At midnight the game broke up. Everybody did what they had to do to get their chips back the next day and then headed for elevators, escalators, or the casino floor. The field had been narrowed considerably, but there were still enough participants to keep the game going another couple of days.
Jimmy wanted to find Sabine and tell her essentially the same thing he’d told Kat, but before he could locate her the police located him, in the persons of Detectives Cooper and Devine.
The two Vegas cops approached him, Devine looking determined and Cooper disappointed.
“You’re mine, asshole,” Devine said right away.
“Not tonight,” Jimmy said quickly. “I have a headache.”
“Har, har, you’re comin’ with us,” Devine said. “Do I get to put the cuffs on you . . . please?”
Jimmy knew the other man would have liked to cuff him in front of everyone. He looked at Cooper but was getting nothing from the black detective.
“No, that’s okay,” Jimmy said. “I’ll come quietly. We going to headquarters?”
“Just come with us,” Devine said. “You’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”
That could have meant any number of things, but rather than guess, he went along and decided to wait to find out.
“Is this going to take long, guys?” Jimmy asked. “I’m kind of hungry. It’s been a long day.”
“Shut up and sit down, smart guy,” Devine said.
They took him to the same office they’d used last time, only this time both Devine and Cooper came in with him. Cooper still hadn’t said a word.
Jimmy sat, avoiding the ergonomic chair this time.
“I checked you out, smart guy.”
Oh, great.
“Why didn’t you tell me you did time?” Cooper asked.
Now Jimmy knew why he looked disappointed.
“For murder, no less,” Devine said almost gleefully.
“Manslaughter,” Jimmy said.
“You pleaded down to manslaughter,” Devine said.
“I did my time.”
“And you thought you could hide that from us?” Devine asked.
“Why would I try to hide it when I know you can check me out?”
“Then why didn’t you tell us?” Cooper asked.
“It wasn’t important,” Jimmy said. “It had nothing to do with what’s going on here.”
“You knew you’d be a suspect if you told us,” Devine said. “You knew I’d lock your ass up.”
“For what?” Jimmy asked with a shrug. “Come on, guys. I was sitting at the pool when the guy took his header. I’m innocent.”
“Of the second murder maybe,” Devine said. “But how about the first?”
“Same guy,” Jimmy said. “Again, not me.”
“We’ll see,” Devine said. He looked at Cooper. “I say we cuff him and take him in, but it’s your call.”
Cooper studied his partner and then Jimmy before speaking. “He’s right, Andy,” he finally said. “It’d never stick. We’d end up cutting him loose.”
“Fuck ’im,” Devine said. “Let him spend some more time in a cell.”
“Hey, guys,” Jimmy said, spreading his hands. “I’m trying to help you, remember?”
“Take a walk, Andy.”
“What?”
“Better yet, go home,” Cooper said. “I’ll finish up here and see you tomorrow morning.”
Devine stared at Cooper, glared at Jimmy, then said to his partner, “This is bullshit.”
He slammed the door on the way out.
“I’m disappointed, Jimmy,” Cooper said. “I was square with you.”
“I was square with you, too, Detective,” Jimmy said. “And I’ve been helpful.”
“Yeah, you have. That’s why I haven’t thrown your ass in jail.”
“Along with the fact that I didn’t do it,” Jimmy said. “Either murder.”
Cooper pointed a finger at him.
“You still should have told me, and you know it.”
Jimmy opened his mouth to say something, then changed his mind and snapped it shut.
“Okay,” he said after a moment, “you’re right. I should’ve told you. I’m sorry.”
Cooper spread his hands.
“That’s all I wanted.”
“I’m still new at being an ex-con, Detective,” Jimmy said, “but I’ll get the hang of it.”
“Look, just stay away from Devine. He’ll haul you in if he gets the chance just to break your balls.”
“That would do more than break my balls, it would bust me out of the tournament.”
“Yeah, well, don’t let him know that.”
“Thanks for the warning. Do you have a regular partner?”
“I did,” Cooper said but didn’t elaborate. Jimmy figured the issue was as much his business as his plea was Cooper’s.
“By the way, do the tournament people know about your record?”
“Don’t know if they do or not,” Jimmy said, “but it doesn’t matter.”
“That wouldn’t get you disqualified?”
“No,” Jimmy said. “There are other players with records.”
“What about the casinos?”
“I didn’t do time for anything related to gaming,” Jimmy said. “I’m in the clear.”
“Okay,” the black detective said, “you can go. I’ll walk out with you in case Andy’s waiting in the hall.”
The hall was clear. Devine was nowhere in sight. True to his word, however, Cooper walked Jimmy out to the casino floor.
“An odd thing happened today,” the detective said.
“What’s that?”
“I met a cop from Philadelphia who’s vacationing here,” Cooper said. “Turns out he’s a homicide specialist. Took an interest in these two cases.”
“Is that a fact?”
Jimmy realized that in checking him out Cooper would have found out that he was originally from Philadelphia. If he dug a little deeper, he’d find out that Jimmy’s father was a cop. Perhaps he was putting two and two together and wanted to see what Jimmy would say.
“Yep,” Cooper said.
“And you talked to him?”
“Why not?” Cooper said. “He’s got a lot more experience than I do. Figured I’d pick his brain a little.”
“Did it help?”
“Some.”
The two of them stood there for a moment, on the edge of the casino floor, and then Cooper said, “Well, I better get going. My wife’s gonna wonder what the hell happened to me.”
“Thanks for the help with Devine,” Jimmy said. “I guess you kept me out of the slammer tonight.”
“Sure,” Cooper said. “See you around.”
As the detective started to walk away, Jimmy called out, “Can I ask you something?”
The man turned and looked back.
“Sure.”
“The tape from the cameras on the high-roller floor, did they tell you the size of the killer?”
“Luckily,” Cooper said, “we have the victim standing right in front of him on the tape, so we can tell he was a tall man. Not necessarily a big man, but the fact that he lifted the victim makes him pretty strong.”
“So that definitely rules out a woman.”
“As far as the second victim is concerned, yeah,” said Cooper. “But it’s not out of the question that there could be two separate killers, the first one being a woman. It’s unlikely, though.”
“So you’re working on the premise that the murders are connected?”
“Yes,” Cooper said. “Even though one was killed in his room and the other stabbed and thrown out a window, the presence of the cards in both cases supports that.”
“So why’d he toss him out the window?”
“This is just my opinion,” Cooper said, “but I think he did it for fun.”