The Night Monster_ A Novel of Suspense - James Swain [26]
“They’ve been stained with drops of water,” Valentine said. “The gang only stained the high value cards, which are the most important cards in blackjack. The stains let the cheaters know the value of the cards the dealer is holding. That knowledge gives the cheaters a fifteen percent edge over the house.”
I removed the ace of spades from the deck, and held it up to the dim overhead light. When viewed from the right angle, the stain on the card was plainly visible.
“Why don’t you arrest them?” I asked.
The men fell silent, as did Valentine.
“Did I say something wrong?”
“The dealer who snitched was found in the trunk of his car with his throat slit,” Valentine said. “Without his testimony, we don’t have a case.”
“So you’re letting the cheaters play in the hopes of catching them,” I said.
“Exactly.”
“How can I help?”
“One member of the gang is reading the marks, and signaling the information to the others,” Valentine said. “That’s how marked card scams work. We need to figure out who the reader is, arrest him, and make him talk. That’s our best chance of nailing the gang.”
It was common when the police were stymied in a case to bring in a fresh pair of eyes to examine the evidence. I didn’t know anything about gambling or cheating, but I was good at picking slime-bags out of a crowd.
“I’d be happy to give it a try,” I said.
Standing in front of the wall-sized monitor, I tried to pick out the reader.
Cheating at blackjack wasn’t hard. Each player at the table received two cards, as did the dealer. The object was to get close to twenty-one, without going over. The dealer went last, and had the advantage of receiving one card facedown, the other face up. If the cheaters could learn the value of the dealer’s facedown card, they would know if the dealer was weak or strong, and play accordingly.
At first, I saw nothing out of the ordinary. The gang was drinking and smoking and having a swell time. So was the crowd standing around them. It was like one big party, and had Valentine not tipped me to the scam, I would have been clueless.
After twenty minutes of watching, something strange happened.
The dealer flipped over his facedown card, revealing an eight. His other card was a three, making his total eleven. The dealer dealt himself another card. It was a ten, giving him twenty-one, a winning hand. As the dealer raked in the losing bets, the seven men at the table frowned disapprovingly.
“Somebody screwed up,” I said.
Valentine put down the can of diet soda he was drinking. He shouldered up next to me, and stared at the monitor.
“You think so?” he asked.
“Yeah. I want to see this again.”
Valentine crossed the room, and two-finger typed a command into the keyboard that was wired to the monitor. The film was rewound. Again I watched the dealer pull twenty-one, and the cheaters’ reaction.
“See their faces?” I said. “That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“You’re right,” Valentine said. “So who’s the reader?”
“I’m not sure. Can we watch it in slow motion?”
“Sure.”
Valentine typed another command into the keyboard. This time, the clip ran in slow motion. Behind the cheaters I noticed a tall, menacing-looking Hispanic wearing a glittering array of gold jewelry. As the dealer raked in the losing bets, the Hispanic brought his hands up to his eye as if to replace a fallen contact lens.
“The tall Hispanic standing behind the players is your reader,” I said. “His contact lens fell out, which caused him to screw up.”
Valentine picked up a house telephone and called downstairs to the floor. “Put an RF tracking device on Table Sixteen.”
Hanging up, he smiled at me and resumed drinking his soda.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“The Hispanic is standing too far behind the table to be using signals,” Valentine explained. “I’m guessing he’s got an electronic transmitter in his pocket that he’s using to signal the others. Cheaters call these transmitters thumpers. A radio frequency tracking device should pick up the signal, and we’ll have our proof.”
“Are thumpers illegal inside a casino?”
“They sure are.