How the Dead Live (Factory 3) (17 page)

I went back indoors, and there was the manager with me again. ‘Everything OK? You going to play some more?’

‘I might.’

‘I’m glad,’ said the manager, ‘because just now Janine—’

‘Who’s she?’

‘Our poker table manageress.’

‘Oh yes.’

‘She seemed to feel you weren’t happy.’

‘There was something troubling me, but on the whole I was happy all right, yes.’

‘You should have been. Seems you picked up a few quid.’ He added: ‘You don’t seem quite as merry as you were last time I saw you.’

‘You mean drunk,’ I said. ‘I can drink an awful lot, Charlie; you’ve got to be able to if you work in steel chain like I do.’

‘Is that so?’ he said indifferently. He thought for a while. ‘I’ll tell you what, if you’re feeling blue, how about a girlie? I can give you a room on the fourth fioor – just point out the bird you fancy as we go by.’

‘Later maybe,’ I said. ‘I’ll play poker right now, and why don’t you come and watch me?’

‘Nicc of you, friend, but I’ve a lot on.’

‘You might have even more before the night’s over,’ I said.

He gave me a puzzled look as if he knew he’d lost me, but couldn’t believe it. The look lasted the tenth of a second. ‘You’re not really a mug punter,’ he said.

‘Who said I was?’

‘You came on as one.’

‘You read me all wrong. I’ve been playing poker for years. I find excitement relaxes me.’

‘You weren’t drunk in the first place either.’

‘No crime in being a natural actor,’ I said. ‘Now come on, Charlie, cheer up – I’m going to play everything I’ve got on Janine’s table and I want you to come and watch it, you’ll be really sorry if you don’t, you’ll be missing something.’

‘I’ll certainly escort you to the table and stay a minute or two,’ he said. ‘After all, that’s part of my job, making our guests feel at ease.’

‘And friendship makes work a pleasure,’ I said, as we got into the lift. ‘Besides, I have a feeling this won’t take long.’

‘I don’t think it will either,’ the manager said.

‘That’s it,’ I said, ‘there’s no stopping me once I feel lucky.’

Nothing to speak of was happening on Janine’s baize; three punters, one of them new to me, were playing a desultory game of five card for low stakes. When the girl saw me she gave me a look and said: ‘Back to play?’ In profile her lipless face was as sharp as a meat-cutter.

I said: ‘Well, I’m not here to talk about the weather.’ I counted two hundred pounds and said to her: ‘Chips for that.’ I said to the others: ‘Do you lot want a real game or are we just going to play fairies?’

‘Why not just you and I for a hand?’ said the new punter.

‘OK,’ I said. ‘My money’s on the table, let’s see yours.’

The girl said frigidly: ‘The house will vouch for Mr Earle; he can play for what he likes.’

‘Good,’ I said, ‘because you never know, he might need to.’

Behind me the manager made a noise.

‘I’ll take three ton of chips,’ said Earle.

‘No problem, Mr Earle,’ Janine said, and pushed them over to him.

‘Well, well,’ I said to Earle, ‘just you and me.’

‘Why not?’ he said.

‘No reason,’ I said. ‘Cosy.’ He had a thick mouth in a thin face; neither of them liked me. His clothes were expensive but had been on him for a while and could have gone to the cleaners.

But he had no limit with the house.

I said to the girl: ‘I believe your name’s Janine.’

‘That’s right,’ she said, ‘what about it?’

‘Let’s have fresh packs about it,’ I said. ‘I don’t like putting new money on used cards.’

Her lips, never obvious, got lost in her distaste, but she got two sealed packs out. She was about to cut them open with that sickle-shaped thumbnail of hers only I reached over and said: ‘I’ll have a look at those if you don’t mind.’

‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ said Earle.

‘You can see for yourself,’ I said, ‘I’m risking my money with folk I don’t know, and I’m no Santa Claus.’ All the time I spoke I was feeling the seals, passing the ball of my thumb and index gently over them, to see if they had been steamed off and replaced. I hadn’t done a year on bent Soho gambling clubs for nothing, and in fact I was nearly certain that—

‘You want to watch your manners,’ Earle said.

‘Don’t we all?’ I answered, ‘only mine are like yours, the kind I can’t help.’

‘Try to help it,’ said Earle softly.

I let that one strain its greens and said to Janine: ‘House sitting in?’

‘No.’

‘Just you and me, then,’ I said to Earle. ‘Cut for deal. Aces high or low?’

‘High.’

He cut a nine; I cut an ace, one feel of the pack and I knew how to. ‘Wasn’t that lucky you called aces high?’ I said cheerfully. ‘OK, then, a nice little game of seven card with a wild five.’

‘We don’t much go for wild cards in this club,’ said Earle. ‘We’re country people.’

‘Sorry,’ I said, ‘it’s dealer’s choice, let’s see if the city can’t make some sparks.’ I dealt us two cards down and one up and watched Earle pick up his hidden ones. I watched how he handled them and remarked to Charlie without looking behind at him, without taking my eyes off Earle’s hands: ‘Do you see how Mr Earle actually feels those cards, Charlie? Look at his fingers really caressing them.’

The manager stirred. The girl’s face was blank. Earle stopped his fingers on his cards.

I said to Earle: ‘Do you feel them bringing you luck when you brush them with your fingers like that? Maybe your old granny was a witch.’

‘Just play your hand,’ he said, ‘and stop the chat.’ He had an eight showing; I had a seven.

‘Go on, then,’ I said, ‘it’s you to bet.’

‘I’ll go a score.’

I’d nothing in the hole – that didn’t surprise me at all. I said: ‘Your score and raise you a score.’

The manager coughed. He had no means of knowing yet that I was playing with the taxpayer’s money. They none of them in that room realized that I was playing cards to prove a point that would end better than winning any hand. I dealt us another card – I knew his was a king by feeling it and sure enough, up it came on the table. By chance I dealt myself a five – not that, with what I knew about the packs, it would have mattered if I hadn’t. ‘Ah,’ I said, smiling round the table, ‘that makes it all more equal, doesn’t it?’ The girl gave me a look like an unripe plum. I said to Earle: ‘Well, on the strength of it I’ll go fifty.’

‘Your fifty and raise you fifty.’

‘I’ll raise you fifty over that,’ I said, ‘a ton if you like.’

‘No,’ he said, ‘just the half ton.’

‘All right,’ I said, ‘I’ll let you down gently till the next card if you don’t stack.’ His face had begun to glisten like a hundred-day egg. I dealt the next cards; his was only a two, mine another five. ‘Oh, well fancy that,’ I said, ‘three sevens I’m showing, must be my bet.’ I was enjoying myself.

‘You going high?’ said Earle.

‘Couple of ton,’ I said, ‘if you like.’

‘I don’t like.’

‘Well, I’m doing it all the same,’ I said, ‘I don’t give a fuck about your likes and dislikes. If you choke on it, darling, I remind you you can stack.’ I said to Charlie: ‘You still there?’

He was there. I said: ‘How much credit did you say I had? Two long ones?’

‘That’s right.’

‘Go and get it all,’ I said, ‘in cash. Do it now. I’m going to play this man under the table.’

‘Your signature will be enough.’

‘All right,’ I said, ‘but I shall need to see this punter’s money.’

‘You’ll see it,’ said Earle, ‘but not to go into your pocket, now deal.’

So I dealt myself a seven, which gave me four of them showing – Earle was beaten on the table. ‘Make that last remark again,’ I said, ‘I didn’t quite hear it just now.’ Even if Earle had two fives in the hole, which I was sure he didn’t, I could see from his face that I couldn’t be beat. I said to the manager, still without taking my eyes off Earle: ‘You know, I find this game dull, Charlie.’

‘Dull?’ he mumbled, ‘what, with money like that out in front?’

I said to Earle: ‘All you can do now is stack, that’s the logic of the game.’

The little bat said: ‘You mean to say you find this boring?’

‘Yes,’ I said, ‘because it’s bent. Blokey here has two aces in the hole.’

‘How do you know?’ she shouted.

‘Because I dealt them to him,’ I said. ‘All the cards are marked from ace down to ten, pinpricks at the top left-hand corner.’ I reached over and flipped Earle’s hole cards up. ‘There you are, see? Two aces. And the card he was about to get would have been a king, which would have given him full house aces and kings, but not enough to beat four sevens, you see them?’

I scooped up all the cards and all the money, the chips, the packs, the seals; I stowed it all away in my pockets. ‘It’s pitiful,’ I said, ‘it died out in cities years ago – did nobody ever tell you that sharp poker players often come on as drunks? And didn’t you ever hear what a wild card’s known as in the cardsharper’s trade? It’s called the mug punter’s insurance policy, because no one can tell which card in the pack the punter’s going to choose. But dealer’s choice is dealer’s choice, and Earle here, who works for you lot, never should have said he didn’t like a wild card – that marked my card – my Christ, what a load of amateurs. Here, while I’m about it, let’s have a look at that roulette wheel you’ve got over there, and I’ll show you where that’s bent as well, if you like. Do you want me to speak louder so that your miserable losers can hear, or would the rest of you like to say something?’

The manager said to me: ‘Let’s keep calm, shall we? Why don’t you just take all that gear back out of your pockets? House’ll make it worth your while.’

‘No,’ I said. ‘No, not a chance.’

‘Then we might just have to take it off you,’ said Earle, starting to get up. ‘Rough, like.’

I said to him: ‘In your place, I should be very very careful what you say and do.’

Earle turned to his audience and sneered: ‘Oh look, the little man’s coming on very strong.’

I said: ‘And I can afford to, I’m a police officer.’ Silence fell suddenly throughout the room; those were two words that were instinctively heard at every table, and every punter, herding his bird by the waist, began drifting urgently towards the doors. I flipped my warrant card out and said: ‘I am now going to caution you.’ I did that and added: ‘The property I have in my possession, together with my report, will be forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions and may be used in evidence.’

‘On what charge?’ said the manager.

I said: ‘You’ll be told, don’t worry. Now get Miss Baddeley, also known as Mrs Anne Kedward, in here, I’ve a word to say in her ear.’

But she was already there, a big woman in her forties with a drooping lower lip and eyes as inscrutable as a banknote. I said to her: ‘I don’t know how long you’ve been listening to this, but probably long enough to realize that you’ve said goodbye to your licence and probably your freedom for a longish time.’

‘We’ll see about that,’ she said, ‘the counsel I can afford.’

I said: ‘You’re going to need the very best there is, by the time we’ve finished with you.’

She said to Earle: ‘You and Charlie, pick him up and throw him to the wolves on the door. I’ll give you a hand.’

I said: ‘You’re completely out of date, love, you’re not helping yourself at all.’

‘I’d willingly do ten,’ she said, ‘for the pleasure of doing you, you cunt. Where do you spawn in the dark anyway? Vice squad?’

‘No,’ I said, ‘Unexplained Deaths. I’m here to investigate the disappearance of a Mrs Marianne Mardy and I will say this – that
in addition to the trouble you are already in, which will serve as a holding charge if need be, if ever I trace a connection between the Mardys, you, your brother and your husband, you will all three of you be staring at a concrete wall for a very long time.’

Earle had turned the colour of frozen pastry; the little bat burst into tears. The manager groaned: ‘I thought he was just a punter,’ and the woman said to him: ‘You are just a cunt and you have got us all done brown.’

‘The less you say in front of me,’ I said, going to the door, ‘the better for you. I should save it all for your lawyers, not that it’ll make any difference, you’ll find. Meantime, the session’s closed.’

I added as an afterthought: ‘The place also.’

When I got back to the hotel there was a man waiting for me. I knew him and said: ‘Christ, what are you doing here?’

It was Tom Cryer from the
Recorder
. ‘Found you,’ he said, ‘but it took some doing.’

‘What’s the flap?’ I said. ‘What are you wandering around here for?’

‘I got a hint it was worth making the trip.’

‘I don’t need you over this, Tom,’ I said, ‘I could well do without you. I don’t need the press in on this at all.’

‘Something’s blowing up,’ he said, ‘something always does where you’re involved. However, if you’re going to be like that about it, it’s not far to go from here back to London.’

‘Do it,’ I said. ‘Just do a quick burn back to town. I tell you, I want to be by myself on this.’

‘I hear it’s a disappearance case. A woman where people who ought to have cared don’t seem to have.’

‘I’m saying nothing,’ I said, ‘except fuck off, Tom.’

He shook his head. ‘It’s gone too far,’ he said, ‘it’s leaked. If you won’t wear me you’ll have the rest of Fleet Street on your back.’

‘Don’t talk downstairs here,’ I said, ‘come up to my room.’ I got the key. When we were in there I said: ‘At least the short time you’re here, Tom, the taxpayer’ll buy you a drink before you go.’

‘Isn’t hubby old and mad and a struck-off quack?’

‘Let it drop, will you?’ I said. ‘What are you drinking, whisky?’

‘Why not?’ said Cryer. ‘It’s no more poisonous than the world we live in.’

I gave him his drink and said: ‘How’s Angela?’

‘She’s fine,’ he said, ‘she’s very fond of you, you know. Christ, I don’t always know why. I wish you’d come over and have supper with us one night.’

‘If only I could,’ I said, ‘when I’ve got the time, if I ever get the time.’