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she’s still a virgin, anyway.”
    The security guard had seen the dustup. He came over. “Everything all right here?”
    “A little disagreement, is all,” I said.
    “Old friends,” Pepper said. “Just a little too much to drink, is all.”
    Connelly was still boiling. “I’ll tell you one thing, Ford. If I do run into Daly and he gives me any excuse at all, this little woman here’ll be pickin’ out a pine box for him by sunup.”
    “You gave him every excuse there is to shoot if he sees Daly,” Pepper said. “You warned him that Daly was stalkin’ him. No court in the world’d blame Harry here for bein’ scared enough to shoot first.”
    The guard could see that this argument wasn’t going to end anytime soon. “Why don’t you take the lady here and go stand on the porch in back? I’ll see that these two gentlemen get a drink on the house and some more gambling. How’s that sound?”
    He was good at what he did. He had a job I wouldn’t want. Trying to soothe people who’d just dropped a lot of money or break up fights between drunks wasn’t my idea of a good time.
    I took Susan’s arm and started to steer her toward the back porch, which was about ten feet away.
    And that was when it happened.
    Just as we had turned, and presumably just asConnelly and Pepper had turned, Tom Daly made his appearance.
    He stood in the doorway of the back porch, his .45 aimed and ready to fire. “Which one of you wants it first? Connelly or Pepper?” His smile was drunken and ugly. “Get Susan out of here, Noah, so I can do my job.”

Chapter 3
    T he bouncer froze. His instincts were obviously to rush Tom, who looked like the world’s oldest altar boy in his slicked-down hair with the cowlick in back, the cheap disheveled suit, and the face that would have been adolescent if not for all the wrinkles and lines.
    To the bouncer, Tom said: “Get them to turn around and then take their guns. I’ll kill at least two of you if you try anything.”
    The bouncer’s first responsibility was to see that nobody got killed. Bad enough that a drunken little man with a gun could cause a scandal in such an exalted casino. He said to me, “Is he your friend?”
    “Yes.”
    “Then talk to him.”
    “No!” Tom said. “No talking. Just have them turn around and face me. And then you take their guns.”
    I nodded to the bouncer. At that moment there wasn’t much hope of calming Tom down.
    “All right you men, turn around slowly and thenhand me your guns. And let’s keep everything friendly here. I’m sure we can talk to this man.”
    “Just stand here and let him shoot us when he wants to?” Connelly asked.
    “There isn’t going to be any shooting,” the bouncer said.
    “You going to guarantee that?” Pepper asked.
    “C’mon now. We all agreed. You two turn around and then we’ll talk.”
    The bouncer sounded a lot more confident than he looked. He was as pale as Susan and his right hand had begun to twitch, little tremor-like explosions. I was pretty sure he was coming to the conclusion that he had little or no control of the situation, the kind of moment a bouncer isn’t used to.
    “Now, c’mon, men. Just turn around here.”
    The bouncer sounded like a camp counselor pleading with bullies.
    By then, we had an audience, an ever-expanding one. This would be something else the owner would not be happy about. The worst thing that could happen to a casino was when its customers were distracted away from the tables.
    They turned around.
    Connelly was covering his fear with jokes.
    “I don’t know about you, Pepper, but I sure don’t want to get shot by a dwarf.”
    “And a drunk one at that,” Pepper said.
    “Shut up, you two,” I said.
    “Oh, oh,” Connelly said, “it’s the boss.”
    “We sure wouldn’t want to make the boss mad.”
    “You notice how the boss is kind’ve standing behind the dwarf’s wife there? Like if there’s any shooting, he’ll hide behind her.”
    “Well, the boss is