Chapter 21: Take Another Drink
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"You talk a good game," he said. "But I dare say you can break a hundred and ten. You're not really interested in Regan, are you?" "No, not professionally. I haven't been asked to be. But I know somebody who would like to know where he is." "She doesn't give a damn," he said. "I mean her father." He wiped his lips again and looked at the handkerchief as if he expected to find blood on it. He drew his thick grey eyebrows close together and fingered the side of his weather-beaten nose. "Geiger was trying to blackmail the General," I said. "The General wouldn't say so, but I figure he was at least half scared Regan might be behind it." Eddie Mars laughed. "Uh-huh. Geiger worked that one on everybody. It was strictly his own idea. He'd get notes from people that looked legal - were legal, I dare say, except that he wouldn't dare sue on them. He'd present notes, with a nice flourish, leaving himself empty-handed. If he drew an ace, he had a prospect that scared and he went to work. If he didn't draw an ace, he just dropped the whole thing." "Clever guy," I said. "He dropped it all right. Dropped it and fell on it. How come you know all this?" He shrugged impatiently. "I wish to Christ I didn't know half the stuff that's brought to me. Knowing other people's business is the worst investment a man can make in my circle. Then if it was just Geiger you were after, you're washed up on that angle." "Washed up and paid off." "I'm sorry about that. I wish old Sternwood would hire himself a soldier like you on a straight salary, to keep those girls of his home at least a few nights a week." "Why?" His mouth looked sulky. "They're plain trouble. Take the dark one. She's a pain in the ass around here. If she loses, she plunges and I end up with a fistful of paper which nobody will discount at any price. She has no money of her own except an allowance and what's in the old man's will is a secret. If she wins, she takes my money home with her." "You get it back the next night," I said. "I get some of it back. But over a period of time I'm a loser." He looked earnestly at me, as if that was important to me. I wondered why he thought it necessary to tell me at all. I yawned and finished my drink. "I'm going out and look the joint over," I said. "Yes, do." He pointed to a door near the vault door. "That leads to a door behind the tables." "I'd rather go in the way the suckers enter." "Okay. As you please. We're friends, aren't we, soldier?" "Sure." I stood up and we shook hands. "Maybe I can do you a real favour some day," he said. "You got it all from Gregory this time." "So you own a piece of him too." "Oh not that bad. We're just friends." I stared at him for a moment, then went over to the door I had come in at. I looked back at him when I had it open. "You don't have anybody tailing me around in a grey ground car, do you?" His eyes widened sharply. He looked jarred. "Hell, no. Why should I?" "I couldn't imagine," I said. I thought his surprise looked genuine enough to be believed. I thought he even looked a little worried. I couldn't think of any reason for that.
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Part 2