“They most certainly were. Although the older one is very odd. Does he have problems?” Elsie placed a finger to her temple. “You know, up here?”
“He’s just quiet,” Gabe said. “Let me go say hi. Thanks for helping out.”
“You’re more than welcome. Have a nice day.”
Steaming, Gabe marched up the path. The younger Haney was holding the remote to the train set. Gabe ripped it from his hand.
“What do you want?”
“Your neighbor’s a sweet old gal,” the younger Haney said.
“I said, what do you want?”
“Me and my father got to thinking. Your boss, Billy, is a cheat, and cheats can’t be trusted. So we decided to move in with you while the scam at the Carnivale was going down. Sort of like insurance, if you know what I mean.”
“You’re a piece of shit, and so’s your father.”
“In case you didn’t know it, we’re business partners, so start acting nice.”
It was all Gabe could do not to put his hands around the younger Haney’s throat. He entered the house and marched down the hallway into the living room. His prized electric train set was racing around the track, and he punched the remote and watched the train screech to a halt. A tiny replica of himself stared up from the engineer’s car.
“This isn’t starting out well,” the younger Haney said. “My name’s Jack, but everyone calls me Junior. It’s nice to meet you.”
Gabe bounced the remote off Junior’s chest in a rage. Junior’s pleasant demeanor evaporated, and he lifted his shirt to expose the gun tucked behind his belt.
“Do that again, and I’ll shoot you,” Junior said.
“You killed my friend last night. Why did you do that?”
“I didn’t lay a hand on him. My old man goes off his rocker sometimes. Don’t ask me why.”
“Your father kills people, and you don’t know why?”
“It’s just his nature,” Junior said.
Gabe retrieved the remote from the floor and tossed it on the train table. Billy was planning to put the screws to Junior and his deranged father once the Carnivale job was over. Revenge was a plate best served cold, and Gabe told himself to be patient.
“Is your father here?” Gabe asked.
“He’s in the garage playing with your toys,” Junior said.
Gabe’s stomach tightened. The garage was his workshop, the work tables filled with different cheating gaffs that would someday be used to take down the casinos. He spent much of his time there and could count on one hand the number of outsiders he’d allowed to see it.
“I’d like to meet him.”
“Happy to. You first,” Junior said.
Access to the garage was gained through the kitchen. Gabe pushed the door open and entered the attached two-car garage. Bright fluorescent lights illuminated the concrete-floored room. The elder Haney stood at a worktable, examining the gaffed Keno game.
“Pop, this is Gabe Weiss,” Junior said.
The father looked up. He had a raptor-like face and soulless eyes. An inhuman grunt escaped his parched lips.
“What did he say?” Gabe asked.
“He wants to know the deal with the Keno game,” Junior said.
Gabe decided to play along and moved toward the worktable. Gabe still had a jeweler’s eye and spotted the glittering diamond Bezel Rolex on the old man’s wrist. There was no doubt in Gabe’s mind that this was the same diamond Bezel Rolex that he’d sold to Cal Branche a decade ago. Cal Branche’s body had been picked clean after his murder, and Gabe wondered how many pieces of Cal’s jewelry the father was wearing.
It got him angry just thinking about it.
Gabe shifted his focus to the Keno game on the worktable. Keno was for suckers, the odds of winning so astronomically high that practically no one ever did. Eighty numbered Ping-Pong balls sat inside a circular glass enclosure called a bubble. At the press of a button, a blower sent air into the bubble that mixed the balls in a random fashion.
Numbers were drawn by pressing a lever that opened a plastic tube, causing the balls to lift into a V-shaped device called the rabbit ears. Players made wagers by circling numbers on blank Keno tickets. If a player’s circled numbers matched the drawn balls, they won.
Keno was considered impossible to cheat, since no human hands ever touched the balls. Billy had a method in mind, and one day he’d given Gabe a box of sewing needles hardened with a titanium nitride coating. Within a few hours, Gabe was able to gaff the balls in a way that was invisible to the naked eye.
A blank Keno ticket lay next to the machine. Next to it, a golf pencil. Gabe picked up the ticket, circled ten boxes, and placed the ticket facedown on the table.
“It’s showtime,” Gabe said. “This Keno game looks legit but is rigged and can make you a fortune, if you know what the secret is. Allow me to demonstrate. Please start the game.”
The elder Haney started the machine. The blower made a soft whirring sound as the balls flew around the bubble.
“Does that look fair to you?” Gabe asked.
The elder Haney pressed his face to the bubble. A grunt escaped his lips.
“My father says yeah,” Junior said.
“Press the lever, and start picking the winners,” Gabe said.
The elder Haney hit the lever. One by one, balls traveled up the gooseneck and filled the rabbit ears. The game was stopped after twenty balls had made the journey.
“You know how the game works?” Gabe asked.
The elder Haney grunted yes.
“How about you?” Gabe asked.
“Sure, I’ve played before,” Junior said.
“Good. Take a look at my ticket, and see how many winners I picked.”
Junior picked up the ticket and compared the circled numbers to the numbers on the twenty balls in the rabbit ears.
“He got eight winners,” Junior told his dad.
“Which would make me approximately a grand, depending upon the casino I’m playing in,” Gabe said. “A thousand bucks on a ten-dollar investment. You can’t beat that.”
The elder Haney snatched the ticket out of his son’s hand and looked at the numbers Gabe had chosen. Gabe had fooled him, and the crazy bastard didn’t like being fooled. Throwing the ticket to the floor, the elder Haney picked up a screwdriver lying on the table.
Gabe stepped back, bumping into the son.
“Please don’t hurt me,” Gabe said.
The elder Haney didn’t have malice on his mind. Instead, he took apart the machine with the screwdriver and dumped the twenty balls out of the rabbit ears onto the table. He held each ball up to the light, bounced it on the floor, and when none of those tests proved adequate, grunted another unintelligible command to his son.
Junior left the garage. Soon he returned holding a large glass of water. The old man dunked the balls in the water. Each one floated innocently to the top.
The Haneys were no longer watching Gabe. That was good, because he’d gotten a text from his daughter, telling him she was driving to Vegas to talk to her father about her relationship with Cory. Gabe could not let his daughter be around these animals.
He asked himself what Billy would do. Billy was the champ when it came to dealing with tough situations. Billy often said that the best way to deal with an enemy was to make him a friend. It’s worth a shot, Gabe thought.
“How’d you like to see the Keno scam in action?” Gabe asked.
The elder Haney stopped the water test. His eyebrows went up.
“We rigged the Keno game at Palace Station,” Gabe explained. “What do you say we head over there, grab a steak dinner, and win ourselves some money.”
The elder Haney considered it and grunted to his son.
“My father wants to know if you’ll explain the scam to us,” Junior said.