Aces and Knaves

business skirt with matching jacket, over a white blouse. I didn't immediately recognize her ethnicity. Her skin was darker than mine and she had short black hair in tight curls.
    "What would you like?" Arrow asked, summoning a waitress. She already had a cup of coffee and there was a glass of water in front of each of us, full of ice cubes, ready to freeze my esophagus.
    "Uh...orange juice."
    "Anything to eat?"
    "No thanks." I'd eaten breakfast.
    Arrow gave the order to the waitress before I could say anything.
    "How did you know me?" I asked her, trying to break the ice.
    "Well, number one, you look a lot like Richard—your father. Number two, he has a picture of you on his desk."
    "He does?" I couldn't hide my surprise.
    "With your sisters. I would guess it was taken about ten years ago."
    "Oh."
    "But you still look the same. Except your hair is shorter."
    "That was my fake hippy period. So how do you like being one of his slaves?"
    Arrow stared at me for a few seconds with her dark eyes, expressionless, then said, "Look, Karl, I know that you and Richard have had your differences, but if you and I are going to get along, please don't air them in front of me."
    Whoops! Wrong thing to say. "I didn't mean..."
    "I'm sure you know the definition of a slave. And since I have slaves in my ancestry, among the rogues and roués, I know something about slaves. I am not a slave and Richard does not treat his employees like slaves."
    "I'm sorry. But you don't look..."
    "What? Black? African-American?"
    "Right."
    "Well, actually, I'm a combination."
    "Of what?"
    "African-American, Native-American, Asian-American and European-American."
    "What do you check on forms?"
    "Anything I like." She gave a hint of a smile.
    I said, "Thanks for the lecture. I deserved it. I'm afraid I'm only European-American, but I've never seen that on a form."
    The waitress came and deposited a glass of orange juice in front of me. She asked if I wanted anything more. When I said no she put the check on the table. Arrow pulled it toward her.
    "Why did you want to meet here instead of at the office?" I asked when the waitress had gone.
    "Because, since you've never actually been to the office in recent memory, your appearance there might provoke comment. We don't want anybody to think you have an official connection with Dionysus."
    "But I can't hide the fact that I'm Richard's son."
    "No." Arrow smiled a full smile for the first time. The room became several watts brighter. "But if you can gain Ned's trust, maybe that won't matter."
    "We'll see. Anyway, if I'm going to play detective I guess I should do some detecting. Why don't we start with you telling me what you saw at the casino?"
    Arrow told pretty much the same story that my father had. When she finished I asked, "Did you do any gambling while you were there?"
    "No. Before I saw Ned we were just walking around, and afterward we left because I didn't want him to see me."
    "What did you think of the place?"
    Arrow made a face. "We went inside from the clean desert air. The first thing that hit me was the cigarette smoke. California is pretty much smoke-free now and I can't stand smoke anymore."
    "I guess Indian reservations don't have to abide by the state laws."
    "And the noise! From jangling slot machines and God knows what else. And all these fat, old people sitting in front of the slots, mesmerized, pouring in their Social Security checks. It was depressing."
    Arrow's description made me laugh. "I take it you're not much of a gambler."
    "I have been to Las Vegas—once. I put a dollar in a slot machine—four quarters, one at a time. Then I asked myself what I was doing, throwing my money away. I haven't gambled since. Actually, we just went into the casino to try to get a cold drink. I wasn't planning on gambling."
    "Do you know how to play blackjack?"
    "I know the object is to get 21."
    "But you've never played?"
    "No."
    "Okay, question. You said you thought Ned was betting $500 a hand. What made you think that?"
    "I was behind him, but I was close enough so that I could hear him ask the dealer what the limit was, and the dealer said $500. And Ned was betting a lot of chips on each hand."
    "But you don't know the values of the chips."
    "No."
    "And he was playing five hands at a time."
    "Yes. He was the only person at the table."
    "Did he appear to know what he was doing? Was he...playing carefully?"
    Arrow considered. "Of course, I can't answer as to his strategy, but he was certainly