Daniel Jess liked to wear grey suits over black high end t-shirts. He was losing his hair so he kept it very short, the same length as his beard – the Jason Statham look. He was 5’11”, his voice was deep, and he wore a gold earring in his left ear. He’d served in the military but never talked about it except when explaining that he had the skill set for whatever job a client had in mind.
He was leaning against the Cool Cad waiting for Frank Salucci to come down from his room at the Venetian. Jimmy Sims, who was working with Daniel that evening, had called Frank and said he was from hotel security and that they had caught someone breaking into Frank’s car. Frank said he’d be right down.
Daniel had paid $50 to a hacker who located Frank Salucci, both hotel and room. He’d also hired Jimmy Sims who, at 23, acted like an 18 year old college boy a great deal of the time. Daniel overlooked his immaturity because he’d been dependable every time they’d worked together and because there weren’t many who could do what Jimmy Sims did.
Daniel heard the clacking of leather shoes coming towards him. He pushed off the Cadillac and stood up straight.
“You sitting on my car?” said Frank from ten yards away.
“Afraid so,” said Daniel.
Frank was in front of Daniel now. “You should be afraid.”
Jimmy shoved off a cement pillar and began moving between the cars, behind Frank, to his right.
“It’s a figure of speech, Frank, I’m not really afraid. You should be though.”
Jimmy Sims was almost there. He held a coil of soft white rope that he began wrapping around each hand. Then he flipped the rope over Franks head and pulled tight.
Frank’s hands went up to his throat but he couldn’t get a hold of the rope. Then he went for his gun but Daniel grabbed his forearms. Just before he lost conscienceless Frank thought, I’m going to die at the hands of the tow truck driver and the girlie girl. Damn.
When gravity started to take Frank down Jimmy removed the rope from his neck and helped Daniel ease him to the ground. Daniel went through Frank’s pockets and removed his car and room keys. He clicked the car open and gave Jimmy the room keys.
Jimmy checked Frank’s neck for a pulse. “He’s alright.”
“Have you ever had one who wasn’t? Someone you held onto a bit too long?” Daniel asked as they picked up Frank and moved him to the back seat of the Cool Cad.
“No, never have. My goal is to still be batting 1000 by the time I retire.”
When they had Frank stretched out in the back Daniel made himself comfortable in the passenger seat and Jimmy set out toward Frank’s room to get his things. When he got to the room, which was on the 5th floor, he slid the key into the slot and stepped into the room.
A woman with silky brown hair, wearing a short silk bathrobe, was sitting up in bed, her back propped against the headboard as she watched TV. When she saw Jimmy she swung her legs over the side of the bed and slid until her feet touched the floor.
“Excuse me?” she drawled sarcastically, “what are you doing in my room?”
“Sorry to disturb you, ma’am. Mr. Salucci had been called away, an emergency I think, and he asked me to get his things.”
”Oh. Do I need to get out of the room?”
“I don’t think so, I’m sure you can stay until checkout time tomorrow.” He noticed the girl didn’t seem too concerned about Mr. Salucci. He also noticed that she didn’t seem to mind that his eyes had been up and down her body a number of times since he’d entered the room. Jimmy knew he had to get his eyes and mind off the woman and focus on the job at hand.
“Do you mind if I work while we talk?”
“Of course not. That’s his suitcase there, most everything is in it.”
Jimmy got the rest of Frank’s things into the suitcase and was ready to go.
“What’s your name?” the girl asked.
“Wayne.”
“Like Wayne Newton?”
“I’m considered a better singer, but yeah, like Wayne Newton. What’s your’s?”
“Sandy.”
“Like the beach?”
“That’s right.” She walked up to him and put her hand on his cheek. “When do you get off work?”
“In about 20 minutes.”
“Why don’t you come and see me then?” Sandy moved back a few feet and somehow her robe fell open.
“Oh, my goodness,” said Sandy pretending it was a mistake. She smiled at Jimmy and he smiled back. His eyes were really working now. She seemed in no rush to tie her robe.
“What about Mr. Salucci?”
“What about him? He’s a friend of mine but it sounds like he’s leaving town. Were you thinking I’m Mrs. Salucci, Wayne?”
“I didn’t think that – I was just being careful.” Jimmy paused. “If I come back do I need to bring my wallet?”
“Yes, you should bring your wallet. And thirty years from now you’ll be saying that tonight you had more fun than any night in your life.” Sandy opened her robe a little more and then closed it. “I hope to see you soon Wayne, you won’t be disappointed.”
Jimmy, aka Wayne, used the elevator to get to the ground floor, and walked to the parking garage. Daniel saw him coming and reached over to the driver’s seat to pull the trunk release. Jimmy walked through the cars and came up on the Cadillac from behind. He tossed in the suitcase, closed the trunk, and walked back toward the Venetian.
Frank had been making wake up noises for awhile so Daniel reached over and patted his shoulder. “Wake up Frank, you’re still alive.”
Frank felt the pats on the shoulder and opened his eyes. He pushed himself up and sat in the back seat. He was alive and in the Cool Cad. It was a pleasant surprise.
“Okay Frank,” said Daniel. “it’s time for you to drive back to San Diego. All your things are in the trunk, nothing missing, so off you go.”
“Who put you up to this?”
“You know I can’t answer that.”
“It doesn’t matter, I know who it was.”
“Somebody will watch you drive out of town. Please leave and don’t circle back. It will be a big hassle for a lot of people if you do, and an especially big hassle for you.” Daniel picked up the Sig Saur from the front seat and passed it back to Frank, who seemed happy to get it. ”It’s empty. I’ll watch you drive off, and again, please don’t come back…for at least a month.”
Frank started up the car and got out onto Las Vegas Boulevard. He turned up Tropicana and got on the 15 south. He didn’t check to see if anyone was tailing him, he didn’t care, he was leaving town with no intention of returning. He never wanted to feel a rope on his neck again.
Jimmy was weighing the pros and cons in his mind but he knew he was going up to Sandy, the knockout and salesperson extraordinaire. In a store in the Venetian that sold magazines, gum, soft drinks and cigars Jimmy bought a packet of three condoms that promised to be ultra thin for maximum pleasure. He took the elevator to the 5th floor and soon he was at Sandy’s door. He thought about using his key but decided to knock. A few seconds later, Sandy, after checking the peep hole, swung open the door.
“I was hoping you’d come,” she said.
“You knew I would.”
“I was pretty sure.”
“I’m a little concerned about something though,” said Jimmy as Sandy closed the door behind him. “How do you know Frank is not going to show up here?”
“How about I call him and find out?”
“Good idea.”
Sandy picked up her phone from a bedside table, pulled up Frank’s number, and waited while the phone rang.
“Hello.”
“Hi Frank, it’s Sandy. What’s going on?”
“Hey, I was just about to call you.”
Sure you were, thought Sandy.
“There was a work related emergency and I have to get back to San Diego. The room is paid for until tomorrow at checkout time so go ahead and use it if you want.”
“Thank you Frank, that’s very nice of you.”
“I’m a nice guy, though few people realize it. I’ll call you when I’m back in Vegas.”
“I’ll look forward to it.” Sandy flipped the phone shut and said, “Rest assured Wayne, Frank isn’t coming back, he’s on his way to San Diego. The place is ours.”
Sandy told Jimmy how much it would be for the night, which was more then he’d hoped. But when he recalled that she’d said in thirty years he’d still remember the night as the most fun of his life, he decided to go for it. Sandy inspired confidence!
About the time Jimmy and Sandy were getting started Daniel called Gloria. “I hope it’s not too late to call.”
“No,” said Gloria. “Any good news?”
“Our friend decided to go home.”
“Great and thank you. What do we owe you?”
Daniel told her. “My bank account number is on my card, so you can either transfer the money or send a check, whatever you like.”
“I’ll probably transfer it. Once again, thank you.”
“You’re welcome, and give me a call if you need me again.”
“I will.”
The next morning at 7 am Gloria’s phone rang. She picked it up on the third ring. “Hello.”
“Hi Gloria, this is Fran.”
“Hey, what’s happening?”
“We’re not going to go on the helicopter flight.”
“Oh, okay.”
“Sorry. I wanted to go but I really don’t have the money. I never actually put a down a deposit so I don’t have to cancel”
“Then you’re making the right decision. Do you want to go out to eat when we get back?”
“Sure, should I look into another buffet?”
“Sounds good.”
“Call me when you get back.”
“Was that Fran?” Rick said.
“They’re not going to do the flight, costs too much.”
“It is pretty expensive.”
Gloria looked at the watch, “We should get going so we don’t miss the shuttle.”
They walked to the Golden Nugget and found the spot where they met the shuttle a couple minutes later. There were a couple of stops for other passengers and then the shuttle headed for a small airport outside of town. Once inside they stood in a short line, were weighed and did some quick paperwork. Then they watched a short helicopter safety film. After that they walked around the small terminal, looked in the gift shop and then took a seat and waited for the flight.
When the time came Gloria and Rick and three others walked out to a helicopter maybe 40 yards from the building. The pilot, a short, well proportioned man in his late 20’s, was out in front of the machine, waiting. He wasn’t what you’d call a natty dresser but close in his dark slacks, blue sport shirt, black leather lace-up shoes, flight jacket, and tear drop sunglasses. As the passengers approached him he shook hands and introduced himself, “Hi, I’m Barry, your pilot for the flight,” then posed with them, couples and individuals, for a picture taken by someone who seemed to appear out of nowhere.
The official picture of the Grand Canyon Helicopter Ride, thought Gloria. Take it first, let the customers think about it on the ride, sell it to them as they leave. A tried and proven formula.
When the photos were taken everyone got in the helicopter and buckled up. There was a middle aged German couple who smiled, then pretty much kept to themselves. The other passenger was an attractive woman with crazy red hair who told Gloria she used to work as a newscaster in Seattle. She’d fly around in a helicopter with a pilot and camera man gathering news. She was excited about seeing the Grand Canyon.
Barry explained how to use the headsets so he could communicate with the passengers and visa verse. Then he started up the machine and lifted off the pad. The first point of interested was the Hoover Dam, built during the Great Depression when the federal government was commissioning public works projects to put people back to work. Thousands of people worked on it, over 5000 at one point. One hundred men lost their lives.
“After 9/11,” Barry said, “the general wisdom was that it was too dangerous to have people driving on the road that runs right on top of the Hoover Dam so they decided to build a bypass bridge which they did. In the 1930’s it took 4 years to build the dam and in the 2000’s it took 10 years to build a bypass bridge.”
Barry said all this while looking straight ahead, nodding his head once in awhile. His tone made it sound like he wasn’t quite sure what the situation was, he wasn’t being critical, but it did seem curious. Rick watched different rocks and mounds of the ground. He wondered how fast they were going, not very he figured.
When they got close to the Grand Canyon Barry brought the helicopter to the bottom of a twenty foot rock wall and brought it straight up so that the wall was right in front of them. Rick wondered if they were to close. If a rotor hit the wall would they ever find the bodies?
Later they flew through a beautiful gorge which Barry said was owned by a native American tribe and that the tour company paid them $60 for each passenger who flew through. Not long after they were at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and then on the canyon floor where Barry served a snack and Champaign. It was a Champaign breakfast for Rick and Gloria and they were thankful for it. They sat and ate at a light weight picnic table and looked at the vast rock walls around them. For a number of minutes no one talked.
Finally Rick’s curiosity got the better of him. “Barry, how fast were we flying?”
“About 140.”
Rick was shocked. “We were going 140 miles an hour? It’s hard to believe.”
Barry laughed. “You certainly don’t have to believe it but that’s how fast we were moving.”
“Amazing. I would have guessed 40 or even 35. When I watched the ground and fixed my eye on a certain rock it seemed like it took forever to put it behind us.”
Barry shrugged and said, “It takes a little getting used to.”
A short while later Barry announced it was time to leave and everyone started toward the helicopter. Before he got on Rick looked up and saw another helicopter flying across his line of vision. He didn’t want to try and estimate its speed but it was fast. It turned, headed towards them, and landed fifty yards to their left, next to another picnic table.
On the way back Barry pointed out the Joker Mine, and talked about how it had been a working gold mine until it was mined out and left dormant years ago. There had been lives lost when curious hikers got too close and the ground over a mine shaft gave way and swallowed them up. In the years that the mob was in Las Vegas the Joker Mine absorbed a lot of people who were already dead. The mob, the story goes, had a name to describe people who had become a bother. They called them jokers. If a joker got too bothersome he’d meet with an unfortunate accident or get shot and end up at the bottom of the Joker Mine.
When they landed Gloria and Rick went in and bought the photo of Barry and themselves standing in front of the helicopter. Barry’s face was covered by a shadow but you could make him out. The photo was framed in brown cardstock and to its left, on cardstock that was off white, was a Certificate of Membership given to those who were now part of a highly select group who had flown the Grand Canyon. It went on to say that an air tour was one of the most environmentally friendly ways to see this magnificent natural splendor and ended with a quote from the National Park Service Organic Act 16 U.S.C.
On the way back Gloria called Fran. “Hi, where are you guys?”
“We’re at the Golden Nugget buffet having…brunch, I guess. Are you going to join us?”
“Hang on a second.” She turned to Rick, “Do you want to meet Fran and Bobby for brunch at the Golden Nugget? They’re already there.”
“Sure.”
“Okay,” said Gloria into her phone, “we’ll be there soon.”
Fifteen minutes later the van pulled up in front of the Golden Nugget
and Gloria and Rick made their way to the buffet. Bobby and Fran were sitting at a table in the corner with cups of coffee in front of them.
“Hi,” said Gloria, “are you all right? You look pretty beat for 11 am.”
“We’ve got the buffet blues,” said Bobby.
“We ate too fast, ate too much,” said Fran. “It’s a bad combination.”
“Sorry. We’re going to get some food and come back. Feel free to tell us if we’re courting with disaster.”
“I won’t have to tell you, you’ll know. That’s the pity of it, you know you’re headed for the cliff but you just keep running until you run right off it.”
After they got their food and returned, Fran asked about the ride to the Grand Canyon.
“It was fun,” said Gloria and gave them a brief rundown.
Then Bobby said he had a question. “Fran told me you guys haven’t known each other that long. How did you meet?”
Rick and Gloria both smiled. “You tell it,” Rick said.
“I was playing poker at the Pechanga and this guy cheated me out of a $500 pot by declaring he had a straight when he didn’t.”
“The dealer didn’t catch it?”
“He was asleep at the wheel. Some of the players did but by the time they said anything the guy had the chips and was headed for the cashier’s cage. Rick had just sat down but hadn’t bought chips or been dealt a hand. He had noticed a Cadillac in the parking garage with a peculiar vanity plate. The card cheat had a key chain with the same inscription on it so Rick knew where his car was.”
“What did the plates say?” asked Bobby, pretty sure he already knew.
“COOL CAD,” answered Gloria and Rick simultaneously.
Bobby nodded and took long slow breaths, hoping no one noticed. Just like Frank to leave the cheating at cards part out of the story, he thought. It didn’t surprise him though. Frank was not a guy quick to admit wrong doing.
“So Rick goes down and hooks up Salucci’s Cadillac, Frank Salucci, that’s the guys name, and a few minutes later Frank shows up and demands Rick drop the car. Which he does after Salucci hands over $600.”
“I thought the pot was $500,” said Bobby.
“Approximately,” said Rick, “but I charged him an extra $100 because I had to listen to all his trash talk.”
“Anyway,” said Gloria, “Rick comes back with the money and when we’re seated at a table in the bar he takes out $500 and plunks it on the table between us. He doesn’t say anything, he just sits there. I thought maybe he thought I was a hooker so I asked him. No, no, no, he says, and finally explains what the money’s for. We agree to meet in a couple of days for dinner, and we did.
“Unfortunately Frank followed me to the restaurant and sat down at our table. He wanted double the money he’d cheated me out of, plus money from Rick. When we told him he’d never get it he started threatening us. That’s when I cut his leg with a steak knife and told him to leave or I’d cut through his femoral artery and he’d bleed to death on the restaurant floor.”
Bobby kept nodding but didn’t say anything.
Gloria spread her arms, palms up, and said, “And that’s how we met!”
“Interesting story. Definitely one of the most interesting ‘How We Met’ stories I’ve ever heard.”
“I think next time I tell it I’m going to leave out the part about cutting Salucci in the restaurant.”
“Good idea. I mean the story is interesting enough without it.”
Before prison, when Frank had first gotten into the killing business, Bobby tried to talk him out of it.
“It’s dangerous man. Cops don’t like people being killed on their streets, even people that are criminals doing things they deserve to get killed for. It doesn’t matter who the corpses are, it makes the cops look bad and that makes them work harder.”
“They’re not going to get me Bobby. No one’s going to know anything about it.”
“When the bodies start piling up the homicide detectives will find out. That’s what they do.” Bobby thought for a moment and then said, “Look Frank, I know you’re going to do what you’re going to do so I’ll quit talking.”
“Good.”
“But I can’t have anything to do with it and I don’t want to hear about it, ever.”
“No problem.”
Of course it was a problem. Frank kept his part of the bargain, he didn’t bring it up again, but Bobby couldn’t keep from checking up on Frank. If there was a murder in the county, Bobby made a mental note on whether or not he could account for Frank’s whereabouts.
One night Frank told Bobby he was taking a stripper he knew out for dinner and drinks. The next morning Bobby read in the Union Tribune that there had been a fatal shooting of a man in a parking lot near the airport. There were no witnesses and no one heard shots fired. Bobby knew that Frank had a Sig Sauer with a silencer. When he asked Frank how his date with the stripper went Frank told him she’d stood him up.
Bobby, Fran, Rick and Gloria made the short walk back to the Four Queens.
“What’s the plan?” Gloria said when they reached the lobby.
“I want to rest awhile and try and digest the medicine ball in my stomach,” said Fran.
“Same with me,” said Bobby, “only my stomach feels like a medium size beach ball full of wet sand.”
“What are you thinking, Gloria? said Rick.
“Poker maybe. How about you?”
“I wouldn’t mind a rest and then maybe a walk.
“Okay,” said Gloria as she held up her cell, “keep in touch.”
All four of them took the elevator to the seventh floor and let themselves into their rooms. Rick laid on the bed and put his hands behind his head while Gloria opened the safe and counted out some cash.
Gloria said, “Did you notice anything...different about Bobby when we were telling him how we met?”
“Not really. What did you notice?”
“He seemed to get quiet and serious.”
“I wasn’t paying attention, I was listening to you tell about how I rescued you from the dread pirate Salucci.”
“Please. I wouldn’t categorize it as a rescue.”
“You were glad I recovered the money though, right?”
“Yes, I was glad about that and glad about the way you did it. I was so mad when he stole that pot that if I had a gun I’d have shot him.”
“I’m glad you didn’t, it would have put a damper on our relationship, you being in prison.”
“That’s true.” Gloria was pensive for a minute.
When she didn’t say anything Rick said, “I thought you were going to play poker.”
“I am but I was trying to remember if I ever thanked you for getting that money back.”
“Of course you did, you took me out to dinner remember?”
“Yes, but I was thinking of something else.”
“Like?”
“Like a quick…” Gloria mouthed the word but didn’t say it. It had an immediate effect of Rick.
“Excellent,” he said, enthusiastically.
Gloria put her hand on his thigh and said, “You take off all your clothes and get under the covers and in a little while I’ll come back and check on you.”
“Okay,” said Rick, a gleam in his eye.
On the way into the bathroom Gloria reached into the closet and undid a couple of wooden clothes hangers, the kind with no hook, just a thin straight metal rod with a small knob that slid into a receiver on the clothes rack. Going with the no hook coat hangers probably saved the hotel industry a bundle, Gloria thought, since few people would steal hangers that won’t hang up in their house.
She wondered if there were frequent travelers who had the no hook system installed in their closets at home and then lifted coat hangers from hotels, one or two at a time. People who stayed in nice hotels could certainly afford to pay for their own coat hangers, hooked or not hooked, but putting one over on
the hotel, especially when they’ve installed a system designed to stop guests from lifting coat hangers, might appeal to some people. They might be willing to take the risk for the thrill of zinging the hotel that was maybe, in their opinion, zinging them with hefty prices. If she had to guess she’d guess that no one was installing the type of system which would allow them to use no hook hangers, but some might be taking the nice wooden hangers home, pulling out the metal rod, and screwing in a hook. Now that could work, thought Gloria. She decided is she ever became a hanger thief, that would be the way she’d go.
Once in the bathroom, Gloria took off her clothes, and hung them on the hangers. She knew that Rick couldn’t see the closet from where he was laying so she went out and hung up the hangers. Then she took a white terrycloth bathrobe provided by the hotel and a pair of black high heels. She walked back into the bathroom, put on the high heels and stood in front of the mirror. She turned to one side, then the other and said in a low but audible voice, “Not bad for a kid that was funny looking in grade school.”
Rick could hear the click of her shoes as she came out of the bathroom. He watched her walk past the foot of his bed to the aisle that ran between the bed he was on and the bed next to it. She stopped and untied the robe’s belt, shook her shoulders and let the robe fall to her feet. She was standing up straight and looked completely comfortable and very beautiful. Rick realized how thankful he was that she was in his life and how, strange as it seemed, Frank Salucci had brought them together. He made a mental note to never mention that to Gloria.
Gloria stepped out of her shoes and joined Rick on the bed. After some foreplay, which made them both anxious to move to the next level, Gloria straddled him, facing his feet. From reading “Cosmopolitan” while standing in line at Von’s, Rick knew this position was called reverse cowgirl. It was mentioned in articles with titles like, “10 Things Guys Crave in Bed,” “50 Things Too Do Butt Naked,” “What He Wants To See During Sex,” and “8 New Ways To Orgasm.” What he remembered most about the position was that it was supposed to be extremely pleasurable. It actually was extremely pleasurable Rick was finding out, and it made him think he should maybe buy a “Cosmopolitan” once in awhile. For his girlfriend he’d say, if anyone asked.
While they were still in bed Rick pulled open the drawer on the bedside table and pulled out a half sheet of paper.
Rick looked at Gloria and said, “I’d like to sing you a song.”
“A song?”
“It’s a quick one,” Rick said, anxious to start before he lost his nerve. He picked up an imaginary Fender and began strumming.
I watch her come up to my house,
Gloria
She knocks upon my door,
Gloria
And the she comes up to my room,
Gloria
I want to say she makes me feel all right,
Gloria
G-l-o-r-i-a,
Gloria,
Going to shout it every night,
Gloria
Going to shout it every day,
Gloria
G-l-o-r-i-a,
Gloria
Gloria started clapping.“Best performance since Van Morrison! Where did you get the words?”
“Online.”
“Most people with a propensity to sing, when they find out my name is Gloria, will sing ‘Gloria,’ over and over because that’s the only lyrics they know. Some know ‘Shout it all night, shout it every day.’ But you nailed it, ‘Gloria’ in its entirety. The only one I know, outside of a recording artist, who has ever done it. You’re the man, Rick! You are the man!”
“Yeah baby. That’s what I was aiming for.”
Rick said, “You were off the charts on that one. If sex were an Olympic event you’d have won the gold.”
“Thank you, that’s nice of you to say.” Gloria thought for a minute and then said, “I don’t know if I’d want to give a sexual performance in front of a stadium full of people.”
“Yeah, there is that.”
“It might be fun though, and if we won the gold…”
Rick laughed. “You might be too wild for me, babe.”
“Hey I’m going to go, probably to the Golden Nugget or maybe Binon’s. If you want to get a hold of me have your people call my people.”
“Alright I will, if I can find my people. Is it okay if I use your computer? I want to look up some stuff.”
She grimaced like she wasn’t too sure about that it then laughed and said, “Of course.”
Rick stood up and gave her a hug, and then she was gone.
* * *
Chapter 14