Luke Murphy - Dead Man's Hand

“What’s up?” Calvin asked.

Ed handed him a twenty. “This one’s on the house.”

A freebie from Ed wasn’t rare. It was inconceivable. “What gives, Ed?”

Ed took him by the arm and led him around the corner to an open space between two buildings. Glancing around, he whispered, “Listen, I know your story and I think you’re a good guy. So I have to tell you this.”

Calvin was silent. Ed did not say much and he never wasted words.

“I have a friend who works down at the police station. He overheard two homicide detectives talking and your name came up. You know that casino owner who was murdered?”

Calvin nodded and said nothing.

“Your fingerprints were found at his office.”

“Hey…” His mouth went dry. “I didn’t kill anyone!”

Ed nodded. “But they know you were there. This is where, in the movies, the pal says, ‘Go to the cops. That’s your best choice.’ But I know the Vegas cops. So all I can say is that I’ll help you if I can.”

“Thanks.”

The restaurant owner left him standing in the alley alone.

Things had heated up. He’d gone from free to hunted in ten minutes. He was now on the run, but he didn’t know in which direction and he hadn’t anticipated or prepared for it at all.

Book Two: The House Always Wins

Chapter 15

During the car ride to Grant’s private office, Dale read Watters’ bio.

His mother was deceased, his father unknown and his brother was a detective with the LAPD. Now that was interesting. Dale didn’t automatically love every cop family, but it showed the Watters brothers were not both thugs.

There was little about his past before college, when he’d been clean. Since leaving college, he’d spent some local jail time before Pitt discovered him. That was over three years ago. Since that time, he’d been clean as a whistle, on paper anyway.

Jimmy knew from the street that Calvin was considered terrifying. But he couldn’t be dumb to have stayed so low profile.

Dale looked at his partner. “Big fucker isn’t he?”

Mark McAllister was waiting on the side of the road when the detectives pulled up.

Dale turned to Jimmy. “This guy? He’s the ‘Vegas safe cracker’? He looks more like an aging hippie. What’s his story?”

“The department found him on the streets. He was just a kid in his twenties who had become a successful criminal and was looking at hard time. The cops spent so much time tracking him, they made him an offer. Go to prison, or join the team. McAllister took the deal. He is one of the best at what he does.”

McAllister had a bald dome but a long ponytail. He jumped into the patrol car and seemed spaced out, a little bored.

The office was already unlocked and had been stripped clean, so they showed McAllister where the safe was hidden. It took him only seconds to get inside.

On top of a stack of papers, banded together and stacked in a pyramid, was $100,000 in cash. Dale removed the money along with a sheaf of papers and spread the papers across Grant’s empty desktop.

“Make sure you mark that money before we get into trouble,” Jimmy warned.

“You do it. I hate all this paperwork.”

Jimmy took the money and started filling out the papers.

Dale again found it hard to believe the amount of money that Grant had been worth. He lived a Spartan life. If the casino owner had owed Pitt funds, he would not be someone who had trouble paying the debt. All his records were in order.

“Hey, Jimmy.” Dale looked up from the small pile of documents in the safe. “Have you heard of Nick Trump?”

“The ex-cop?” Jimmy paused. “Not liked very well in the department. Had a reputation of being a rat. Quit the force a while back. I heard he opened a private investigation operation across town. Another ambulance chaser. That same guy? Why?”

“A receipt from Nick Trump and Associates. What would Grant need a PI for?”

He put the receipt to the side and continued sorting through the papers.

“This is interesting,” Jimmy said, holding up a photocopied piece of paper. “The prenup.”

They weren’t lawyers, but both detectives got the gist. Linda had to be married to Grant for the real payoff.

The will was next.

“Look at the date,” Jimmy said. “That was right after Grant’s marriage to Linda.”

Now they knew that Linda would get a good share there—but that Shawn also had a reason to benefit.

“You think he killed his own father?” Jimmy asked.

“As I said, he has the motive. I’m not counting anyone out.”

He opened his cell phone and placed an urgent call. “Hey, Duncan, it’s Dale. Have you talked to Grant’s son and daughter yet?”

“Not yet.”

“Good. Listen…” Dale asked them to see what Shawn knew about the will and those arrangements—judge his reaction. Then he hung up.

Nothing else held their interest, so they took the money and the documents with them and let themselves out.

They got into the car. When Jimmy was seated, Dale said, “Tomorrow morning, early as possible, we’ve got to go to the bank and open that safe deposit box.”

“I’ll call Tina to set it up.”

“No, Jimmy. By the book. We’ll have to get one more warrant today. We are really pressing—but the mayor will help us out if need be, on the quiet.”

Chapter 16

From a highly touted NFL prospect to a Vegas murder suspect.

Calvin was on edge, his nerves strung tight when he got home, but he saw no sign that the cops had already been by. At least that was good.

He went to his small desk and booted up his computer. It was only a laptop. He kept his real computer system at the safe house.

That was the other thing that had kept him sane for three years. Daily knee rehab and weights, and daily online study of what his computer could do. Calvin had never been a computer nerd, but in the last three years he’d learned enough to do most of what the stereotypical flannel-shirted overweight geek could do. Establishing and keeping his computer system state of the art had been his only major expense since arriving in Las Vegas. He saved the rest of his earnings for use in his new life whenever it began.

He had created a psychological profile database of a wide range of people in Vegas, particularly clients, so he could break them down in his collecting work.

At the back of his mind he’d always thought his gift with computers would be his ticket to his new life. He could show most prospective employers what he’d managed to compile about people and how efficiently he’d used the information. Marketing firms, security businesses—both could use him.

Now the computer would have to substitute for friends. Although he knew a lot of people on the streets, he only had a handful of true friends who would even consider touching him right now.

Who could he call?

He hadn’t spoken to his brother in years, not since he had taken the job with Pitt. His own brother would simply tell Calvin to turn himself in—if he were innocent, he’d be okay. He was not a naïve cop, but he was straight as an arrow.

The only time Calvin had seen his father since he was little was when Calvin’s name had been mentioned in Sports Illustrated as a possible Heisman Trophy candidate and a sure top draft choice. His money-hungry father surfaced. Calvin told him to get lost again.

He had three options. One, he could turn himself into authorities. Not promising. Two, he could flee the city, never to return. That meant dumping Rachel, whom he loved. He hated his life in Vegas—but he liked the town itself. Three, he could find out who had tried to frame him and who the real murderer was.

He grabbed a black duffel bag and filled it with clothing. Except for cash for immediate expenses, he had all his savings locked and stored inside his fortified computer room. The $20,000 he’d gotten from Pitt this morning—that would come with him now.