The Only Girl in the Game

by John D. MacDonald

  “Max and I aren’t what you’d call buddies, you know.”

  “He’s a very smart man. And … excuse me for saying this … he knows a lot about how things work around here … things you might not know about, Hugh.”

  Hugh Darren felt the quick anger tauten his body. “Bunny, I told them when I came here, and I’m telling you again, I have no interest in knowing anything about any clandestine arrangements. I’m no conspirator. I don’t give a damn about the casino and the money room, or any foxy tricks those boys practise. They had a sick horse here, and so they had enough sense to go out and hire a good vet. They hired a pro, Bunny. They hired me away from one of the biggest operations in the Bahamas. They said I’d have a free hand. I don’t have a free hand. All I want to do is run this hotel operation.”

  “Just talk it over with Max, Hugh. Will you do that first instead of going up and hitting Al Marta with it cold?”

  Darren studied his night manager’s anxious, loyal face. Byron B. Rice, condemned from the very beginnings of pinkness and trembling to be known as Bunny, robbed by that inevitable name of both passion and authority, never to be called Mr. Rice even by the bus boys.

  Darren sighed. “All right, Bunny. I’ll do it your way.”

  Hugh Darren’s office was at the end of a short corridor which opened off the lobby near the registration desk. The door to that corridor was marked “Private.” In the smaller offices opening off the corridor were the nerve centers of the hotel operation—bookkeeping, accounting, billing, purchasing, credit, payroll. Since taking over the game, if not the name, Hugh Darren had made clear and specific a functional division of all his complex activities.

  In simplest terms, he was concerned with every aspect of food, drink and shelter—their acquisition, preparation, serving of and collection for. And he was responsible for maintenance of the whole plant, inside and out. And so he had pinned—in a triumph of the obvious—the specific responsibilities onto specific people: hiring sullen temperamental gifted George Ladori away from the Casa Vegas and loading him with all the functions concerned with food served everywhere in the hotel; promoting humorless reliable John Trabe to supervise all liquor operations; leaving bitter old Walter Welch in charge of all inside and outside maintenance, and giving him a freer hand than he had had before, because he was good.

  That left Darren with nothing to do but run the hotel, handle lease of concessions, supervise all non-casino personnel, solicit trade, control Ladori, Trabe, Welch and the front desk, clean up after Jerry Buckler’s mistakes … nothing he couldn’t handle in a ninety-hour week … based always on what is known as the First Rule of All Hotels, “If something hasn’t gone wrong, it will.”

  He walked into his office a few minutes after ten. This morning time in the office, an hour or so for the analysis of operating reports and the signing of this and that, and quick conferrings with key personnel, was the nearest thing to established routine that he was able to manage—though sometimes he arrived there after sleep, other times before he had had a chance to go to bed.

  He pushed the office door open and wished the lettering on it could miraculously cease to irritate him. Jerome L. Buckler, Manager. Hugh J. Darren, Assistant Manager. In the practical mythology of the hotel trade, the average assistant manager has approximately the same status as the elevator starter, and usually works for less money.

  But he could not fault the decor of the office. The wall-to-wall rug matched the Williamsburg blue of the draperies. The walls and the formica desk and table tops were oyster white, matching the white leather of the furniture. It was hushed, soundproofed, air conditioned. There was an intercom, tape dictation equipment, a noiseless electric typewriter at the secretarial desk in the corner. There were two custom executive desks. The larger of the two, seldom used, belonged to Jerry Buckler.

  Hugh Darren went directly to his desk and began to check the daily operation summaries placed in perfect alignment in the center of his large dark blue blotter by Miss Jane Sanderson.

  She came back into the office thirty seconds after he had begun to read the summaries. “Good morning, or is it?” she said. She was a slat-thin woman, very tall, with legitimately white hair in a cropped tousled cut which should have been too young for her and wasn’t. In spite of her indoor employment she managed to maintain a hickory tan. After too many disheartening weeks trying to make a secretary of various slothful dumplings, he had found Jane through a blind ad placed in the Los Angeles papers.

  “It is another one of those same mornings, Miss Jane.”

  “That’s what I was afraid of.”

  “Try to set up an appointment for me with Max Hanes, whenever he’s up and about. Neutral ground, I guess. So make it the Little Room. Then see if you can get Downey on the phone.”

  “I think he’s still in that motel. His wife found something they like, but they couldn’t move in right away, and I guess maybe that was a good thing.”

  He went through the summaries, jotting down brief notes in his pocket notebook to use during his daily inspection trip, and then began to study the checkout-checkin list. The name of each guest had coded information beside it, indicating how many times, if any, he or she had previously been in the house, the type of accomodations, his occupation—if available, credit arrangements, any special services requested, the total amount of the bill on checkout. A note from the desk indicated that 603 had been reported by the housekeeper to have been stripped before checkout. A salesman from Denver, who should know better. Hugh made a note for Jane to send the usual letter. If the man ignored it, he would suddenly find himself unable to make reservations in fine hotels in many places.

  “Mr. Downey on the line,” Jane said.

  Hugh Darren picked up the phone and said, “Tommy, there was an elective course you should have taken, all about how to cope with a drunken boss man.”

  Tom Downey’s tone was chilly. “I had the four-year hotel administration course, Mr. D., and I had a year and a half at the L.A. Ambassador, and maybe the only thing I’ve learned is I don’t have to take abusive crap from anybody.”

  “You’re just as sore as I figured you’d be, Tommy.”

  “I get mad once a year, Hugh. And I stay mad.”

  “I brought you in here, Tommy. And I’ve got good reasons for not letting you go like this.”

  “I was fired, remember? I’m long gone. Sorry.”

  “Suppose we had a big change here? Suppose all of a sudden it’s all mine?”

  In the long silence he heard Downey sigh before he said, “In that case I’d come running back and you know it. Not loyalty, Hugh. But I guess there is some of that. Self-interest I can learn so damn much from the way you operate. But right now you’re dreaming. Buckler is Al Malta’s buddy.”

  “All I’m asking is for you to sit tight while I give it the big try. Then either you can come back, or we’ll both be looking for work. Okay?”

  “On that basis, sure, Hugh. And … good luck.”

  After Hugh had set up an appointment with Max Hanes for two that afternoon in the Little Room, he made his rounds, conferring with his lieutenants. He went with his maintenance chief, old Walter Welch, to the men’s shop in the arcade off the lobby. The concessionaire wanted to take out a wall at his own expense. Walter said removal wouldn’t affect structural strength, so Darren gave his conditional approval based on a final approval by the hotel architect. He went back to his office and called his food chief, George Ladori, in for a forty-minute fight over the price changes on the dummy of a new menu overdue at the printer’s, and he won those points he had expected to win, while giving Ladori the feeling, so necessary to that man, that he had achieved victory.

  Next came John Trabe, Hugh’s liquor chief, with a satisfactory accounting for the discrepancy in the last liquor inventory, and the worried information that one of his best bartenders had been reliably reported as having been seen at the Showboat, gambling heavily. Hugh told John Trabe to perform his own discreet investigation a
nd take the action he thought best. Trabe had obviously hoped to duck that responsibility, and so he accepted the orders grudgingly.

  After signing the letters Jane had typed up, Hugh once again prowled the big hotel. He went up to the sun deck and looked at the new sun lounges which had recently been delivered. He checked on the progress of redecoration of two suites on the fourth floor. He cautioned Red Elver, the head lifeguard, that two of his boys were hustling the guests too strenuously for tips.

  By the time he had returned to his office and dictated more replies to current correspondence, he barely had time for lunch before meeting Max Hanes. He angled across the main casino floor to the Little Room. In all the big hotel casinos of Las Vegas, it is always a few minutes after midnight. The sun never touches these places. The lighting is clever and directional—so that the playing surfaces are bright enough, and all the rest is shadowy—a half light that fosters indiscretion. They are big rooms, all darks and greens, sub-sea places. He saw the guests clotted close around one of the crap tables, their faces sick in the reflected light, the smoke rising, the stick man chanting, a casino waitress taking drink orders.

  The Little Room is a shadowy place of leather, dark wood, white linen, small lamps that give a flattering orange glow. At the raised dais in the far corner there is always someone at the piano. It never stops.

  Max Hanes was alone in a big leather booth on the far side of the room. He was a man of medium height with an astonishing breadth of shoulder, a hairless, shining head, a face that sagged into saffron foldings yet had a simian alertness. People frequently thought him an Oriental. The rumor went that from time to time during his life people had tried to nickname him Chink. And he had hospitalized each of them with his hands. He was thought to be a Latvian, and it was known he had been a wrestler long before the days of gilded bobby pins. The people who worked for him gave him that special, undiluted respect that can only be achieved through pure terror.

  As Hugh sat opposite him, Max Hanes said, “I was listening to the slots. A man spends his life by the sea, he can tell you the size waves coming in without looking. I can tell the casino take for the afternoon to within a thousand bucks. The slots give you the picture of how the tables are going.”

  “That’s interesting, Max.”

  “Everything in this place is based on the slots, Darren. And that includes me and you, and all your fancy plans. Don’t ever forget that.”

  “It’s a lousy way to start this little conference, Max. When I first came here you told me you’re more important than I am in this picture. No casino—no hotel. Okay. So you keep telling me. Should I put it in writing?”

  “Maybe you should. You keep forgetting.”

  “You won’t let me forget it, Max. I can depend on you.”

  “Ten years ago it was easier around here. Not in this place, because this place wasn’t built then. But the liquor was on the house, and a good meal was a dollar, and a room was three, and we didn’t have these problems. We didn’t need guys like you. Hotel managers!”

  Hugh Darren leaned forward. “And when I came here eight months ago, Max, you were supposed to be running the casino and Jerry was supposed to be running the hotel. But both of you were messing in each other’s back yards, and the place was such a mess they had to bring somebody in to straighten it out. Now stop telling me how good it used to be and tell me something I want to know. Is your life a lot simpler and easier than it used to be?”

  “I don’t know. I guess so. If you tell me it is.”

  “You know it is, Max. You want all the hotel operations run in such a way that you get maximum play in the casino. That’s what I’m giving you. And when you have any beef, you know where to come. People who have had bad food, short measure on their drinks and dirty rooms don’t come back and play your tables. So I’m building a new reputation for this place.”

  “It’s slow play out there this week. How come?”

  “You know how come. You booked a dog into the Safari Room, and when that show moves out and the Swede opens in her show, you’re going to get more play. So it’s your own fault, isn’t it? You book every bit of entertainment in here, and it comes out of the casino take, and I have nothing to do with it.”

  “Too much comes out of the casino take lately.”

  “Max, when you request me to give away food, drinks and lodging to special people who gamble heavy, I have to charge it to the casino. Otherwise, how can I keep logical books on my own operation? And the thirty per cent of all overhead wasn’t set up by me. You know that.”

  “What you’re trying to do, Darren, you’re trying to operate the hotel part with a profit,” Max Hanes said accusingly.

  “That’s what I was ordered to do, damn it! And I should be almost over into the black by the end of this year.”

  “It isn’t right. The hotel should run at a loss. It’s a service to bring the big play around, to sweeten the casino take.”

  “Don’t argue with me, Max. Argue with the management of every hotel on the Strip. That’s what they’re all aiming for. It’s the trend.”

  “It’s a bad trend.”

  A waitress came over to the booth. Hugh ordered a pot of coffee. Max Hanes asked for another sherry. The wine glass looked incongruous in his hairy, thick-fingered paw, as out of character as the ancient yellow of his long ivory cigarette holder and his salmon-pink sports jacket. He always reminded Hugh of some cynical old chimpanzee who goes through his act for the sake of the bananas.

  Hugh grinned at him. “No matter how much it bugs you, Max, we are working together, and it is becoming a better place to eat, sleep, drink and … lose your money.”

  “Every operation is getting so goddam legitimate lately,” Max said. “So I got to put up with changes. What do you want now? I should move out some slots so you got room for tea-dancing?”

  “You know damn well you’re stealing half my lobby next month.”

  “One third.”

  “Max, I want your advice. I want Jerry Buckler out of my hair. He’s a problem drunk. I spend too much time patching up his mistakes. I want him out of the picture as far as running the hotel end is concerned.”

  Max Hanes leaned back and the sallow lids hid most of his quick black eyes. “You want him out of the way. You’re a pretty ambitious kid.”

  “Max, is he a drunk?”

  “Yes. It didn’t used to be so bad. The last couple of years, yes. And it gets worse, so old friends got to care for him.”

  “Is he incompetent?”

  “Would you be here if he wasn’t? At fancy pay and with a free hand?”

  “It should be a free hand, but it isn’t.”

  “You must be getting smart, talking about this to me, Darren.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “Suppose you took it right to Al. Al checks with me. I say I don’t see any reason to change anything so Al Marta says to you to take it the way it is or get out, and we get another smart boy who will take it.”

  “But why?”

  “Don’t you have the picture yet? One of those big New York hotels, a manager starts to fall apart, they fire him. It’s a cold business. Here you got to figure on sentiment.”

  “I can’t feel very sentimental about Jerry Buckler, Max.”

  “A lot of people can, kid. Al Marta, for one. You take Jerry, he operated a place on the Florida Keys way back. Way, way back, when the stuff was coming in from Cuba in thousand-case lots. It was, like you could say, a gathering place. Lots of deals were made there. Later on Jerry was in on the Miami thing when it was going good, managing one of Fats McCabe’s places out near Miami Shores. Then he managed one of the places in Havana. From there to Reno, and from Reno to here, and it was Al Marta brought him in here. It goes way back, Darren, to old times and old places. Al let him run this until he damn near ran it into the ground before Al went out and brought you in to clean up.”

  “I’m not saying throw him out into the street.”

  “You just want to
keep him from having any say at all in the running of the hotel end. That would hurt him, wouldn’t it?”

  “Probably.”

  “I don’t think Al would want to hurt him, and I don’t think I would want to hurt him.”

  “Because he knows too much?”

  Max Hanes gave him a pitying look and shook his head sadly. “Honest to God, how do you get the time to watch that crime crap on TV? That’s the only place you could get an idea like that. First, you never let a drunk know anything he might hurt you with. Second, if he ever tried to use old stuff to pressure you, he’d get himself a shallow hole out on the lone praireee. Third, you take care of your own all the way down the line because there comes a time when maybe you need it yourself. This isn’t the Hilton Hotel Corporation, kid.” He made a gesture with an ape arm that included all Las Vegas. “A lot of this town is just a bunch of old buddies taking care of each other.”

  “The Cameroon Corporation is paying me too much salary to have me wasting my time patching up things after Jerry goes staggering through, Max. So is there any way he can be kicked upstairs—so his pride won’t be hurt?”

  “You might not like that as well as you think you would.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You might not have the whole picture.”

  There had been a sudden shift in the direction of the conversation. During his eight months at the Cameroon it had happened to Hugh before, and it annoyed him each time. It was like being a school kid again and, while standing and talking to several kids, suddenly realizing from a veiled comment that they all belonged to some secret society. You had not been invited to join, and you knew you would not be.

  “Max, I don’t want the whole picture, or whatever it is you’re talking about. I want to run a hotel.”

  “You listen close, Darren. Learn a little. I’m on the casino end. Jerry is on the hotel end. I can come to you with the routine stuff. But suppose something special comes up, something where the hotel and the casino have to work close? Jerry talks my language. Together we do what has to be done.”