African Violet Club Mystery Collection

by Elise M Stone

  Bernadine snorted beside her, then woke up with a start when the van stopped. “Did I fall asleep?” Not waiting for an answer, she shook herself, then rose to her feet and stepped into the aisle, bumping into Mary on her way out.

  Mary gave her a hurt look as Bernadine backed into the row.

  “’Scuse me,” Bernadine said and hurried toward the front of the van.

  Lilliana scooted over and waited while Mary maneuvered her way into the aisle from her seat. Harlan glanced back at her, and she raised her eyebrows in a question.

  “Go ahead.” Harlan looked put out.

  She was tempted to tell him to go first, but why should she cater to the nasty man? She rose quickly and followed Mary. She had to wait while Manuel helped Mary down the steps and opened her walker for her. She could hear Harlan harrumphing behind her the entire time.

  It was a relief to step out into the fresh air after over an hour sitting cooped up in the van. Lilliana took a deep breath. Nancy and Lenny had already started walking toward the casino. Harlan cut around her to follow them. Lilliana stepped up beside Mary. “Shall we walk together?”

  Mary looked up at her gratefully. “That would be very nice.”

  She kept her pace slow so Mary could keep up. A steady stream of people passed them, mostly elderly like themselves. Two huge buses pulled up in front of the entrance and disgorged more people. They headed for the door like pilgrims on their way to Mecca. The quiet of the outdoors quickly gave way to the cacophony of slot machines once they were inside. And the smell of stale cigarette smoke. Lilliana’s throat objected, and she had to cough. Smoke was one thing she hadn’t expected. Since the casino was on reservation land, apparently it didn’t have to comply with the no smoking laws of the rest of the state.

  “I need to reload my card,” Mary said as she turned her walker toward the cashier windows. Card? wondered Lilliana. She took a look at the nearest row of slot machines. Things had changed quite a bit since her last visit to a casino. Not only were there no levers to pull, people weren’t holding buckets of quarters in their laps either. She followed Mary to see how things worked now.

  She soon discovered that you paid for your gambling with a plastic card similar to a credit card. Any winnings you got were credited to it. You could settle up on your way out the door or leave whatever balance was on it at the end for the next time you came. Lilliana doubted there’d be a next time for her. But she had allotted ten dollars to playing the slot machines while she was here, so she bought a card.

  She’d lost track of Mary in the lines at the cashier windows. Scanning the area as people eddied around her, she briefly caught a glimpse of Mary pushing her walker in pursuit of Harlan.

  “Are you waiting for someone?” Nancy asked from beside her.

  Lilliana shook her head. “I thought Mary would show me how these new slot machines worked, but she seems to have forgotten about me.”

  Nancy followed Lilliana’s gaze. “How rude. Why don’t you come with me? I can show you how the slots work.”

  Nancy led the way to the slot machines, bypassing the first three rows. Lilliana wondered whether there was some unknown advantage to the row Nancy chose since there were plenty of unoccupied places in the first three. About half-way down, Nancy stopped. “This is good.”

  “Why?” Lilliana looked up and down the row and couldn’t see anything unique about Nancy’s choice.

  “The vibes are better here.”

  Seriously? Lilliana didn’t say that out loud, of course. She perched on the stool next to Nancy. The front of the machine nearly blinded her with all the colored lights. At the top a screen displayed all the combinations, and what the payout was for each. Down near her knees, another vividly colored panel blared the name of the game. In the middle, the machine looked like a normal slot machine. Only the spinning part didn’t spin and the wheels weren’t wheels, just computer simulations. And there were five of them, not three. There was a big button conveniently close to where her hand naturally fell. “Spin” was printed clearly in the middle of it. It seemed easy enough. Lilliana pushed her card into the slot provided—the only real slot on this new-fangled machine—and followed the prompts. Then she pushed the spin button with her forefinger. The wheels spun and the machine made chiming noises for a while, then the five pictures lined up in the window. She hadn’t won. What a surprise.

  Lilliana played a few more times, actually managing to win once or twice, then grew bored with the game. Without the lever to pull, it didn’t feel like you were doing anything. It took some skill to pull the lever with just the right force, as she remembered. And she was sure changing the way you pulled it affected whether you won or not. What skill was involved in pushing a button? She slid off her stool and said to Nancy, “I’m going...”

  She didn’t complete the sentence. Nancy stared at the machine in front of her, slack-jawed, eyes not blinking until long after the pictures stopped spinning. Robotically, she pushed the button again.

  “Nancy.” No response. “Nancy,” she said a little louder. Lilliana looked up and down the row. Every machine was occupied with a senior citizen pushing the buttons in front of them. They looked mesmerized, hardly aware of what was going on around them. The zombie casino, thought Lilliana. She had a feeling the apocalypse could come and these people wouldn’t notice.

  Lilliana shrugged. She supposed in case of emergency the casino would do something to wake them up. Turning off the electricity would probably work. She’d have to come up with another method to get Nancy’s attention when it was time to get back in the van. Meanwhile, she was going to see if there was something more interesting going on.

  She was thinking of going outside to get away from the noise and the smoke, when she came upon a door labeled Poker Room. Curiosity getting the better of her, she opened the door and slipped inside. The first thing she noticed was the quiet. No constant chiming of slot machines here. The second thing she noticed was the clean air. A No Smoking sign was clearly posted. Relieved, she took a deep breath. The third thing she noticed was Harlan Taft sitting at one of the tables.

  She looked around more carefully, wondering if any of the other Rainbow Ranch people were in this room. Mary gave her a sad smile when their eyes met. She was standing a few feet from Harlan, looking out of place. Lilliana went over to join her.

  “What’s going on in here?” Lilliana asked.

  “Poker,” Mary said unnecessarily.

  “I can see that. I meant was there anything special.”

  “I don’t really know. Harlan snapped at me when I stood behind him, so I moved over here. I don’t know much about poker.”

  “So why are you standing in here?” Lilliana had a hunch.

  “I’m waiting for Harlan to stop playing. I thought it would be nice if we ate lunch together.”

  Lilliana looked over at the poker table. Harlan looked as involved in his poker game as Nancy was at the slots—without the zombie face. “I doubt he’ll be stopping soon. Why don’t you go out into the casino and have some fun for yourself? I’ll make sure you know if Harlan decides to have lunch.”

  Doubt mixed with relief flowed over Mary’s face. “Would you?”

  “Of course.”

  Mary took a deep breath. “Thank you. I’m getting awfully tired standing here, leaning on my walker. I’d like to sit down for a bit.”

  “Go ahead, then.” Lilliana escorted Mary back to the entrance, held the door for her, then stood with her hand stroking her chin, thinking.

  From the looks of the room—and the way a waitress hovered around the poker players to take drink orders—playing poker in this room was a lot more expensive than pushing buttons at a slot machine. She hadn’t realized Harlan was that well off.

  A young woman approached her, and Lilliana wondered if she was going to be shooed out. She certainly didn’t belong in this room.

  “Would you like to play?” Dressed all in black, the young woman had blended into her surroundings.
r />   Flustered, Lilliana said, “Oh, I don’t know how. I’ve never played poker.”

  A smile spread across the slightly exotic face beside Lilliana. She realized the woman was an Indian. Then she felt even more foolish. Of course she was an Indian. She remembered something she’d read that said all the casinos were owned by Indian tribes, and they gave preferential treatment for jobs to tribal members.

  “I’d be happy to teach you.”

  Just as Lilliana was about to decline, she changed her mind. She needed some excuse to stay in the poker room and watch Harlan. They probably wouldn’t like her staying around just staring. “Oh, would you? You’re sure it wouldn’t be too hard for me to learn?”

  “Let’s see.” The woman led her over to a vacant table on the opposite side of the room from the one where Harlan was playing. “My name is Delores.”

  “And I’m Lilliana.” Maybe this would be fun after all.

  “Our most popular game is Texas Hold ’Em.” Delores picked up a deck of cards from the table and shuffled them. “Perhaps you’ve seen that on television?”

  “I’m afraid not,” Lilliana said. “I don’t watch a whole lot of television.”

  “That’s okay.” Delores’s voice was still cheerful, but little worry lines had formed across her forehead. “You do know about card suits, though, don’t you?”

  “Of course.” Lilliana smiled while inside she was thinking I’m not as dense as all that with quite a bit of indignation.

  “Good.” Delores started talking about pairs and three of a kind and straights and things, terms Lilliana had heard before. “So the idea is to get the highest ranking hand you can, based on the first two cards you’re dealt plus the cards on the table.”

  “It sounds complicated.” Lilliana glanced over at Harlan. He was pulling a large stack of chips toward him. He was either very lucky or very skillful.

  “Let’s try a hand,” Delores said. “We’ll do it without betting first. Hold ’Em is as much about betting as it is about the cards, so that’s a second lesson.”

  “Do I have to pay for that?” Despite her desire to play poker with Harlan and find out more about him, she had no intention of spending more than whatever dollar amount remained on her card after the slot machines. After all, she was on a fixed income.

  Delores laughed. “No. The lessons are free.” She must have noticed Lilliana’s look toward the game at the other table. “But you’ll have to pay for chips in order to actually play.”

  “Oh. Of course.”

  Delores dealt them each two cards, face down. “Look at your cards, but don’t show me what they are.”

  Lilliana picked the cards up off the table. She had a queen of hearts and a jack of diamonds. “Now what?”

  “Well, now you have to decide whether your cards are good enough to place a bet or not.”

  Since there was no money involved at this point, Lilliana said, “I’ll bet.”

  “I’ll see your bet.” Delores then dealt three cards face up in the space between them. Lilliana couldn’t believe her luck. There in front of her lay the King of hearts, the queen of diamonds, and the two of clubs. A pair! She grinned.

  “You don’t want to do that,” Delores said.

  “Do what?” Lilliana asked. She wasn’t aware of doing anything.

  “Smile like that. It’s a sure sign—a tell—that the flop contained cards that were good for you. People won’t bet against you if they know you’re going to win.”

  “Oh.” Lilliana frowned.

  “So do you want to raise? Add more chips to the pot?”

  “Yes,” Lilliana said firmly. “I’m allowed to do that, am I not?”

  “Of course. I’ll see you and raise.” Delores added as an aside, “We’ll play the next hand with poker chips so it will seem more real. Then you can join the men at the table and get some playing practice.”

  “Already?” Well, of course already, she chided herself. The woman wasn’t going to sit at this table and play with her all afternoon for free.

  “You’ll do fine,” Delores assured her. She dealt the fourth card and they went through the process again, then the fifth card. At the end, Lilliana’s pair won the hand.

  Delores pulled a few poker chips from her pocket and counted out ten of them. She slid the chips across the table toward Lilliana, gathered up the cards, and shuffled again. Lilliana had just picked up her hole cards when movement from the other table caught her eye. Harlan was rising from his seat.

  Lilliana quickly put the cards down. “Thank you for showing me how to play, but I think it’s time for lunch now.”

  Harlan passed by them without noticing her, for which she was grateful. She rose from her seat.

  Delores glanced toward Harlan’s retreating back and smiled. “I understand. Maybe the two of you can come back after lunch and play together.”

  Heat rose in Lilliana’s cheeks as she realized what the young woman was insinuating. “Oh, no. I mean...” Her tongue kept getting in the way and, rather than fighting with it, Lilliana fled, mortified that Delores had thought she, like Mary, had a silly crush on a man she hardly knew.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  LILLIANA paused outside the door to the poker room to compose herself. Once her heart had slowed to a normal rate, she found Mary browsing in the gift shop, and the two of them made their way back to where she had last seen Nancy.

  Nancy was still seated in front of the same machine, hypnotized by the lights and the sounds and the spinning pictures. Lilliana tapped her on the shoulder. Nancy jumped, but didn’t take her eyes off the screen or her finger off the button.

  “Nancy.” Still no reaction. Lilliana decided the situation called for more intensive measures. She grasped Nancy’s shoulders and shook her. “Nancy.” Louder this time.

  The spell broken, Nancy turned away from the machine, and her face gradually lost its flaccid look as she focused on her friend. “Lilliana.”

  “It’s almost one o’clock,” Lilliana said. “Why don’t we have some lunch?”

  “Now that you mention it, I am hungry.” Nancy got up from the stool, smoothed her clothes, and looked around the casino floor.

  “I believe the café is that way.” Lilliana pointed across the casino.

  “I think we should eat at the food court,” Mary said. “It costs about half as much as the café.”

  Lilliana weighed her options. She imagined congealed pizza and greasy burgers and fries at the food court. Maybe soggy containers of limp vegetables if they had one of those fast food Chinese places. On the other hand, she didn’t want to spend a great deal of money on food. She’d be perfectly willing to skip eating entirely and wait for dinner in the dining room at the retirement home. “Why don’t we take a look at what the food court has to offer, and then if it doesn’t look appetizing, we can go to the café.”

  “Oh, I’m sure you’ll like it,” Nancy said as she led the way.

  Much to her surprise, Lilliana did like the selection at the food court. In fact, she was able to get a turkey burger and a milk shake for five dollars. Mary got the same, while Nancy opted for a tortilla casserole. Lilliana perused the tables. No Harlan, which didn’t surprise her; Bernadine was sitting at a table by herself, half of her sandwich still on her plate. “Do you want to sit with Bernadine?”

  “I don’t really like her,” Nancy said.

  Lilliana was surprised. She thought Nancy liked everyone. “Why not?”

  “Well, just like Ruby, may she rest in peace, Bernadine kept trying to get between me and Lenny. And Bernadine’s still alive.”

  Lilliana almost choked. Nancy said the last phrase so casually. What did she mean by “still”? It was almost as if she intended Bernadine to be dead, too, in the not-too-distant future. It made her shiver just thinking about it. How jealous was Nancy?

  And now there was a dilemma. Bernadine had spotted them and was waving in their direction. Lilliana smiled back. “Let’s sit with Bernadine. Maybe you’ll fi
nd out you like her better than you think you do.” And maybe Lilliana could see how serious Nancy was about her animosity toward the other woman.

  “I doubt it,” Nancy said, but she followed along anyway.

  “Sit right down,” Bernadine said. “I’m glad you came before I finished my lunch.”

  Lilliana put her burger and shake on the table. Mary took the place next to her. Nancy pointedly sat on the side opposite Bernadine. “So have you been lucky?” Lilliana asked Bernadine. She picked up her burger and took a bite. Savory juice squirted into her mouth as she chewed on her food. Much better than she expected.

  “It depends on what you mean by lucky.” Bernadine took a sip of her soft drink. “I seem to have lost track of Lenny.”

  Nancy glowered at her. Come to think of it, since they’d got off the van Lilliana hadn’t seen Lenny either. She was surprised Nancy hadn’t followed him, but so far, the slot machines had been more attractive to her than any man could be. Noticing Nancy’s look, Lilliana quickly said, “What about at gambling? Did you play the slot machines?”

  “Just for a few minutes,” Bernadine said. “I really prefer bingo, so I went to play that.” Her face wreathed itself in smiles. “I won twenty-five dollars!”

  A veritable windfall for a retiree. “Congratulations,” Lilliana said. She turned to Nancy, realizing she had no idea how much Nancy had won or lost. “What about you, Nancy?”

  “I’m not sure.” Nancy looked confused by the question. “I have my card set to automatically add more credits when I run out.”

  Alarms jangled in Lilliana’s head. “Is that such a good idea?”

  “How else can I keep on playing?”

  “Maybe you should set a limit and take off that automatic renewal,” Lilliana gently suggested. How could a woman worried about how much they would spend on lunch be so unaware of the amount she’d won or lost gambling? Unless she had a gambling addiction. Lilliana had heard of such a thing, but had never considered it seriously before. For herself, she had no interest in gambling when you could go hiking or read a book or do something else much more entertaining. Speaking of books...