by Laura Childs
“It’s me. Saying hi to the guys.”
“Okay, then.”
“Thanks for keeping a careful eye on everything,” Suzanne said.
“No problem. Can’t be too careful these days.”
No, you can’t.
Suzanne climbed back in her car. She decided that one of these days, when it quit snowing and the sun popped out, she would throw a saddle on Mocha’s back and ride him up and down the long driveway. Work the kinks out. For both of them.
As she drove home, Suzanne thought about how simple life could be on a farm.
The farm was, of course, Suzanne’s Plan B. If the world economy collapsed, if the country went back to a barter system, that was where she’d live. With her horses and a few chickens, pigs, and goats. Put in a vegetable garden, keep up the soybeans and corn. The place already had a well, so she’d be relatively self-sufficient.
All in all, it wouldn’t be a bad state of affairs.
* * *
• • •
WHEN eight o’clock rolled around, Suzanne was as good as her word. She drove back over to Toni’s apartment, honked the horn like a bad date, picked her up, and headed out County Road 65 to the casino.
Yes, she’d definitely succumbed to Toni’s pleas to hang out at the casino tonight. But as a safeguard, Suzanne had brought along only thirty dollars. She’d play the slots and hope for the best, and if she couldn’t ring a win out of the cherries and lemons, that would be it. She’d call it a night. At least she hoped that’s how the evening would play out.
CHAPTER 26
TONI was jacked up like a hummingbird on speed. She talked a blue streak as Suzanne drove through the countryside, touching up her eye makeup in the small mirror on the visor, trying to glue on false eyelashes. When the eyelashes didn’t pan out, she studied her hair, then pulled out a curling iron and plugged it into the cigarette lighter.
“I don’t even know if that works,” Suzanne said. She was amused and a little in awe at the full force of beauty artillery that Toni seemed to find necessary.
Toni touched a hand to her curling iron. “Yeah, it’s heating up okay. Just because nobody smokes anymore doesn’t mean the ciggy lighters don’t work. They’re still quite useful.”
“I see that. Maybe we could even power up a set of hot rollers. Or a popcorn popper if we wanted a quick snack.”
“The way I look at it, beauty isn’t just an art; it’s a science,” Toni continued. “You need to do a lot of calculations to figure out just the right shades of eye shadow and lipstick. Take what I’m wearing tonight, for instance.”
“What are you wearing?” Suzanne asked. She’d done her brows, brushed on some mascara, and added a smear of pink lip balm. That was it.
“My eye shadow is called Blue Bayou. But if you’ve ever studied prisms and color wheels and things, you know that the color blue always has a touch of red in it. So what I did was pair it with a lipstick called Red Hot Mama.”
“What you did there”—Suzanne waved a hand around her face—“looks good.”
“Thanks. Because if I don’t put on makeup, I come precariously close to looking like a bag lady.”
“No.”
“And I do wish I’d had time to hit a tanning salon for a fake bake.” Toni reached down, touched a finger to her curling iron, and said, “Ouch!”
“Hot?”
“Really hot.” Toni started rolling and crimping her hair, corkscrewing herself around in the front seat.
Szzzt! There was a loud sizzling sound, followed by a puff of smoke.
“What was that?” Suzanne asked, clearly alarmed.
“Curling iron just grazed my Dynel clip-on curls,” Toni said. “I better be careful; I don’t want my hairpiece melted into a blob.”
“We can’t have that happening.”
Toni finished her hair, then pressed both feet against the dashboard and said, “What I’m thinking is, we can’t go into the casino all willy-nilly.”
“We can’t?”
“No. We need to have a plan, a gambling strategy.”
“I was just going to play a few slot machines,” Suzanne said.
“No, no, no, we gotta ease into the night with some blackjack. I’m feeling super lucky.”
“I’m not sure I’d be good at blackjack; I’m not familiar with the rules.”
“Blackjack is just twenty-one,” Toni said. “Come on, I know you’ve seen blackjack tournaments on TV where a bunch of dissipated C-list actors sit around a table, smoking cigars and trying to outbluff each other.”
“Okay, yeah. I guess I have seen that,” Suzanne said. For about two seconds. Then I turned it off.
“What you wanna do is draw to twenty-one. But if you go over . . . kaboom. You go bust and the house wins.”
“The house?”
“Suzanne, you’re acting like you’ve never been in a casino before. Like you just woke up in a parallel universe.”
“You know what?” Suzanne said. “I’ll just wing it as we go along.”
* * *
• • •
TEN minutes later found them walking through Shooting Star Casino, where lights blinked, buzzers buzzed, music blared, and everyone seemed to have lost their minds. Toni, in her tight jeans and gold lamé jacket, was pretending to be Sharon Stone in the movie Casino as they bopped over to a nearby blackjack table.
“Here, sit here,” Toni said. “This table is a cheapie, only two dollars a hand.”
They sat down in front of a somber-looking man in a white shirt and black string tie who looked more like a truck driver than a blackjack dealer.
“This is gonna be great,” Toni said as they bought some chips. She winked at the dealer and popped the top two buttons open on her blouse. “We’re gonna do great, I can feel it in my bones.”
But Toni’s bones were a little creaky tonight. And the hands were dealt so fast that, five minutes later, they were both down twenty dollars.
“How did that happen?” Toni asked as they walked down a row of slot machines. She seemed dazed and confused. “That guy was dealing cards so fast, the whole thing seemed like a blur. My brain can’t work that fast.”
“We need to slow down and take it easy before we both go broke,” Suzanne said.
But Toni was starting to bounce back from her loss. “How about we try our luck at the wheel of fortune?” She pointed toward a large vertical standing wheel. “If we hit the right number, we could win that cute little Mercedes-Benz sports car that’s parked next to it!”
Suzanne looked at the thin skim of dust that was on the car’s hood and figured the cute little sports car had managed to outlast a lot of optimistic gamblers. But Toni was not to be deterred. She put down a dollar. And when that didn’t pan out, she slapped down five dollars.
“Ooh,” Toni said when the wheel stopped on the number ten. “I was so close.”
“Maybe we should call it a night.”
“I thought we’d get something to eat at the buffet. It’s supposed to be cheap and pretty good.”
So they went through the buffet line, loaded up their plates with ribs, chicken, and hunks of corn bread, and sat down at a table.
“Having fun?” Toni asked as she nibbled a wing doused in hot sauce.
“It’s okay,” Suzanne said. She was feeling bored but didn’t want to completely rain on Toni’s parade.
“I think we just need to readjust our attitude. I read in a gambling book once that you have to lose money before you can win some.”
“We’ve got that covered,” Suzanne said.
“So it would behoove us to try, try, try again.”
So they did. After they finished dinner, they wandered into the middle of the casino, where a few exotic games were being played.
“Wait a minute, what’s that?” Toni asked. Sh
e was gazing at an octagonal-shaped table with two neon red Chinese dragons hanging over it.
“Pai gow,” Suzanne said, reading the sign beneath the dragons.
“Sounds exotic.”
“Sounds dangerous. Like you could lose a lot of money and not realize it because it’s all done in a foreign language.”
“Still, I gotta give it a shot,” Toni said.
“How’s your Mandarin?”
“Not so hot. Then again, neither is my English.”
“Then why don’t we just watch for a while? Try to get the hang of the game,” Suzanne said.
But the longer they watched, the more complicated the game looked.
“Are you getting this?” Toni asked.
Suzanne shook her head. “Not even a little bit.”
“I think it’s like poker, only the dealer shakes the dice to see who gets their cards first.”
“And each player is arranging their cards into two separate hands. I wonder if—” Suzanne stopped abruptly. She’d just seen a familiar face ghosting through the crowd.
“What?” Toni said. “What were you going to ask?”
Suzanne shook her head. “Nothing. No, I . . . I think I just saw Mayor Mobley go by.”
“Where?” Toni turned around and searched the crowd.
“I don’t know. He’s gone now.”
“Mobley’s a gambler? Maybe this is where all the city’s money is being squandered.”
“I wouldn’t put it past him,” Suzanne said. Seeing Mayor Mobley had given her a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach. Something was blipping out a slow warning to her. Had Mobley followed them here? Or was it simply a coincidence? Was he just chilling out like everyone else?
“And every player takes a turn at being the banker.” Toni’s focus was back on the pai gow game, still trying to decipher its workings.
Suzanne grabbed Toni by the arm and pulled her away from the table. “Come on, let’s go home.”
“I guess,” Toni said. They walked down a row of dollar slot machines that made enticing plinkety-plink sounds and headed for the exit, when Toni stopped dead.
“Now what’s wrong?” Suzanne asked.
“I clean forgot.”
“What did you forget?”
“I’m pretty sure I clipped a two-dollar gaming coupon out of the Logan County Shopper.” Toni dug in her shoulder bag, pulled out a crumpled piece of paper, and studied it. “Yup. It says here this coupon is good for one free roll of nickels.”
“What are you talking about?”
Toni fluttered the coupon in Suzanne’s face. “If I redeem this coupon, we get to play the nickel slots using house money.” She was jazzed up again.
“Seriously?” Suzanne had pretty much had it with the casino. The cacophony of ringing bells and clattering coins, plus the evening’s entertainment of a rockabilly band, were giving her the makings of a nasty headache.
“I’ll split the nickels with you,” Toni offered.
“No, that’s okay.” The way Toni played, popping in five nickels at once, Suzanne figured they’d be out of the casino in no time flat. “Where do you have to get your nickels?”
“Cash office.”
They walked past the Lucky Deuce Cocktail Lounge and down a short hallway to where the cash office was located across from an exit door. There were two tellers plus an armed guard sitting behind bars and bulletproof glass. It looked like serious security, and Suzanne figured they might even keep a couple of trained Rottweilers back there, too, for good measure.
“Okay,” Suzanne said. “You go ahead and get those nickels.” There were five people in line ahead of Toni.
“You won’t regret this,” Toni said.
But five minutes later they kind of did.
“This is taking forever,” Suzanne said.
“People cashing out their winnings,” Toni said.
“I think you have to fill out some kind of tax form if you win above a certain amount.”
“See?” Toni said. “That alone gives me hope. That there are actual big-time winners here.”
But as they waited in line, they were suddenly aware of some kind of disturbance going on outside. Angry shouting. Loud protests. Punches being thrown?
“Do you hear that?” Toni asked. “That rock ’em, sock ’em sound?”
Suzanne nodded. “Sounds like there’s a fight going on.”
“Out in the parking lot?” Toni darted out of line, pushed open one of the exit doors, and stuck her head out. “Holy macarons!” she yelped. “Some poor guy is getting the stuffing beat out of him!”
Suzanne ran over to see for herself. And, sure enough, there were two guys in ski masks whaling on a guy wearing a burnt orange parka. They were punching, kicking, and swearing at the poor guy, who was sprawled facedown on the ground, struggling to protect his head.
“We have to call security,” Suzanne cried. She spun around, with Toni on her heels, and ran back to the cash office. She cut to the front of the line and pounded on the window, rattling the glass. “Help, please. Two guys in your parking lot are beating somebody up!”
The guard immediately jumped up and held a radio to his mouth. Suzanne couldn’t hear what he was saying but could see through the glass that he was calling for help. For reinforcements.
One minute later, four more security guards arrived. And in a flying wedge of black uniforms, they pushed their way through the exit doors. Only to find . . .
Nothing.
Stunned, Suzanne elbowed her way to the front of the pack. “Well, they were here.”
“We saw them,” Toni said. “Two guys beating the crap out of a third guy. Really tuning up on him.”
“It’s all over now,” the guard from the cash office said. “They probably jumped in their cars and are long gone.”
One of the other security guards shrugged. “Guess they must have resolved their differences.”
“It seemed a lot more serious than just a disagreement,” Suzanne said. “The guy in the orange jacket was really getting pounded.” She’d seen fists flying, heard the sickening thud of flesh against flesh. Now she gazed out into the parking lot and saw only cars lit by the orange glow of sodium-vapor lights. A gentle snow had started to drift down. She lifted her arms in a gesture of futility and said, “Does this happen often? Fights in the parking lot, I mean?”
Another security guard with dark curly hair and a brush mustache shook his head and said, “Ma’am, you have no idea.”
* * *
• • •
BY the time Suzanne and Toni were back on the road, the snow was coming down with a lot more intensity.
“I think it’s a good thing we left when we did. Some of the snow is starting to compact on the road and make it slippery,” Suzanne said.
“Lots of twists and turns on this old road, too,” Toni said. “Maybe I should have borrowed Junior’s Blue Beater. It’s got studded tires.”
“Aren’t those illegal?”
“Yeah, I guess. But he’s really big into ice racing. A lot of dudes get together every Sunday over at Fish Lake. It’s really fun to watch.”
“I’ll bet.”
They continued along as County Road 65 ran through some of the prettiest country in Logan County. There were forests that swept all the way up to high ridgelines, ravines where creeks whooshed down through rocky gateways. And it was deserted out here, too, in this rough-and-tumble territory. It wasn’t the kind of prime farmland that was found farther west of Kindred.
They spun through an S-curve and went down a steep hill. Towering fir trees rose on both sides, making the road close in more than ever. Suddenly, Suzanne’s headlights picked up two bright eyes peering up at them from a ditch.
“You see that?” Toni cried out in surprise. “What was that critter?”
> “Probably a fox,” Suzanne said. “Or maybe a raccoon, though they’re mostly hunkered down by now.”
“Not many houses out this way,” Toni said. She sounded anxious.
“Not too many.” Suzanne had kept her eyes front and center on the road as she drove; now she glanced in her rearview mirror.
“Nothing much moving out here,” Toni said.
“Except that guy coming up behind us. He’s gaining on us like crazy. Must be doing seventy miles an hour.”
“Maybe let him pass you.”
“I’ve got no problem with that,” Suzanne said. She eased off the gas and moved toward the right shoulder.
But the car didn’t pass her. Instead it roared right up behind her, its bright lights shining through the rear window. The driver seemed content to stick hard on their tail.
“This sucks,” Suzanne said. “I just wish he’d go around me.”
Toni turned around to look. “Jeez, why does he have to have his brights on?”
“Because he’s rude.”
But that wasn’t the half of it. Five seconds later the car nipped right up onto their rear bumper and gave them a nudge.
“Did that crazy driver just do what I think he did?” Toni asked.
“Bumped me. Must be desperate to pass.”
Suzanne slowed down, but then the car behind her slowed down, too.
“Okay then, I’ll speed up.” She was starting to get steamed. She didn’t relish playing a game of chicken out here in the wilds.
“Holy crap,” Toni said, glancing over her shoulder. “Now he’s speeding up.”
“I can’t seem to lose this bum.”
“Well, be careful,” Toni said.
“Believe me, I’m trying to be careful.”
“Probably a disgruntled gambler,” Toni said. “Lost his entire paycheck at the craps tables.”
“A familiar refrain.”
Suzanne slowed again on a downgrade that had a tricky curve halfway through it. Which was the exact moment the car banged into them a second time.