The Black Chip

by Gary Land

  “Right after I see his car. Where is it?”

  Collins twisted his mouth as if he was sucking on a lemon. “We found it parked near the alley where he was shot. It’s in impound.”

  “You coming?” Noly walked to the door and turned around.

  “No...we already checked the car and apartment.”

  “And?”

  “Apartment was trashed, but we did find a suitcase and some travel plans--he had a ticket to Grand Cayman Islands. One stop in Miami. Left at 8PM the night he was killed.”

  Noly thought about what that could mean. “Just one ticket? Was it round trip?”

  “Yeah, just him, round trip,” Collins said. “I’ll double-check everything with Johnson, and I’ll swing by the apartment myself. “You go check out the Domain,” Collins said. “And let me know if you find anything.”

  Noly looked at his friend considering his options. He could use the help. It was hard for Noly to give up control--it was against his nature. But he had to find Sarah and Kacy now.

  “Okay, but...”

  “No buts--don’t you trust me?”

  Noly paused. “Yes, I do.”

  Collins nodded his head and started walking away. Noly reached his hand out to Collins arm and held him back. “Work this case as if this was your own wife and daughter.”

  “My own...anything you want to tell me about Sarah and Kacy?”

  “No.”

  #

  Noly walked into the Enchanted Domain and crinkled his nose at the smell of incense. It was sickeningly sweet, cloying. The shop seemed to cater to an impulse-buying tourist trade as aisle after aisle contained party-favor jokes and simple magic tricks and gadgets.

  As Noly walked through the store, he noticed a display case at the rear that had high-end coin and card tricks, as well as a section of clothing designed for the well-dressed magician.

  A stocky, bearded man came out of a back room and Noly caught a glimpse through the doors of what looked like a coffin, but thought it must be that trick where you saw a lady in half. While he waited for the man to approach him, he thought of Kacy and how she had a love-hate relationship with magic. She loved it if she knew how the trick was accomplished, but hated it when she couldn’t figure it out. Noly shook his head--everything seemed to remind him of Sarah or Kacy. He never had such a difficult time focusing on the case at hand. Like a faded photograph, Sarah and Kacy were always just a thin layer of memories away, and though he wanted them there in his mind, he found he couldn’t be effective that way. So he opened a secret drawer where he kept his bad memories and gently locked Sarah and Kacy away.

  “Let me guess, you make criminals disappear, right?” Stocky-guy said, pegging Noly for a cop.

  Noly pulled the ticket from his pocket, and handed it to the man. “What can you tell me about this?”

  Stocky-guy took the receipt, glanced at it, and then did a double take. “Ah, I was wondering when someone would come around asking about this.”

  “Well, here I am,” Noly said.

  “This is for that guy that got killed, right?” He looked up at Noly waiting for a response, but didn’t get one. “Yeah, yeah, Joey, I remember him. Wanted the Scotch and Soda trick with a casino chip instead of the coin.”

  “What’s this Scotch & Soda set he ordered?”

  Stocky-guy took a key out of his pocket, unlocked one of the display cases, and pulled out a Kennedy half-dollar. He handed it to Noly. “That’s Scotch and Soda.”

  Noly looked at the coin, rubbed his thumb across the top, turned it over--it looked legitimate. He handed it back to Stocky-guy, who put his fingernail in the right place and pulled the reverse side of the coin away from the obverse. There was a hollow shell inside.

  A voice called out from the back storage room, “Hey, Mark, where’s Blair’s necklace?”

  Stocky-guy yelled back, “Julie picked it up an hour ago.”

  Noly heard the back-room voice say, “Shit!”

  “Hey, kid, get your greasy hands off the capes.” Mark started to walk towards the kid in question when Noly stopped him.

  “Stay focused, Mark, I’m not done with you yet.”

  Mark started to tell Noly where to go when he looked into the big man’s eyes. Mark froze with his mouth open, swallowed, and suddenly greasy fingers on expensive capes didn’t seem so important anymore.

  “Did Joey tell you what he wanted it for?” Noly asked.

  “What?”

  “The black chip--did he tell you why he wanted it?”

  “Yeah, right. I, uh, figured it was a joke or something.”

  “What did he tell you?”

  “Nothing--just what he wanted. We do custom stuff all the time. Hey, it’s not like its illegal or anything.”

  “You mean counterfeiting a casino chip--pretty sure that’s frowned upon,” Noly said.

  “What counterfeiting--it’s a real chip. Joey paid $100 for it. Actually, he bought five of them...so we would have something to practice on.

  “You made five chips?”

  “No--like I said, never did it with a chip before, so we needed the practice. Screwed up two of them. He picked up the good one and the other two. That’s it.”

  Noly nodded, then took the receipt back. “If you think of anything else...” He handed Mark a business card, and started to walk away.

  “Uh, he came back--Joey.”

  Noly turned to look at Mark waiting for him to go on.

  “Couple of months ago, said he wanted another chip. Actually two black chips. The two we returned to him--said he wanted us to do the same thing.”

  Noly’s brain, already treading water with the revelations of the day, felt like it was going down for the third time. With thoughts of drowning, it only took a second for Kacy to pop out of that secret place and make another appearance. He shook his head to drive the image away. Memory locks aren’t what they once were.

  “And he bought a book,” Mark said trying to be helpful.

  “Are you going to tell me which one?”

  “It was a book on Palming, Sleight of hand.”

  Noly bought the Kennedy-half Scotch and Soda set for thirty bucks, and left the store wondering what you could put inside the hollow shell of a casino chip. And whether it was worth losing your life over.

  Chapter 11

  Noly sat in his car outside the Enchanted Domain, the AC blasting away, turning the Kennedy-half over in his hand. After a few tries, he managed to open the reverse side of the coin and stared at the hollow shell for a few minutes. Nothing seemed to make any sense to him, and with a lack of any coherent thought, his mind filled with images of Kacy drowning in a pool of blood.

  But that didn’t really happen. He saved her that time and he would save her again.

  Kacy stayed in the hospital for two days after her near-drowning experience. It was mostly for observation. She sustained a mild concussion and received four stitches in her scalp. The doctor proclaimed her to be a very lucky girl-–a fall like that onto concrete usually has much more severe consequences. The only visible sign of the trauma was a two-inch-square bald spot where they had shaved her hair to allow the doctor to clean and stitch the wound.

  Noly had seen Kacy both days she was in the hospital, sitting with her and Sarah, talking about movies, school, horses, and anything else that Kacy thought of. When she would finally get tired and go to sleep, Sarah and Noly kept talking. Most of it was about her, because Noly kept the conversation centered on Sarah’s life and what she was doing and what she wanted for herself and Kacy. It felt good to him. It felt comfortable.

  Sarah invited Noly over for dinner to thank him again for saving Kacy’s life. He gladly accepted. He hoped the Benson girls liked him, and wanted him to be a part of their lives, because he sure wanted to be a part of theirs.

  When Noly arrived at their apartment building, he was a little concerned at how rough a neighborhood it was. He thought how tough it must be for a single mother like Sarah to raise a child i
n this kind of environment. He decided then that he would help them all he could. If Sarah allowed it. He knew some people could be very stubborn about making it on their own.

  Noly stepped into an old elevator carrying presents for both Sarah and Kacy. He rode up to the third floor and listened to the elevator groan and creak. As he expected, the carpeting in the hallway was old and dirty. No amount of shampooing could clean something as bad as that. He reluctantly put Kacy’s present down on the carpet since he couldn’t hold everything and knock on the door at the same time. Gripping a bouquet of flowers and a box of candy in one hand, he knocked on the door with the other. Sarah opened the door, greeted him with a beautiful smile, and a warm hello. She accepted the presents and invited him in.

  “The flowers are pretty--thank you,” Sarah said.

  Kacy ran over and gave Noly a big hug.

  “You’re late,” Kacy said in mock anger.

  “I know, but my friend is a slow dresser-–he’s waiting outside to meet you.”

  Kacy smiled, and stepped cautiously to the door, poking her head outside. Laughing, she disappeared into the hallway for a moment--when she returned she was carrying a brown teddy bear that was a good foot taller than her.

  “I love him, Noly-–thank you.”

  Sarah and Kacy lived in a small two-bedroom apartment with modest furnishings, but Noly thought they seemed very content with what they had. They had no car so they walked or took the bus to work and school. Sarah worked as a cocktail waitress and made good tips, but the money only went so far.

  They ate salad and hamburgers for dinner with macaroni and cheese on the side. Sarah and Kacy loved mac and cheese. It was cheap and it tasted great. Their cupboard overflowed with box after box of the stuff. For dessert, Sarah made strawberry shortcake and chocolate cupcakes since she wasn’t sure what Noly liked. He ate them both.

  Afterwards, they played Monopoly and talked about their favorite scenes from different movies. When Kacy had won all the properties her mom told her it was time for bed.

  “Oh, it’s still early enough,” Kacy protested.

  “Honey, you’re still recovering from a concussion. You need your sleep.”

  “Oh, fudge!”

  “Good night, Kacy,” Noly said. “I had a lot of fun. Hope you like Bumper.”

  “Is that his name?”

  “Yeah, I kept bumping into him and knocking him down,” he laughed.

  Kacy laughed too, and then turned serious. “Noly, how did you get that scar?”

  “Kacy!” Sarah scolded.

  “It’s okay...I don’t mind-–a lion gave it to me.”

  “No, it didn’t,” Kacy said, suspicion in her voice.

  “Yep-–I was standing in a park, which was located right next to a zoo. I was minding my own business when a lion that had gotten loose growled at me and started charging. I turned around just in time as he jumped on me and knocked me to the ground.”

  Kacy was listening as only a child can. Her eyes were alive with excitement, drinking in every word.

  “Well, I grabbed the fur on either side of his head and just pushed as hard as I could, but he was too strong for me. After a while, I started getting tired. I could smell his hot, stinky breath. One of his big teeth cut me right across the forehead. I knew I was going to die right there.”

  When Noly paused, Kacy breathlessly said, “And then what happened?”

  Noly smiled, and said, “I remembered something my father had told me. He said you can beat any animal, human or otherwise, no matter how big or strong they are, if you do one thing.”

  Kacy sat on the edge of her chair waiting for the answer. “What? What?”

  Noly looked at Sarah who was smiling and listening just as intently.

  “My father said, ’Just poke ‘em in the eye.’ So I did. I pushed my thumbs into both eyes as hard as I could, and that lion yelped, turned tail, and ran away as fast as he could.”

  Kacy laughed, and said, “That was a good story. Maybe next time, you’ll tell me how you really got that scar.” She jumped up, gave him a hug, and ran off to bed.

  After Noly helped Sarah clean up the dishes, they sat on the couch and talked some more. The conversation came easily to them. It all felt too easy for him, too comfortable, and he worried that it wouldn’t last.

  “Listen, Sarah, I, uh, don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but, well, I think this neighborhood is a little rough for you and Kacy.”

  Sarah thought about what he had said and tried to read any subtler meaning that might exist. Deciding that he was sincere and caring, she said, “It’s all I can afford, Noly.”

  Noly moved closer to her on the couch, and pulled a folded brochure from his pocket. He handed it to her, and watched her open it.

  “That’s one of the apartment buildings I own. I’d like you and Kacy to move into one of the apartments. No strings attached. I just want to help.”

  “Mountain Meadows-–sounds nice, but I’m sure the rent is a lot more than I pay here.”

  “Well, as it so happens, I have a vacancy, and that particular unit is rent free.”

  Sarah shook her head. “No, I’m not going to take...”

  “It’s not charity,” Noly said, cutting her off. “Look, pay me what you can when you can.”

  Sarah was still shaking her head, but Noly could tell some doubt was creeping into her thoughts. He kept silent, because he didn’t want to seem like he was pressuring her. She needed to come to her own decision.

  “Maybe-–let me think about it. Okay?” Sarah smiled and touched his hand.

  There was a moment when they looked into each other’s eyes and, if they had known each other longer, they would have kissed, but they were still in that awkward stage so the moment just slipped away.

  “You’re not used to this are you?” Sarah asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Having dinner with friends, relaxing, enjoying life.”

  “No, I guess not, but I’m trying.” Noly shrugged. “I like this kind of life. I’ve seen too much of the dirty, mean side of life. You know, wondering what it all means, and how I fit into the puzzle.”

  “Yeah, I know...maybe one day you can tell me about this other life of yours.”

  “Maybe-–I’d like that,” he said. He paused, then added, “I think you’re doing a great job with Kacy.”

  Sarah smiled. “Thanks...I know it’s still fresh in my mind, but I still have nightmares about Kacy and what could have...”

  “But it didn’t happen.”

  After several seconds, Sarah said, “Kacy likes you a lot--I don’t know if that’s because you saved her life, or...” Sarah hesitated. “I just don’t want her to be hurt-–her feelings, I mean.”

  Noly seemed to be deep in thought and didn’t answer at first, but then he said, “I don’t know if you’ve ever saved anyone’s life before, but I think there’s a special bond that exists between the people involved. A bond that can’t be broken.”

  He had saved two others in his life. Jim Collins and Woody Baybell. The bond he felt with them was just as strong as the bond he had with Kacy. Destiny had led him to an exact moment in time that allowed him to save all three of them. Destiny always serves a purpose, he thought.

  “Kacy and I will always have that--you’re a part of that too.”

  A horn blasted somewhere in the lot, and Noly snapped back to the present. He saw a pair of cold, dead eyes staring back at him in the rear-view mirror. It took him a moment to realize those were his eyes.

  “Destiny always serves a purpose.” Noly knew the destiny of those who took Sarah and Kacy--a slow, painful death.

  Chapter 12

  Sarah and Kacy were in a large room with an adjoining bathroom, some minimal furniture, and an old TV. There was no window in the room itself, and the small window in the bathroom was boarded shut. Light from a red neon sign leaked around the board flashing in a regular pattern. Five short flashes followed by one long one. Sarah imagi
ned it was flashing G-I-R-L-S, followed by GIRLS all together.

  Muffled noises filtered in through the thin walls. Sex noises. They were in some sort of brothel, or some other building where men paid for sex. Maybe a strip joint. That would explain the neon light.

  Sarah laid in bed staring at the ceiling, listening to a muffled argument between a hooker and one of her johns. He apparently wasn’t happy with the cost of their arrangement. One minute he was yelling that he’d never fuck a drugged-out whore again, and the next moment Sarah heard a grunt and a thud as something big hit the floor. She guessed the bodyguards had shown up and taken care of business.

  She shook her head and looked over at Kacy as she slept next to her. Sarah couldn’t concern herself about some unknown creep who had to pay for sex, she had her own worries, with the most important being how to get Kacy away from these thugs.

  Sarah kept running the events of the previous night through her head looking for understanding. Kacy had insisted on leaving a message for Noly, they left the apartment, and Jennifer showed up.

  Kacy moaned in her sleep and Sarah reached out to her daughter and stroked her hair gently. She would do anything and say anything to save Kacy. She would gladly die for her.

  The only reason Sarah came home early was that Joey had begged her to feign sickness at work, and then meet him at the apartment.

  She was working the twenty-five dollar blackjack table and had one player with a dwindling stack of green chips and a sour look on his face. The ashtray next to him was already full as he took one long, last drag on his cigarette. Mister Sour-face stubbed it out in the tray as he busted out his current hand. He picked up his remaining chips and said, “Thanks for nothing, babe.”

  Sarah cleaned up her station and waited for some more action to come her way.

  She didn’t have too long to wait as a man sat down in the first seat on her left. She looked up and saw Joey smiling at her. But there was something not quite right about the smile. Sisters knew these things.