Part 25 (1/2)

”You ought to be able to figure the rest of it,” she said. ”He quit the crooked-gambling circuit years ago when my mother died. He went into business for himself in Cleveland, ran a store downtown on Euclid Avenue and went straight. I worked for him, keeping the books and clerking behind the counter. The store was a magic shop. We sold supplies to the professional magicians and simple tricks to the average Joes. Dad loved the business. When the pros came in he would show off a little, fool around with a deck of cards and let them see how good he was. It was the perfect business for him.”

”Where did Zucker come in?”

She sighed. ”It happened less than a year ago. We came to New York. Part business and part pleasure. Dad bought his supplies in New York and liked to get into town once or twice a year to check out new items. It was better than waiting for the salesman to come to him. We were at a nightclub, a cheap joint on West Third Street, and the busboy asked Dad if he was looking for action. Poker, c.r.a.ps, that kind of thing. He said he wouldn't mind a poker game and the busboy gave him a room number of a Broadway hotel. I went back to the place where we were staying and Dad went to the game.”

Billie's last record ended and the juke went silent. I was tired of wasting quarters-and we didn't need music.

”He told me about it later,” Rhona said, ”when he got back to our room. He said he sat down and played two hands, and by that time he knew the game was rigged. He was going to get up and leave, he said, but they were so sloppy it made him mad. So he beat them at their own game, Ed. He played tight on the hands unless he was dealing, and on his deal he made sure things went his way.

”He was careful about it. He threw every trick in the book at them and they never caught on. It was a big game, Ed. Table stakes with a heavy takeout. Dad walked out of the game with twenty thousand dollars of their money.”

I whistled. The rigged games are usually pretty small-when you get in the high brackets, n.o.body trusts anybody and the games are generally honest. It's easier to rake cheap suckers over the coals than to pick the big-money boys.

”Who played in the game?”

”Two or three of the sharps. And Dad. And some oil and cattlemen.”

It figured. Texans with too much money and too much faith.

”Even the oilmen didn't do badly,” she said. ”Dad took the money straight from the crooks. He had the time of his life. And then...then they must have figured out what happened. For a few weeks everything was fine. Then we got a note in the mail. It wasn't signed. It said Jack Blake better give back the twenty grand he won or he would get what was coming to him. He just laughed it off, Ed. He said he was surprised they had figured it out but he wasn't going to let it worry him.”

”And then they killed him?”

”Yes.” She finished her drink. ”I was over at a friend's house. I got home and found him lying on the living-room floor. There was blood all over. I went to him and touched him and...and he was still warm-”

I picked up her hand and held on to it. Her skin was white. She took a quick breath and squeezed my hand. ”I'm all right, Ed.”

”Sure.”

We sat there. It was pus.h.i.+ng 4:30 and the bar was starting to draw lushes. A tough little d.y.k.e in tight slacks strode over to the jukebox and played something noisy. I looked at Rhona again.

”How do you fit in?” I asked.

”They want to kill me.”

”Why?”

”They want their money back.”

I shook my head. ”I won't buy it. You're in New York, not Cleveland. You were busy paying off a blackmailer who caught a load of lead in Canarsie. I don't buy it at all, Rhona. They wouldn't chase you that hard just because your father took them with a few fancy cuts and shuffles. They might run him down and kill him, but they wouldn't bother you.”

”It's true, Ed.”

”It is like h.e.l.l. Where does the blackmailer fit?”

”He was blackmailing me. I told you.”

”How? Why? With what?”

She thought about it. The juke was still too noisy and the bar was filling up. I was beginning to dislike the place.

She said: ”All right.”

I waited.

”I'm Jack Blake's daughter,” she said. ”I'm not a weeper and I don't throw in the towel when somebody hits me. I'm pretty tough, Ed.”

I could believe it. She looked the part. Her green eyes were warm enough to throw sparks now.

”I came to New York to get them,” she said. ”They killed my father, Ed. Those rotten b.a.s.t.a.r.ds killed him. They beat him and he died, and I'm not the kind of girl who can sit on her behind in Cleveland and write it off to profit and loss. I flew to New York to get something good on Abe Zucker, something good enough to put him on death row at Sing Sing. That's why they want me out of the way, Ed. Because they know I won't give up unless they kill me.”

”And the blackmailer?” I asked. ”How did he fit in?”

”Klugsman,” she corrected. ”Milton Klugsman. He got in touch with me, told me he could prove that Zucker had my dad killed. I...I guess I let you think he was blackmailing me just to make things simpler. He called me and told me he had evidence to sell. The price was five grand.”

”He might have been conning you, Rhona.”

She raised an eyebrow. ”Don't you think I thought of that? He could have been looking for some easy money or he could have been setting me up for Zucker. That's why I wouldn't meet him myself, why I hired you. I decided it was worth risking five grand, Ed. Five grand was just an ante in a game this size-”

She stopped, shrugged. ”I guess Klugsman was telling the truth. Whatever he had, I won't get it now. He's dead. They killed him, and now they want to kill me. If I had any sense I'd get out of town until they forgot all about me.”

”Why don't you?”

”Because I'm Jack Blake's daughter. Because I'm a stubborn girl. I always have been. Well, where do we go from here, Ed?”

I put a dollar on the table for the barmaid. ”For a starter,” I said, ”we get the h.e.l.l out of here.”

FIVE.

We took my Chevy. I drove uptown on Eighth Avenue as far as Twentieth, then cut east. There was a parking spot in front of a sw.a.n.ky five-story brick building on Gramercy Park. I coaxed the Chevy into it, with a Caddy in front of us and a Lincoln behind. The Chevy felt outcla.s.sed. We got out of the car, walked past a stiff doorman and into a self-service elevator.

”I didn't want a hotel room,” she said as we entered her place. ”I thought it would be too easy for them to find me. This apartment was listed in the Times Times. It's a sublet, all furnished and ready. It costs a lot of money but it's worth it.”

”What name did you rent it under?”

”I don't remember,” she said. ”Not mine.”

She said there was scotch if I wanted a drink. I didn't. I wandered around the living room, a brazenly modern room. Rhona sat down on an orange couch and crossed her legs.

”What do we do next, Ed?”

”Go back to Cleveland.”

”And forget about it?”