Deadman's Bluff - James Swain [27]
“Come in, Uncle George.”
His uncle entered, shutting the door behind him.
“You sleep good?” the older man asked.
“Like a rock. How about you?”
“Fine. Show me what you’re wearing.”
DeMarco stood in the center of the bedroom, and let his uncle appraise his selection of clothes. It was a routine they’d followed since he’d gone to live with Scalzo as a little boy.
“You look great, kid,” his uncle said.
“The black isn’t too ominous?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Foreboding. Scary.”
“You look like a man,” his uncle bristled.
DeMarco pointed at the dresser. A radio transmitter lay on it, which was used to test the earpiece and make sure it was functioning properly. “Do the test, Uncle George.”
His uncle picked up the transmitter and flipped the power on. Then he pressed the transmitter’s main button. DeMarco heard a short click in his ear.
“Do it again,” DeMarco said.
His uncle pushed the button twice. DeMarco heard two clicks.
“Perfect,” he said.
“You’re not leaving this out for the maid to see, are you?” his uncle asked.
“It goes in the wall safe,” DeMarco said. “Put it away for me, Uncle George, would you?”
His uncle shuffled across the room and put the transmitter into the wall safe. A diabetic, he suffered from swollen feet. “It’s like walking on marshmallows all the time,” he often said. His uncle carried insulin with him, yet told everyone the insulin was for his nephew, not himself. DeMarco believed that little deception said a lot about his uncle.
“Now, look in my ear,” DeMarco said.
“You clean it real good?” his uncle asked. DeMarco smiled. Another standard line.
“Yes, I cleaned it real good.”
His uncle examined his nephew’s ear. When properly fitted, the earpiece was impossible to see. Earpieces had been used to cheat card games for years, with someone on the outside secretly reading everyone’s hands, and passing the information to the cheater via a radio transmitter. But that scam was easy to detect. If an RF detector was pointed at the table during the transmission, the detector would pick up the radio frequency, and the cheater would be exposed. Nearly every casino and poker room in the world used RF detectors for this purpose.
But the scam his uncle had given DeMarco to cheat the World Poker Showdown was different. For starters, there was no outside person reading the other players’ cards. And, if an RF detector was pointed at the table, the machine would hardly register, and the operator would think it was someone’s cell phone. But the best part was that there was no evidence. The cards were clean, and so was everything else.
There was only one bad part about the scam. DeMarco didn’t know how his opponent’s cards were being read. It was a creepy feeling to hear clicks in his ear, and not know who was sending them, and several times he’d asked his uncle to explain the secret. Each time, his uncle had placed his hand on his nephew’s shoulder and promised to tell him after he won the tournament.
Scalzo watched his nephew finish getting dressed, then looked at his watch. “Let’s go downstairs. They’re going to start playing soon.”
“I need to brush my teeth and comb my hair,” his nephew replied, heading toward the bathroom.
“Your hair looks fine, and no one’s going to smell your breath.”
“Come on, Uncle George. Appearances are important.”
“Didn’t you hear what I said? You look fine.”
“It won’t take two minutes. Is that so much to ask?”
The bathroom door closed before Scalzo could reply. His nephew was letting all the attention go to his head. Scalzo had adopted Skipper twenty years ago, expecting the boy to grow up to be like him. Instead, Skipper had turned into a big peacock.
Scalzo went into the next room, slamming the door behind him. He spied Karl Jasper standing in the center of the living room, talking with Guido. It was the second time in two days that Jasper had come to Scalzo’s suite without being asked.
Guido hurried over to his boss.
“What the fuck is he doing here?” Scalzo asked under his breath.
“He demanded that I let him in,