Dark Maze

Charlie Furman after Moe and me now?”
    “I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he’s got the two of you on his list.”
    “That son of a bitch!”
    “That’s no way to talk about your partner.”
    “I meant Charlie, not Moe.“
    “You want to help Moe, and yourself?”
    “Of course I do. What do you think?”
    “Then you have to answer my questions, like Moe did. Otherwise, just like I told Moe, I see to it that Picasso knows the coast is clear here.”
    Benny drew out his .44 revolver. “He’ll have one hell of an argument on his hands!”
    I laughed at him. “Do you really think Picasso cares about getting shot? Picasso’s all about taking certain people down in flames. People like you, Benny. Get it? You shoot him, it’ll be the last thing you do in this life.”
    This held a certain logic for Benny, who slowly put his revolver back in his belt. Candi came by with a drink order and winked at me. Benny filled the order and I glanced over at the stage. The Great Morris was blindfolded and guessing at objects volunteers from the audience held up in their hands. Every so often, laughter would break out.
    I asked Benny, “How’s he do that?”
    “You mean Moe?”
    “Yeah. How’s he get the right object?”
    “Delilah gives him the clue. She puts a little emphasis on a certain word, which will have a letter beginning with what the object in question is. There ain’t too much variation to the play. Guys only have a certain few things they carry around in their pockets, you know.”
    “Well, that’s simple.”
    “It all is,” Benny said. “Including the saps in the audience.”
    “Interesting.”
    “Mind if I ask you something?” Benny said.
    “What?”
    “How come you ain’t calling in the paddy wagons to bust up our action here?”
    “It’s a matter of priorities, Benny. First things first, you know? The first thing I’m trying to do is prevent you or
    M
    Thomas Adcock
    Moe—or both of you—from being pictures of dead meat on the front page of the Post."
    “That’s the kind of priorities I like.”
    “Enlightened self-interest, your partner’s sentiments exactly,” I said. “That’s why we were having such a productive heart-to-heart back in Moe’s dressing room—up until show time anyway. Unfortunately, we got cut off just when I needed to know something real important. Which is where you’re going to chime in, Benny. Okay?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Oh, I’m sure you do. After all, you know all of The Great Morris’ trade secrets and you don’t mind giving them away to me. Seems the least you can do to help me catch the lunatic Picasso and keep your own ass alive is to break a few more minor confidences.”
    “Well, when you put it like that.”
    I asked him straight out, “How come you and Moe opened the casino upstairs?”
    Benny sighed. “It ain’t none of my bright idea, I can tell you that. Remember how I told you my genius partner’s all the time feeling sorry for certain ones?”
    “Yes. Delilah, and Candi…”
    “Yeah, and his brother’s old lady, too.”
    “Celia.”
    “I suppose you know her whole story?”
    “Enough of it.”
    “Well, then maybe you know how she needed big money pretty bad?”
    “That, and a way to get it in a hurry.”
    “Did you also hear how she got blacklisted from the gambling circuit, where she was a big whale and all?”
    “I heard.”
    “Well, so there’s the answer. Don’t you see?”
    “I guess I don’t.”
    “Moe talked me into opening a place here so Celia could finally shoot craps again after all the years she had to lay low herself. I mean, where else’s she going to get action in the whole freaking world but here in a joint where her ever-loving old softhearted brother-in-law’s in charge?”
    “She could have gone to Vegas,” I said. “Or Atlantic City, or Amsterdam.”
    “Don’t be such a hayseed, Hockaday. You think them places is democracies?”
    Benny held up the bottle of Johnnie Walker and I nodded and he poured me another red. He watched The Great Morris perform while I sipped my drink and thought about the simple reason he had just given me for laying the Horny Poodle open to all the risk—and expense—that came with casino gambling.
    The music got frantic up on stage and I turned to see Delilah blindfolding Moe. Then Benny reached into his pocket for his bifocals and said, “Well, there’s my cue for Moe’s piece-a-resistence.”
    I could see Delilah handing The Great Morris one