Hector bit his lower lip that hard that it went white. It was obvious that he understood Alvaro very well. He waited a few seconds before he answered. “The money is for a woman and her son.” He explained. “The boy´s eleven years old and has an artificial leg. His mother´s a widow. They were in a traffic accident four years ago. A drunk driver crashed into them after driving through a red light.” Hector´s voice seemed to be getting softer with each word of the story. He stopped a lot to take deep breaths. The others listened carefully to what he was saying. “The family had been to the cinema. The accident should never have happened but it did. The impact of the collision was terrible. Their car flipped twice. The mother lost consciousness and the boy´s leg was trapped under a jumble of metal. He was screaming as loud as he could. Two women passing by tried to pull him from the wreckage but couldn´t. When the fire brigade arrived the father was already dead. He drowned in his own blood and the boy saw everything. In the end he was rescued with his mother. But the leg couldn´t be saved and was amputated.”
“That´s a terrible story.” Judith said, understandingly. “I´m sorry.”
“Are they relatives of yours?” Alvaro asked. “Why are you so interested in them?”
“I was the driver of the car that hit them.”
That answer explained a lot of things. Alvaro thought about the effect that that would have had on Hector. He couldn´t help feeling a little sorry for him. Knowing that you´d ruined an entire family´s life wouldn´t be easy to live with. The way he´d explained what had happened showed clearly that he´d assumed all the responsibility.
“It was an accident.” Judith said. “You can´t keep on tormenting yourself over that. The boy´s father won´t come back to life or the boy won´t grow a new leg just because you´re tormenting yourself every day.”
Hector looked at her, spoke in a voice that seemed deeper and ridden with pain.
“Don´t you think I´ve thought that? I´ve told myself and my psychiatrists that very thing countless times. But I was there, not you. The father dying and the boy losing his leg weren´t the only horrendous injuries in that accident.”
“Pay him!” Alvaro told Dante, impassive. “Another million into Hector´s account or there´s no deal.”
“What´s all of that got to do with you?” Dante asked. “He could have made the whole thing up. You don´t have to be Confucius to see how gullible you are.”
“Maybe that´s true but that´s your bad luck. I´m not going to budge an inch. Pay him or you can play on with the few chips you´ve got left.”
“Very well, Doc. I'll pay, so I can win and wipe that smug look of all your faces. What you´re really doing is giving me another opportunity to come face to face with you two again.”
Dante took the chips off Alvaro and finished his part of the deal by calling the accountant.
“Let´s take a break.” Alvaro said.
He looked at the girl to see if she agreed or wanted to keep playing. But she wasn´t there. Her chair was empty. She´d apparently left while they had been arguing. He saw her in a corner of the room beside her inseparable companion. She was throwing a tennis ball that went surprisingly far given the size of her tiny arm. The big black dog shot after the ball each time she threw it, taking it in his razor sharp teeth and bringing it back to her. Zeta moved silently for such a large animal, and never crashed into any piece of furniture.
Alvaro handed a scrap of paper to Dante, with the account number of the bank he wanted the money paid into, written on it, and then walked away from the table. He wanted to be alone for a while to reflect on what had happened and the new direction the game was heading in.
The mystery of what drove Hector on, had only been partly solved. Now he could understand where he was coming from. A man coping with a problem like that had to be easy to beat. Really, he couldn´t even be considered a rival. Even so, there had to be more to Hector than that. The fact that he kept on refusing to play was testimony enough to that. Was it part of a plan? Was he waiting for the right moment? Had the surgeon been thrown off the track?
Alvaro thought about Dante´s comment that Hector had invented the sad story. He analyzed the expressions he´d seen on Hector´s face and concluded that he had been genuine. Even the best actor in the world couldn’t feign pain like that so close to his audience. Alvaro felt at ease with his observations. No, Hector wasn´t lying. What he had to find out was . . .
“You´ve been very generous.” Judith said, interrupting his thoughts.
Alvaro hadn´t heard her approach, absorbed as he was in his thoughts. She was standing in front of the sofa he was sitting on.
“I thought you didn´t want Dante to stay in the game.” He said straight away.
“I don´t.” She said. “But I understand your reasons for doing it. You´re a very generous person. More so than the rest of us here.”
Judith´s words made him feel better. It was pleasing to hear her opinion of him. He was well aware of the effort he was making to stay calm beside her. That wasn´t good for the game. He had to put his feelings to one side, to discard his feelings like bad cards, and keep his mind cold. The right thing to do was to go now, to make an excuse up and go back to the others. But he couldn´t do that.
“Do you want to sit down?” he asked making room for her on the sofa.
She nodded, placing her hand on her stomach and easing herself down.
“Let me help you.” He offered, putting his hand out.
“No!” she said firmly, a hint of alarm in her voice. “I can do it myself.”
The tone of her voice surprised Alvaro. It seemed like an overreaction.
“I´m sorry.” She said, seated now, rubbing her stomach. “It´s just that I get very nervous with my baby.”
“Don´t worry. I understand.”
She was shaking her head now. “No, I really am sorry. I don´t know why but I don´t like being touched.”
“Protective instinct. That makes me wonder . . .”
“What I´m going to be like as a mother. Am I right?”
“Yes, more or less. The thing is I find it difficult to understand what you´re doing here. The benefits are clear enough if you win. But you´re risking . . .“
“I was raped!” She said, stopping Alvaro in his tracks. “It happened on the way home one night. A huge man appeared out of nowhere and dragged me into an alley. I hit him as hard as I could but he didn´t feel anything. He just had his way with me there and walked off. When I found out I was pregnant it nearly killed me. And when I finally accepted it I found out I had an aneurism in the brain and had only two years to live. I heard about this game then and knew it was my only chance. I broke up with my boyfriend just in case I lost and put all my affairs in order. Forgive me for telling you all this. It´s just that I need to talk and you seem like the sort of person who would understand."
“I´m very sorry. I don´t have children, nor much experience worrying about others. But I guess if I was in your position I´d act the same way.” He said, thinking about what she´d just told him. The image of the brute in the alley on top of her invaded his mind. And her telling him her story made him feel it was time to tell her his. “My own case is infinitely more simple than yours. There´s nothing wrong with me. No problems. I´ve got nothing to tell. I´m perfectly healthy but I know in the next two years I´m going to suffer some sort of accident. There´s nothing else to tell.”
But Alvaro considered that his life was empty. He had no important friendship. His relationship with his family was almost non-existent. He´d stopped enjoying his work some time before. In his opinion, a person without passion, without hope, shouldn´t have the life of others in his hands. Playing cards had been the only thing that he´d devoted time and energy to. It had kept him going in a world that offered him nothing else. He´d built greed up as a substitute for all the other things that were lacking in his life. And made chance, king. His life was pathetic and he figured, that Judith wouldn´t really want to know how empty he wa
s at heart.
Judith was thoughtful. “I´d prefer that. It´s better not to know what will happen. The worst thing is knowing when.”
“I´m not so sure. I´ve spent a lot of time thinking about that accident. Wondering if it would be painful or not.”
“At least now you don´t have to worry about that.”
“What do you mean?”
“The accident. It won´t happen. That´s why we´re here.”
Alvaro turned around and looked at the girl. She was still playing with Zeta.
“You´re right. It´s a relief to know I won´t die in two years.”
* * * * *
CHAPTER SIX
“This is the account you´ve got to put the million in.” Hector said gruffly. He´d already rung the woman and asked for the relevant details.
Dante took the piece of paper and nodded.
“Very well, you can go now. I´ll do the rest alone.”
“I want to make sure you keep your word.”
Dante shrugged his shoulders. He unfolded the piece of paper and repeated the numbers to his accountant on his mobile. Then he gave precise instructions to make the transfer immediately.
Hector didn´t take his eye off him for a second, didn´t move from his side.
“I don´t have to tell you what I´m doing.” Dante grumbled. “It´s my money and I´ll do this without explanations. We´ll talk tomorrow and if this hasn´t been done you can start looking for another job!” he said, hanging up. “Ok, everything´s done. Are you happy?”
“Very!” Hector said, turning around to go.
“Wait a minute!” Dante said, grabbing him by the arm. “I´ve got a proposition for you. Maybe we can help each other out.”
“I´m not interested in that.”
“But you don´t know what I´m going to say. I´ve just thrown a fortune your way. The least you can do is listen to me.” The comment seemed reasonable enough so Hector stayed where he was. “We could help each other in the game. Keep the other two in their place. Share the chips. All of that doesn´t bother the girl. You can already see that she´ll let us do what we like.”
“I’m not interested.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don´t give a damn about the game. How many times have I got to say that before it sinks in? Besides, if I was going to help someone it wouldn´t be you. The world´s the rotten place it is because of bastards like you. You can´t follow society’s most basic rules. You´re always trying to pick another Euro out of someone else’s pocket to put it into your own. I repeat: you make me sick.”
“You´re a sad fool. What does the world out there matter now? There´s only four of us here. No one else. Our whole existence is lying on that card table. I don´t even know why I worry, you don´t understand anything.”
Dante had no idea what made Hector tick. Why would anyone refuse to play? It didn´t make sense. If he won he could fix every problem he had.
He walked around the room twice and when he sat down at the table again it was clear to him that Hector had simply collapsed under the weight of the cards that life had dealt him. He was too weak to work his way around the past. The world just pushed people like him around until they became what he was today: a sad reflection of the human being he´d one day been.
“Zeta, table!” the girl commanded her pet. “I want to go to the table. Run! Hurry!”
The dog shot across the room with the girl, who was holding his ears and roaring with laughter, bouncing high on his back. As soon as she was back on her chair the laughter stopped, and she started piling her cubes again on the felt.
“Looks like the game´s starting again.” Alvaro said, standing up, helping Judith to her feet. “I enjoyed the chat.”
“So did I.”
Dante was already at the table. “Well, are we all ready again?”
“Impatient to get going, are you?” Alvaro asked.
“And you´re not?” Dante replied. “The time´s now come to really see who´s the best.”
Judith took her time to settle into her chair and after she had, and careful not to look at Dante, she began to deal.
Hector saved his attention exclusively for the girl, while Alvaro started thinking about his next sleight of hand when his turn came around to deal.
“I´ll start with three.” Dante said, placing his bet.
Hector dropped out as was to be expected and Alvaro and Judith saw Hector. The game up to now had been between the three of them and they’d adapted to that.
Dante raised the bet and they saw him.
“How many chips are there?” Dante asked before he picked his cards up.
“Thirty.” Alvaro replied.
“Curious. Exactly a month.” Dante mused. “I could ruin a couple of companies in that amount of time.”
He turned a straight over on the table and won the hand.
“You´ll lose again.” Judith ventured to say.
“Sure, but this moment´s mine and I´ve won ten days from you and the doctor. Doesn´t that bother you?”
“More than you can imagine. There can´t be a worse fate for my time than keeping you alive any longer.”
“Don´t let him get to you, Judith.” Alvaro told her. “He only wants to put you off your game.”
“Listen to the expert speaking. A doctor who´s a compulsive gambler who knows so much about poker after playing thousands of games over the years. What´s your beef, Doc? Were you ruined in a game? I´d bet that´s what happened. Maybe you even lost your brother´s money? Yes, that´s it, isn´t it?” Dante clicked his fingers, the look of a man who had just resolved a complicated puzzle written on his face. “Now I can see it clearly. You not only lost your money, but your family´s as well. That´s why you didn’t want to go into details about your brother. You did all that to them, isn´t that right?”
Alvaro didn´t answer. His jaw stiffened as he did his best not to react. Hector wasn´t listening to what was going on. But Judith was. The expression on her face betrayed her curiosity. Alvaro couldn´t let her know and he wouldn´t give Dante the satisfaction of seeing that he´d hit the nail on the head. He hated Dante even more, if that was possible? The old man was astute, Alvaro had to admit that. He hadn´t put a business empire together only through fraud. The old bastard was as sharp as a tack.
“Stop shooting in the dark. Anyone can see that you´re only used to looking at everyone’s bad side.” Alvaro countered.
“Sure, that´s right.” Dante agreed. “And you´re the exact opposite. You´re the good guy and I´m the bad. And I guess he´s the ugly.” Dante said, looking at Hector, before he continued. “The good always feel guilty. It wouldn´t be easy to forget what you did to your brother. There´s a little man hiding under that big front of yours. That´s why you´re sticking up for the princess, here. What´s it to you if she gets nervous. If she plays bad it helps the rest of us.”
“Let her play the way she wants. And stop trying to get in her head!”
“What really irks you is that I´m winning thanks to you. If you hadn´t thrown me a lifeline I´d be already finished. You´ve given me a chance to beat all of you. Those ten days that the princess just lost was your fault. How does that make you feel?”
“You seem convinced you´re going to win. I beat you once and I´ll do it again. I´ll enjoy thinking about what I´m going to do in the two years that I´m going to snatch from you. Besides, you still haven´t got all your chips back. How many have you got there?” Alvaro shot a quick glance at Dante´s pile and frowned. “I reckon you´ve got no more than a year and two or three months. That means you´ve already lost at least ten months of your precious time. That truth shouldn’t make you feel so smug.”
Dante was going to say something but Hector started to deal and when he´d finished doing that he surprised everyone by looking at his cards. It was the first time he´d picked them up off the table.
“I´ll bet.” Hector said, tossing two chips in front of him.
The other three looked
at each other. They discarded and put their bets down quickly to see what Hector´s next step would be.
“Raise.” He said, counting his chips and pushing them into the center of the table. “There´s two months there if I´m not mistaken.”
His calculation was correct.
Alvaro´s luck was with him, he had three aces in his hand. So he decided to keep the game going. This was the first opportunity he´d had to analyze Hector´s playing style. “I´ll see you and raise you three months.”
“This is hotting up.” Dante said. “Very well, losers, I´m in too. Five months to see.”
Judith passed. Alvaro had already noticed that she always dropped out when the bets got bigger.
Hector looked at his chips. “Very well, this covers your three months and I´ll raise that six months more.”
That bet took Alvaro by surprise. He didn´t have any idea what to make of Hector. His voice wasn´t trembling, his breathing was normal. He looked relaxed, almost as if he was going to nod off. Alvaro looked at his hand again. Three aces was very good. Good enough to win most hands. But the bet was very high. Too high to put it all on the line against a player he didn’t understand. It was the first time that Hector had even played and he looked like he was in a coma. A good gambler would recognize the risk. Would know when to fold and when to hold.
“Too much for me.” Alvaro said. “I´m out.”
“Me, too.” Dante said. “It´s the first time the stinkpot’s gambled and he´s plucked everyone’s feathers.”
“Damn!” Hector shouted, throwing his cards down on the table to reveal a miserable pair of fours. “Some players you all are! You haven´t got a damn idea! I can´t believe it.”
Hector´s explosion caught Alvaro completely by surprise. He´d just won an excellent hand with a pair of fours! That was reason enough to celebrate not to be angry like he was. His face looked completely different, deformed by fury.
“You´ve won.” Alvaro pointed out. “What´s your problem?”
The Last Game Page 5