Grift Sense
Page 29
Running Bear got out of the Jeep. The men stepped aside, revealing a body lying facedown in the water. It was a man, and he'd been shot once in the head. His left forearm had been chewed off, as had both his feet. Someone had hooked him by the collar. Running Bear said, “Flip him over.”
The men obeyed. The dead man was covered with mud, and one of the men filled a bucket out of the lake and dumped it on his face. Running Bear knelt down, just to be sure.
Back in his trailer, Running Bear thumbed through the stack of business cards he kept in his desk. He had decided to dump Jack Lightfoot's body in nearby Broward County—the men in the limo had been white, so let white men deal with the crime—and Smooth Stone was on the phone making arrangements.
“Done,” his head of security said, hanging up.
Running Bear found the card he was looking for and handed it to Smooth Stone. “Call this guy and hire him. Tell him everything, except our finding the body.”
Smooth Stone stared at the card in his hand.
Grift Sense
International Gaming Consultant
Tony Valentine, President
(727) 591-5115
“He catches people who cheat casinos,” Running Bear explained.
“You think he can help us?”
Running Bear heard the suspicion in Smooth Stone's voice. Bringing in an outsider was a risk, but it was a chance he had to take. Jack Lightfoot had cheated them. If word got out that his dealers were crooked, their business would dry up overnight. The casino was the reservation's main revenue source: It paid for health care, education, and a three-thousand-dollar monthly stipend to every adult. If it fell, so did his people.
“I heard him lecture at a gambling seminar,” Running Bear said.
“Any good?”
Running Bear nodded. He'd learned more about cheating listening to Tony Valentine for a few hours than he'd learned running a casino for ten years.
“The best,” he said.
Grift Sense is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are a product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
A Ballantine Book
Published by The Ballantine Publishing Group
Copyright © 2001 by James Swain
This book contains an excerpt from Sucker Bet by James Swain published by Ballantine Books. Copyright © 2003 by James Swain
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by The Ballantine Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and distributed in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
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This edition published by arrangement with Simon & Schuster, Inc.
eISBN: 978-0-345-46657-0
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