Peter Corris - Casino (Cliff Hardy Mystery 18)

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Casino

[Cliff Hardy 18]

By Peter Corris

Scanned & Proofed By MadMaxAU

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I looked at the card hed laid on my deskafter hed finished shaking my hand. He was Oscar Cartwright and he wasevidently the director of Sydney Casinos Ltd.

What do you knowabout casinos, Mr Hardy?

The man now sittingin the client chair in my office looked as if he could buy the whole building.If he did hed certainly junk the chair. Hed told me to call him O.C., but sofar I hadnt done it.

Not much, I said.Ive been in a fewMonte Carlo, Hobart, Port Douglas, places like that.

I gather you dontlike em much. This ones different.

I shrugged.Thousand-dollar suits, gold watches and silk ties tend to bring up my levels ofresistance. I was in one in Las Vegas a few years back. It had a tiger in acage in the lobby. I still didnt like it.

He laughed, showingexpensive teeth. Everything about him was expensivethe blow-waved hair, theaftershave, the tan, the facelift. Oscar Cartwright had fifty-year-old eyes inthe thirty-year-old face, which made him a hard man to read and not an easy oneto like. Still, he was sitting there, breathing the stale, cheap air in myoffice, and obviously about to make me a proposition. The three other littlejobs I had on hand were from a small payer, a slow payer and a probablenon-payerI couldnt afford to take too strong a dislike to Oscars grooming.And he had laughed, that was something.

They told me youwere a comic. I like that. They also tell me youre tough and honest. I likethat even more.

Oscar was the sortwho liked to anticipate the next question. He told me who they were severalsatisfied clients over the past couple of years. One of the jobs had sent a manto hospital, hence the reputation for toughness. I guess the honesty tag comeswith my low prices. The shabby office two floors up from St Peters Lane inDarlinghurst, and the fact that my new Hong Kong linen suit cost about as muchas Oscars shampoo and trim probably helped reinforce the image.

Its nice to bewell-regarded, I said. Especially in this game, but all Ive ever done incasinos is lose money. If youre looking to set up a security system and so on,you need a specialist in that kind of work.

He shook his head. Thatsall in hand. You know were opening next week?

After years ofwrangling, a solution to the Sydney casino question had finally been workedout. Id followed the machinations in the press in a random kind of way. As Iunderstood it, a local syndicate with an acceptable amount of foreign backinghad been granted some kind of provisional licence. So I heard. Best of luck.Youll be putting people to work. Im all for that.

I want to put youon the payroll, Cliff.

I couldnt resist. O.C.,I said, Im already in work.

Keeping his tightyoung chin firm, he let his middle-aged eyes drift around the room, taking inthe battered filing cabinet, the frayed carpet, faded holland blind and thescarred desk. He rocked back a little on the chair, causing it to creakdangerously. Im not saying youre not making a living, but you could be doinga whole lot better.

I know that. Icould be working for one of the big agencies thatve tried to suck me in overthe years. I could be driving a BMW with a mobile phone. I could have a deskwith a pot-plant and a fax machine. But then I couldnt go off to Hong Kong fora week when Id made a few bucks or just piss off to the Central Coast when Ifelt like it.

Cartwright leanedforward. I could see white wrinkles on his tanned neck and when he gotinterested in what he was saying rather than how he looked, there was a littlestomach sag. A year with us and you can have it all.

A years a longtime in the private inquiry business, I said. With all these regulationscoming in, the whole game could be belly-up before

All the morereason to listen to what I have to tell you.

I sighed and leanedback in my own chair, making it creak almost as much as the other one. I wasnever much of a chess player and hed put a good move on me. OK, O.C., whatveyou got in mind?

Youre stilltaking the piss out of me. I want you to know that I can see that. And I canlive with it.

He was trying veryhard and Ive always had a soft spot for triers, being one myself. I relentedto the extent of admitting that I didnt have a lot of work on hand and thatthings had been slow of late. I was already almost regretting the trip to HongKong. Glen Withers and I had had a good ten days hammering the plastic and themattress in the four-star hotel. Wed taken tea in The Peninsula Hotel andfantasised about staying in the place with the rich and famous. One night wouldhave broken the bank. I jerked myself away from these memories to concentrateon what he was saying.

Come and take alook. Whats the harm?

The implication,that my time was valueless, irritated me. What would be the good?

Ill pay yourhourly rate.

I had to laugh atthat. Im a private inquiry agent in a small way of business, Mr Cartwright. Imnot a lawyer or a CPA. I charge by the day $150, if I think the client canafford it.

He was already outof his seat. He took his wallet from off his hip and slid out threefifty-dollar notes as if he could keep producing them for half an hour. Then hewas moving towards the door in his slightly built-up Italian slip-ons whichmight have got him up to five foot nine, just. Im six feet and half an inch; Ihad that on him. Youve got a deal. A days pay for an hours tour, maybe twohours. I say again, whatve you got to lose?

Gamblers talk, andIm not a gambler. Money talk, and Ive never been seriously interested inmoney. But there was an enthusiasm and eagerness and energy about him that didappeal to me. I picked up the money and stuffed it into my pants pocket, hookedmy wrinkled jacket off the back of the chair and stood up, hoping he wouldnthear the joints creak. Wherere we going exactly?

He smiled. Youllbe taken and youll be dropped back, Cliff. You dont have to worry about athing.

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He had a white stretch limmo with driverparked in St Peters Lane. The car just fitted in the space between the workshopthat specialises in repairing European automatic transmissions and a big rollerdoor that opens so seldom its impossible to say what goes on behind it.Cartwright introduced me to the driver, whose name was Graham, as Mr Hardy.

Cliff, I said,reaching through the window to shake hands. I hope you dont have to wash thisthing.

We have people forthat, Cartwright said. I believe in employing specialists. Grahams never hitan unnecessary bump, have you, Graham?

Thats right, O.C.

I climbed in theback with Oscar and we could really have spread ourselves out if wed wanted to.There was a mobile phone with fax attachment, a minibar and a TV with built-inVCR. The late February day was warm with high humidity and some dark cloudsbuilding in the south. That was outside; in the limmo the air-conditioning wasset for perfect comfort.

Drink, Cliff?

I shook my head andwatched him prepare a Perrier as if it was Dom Perignon. The limmo purred awaydown the lane and I waited for the bump at Forbes Street. No bump. Either thesuspension was superb or Graham was the artist Cartwright proclaimed him to be.My 1980s Falcon has a reassuring number of knocks and rattles. Ive learned todiagnose its state of health by those sounds and to take appropriate action,often too late to save a vital organ. There were no such signals from thelimmo. We whispered along William and Park Streets and swung right atElizabeth.

I remember now, Isaid. Darling Harbour a temporary location and a provisional licence.