The Way You Die Tonight Read Free Page A

don’t know,’ Jack said. ‘I’m just wingin’ it here, Eddie.’
    â€˜Well, until you make up your mind can I go back to my pit?’
    â€˜Sure,’ Entratter said. ‘I’ll confirm Robinson’s arrival date and let you know.’
    â€˜OK.’
    I stood up and this time he didn’t stop me.
    â€˜Hey,’ I said, ‘what’s wrong with your girl?’
    â€˜Whataya mean?’
    â€˜When I walked in she didn’t look like she wanted to spit,’ I said. ‘In fact, she hardly looked at me at all.’
    â€˜I don’t know,’ Entratter said. ‘She hasn’t been herself lately. Might be that time of the month. She’s doin’ her job, though. That’s all I care about.’
    â€˜Well,’ I said, ‘I’ll go and do mine.’
    Entratter waved me out and turned his attention to something on his desk.
    When I got down to my pit I was only there an hour when one of the younger bell hops came over. His name tag said ‘Bobby’ but I didn’t need that to identify him. I remembered his baby face.
    The slot machines around us were ‘dinging’ as coins struck the coin trays and ladies screamed over their nickel hits. People nodded to me as they went by, some regular customers, others celebrities who came and went from month to month. On this night it was Jack Jones, who had completed his run at the Sands’ Copa Room and was leaving the next day, and Steve & Eydie, who were coming in to replace him.
    â€˜Got a message for you, Eddie.’
    â€˜Thanks, Bobby.’
    He handed me a message slip, gave me a salute and hurried back to the hotel. At that moment one of the dealers came over, reporting that a player wanted to raise his limit. I pocketed the message to read later.

FOUR
    I had a typical day in the pit: okayed two players who wanted their limit raised, turned down another one who got nasty about it, so I had him escorted off the premises. I don’t have to check with anyone before making a decision. It’s my pit, and I usually know the players. If it’s someone unfamiliar, I observe them for a while, see what kind of player they are. Find out if they’re registered, maybe get some guidance from the hotel staff on what kind of money they’re flashing.
    I was finished with my shift before dinner, so I had the option of eating in the casino or heading out and getting something on the way home. I was single at that time, not seeing anyone in particular, so I had nobody else’s wants or needs to consider. My friend Danny Bardini was out of town, and he was the only one I might have had dinner with. So I decided to head home, stop along the way for some Chinese take-out, and eat in my own kitchen.
    Laying out containers on the table made me think of Jerry Epstein, my buddy from Brooklyn. I remembered having Chinese with him a time or two, and his share left less room on the table. Jerry’s appetite was prodigious. While he was a big man, he managed to burn off most of what he ate and not get fat. I envied him that. I stayed in pretty good shape, but every once in a while I’d have to change the size of my belt and have to start cutting back on the booze and burgers. A girl once told me that the size of a belt was determined by the middle hole, so I used that to gauge my weight. As long as I was in the middle, I was doing OK.
    While I was eating out of the containers – instead of dirtying my plates – I emptied my pockets onto the table, and came across the message slip Bobby had given me. I washed down some pork lo mein with a sip of cold Piels and unfolded the slip so I could read it. It was a request for me to call someone named Robert Maheu. He’d left a phone number. At the bottom another word was written and underlined. It said, ‘Personal’.
    I put the slip down and picked up a spare rib. The name Maheu sounded familiar to me, but I just