Juan was on the phone in his apartment, calling Terry, calling the men who wanted a meeting, and all his friends to ask them what to do, when his door bell rang and interrupted this call. He slammed the phone down on to the receiver and yelled to the door I am coming wait a minute. He reached down on the desk and picked up his gun a short snub nosed 9 millimeter gun, easy to handle and quick to shoot. He put it tucked into his pants and checked the door and opened it, to be greeted by Jake Fuller, the husband of Terry, his first words were, "what do you want?" Jake was dressed in a light tan suit, with a blue shirt, open at the neck and looked like a business man soliciting a neighbor for some product he was peddling. Jake laughed at those words from Juan and said in a low stern voice "I am here to have you stop bothering Terry" and if you don't stop right away I will bring my attorneys to file a law suit against you and any others who might be involved, do you understand Juan? This all happened while Jake was still standing outside of the apartment, in the hall, and Juan apparently was not going to invite him into his apartment. Juan looked at him with a look that could kill, and that is what Juan was thinking these two idiots are giving me headaches and trouble, I should get rid of them. While he was going over this in his mind, Jake, recognizing trouble when he sees it, opened his jacket and produced his shield for Juan to see, and with that Juan said you can go f...k yourself with that piece of metal little man, that and anything else you throw at me, I will take care of you and that tramp of a whore you are married to, she is a bitch and has caused me all these problems, she owes me a lot of money and I owe it to others, who are threatening both of us now. She is to blame for this, she claims she lost the package, bull shit, she kept it and probably cashed it in , where do you think she got that fancy apartment? Jake listened to him and said all this is really irrelevant Juan, you cannot go around make threats to people and expect to get away with it. I am here to tell you up front we will use the law to stop you and anyone else who is behind this, do you understand Juan, we will not allow you to continue to make threats, and harass her and me now, and if you do, we will serve you with a legal document that will cost you your job, and an awful lot of money. Do you understand the consequences of your actions? Juan nodded his head in affirmation that he did understand what Jake as saying, but he was fuming mad and slowly closed the door and left Jake standing there. Once the door was closed, Juan blew his top in english and in spanish, though you could not tell which was which since he ran them together and his face became as red as the ties he sometimes wore. Yes Juan was angry and frustrated, he was determined to get his pride back, since this gringo had tried to make a fool of him, here and in all probability to his bitch Terry. Well he will set up a plan that will get the both of them, he knew some people in Vegas that will do anything for money. Juan was furious, and was taking it out on anything in the apartment that was not nailed down, throwing chairs, and dishes around, breaking a table and finally collapsed in a feat of despair. What the hell was he going to do, he had to meet the dealers in a matter of hours, and he damn well knew they were going to want the drugs or money, or worse still they would work him over to make it clear they were serious about this, after all they cannot let him get away with it. He settled down after a while and decided to make some phone calls to a few of the guys in the hotel who had over the years had hinted to him they knew some people who could get rid of problems for a price, make her suffer, the little bitch, imagine she used him to live here in his beautiful apartment, he gave her money and gifts, too numerous to mention, and all the while he found out later, she was working in the cocktail lounge, and hustling men, for money and God knows what else. Yeah Juan said she will pay for this and pay maybe with her life.
On the way back to the hotel Jake started to think about the episode the other night at that old Italian cafe and the fact that he had seen the mobster that was supposed to have died in an auto accident back in New York, and coincidentally missed having to testify against the mob. Jake was positive he had witnessed Tony in that cafe, and now what to do? He must get back to the police department in New York and find out about the feelings there about Tony and his disappearance from the courts. When he finds out about this he can act more rationally and know what to do. It seems that Jake was a man of disciple, of integrity, and honest to the point of being probably the one individual your mother could trust with her daughter. Jake was determined to follow the evidence with regard to this mobster he saw the other night, he must live here in Vegas, or why would he be at that bar with those guys, unless they were having a meeting in town and the others were from the cities around the country. That must be it he thought, there must be trouble of some sort and the mob was meeting here on Vegas probably to settle some problem that has risen, but why here in Vegas well why not? This is certainly their town, what with the casinos, unions, and the local politicians all in their debt, so to speak, the payoffs just for this town must be immense he thought. So his thoughts were that they were all here this week or week end to settle up some problem, and it is not a local problem, otherwise why is the New York crowd here?
Strange goings on he thought and it was going to have to be handled with very delicate gloves, since he knows the Sheriff is very touchy about somethings, usually the private detectives operating here in Vegas, and Jake is high on his list of to watch these guys, he does not like or want them to upstage his forces in the crime operations that go on a daily basis the this town. All the citizens of Vegas know or at least suspect that the mob in some way control or manipulate the casinos, and after all what else is there in Vegas, Hotels, strip clubs, prostitution, and gambling, the all American way! This is what the town was built upon and what the town has survived on, if the economy goes bad in the country, which city is hurt the most, other than car producing ones, it is Vegas of course, Jake knew this all too well and it made him all the more curious as to why they were all here, what are they up to? Of course the immediate item on his mind was what the devil did he get into with Terry, she obviously was involved with this guy Juan, though not involved romantically, at least she said she wasn't, but rather in an illegal business deal, how did she manage that he wondered, and more to the point, how can he get Juan who seems to be under a great deal of strain from the other group, probably drug dealers, to back off Terry, and still have Juan safe, though Jake did not have an allegiance to this guy, Jake felt that he did not want to put him in danger all because of the stupid act of Terry. Oh Terry, Terry, what to do about her and how much he can believe of the story she gave him today?
Jake is really under the gun to get to the real honest story from Terry, and that is what he decided to do, she must come clean with him or she will have to ay the penalty, which he had already outlined for her. It was no use trying to help her out of this trouble if he does not have all the facts, and as a detective for all those years he knew that if you do not have the facts you are in danger of striking out. He smiled at those thoughts, "just the facts mum" was the hallmark words of a very famous television detective and they were picked up by many in the industry. With this decision he headed his car, the mustang that they had won, into the middle of the city towards the hotel he was at and to confront his wife Terry. He got into the mustang that was one of the presents from the Vegas and admired what Ford had done with this machine, yes it was a machine of quality, and as he pressed his foot harder and harder on to the accelerator, the mustang responded with a huge surge and before he noticed it the speedometer was passing 70 miles per hour. God this was a great pick for us, but who owns it now if we decide to split? In a few minutes he found himself at the hotel where they were staying, boy does that car fly so he pulled up to the front of the hotel and the attendants came running out and they all knew him and the car. He said hello to all of them and went into the hotel and headed to the elevators, where he touched the PH button and the car moved up to the top level for him. He exited and went to the left and placed his key into the door and it opened and he entered, Jake did not know what to expect, but in his wildest dreams he never expected to see and find what he did. The room was in perfect order, it was dark in the main room, no lights were on, and he went further into the bedroom and that too was dark and he could barely see in the room. He switched the lights on and the room burst into light, and there it was, all completely upset, the bed was all ripped apart, the bed was turned almost on its side, the chairs were thrown on their sides, and he looked around the room for Terry, where was she? He went to the closet but all her clothes were still there so something or someone had been there and Terry perhaps left with them. Jake went to the phone and dialed the front desk, the girl answered and asked how she could help him, he asked did she have any messages for him, she looked it up and replied I am sorry Mr. Fuller but there are no messages for you. He hung up the phone and sat down to think this whole thing over, what to do? He sat there for a while and poured himself a large drink of scotch and then another one, time went by slowly and when he looked up at the clock on the wall in the room, but one hour and one half had passed with him still sitting there. He washed up and changed his clothes and then went down stairs to the casino, to try his hand in the "gambling life" as he thought, and of course he has the chips that the hotel gave them as a gift, anyway he was on his way down to the casino when he heard the front door open slowly and he yelled out Terry is that you? He waited for an answer, and he called out again "Terry where have you been and what happened in this room?" He looked up at the entrance to the bedroom and there she was, Terry was all dressed up and looking fine, but she obviously was distraught and looking very, very tired. She came into the room and came over to him and opened her arms to embrace him with such love and care he was overcome with joy.