Mohawk

Both times winners.
    “Hello, sweetheart,” Dallas said to John’s secretary. “Put him on, will you?”
    “He isn’t free—”
    “Put him on anyway.”
    In a minute the lawyer’s voice crackled on the line. “What?”
    “Good morning to you, too.”
    “It’s not a particularly good morning.”
    “Have it your way. Benny D. again.”
    “How much?”
    “Hundred and a half.”
    “Take it.”
    “Twenty to one. Guess where.”
    “Take it,” John barked.
    “I could lay off part.”
    “What the hell for?”
    “Suit yourself.”
    He dialed Benny D. “You’re in the book, pal.”
    “I’m not your pal. You walked out on me.”
    “I said I was going to. Why don’t you pay attention?”
    “I’m the boss in that garage.”
    “Good. So tell me: What’s with you and Santa Anita?”
    “It’s my lucky track. When are you coming back?”
    “When you learn to stay out of it.”
    “It’s my goddamn garage!”
    “Not for long, if you keep betting twenty-to-one shots.”
    “I know what I’m doing. Why do you want to work for that asshole?”
    “Bye.”
    Around one, Dallas called the Mohawk Grill’s unlisted number. “We don’t deliver,” Harry growled. “Drag your lazy ass across the street.”
    “The phone won’t stop ringing long enough.”
    “I can’t spare anybody.”
    “When you can.”
    “Forget it.”
    But around one-thirty Harry sent one of the girls over with coffee and a sandwich. She was Dallas’s favorite because she was built and had a nice way about her. On the whole he didn’t have much use for Gaffneys, but he liked this one. “When are you and I going to step out?” he teased.
    “I’m a married lady.”
    “He’s a stiff, honey.”
    “Tell me.”
    “I got a weak heart anyhow,” Dallas said, leering at her good-naturedly.
    “Guess who I saw yesterday?”
    “How should I know?”
    “Randall Younger.”
    Dallas frowned. “He’s in Buffalo.”
    “That’s what you know. He’s got real long hair.”
    “No.”
    “Him I’d go out with.”
    He listened to the receding sound of her footsteps and watched her dodge traffic in the street below. Feeling suddenly nervous, he took the phone off the hook and walked over to the OTB, laying off a hundred of Benny D.’s bet. If John didn’t like it, too goddamn bad. He’d like getting nailed for three grand even less. Not that it wouldn’t serve him right.
    The phone rang the rest of the afternoon and Dallas didn’t have a chance to think about anything. Benny D.’s horse ran like the wind. At six-thirty he closed up and went over to the Mohawk Grill for a hamburg steak and onions. He had just started eating when John came in looking sick, his shirttail hanging out from under his vest. He took the stool next to Dallas, who resumedhis meal. “That fucking California horse
ran
, can you believe it?”
    “What’d you expect?”
    “I expected it to lose. Everybody expected it to lose. That’s how come it was
twenty
to
one
.”
    “Everybody except Benny D.,” Dallas paused to swallow, “who’s done the same thing to you twice already.”
    “How could he know anything about Santa Anita, of all places?”
    Dallas pushed his plate away. “Harry,” he said. “A man comes in and wants to bet you a hundred bucks he can cut the ace of spades from a deck of cards. What do you do?”
    Harry didn’t bother to turn around. “Tell him to take a hike.”
    Dallas turned to John, “There you go. You don’t need law school to figure that out.”
    John looked even sicker, “All right. Piss on me. I should’ve listened.”
    “Fortunately, I didn’t. I laid off a hundred.”
    “No.”
    “I ought to keep it, too.”
    The lawyer looked like he’d just given birth. “Let me buy you dinner.”
    “I can buy my own dinner.”
    “I owe you.”
    “You’ll end up owing everybody before you’re through.”
    “You’re all right,” John said.
    Dallas felt all right, too, and ordered a piece of pie.
    John was no sooner gone than Benny D. came in and clapped Dallas on the back. “Come back and workfor me,” he said. “Your present employer isn’t likely to stay in business much longer.”
    “He does all right,” Dallas said, explaining what he’d done.
    Benny D. was disgusted. “Why help him out? Fuck guys like him.”
    “You’re probably right.” Dallas didn’t like John on principle. His old man gave the kid everything and bailed him out of every jam so he could act like a big wheel. Dallas couldn’t