Vegas Flyer (Chapter 4)
by aha
Tanner was downstairs Sunday before 8:00 a.m. The casino was pretty thin as far as gamblers were concerned and he had an hour to kill before Chris's first shift. Prior to coming down, he had retrieved the bank bag one final time from its hiding place behind the paper rack. He pulled out the last $5,000.00 and rolled it as tightly as possible, then put two rubber bands around it to hold it in a tight roll. Now he played with it in his pocket as he strolled to the restaurant for breakfast. At about 8:45 he saw his man walking across the casino floor towards the lobby bathroom. Tanner followed. As he entered the restroom, there was Chris standing in front of one of the urinals relieving himself. Tanner walked over and stood in front of the one next to him.
"Good morning, sir."
"Good morning." Tanner replied, unzipping his fly. He surveyed the bathroom; there was no one in sight. He glanced at the stalls and saw no feet. "I'll be leaving tonight," he said quietly. At the same time he pulled the tightly rolled bills from his pocket and with fluid like motion the dealer transferred it to his own.
"Well good luck at the tables today sir." And with that the dealer was gone.
Maybe I won't need it. Tanner thought as he walked back towards the casino.
Taking a seat as usual just to the left of his now twice-bought dealer, he played two hands as always, only this time betting $1000 on each hand; the pit bosses remained passive at this bet, they had seen plenty of high rollers before and most of them ended up owing the casino money. Tanner never looked at Chris and Chris never looked directly at him. There was no need. He won steadily for an hour. He was somewhere around $150,000 ahead and Chris had a cool ten grand in his pocket for two days' work. His dealer had three more shifts to work and he would be through. He was still $50,000 away from his goal. After Chris's twenty-minute break he relieved another no limit dealer. Tanner followed. At this point the pit boss walked over and spoke. "Having quite a run of luck eh Mr. Welles?" Tanner smiled back. "Chris here has been good to you." Was that an innuendo? There's no way he could know what was going on. No way in hell. Or was there? He would have to be a mind reader and Tanner doubted this very seriously as he placed two more bets, this time for $2500.00 each. At the end of the shift he was up by another $40,000 giving him a total of $190,000.
Tanner looked at the clock. It was getting late. Time for one more deal. It was time to wrap this up even though his dealer had two more shifts to go. What did the song say? You've got to know when to hold them and know when to fold them. He pushed out two last bets, each for $15,000. A crowd had gathered, some of them had been with him all along and some of them were new, all were soaking up the excitement of high-dollar gambling. He noticed that Gloria, the blonde, was conspicuously missing. Chris the dealer looked over at the pit boss. After all, this was a $30,000 bet. The pit boss nodded his approval. He dealt the cards. Tanner was the only one at this table, as other players had quit to watch. He received 14 on one hand and l7 on the other. Both high odd shitty hands. The house had 6 showing. Chris merely looked at him and he knew this meant stay, don't take any cards. But since there was so much attention from the crowds, cameras and pit bosses had Chris collapsed on him? Was he too afraid to pull this one off? There were plenty of options...the house could have an ace in the hole. This would give him l7 and the house rules say the dealer has to stay on l7. He looked at Chris for some kind of sign or twitch...anything. All he saw was a small bead of sweat glistening just above his left eyebrow and his eyes looked into the distance, as if he had mentally transported himself to another time and dimension. His mind was reeling. Win this one and he was out of there, home free. Lose it and he would be $30,000 down and far short of his goal and he was nearing mental exhaustion. Finally he sighed..."I'm good." An audible murmur ran through the onlookers then they fell silent as the dealer flipped over his bottom card, a king, the house had 16 and the rules say the house must take a card on l6. The crowd held its' breath. You could have cut the anticipation with a knife. Tanner held his breath. Chris dealt himself another card. The card came out of the deck in seemingly slow motion. It fluttered up then as if blown from the air like a shot pigeon it slowly descended to the green felt. Another 6!!! The house had just busted with 22. A roll of approval swept through the crowd, then light applause. His total now was $220,000. Just short of a quarter of a million dollars. Time to quit.... or was it? Tanner did something then that he didn't dream he was going to do. Something not even remotely close to the plan he had formulated so carefully for the last three days. Something that reflected that he was a born risk taker, a man not content with the status quo. Something his dealer hadn't even imagined. He signaled the pit boss and asked how much money he had in credit. The pit boss picked up the phone and muttered something into it. Put the phone down, walked over to him and quietly said. "You have $190,000 credit Mr. Welles. As he pushed his chips out on to the table he heard himself say, "I bet everything."
"The bet is $30,000, Mr. Welles?" The boss asked.
"That and the $190,000. A huge gasp rose from the crowd. To hell with it he thought. If I lose somehow...I will replace Boardman's $15,000 from my own pocket and go home a loser.
"Mr. Welles, the bet is $220,000 — is that correct?"
"Yes, one last hand."
The pit boss picked up the phone again; then replaced it in its cradle; then turned to the dealer and nodded assent. Tanner watched as the same bead of sweat made its way down the side of Chris's face and nestled itself in the crook where his chin became his throat. Not one sound came from the fifty or more people standing as close as they could get to Tanner.
"Deal." He heard himself say. The dealer looked at the boss. The poor bastard was scared shitless...but then so was he. Chris thumbed the cards and dealt. One down to Tanner and one to himself. He turned his card up...a jack of spades. The dealer turned his up...an eight. Then he dealt the other two cards face down, looked at his hole card and stared blankly at Tanner. He knew there was no help this time. He sat and looked down at the back of his hole card for the longest time. The dealer was staring at nothing at all somewhere in the distance. Finally Tanner closed his eyes and flipped the hole card over. An ace!! He had blackjacked!!! He didn't need any help! Chris flipped his card over...a queen. The house had eighteen. He quickly turned another card over. An eight of spades...the house had busted with 24!! It wouldn't have mattered, though; the only way he could have lost was for the dealer to have blackjacked too! The crowd screamed and cheered! The house pays one and a half on a blackjack, which meant he had just taken Caesars Palace for $550,000!!!!! The gallery had moved in and people were slapping him on the back and congratulating him but there was no time to bask in the glory of winning, he had stayed too long as it was. That was all.... he was through. He pitched a twenty-five dollar chip to the dealer and gathered up the chips in front of him as the boss made out a credit slip for the rest. He had more than reached his goal and it was time to go, so he walked across the room to the cashier’s window. The cashier counted his chips and issued a receipt. He now had two receipts showing that Caesars Palace owed him $550,000. As he started for his room he felt as if every eye and camera were trained on him. He took the elevator to his room. Once inside the door, he did a dance and beat the wall with his fist in celebration. He had done it!! More than double his original goal!
He picked up the phone and dialed direct to his number at home. Margaret picked up the receiver in the middle of the first ring.
"Hello James?" She answered; her voice had a frantic tone to it.
"Yes Hon, its me." He tried to sound calm... he was calm... for the first time in days.
"Where in the hell are you?"
"I'm where my note said I would be, on a charter, getting ready to load up and come home. You did get my note didn't you?"
"No you are aren't, James. Mr. Boardman says you're not on any charter of his. Where are you?" Geez — she had talked to Boardman...no sense in playing out this charade with her now...
"Ok, calm down and listen......I'm in Las Vegas."
"LAS VEGAS! What are you doing in Las Vegas?"
"Margaret, shut up and let me explain."
"James..." Her voice was shaky. "Mr. Boardman has called twice; he says that you may be in some sort of trouble. Something about money, company checks or something." Her voice was beginning to rise again. "He says that if he hasn't heard from you by eight o'clock in the morning, he's calling the police!"
"Margaret, listen to me...everything is all right. I am promising you that everything will be ok." His voice was even. " If Boardman calls again, just put him off...I promise you it will be all right."
"I love you James.... but I need to know...."
"I love you too." He cut her off. "And you will know everything soon," he said in a calm voice and placed the receiver on the hook.
Tanner picked up his briefcase, felt in his pockets for his receipts, and slipped out of the door of his room. He took the elevator down to the casino and walked to the cashiers' window. He presented his receipts to the bald man behind the window. "Would you please come through the door?" The man nodded towards a hunter green door. Tanner heard a buzz that unlocked it. Oddly it reminded him of Boardman’s office.
"This way, sir." The bald man nodded towards an office, James followed. Sitting at the desk was a small man with a mustache.
"Good evening Mr. Welles, I'm Saul Rothstein, chief accountant for Caesar's Palace. I understand we owe you money. If you would sign a couple of IRS forms for us please? Sorry, it's required by the government, Mr. Welles. And we are going to need you to sign and negate these credit markers as well."
"Glad to." James muttered and signed Raymond Welles on the forms and markers.
"Just one moment sir." Rothstein entered a secure area to the left of the desk. In a moment he came back and counted out $550,000 in one hundred dollar denominations. The bills were wrapped with a binder in stacks of $10,000. There were fifty bundles of one hundred dollar bills. It took James' breath away just to look at it.
"I believe that makes us even Mr. Welles." Rothstein said.
"Yes I believe it does." he replied as he stacked the money in his briefcase.
"If you are leaving the hotel, would you care for some security? An escort perhaps?"
"No, thanks just the same,” James, fastened the briefcase, gave the man a quick smile and thank you and was out the door into the casino area.
As he walked past the slot machines two large men in dark suits approached him cutting off his exit.
"May we have a moment with you, Mr. Welles?"
" Well.... umm I have a plane to catch." He stammered.
"This will only take a minute." The tall one said as he pulled back his coat revealing a Caesars Palace security badge. "Please come with us Mr. Welles." The other one said as they both guided him across the casino floor with a painful grip on both elbows. After they had put him in the elevator and started down he tried one more time.
"I really don't have time for this." The two men now ignored him. He knew at this moment he had been caught. This system of cheating, although unique, had probably been tried before and would have been successful maybe, if he hadn't been so greedy. If he would have quick sooner, he might have walked away. But why had they let him collect the money? He could only guess that either way legal or otherwise they had a better case against him if he was in possession of the money...caught red-handed. No doubt he would serve as an example to other would be thieves who might try and cheat the big gaming tables of Las Vegas in the future. He gripped the briefcase tighter as the elevator went down two levels to the basement. The men escorted him through a storage room and into a larger back room, which was filled with boxes of hotel supplies. He noticed two sawhorses with a flat eighteen-inch board laying across them in a picnic table fashion. Chris the dealer was kneeling down behind the board. Standing behind him was a large swarthy man in a suit. James' eyes moved down to the man's hands, which held a five-pound ball peen hammer, the kind with a rounded head on one side and a flat hammerhead on the other. One of the men who had escorted him down the elevator walked over and grabbed the dealer's right hand and forced it down on to the board spanning the sawhorses.
The swarthy one spoke. "You are about to find out what happens to card cheats Mr. Welles if that's your name. Spread out your fingers!" He screamed at the dealer.
Chris balled his fist up even tighter.
"I said spread em!" The man shouted and with that he brought the rounded end of the hammer down hard on the dealers fist. Tanner winced and looked away as he heard bone and cartilage breaking. Chris screamed in agony as his right hand went limp. At that moment the man twirled the hammer in mid air to the flat side like a circus juggler and brought it down again...one, two, three times on the dealer's index, middle and ring fingers. The hammer made a sickening thud each time it crushed a finger. The dealer's face had turned white as he screamed in extreme pain.
"Get his other hand." The man with the hammer ordered.
Tanner knew he had to make a move one way or the other. He screamed at the top of his lungs.
"Hold it .... Stop!" You can have the money back! Here it is!" He put both hands on the handle of the briefcase and swung it to his left with all his might. The hard reinforced bottom caught the man to his left across the bridge of his nose. Blood spurted immediately as he went careering backward into some boxes. The other man who had been holding the dealer lunged for Tanner, as he did James brought up his knee, catching the man square on the chin. He crumpled into a heap. A pain shot through his knee as it made contact with the man's face. He turned, still holding the case and limped through the storeroom and up the stairs. As he grabbed the handrail the hammer ricocheted just over his head and he heard one of the men yell, "Get him!" He ran down the corridor of the first floor and up the stairs to the second floor. The blonde had said her room number was 2240 and he headed in that direction in a dead run. Feeling quickly through the pockets of his flight jacket, he found the key she had given him. Inserted it and opened the door. There stood the surprised blonde, hair up in curlers and wearing nothing but a slip. Quickly he spun her around so that he was behind her, grabbing her around the neck with one hand and clamping his hand over her mouth with the other. He eased the door shut with his foot as he heard one of the men running down the corridor. He held her that way until he heard the footsteps fade.
"Don't scream and I'll let you go." he hissed in her ear. She nodded her head in silent agreement. "If you make any noise I will hurt you. Do you understand?" She nodded again. He slowly removed his hand from her mouth. Without turning around she said. "What do you want?"
"Nothing” Tanner said. "Just a place to hide for a few minutes. He was breathing hard. She turned around to look at him and her eyes grew wide.
"Well, if it isn't the card shark.... Mr. Welles.... Raymond wasn't it? The big winner...you must have been doing a little cheating or you wouldn't be on the run. He ignored her and scanned the room.
"Anyone in there?" He pointed towards the bathroom.
"No." She replied. He sat down on the edge of the bed to think and catch his breath. It only took a moment for him to realize that the only cards he had left were the money in the case. He couldn't walk out of Caesars Palace with a half a million dollars in a briefcase.... He couldn't walk out under any circumstances unless....it was time to gamble once more.
"How would you like to make $20,000 free and clear?"
"What? Doing what?" her eyes narrowed.
"Getting me out of here."
"How?" She looked intrigued.
"Sit down and I'll explain...James heard more footsteps. He put his finger up to his lips until he heard the running steps fade.
"Ok here it is... I stay here while you go downtown and get me a disguise...maybe a summer suit, hat of some kind and a fake mustache. Stop at a hardware store and get some duct tape. You know the gray kind. Get back here as quickly as you can. Then you and I are going to walk out of here. If we succeed you have twenty K free and clear...if we get caught I will say that I was forcing you to get me out of here.
"She screwed her face up and thought for a minute. "Ok I'll do it. Even though you’re the only man who has ever turned me down." She was teasing him now and stuck her lower lip out in a mock display of anger.
"I'm sorry about that. He looked down. "It wasn't your fault. Don't take it personally. By the way, what is your name?" His voice was softer now.
"Gloria, remember? Gloria Jennings."
"Well Gloria, I didn't come to Vegas to meet women, as you have probably guessed. But, if I had, you would certainly fill the bill and more. However time is of the essence at the moment, so if we have a deal, you need to get going." He smiled at her thinly.
"I'll be back as quickly as possible." She replied. "Just be careful and don't act any differently than you usually do." He was not overly confident about his situation but it was the only chance he had left.
Gloria strolled through the Caesars Palace lobby as if she was going on a shopping spree. She had on her full yellow skirt and matching jacket. The atmosphere in the casino and lobby did not betray the fact that there was a massive manhunt under way. As she went out the front door into the bright Nevada sunlight the doorman nodded..."May I get you a cab Miss Jennings?"
"Yes Please." The doorman knew her by name because she was a frequent guest of the hotel. She always came alone because she enjoyed flirting and picking up the occasional rich gambler for a one-night stand. Since her second husband was killed in a skiing accident two years after their marriage and three days before her 35th birthday, she had vowed never to remarry. The pain of the loss was something that she had never encountered before in her young life, not to mention the fact that he was having at least one affair that she knew about. However, her late husband had been a fairly well off commodities broker and was wise about money. He had made sure that she was left financially secure. There was enough in her bank account to indulge most of her whims. She had lots of time, her health and she was pretty. What she didn't have, was a regular male companion. And this guy Raymond was just what she was looking for.... just what was missing in her life. He was exciting as well as good looking.
Back in the room Tanner heard a light knocking at the door. With the chain in place he said through the door..."Yes?"
"Its me." He breathed a sigh of relief as he undid the chain.
"That was the wait of a life time."
"I hurried as fast as I could without attracting attention." She said breathlessly, putting her packages down on the bed. "Easiest twenty thousand I have ever earned and it was kind of fun in an intriguing sort of way. By the way can I ask you a question?"
"Go ahead."
"What's your real name? It isn't Raymond is it?" He thought about it for a few seconds then replied,
"Its Tanner.... James Tanner.
"James Tanner" she repeated. "Good strong name. I like that name. So what's the plan now, James?"
"Well, I am exhausted. I need to get some rest. I'll sleep in the chair and you take the bed. We’ll get up early and walk out of here."
"Nonsense! She protested. We are all grown up; we can both take the bed. You'll be safe." She smiled. Tanner lay down on the bed as Gloria busied herself in the bathroom. Before long he was sound asleep.
He was dreaming... a wet fog covered his ears. It was an erotic dream somehow. Hands were all over him...female hands. Breaking through the fog and hands, he realized that something was wet in his ear. He was vaguely aware of a light hand on his crotch. Then he was fully awake and he knew Gloria was seducing him. He protested some but it was far, far too late. He permitted himself this one weak moment in fifteen years as she immersed him in her softness.