Sucker bet - James Swain [58]
Finished, his father sat on the edge of the sofa bed, and said, “Hey.”
Gerry opened his eyes. “How did you know I wasn’t sleeping?”
“You stopped snoring. You hungry?”
Gerry sat up. “Yeah. You mind my asking you something?”
“Depends what it is.”
“It’s about Kat.” He followed his father to the bathroom and stood in the doorway as his father lathered up to shave. “I realize it’s none of my business, but how come you busted up with her? She seems okay.”
“She is okay,” his father said, running the razor beneath the hot water. “I just couldn’t be the person she wanted me to be.”
“I thought you liked the wrestling.”
“I did. I also like Halloween. But not all the time.”
“You told me yourself, the change was doing you good.”
Valentine shaved, then wiped his face with a washcloth. “I had this case once, a guy who disappeared. He lived in New Jersey, ran an accounting firm. He was a heavy gambler, and he had lines of credit at every casino. One day, he cleaned out his bank accounts and bolted. Left his wife, his kids, even his dog. Boom, gone.
“I got handed the case. I put a professional skip tracer on him, then went on to other things. There were so many places he could have gone, I didn’t see the point of killing myself trying to find him.
“Two years later, the skip tracer calls me, says, ‘You won’t believe this.’ Turns out the guy has reappeared. He’s living in New Jersey, about fifty miles from where he lived before. He belongs to a country club and is married to a woman a lot like his first wife. His life is almost identical to the one he had before. The local cops arrest him, and I arrange to meet with the guy. I was curious, you know?”
“Sure,” Gerry said.
“His name was Stanley. So I say, ‘Stanley, why didn’t you run?’ And Stanley gives me a funny smile, and says, ‘There was nothing to run to.’
“I thought about that remark for a while. And what I figured out was this. Once you reach a certain age, the patterns of your life are set. You may think otherwise, but you’re just lying to yourself. Stanley came back to New Jersey because it was the only life he had. There was nowhere else for him to go.
“I got involved with Kat because I thought I could change who I was. My life was like a suit of clothes that I’d gotten sick of wearing. So I started wearing a different suit. Turns out, it didn’t fit.”
“Can’t stop being a cop, huh?” his son asked.
Valentine shook his head. “Not if my life depended on it.”
26
Saturday mornings were meant for tending to the garden or sleeping in, not for coming to Tony’s house and picking up messages left by panicked casino bosses. Mabel did it for only one reason, and that was because Tony asked her to.
Tony’s voice mail was empty. Booting up his PC, she checked for E-mail. He had one message, the sender someone named mathwizard, its subject matter “Your Problem.” She clicked the mouse on it, and the message filled the screen.
Hey Griftsense,
Interesting BJ problem.
There is no difference between which card is turned over by the dealer, provided the dealer does not know the identity of his cards before he turns them over.
But if the dealer did know the cards’ identities, he could alter the game’s outcome by choosing one card over another. Here is how the players’ odds would be
affected.
Card Shown by Dealer Player’s Advantage (+)
or Disadvantage (-)
Deuce +10
Three +14
Four +18
Five +24
Six +24
Seven +14
Eight +5
Nine -4
Any ten, jack, queen, king -17
Ace -36
The strategy, which I call Big Rock/Little Rock, has an enormous impact on the game’s outcome. When a dealer chooses to expose a Big Rock (any ten, jack, queen, king, or ace), instead of a Little Rock (deuce through seven), he’ll win most of the time.
Off to Geneva for a lecture. Take it easy.
Mabel printed the message on the laser printer. Tony corresponded with many world-class blackjack hustlers who held down legitimate jobs, like movie producers and college professors. They cheated for the thrill more than the money itself, and she guessed mathwizard belonged to this strange group.