The Way You Die Tonight Read Free Page B

wasn’t placing it. I was on my second rib when the phone rang. I wiped my hands on a napkin and answered it.
    â€˜Hey Eddie, what are you doin’ home?’ Danny asked.
    â€˜What are you doing callin’ me if you didn’t expect me to be here?’
    â€˜I called the Sands, they said you weren’t there. I didn’t know where else to call, even though you’re hardly ever home.’
    â€˜That’s why I decided to eat here,’ I said.
    â€˜Whatayagot?’
    â€˜Chinks.’
    â€˜Enough for two?’
    â€˜You back?’
    â€˜Just got back.’
    â€˜Come on over, then. It’ll keep in the containers. And bring some beer.’
    â€˜On my way …’
    Danny Bardini had been my brother’s friend when we were all kids in Brooklyn. After my brother was killed in a gang war, we became friends. And after I moved to Vegas, he followed, hung his PI shingle on Freemont Street, down from the Horseshoe.
    He held up a six pack of Piels and said, ‘Enough?’
    â€˜It’ll do.’
    He followed me into the kitchen, where we sat together and dug into the containers. This time I provided plates. We both used forks, never having mastered the art of chopsticks.
    Danny told me about the case he’d settled in Los Angeles, and I told him about the robbery attempt at the poker game.
    â€˜Sounds like you made a pretty foolish move at the hold-up,’ Danny said.
    â€˜I know,’ I said, ‘I wasn’t thinking.’
    He reached for a napkin, picked up the message slip instead, glanced at it.
    â€˜Maheu?’
    â€˜You know him?’ I asked. ‘The name’s familiar, but I can’t place it.’
    â€˜He’s got a PI ticket, ran his own shop in LA until Howard Hughes hired him.’
    I snapped my fingers as it came back to me.
    â€˜That’s it! Hughes’ right-hand man, right?’
    â€˜Right,’ Danny said. ‘When Maheu speaks, it’s the same as Hughes speakin’. What’s he want with you?’
    â€˜I don’t know,’ I said. ‘I haven’t had time to call him back.’
    He frowned at the slip. ‘No area code. Must be a local number. Call ’im,’ he urged, holding the slip out to me. ‘Let’s find out.’
    It was almost eight p.m., but time didn’t mean much in Las Vegas.
    I wiped my hands again and picked up the phone.

FIVE
    I agreed to meet Maheu the next afternoon in a restaurant in Henderson, the next city over from Vegas, but I had to clear the decks first.
    Danny wanted to come. He’d listened to my end of the conversation the night before, which hadn’t gone on too long.
    â€˜I have some person business here in Vegas that I need some help with, Mr Gianelli, and I’m told you’re the man to talk to.’
    â€˜Is this your business, Mr Maheu,’ I’d asked, ‘or Mr Hughes’?’
    â€˜There’s really no difference, Mr Gianelli.’
    Hughes had made his fortune as an aviator, aerospace engineer, and film-maker. Of late he hadn’t been seen much in public, preferring to speak through Robert Maheu. I was curious about what he was doing in Vegas, so I agreed to meet.
    I told Danny he couldn’t come with me, but promised to tell him what it was all about. I called Jack Entratter the next morning, finding a dried smear of rib sauce on the phone I must have left there the night before.
    â€˜Robert Maheu?’ he said. ‘What’s he want?’
    â€˜Right now all I know is he wants to talk to me.’
    â€˜He’s gotta be actin’ for Hughes,’ Entratter said. ‘Find out what it’s about, Eddie. We don’t need Hughes stickin’ his nose in Vegas.’
    â€˜OK,’ I said, ‘but I’ll be in late.’
    â€˜I’ll put somebody in to cover your pit,’ he said. ‘What else is new?’
    As I hung up the irony of that comment was not lost on me,