I want
to keep playing. But I will have to punish you.”

The girl was standing up on the chair now,
leaning towards the floor, her finger pointing at Zeta. The
enormous animal looked at her obediently, his ears bent back, his
tail between his legs. Not one black hair on the dog´s body moved
as he bore the reprimand without being able to look at the girl for
more than a few seconds.

“
Was
she talking to me or the mutt?” Dante asked, his voice
trembling.

“She´s not looking at you.” Hector said. “But
I´d take this as a warning. How many times have I got to tell you
that the girl won´t speak directly to us?”

He certainly wouldn´t have to repeat it
again. Everyone at the table had it clear enough. Alvaro returned
to his chair calmly and the rest sat where they were completely
still. It was extraordinary to watch the girl putting the dog in
its place.

It had an effect on everyone and most
certainly the game. Until she started playing with her plastic
blocks again no one dared to start playing poker. She set the rules
without saying a word directly to them. She wouldn´t tolerate
fighting. The curious thing was though that she was happy to let
them cheat. Alvaro had no doubt that she knew exactly what was
going on.

Judith collected the chips and shuffled the
cards, then started dealing the cards.

Alvaro began to feel a deep dislike for
Hector. His curiosity was so great, that combined with the
frustration of not being able to find anything out about him, he
was beginning to hate the sight of him sitting across the table
oozing coldness and indifference and refusing to play poker with
the rest.

Dante won the next hand with a pair of kings.
But he didn´t win much.

Judith was winning. Her pile of chips had
grown steadily. Hector had lost only what he´d put in the center of
the table at the start of each hand. Dante and Alvaro were both
losing a little.

It was Hector´s turn to deal. He did that
without paying much attention to what he was doing, tossing the
cards almost with disrespect ahead of him. Alvaro elected to say
nothing.

They all waged an opening bet.

“A little more.” Dante said upping his bet,
throwing two more chips into the pot. As usual Hector passed and
Judith and Alvaro matched Dante´s bet. They discarded and picked up
their new cards.