Trunk Music

winning and losing, it was the anticipation. Whether it was the next card, the fall of the dice or the number the little ball stopped on, it was those few seconds of waiting and hoping and wishing that charged them, that addicted them. But it did nothing for Bosch.
    The ball stopped on five and Donovan owed Bosch five. Bosch turned and started looking for the poker pit. He saw a sign and headed that way. It was early, not yet eight, and there were several chairs open at the tables. He checked the faces and did not see Eleanor Wish, though he wasn’t really expecting to. Bosch recognized many of the dealers he had interviewed earlier, including Amy Rohrback. He was tempted to take one of the empty chairs at her table and ask how she had recognized Eleanor Wish but figured it wouldn’t be cool to question her while she worked.
    While he considered what to do, the pit boss stepped up to him and asked if he was waiting to play. Bosch recognized him as the one from the video who had led Tony Aliso to his place at the tables.
    “No, I’m just watching,” Bosch said. “You got a minute while it’s slow?”
    “A minute for what?”
    “I’m the cop who’s been interviewing your people.”
    “Oh, yeah. Little Hank told me about that.”
    He introduced himself as Frank King and Bosch shook his hand.
    “Sorry, I couldn’t come up. But I don’t work on rotation. I had to be here. This is about Tony A., right?”
    “Yeah, you knew him, right?”
    “Sure, we all knew him. Good guy. Too bad about what happened.”
    “How do you know what happened?”
    Bosch had specifically not told any of the dealers about Aliso’s demise during the interviews.
    “Little Hank,” King said. “He said he got shot up or something in L.A. What do you want, I mean you live in L.A. you take your chances.”
    “I guess. How long have you known him?”
    “We go back years, me and Tony. I used to be at the Flamingo before the Mirage opened. Tony stayed there back then. He’s been coming out here a long time.”
    “You ever socialize with him? Outside the casino?”
    “Once or twice. But that was usually by accident. I’d be some place and Tony’d just happen to come in or something. We’d have a drink, be cordial, but that was about it. I mean, he was a guest of the hotel and I’m an employee. We weren’t buddies, if you know what I mean.”
    “I get it. What places did you run into him?”
    “Oh, Jesus, I don’t know. You’re talking-hold on a sec.”
    King cashed out a player who was leaving Amy Rohrback’s table. Bosch had no idea how much the man had started with, but he was leaving with forty dollars and a frown. King sent him away with a better-luck-next-time salute and then came back to Bosch.
    “Like I was saying, I saw him in a couple bars. You’re talking a long time ago. One was the round bar at the Stardust. One of my buddies was the barkeep and I used to drop by there after work time to time. I saw Tony there and he sent over a drink. This was probably three years ago, at least. I don’t know what good it does you.”
    “Was he alone?”
    “No, he was with some broad. Young piece of fluff. Nobody I recognized.”
    “All right, what about the other time, when was that?”
    “That was maybe last year sometime. I was with a bachelor party-it was for Marty, who runs the craps here-and we all went to get straightened out at Dolly’s. It’s a strip club on the north side. And Tony was in there, too. He was by hisself and he came over and had a drink. In fact, he bought the whole table a drink. Must’ve been eight of us. He was a nice guy. That was it.”
    Bosch nodded. So Aliso had been a regular at Dolly’s going back at least a year. Bosch was planning to go there, to get a line on the woman named Layla. She was probably a dancer, Bosch guessed, and Layla was more than probably not her real name.
    “You seen him more recently with anybody?”
    “You mean a broad?”
    “Yeah, some of the dealers said there was a blonde recently.”
    “Yeah, I think I saw him a couple, three times with the blonde. He was giving her the dough to play the machines while he played cards. I don’t know who it was, if that’s what you mean.”
    Bosch nodded.
    “That it?” King asked.
    “One more thing. Eleanor Wish, you know her? She was playing the cheap table on Friday night. Tony played for a while at the same table. It looked like they knew each other.”
    “I know a player named Eleanor. I never knew her last