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His daughter yapped brief, bright laughter.
“What kind of odds would I get?”
He looked at the daughter. She put up her hands. Two fingers raised on the left, one finger on the
right.
“Two-to-one? That’s ridiculous.”
“It’s a ridiculous life, my friend. Go see an Ionesco play if you don’t believe me. I recommend
Victims of Duty.”
Well, at least he didn’t call me cuz, as his Derry cuz had done.
“Work with me a little on this, Mr. Frati.”
He picked up an Epiphone Hummingbird acoustic and began to tune it. He was eerily quick.
“Give me something to work with, then, or blow on over to Dallas. There’s a place called—”
“I know the place in Dallas. I prefer Fort Worth. I used to live here.”
“The fact that you moved shows more sense than wanting to bet on Tom Case.”
“What about Case by a knockout somewhere in the first seven rounds? What would that get me?”
He looked at the daughter. This time she raised three fingers on her left hand.
“And Case by a knockout in the first five?”
She deliberated, then raised a fourth finger. I decided not to push it any farther. I wrote my name
in his book and showed him my driver’s license, holding my thumb over the Jodie address just as I
had when I’d bet on the Pirates at Faith Financial almost three years ago. Then I passed over my cash,
which was about a quarter of all my remaining liquidity, and tucked the receipt into my wallet. Two
thousand would be enough to pay down some more of Sadie’s expenses and carry me for my remaining
time in Texas. Plus, I wanted to gouge this Frati no more than I’d wanted to gouge Chaz Frati, even
though he had set Bill Turcotte on me.
“I’ll be back the day after the dance,” I said. “Have my money ready.”
The daughter laughed and lit a cigarette. “Ain’t that what the chorus girl said to the archbishop?”
“Is your name Marjorie, by any chance?” I asked.
She froze with the cigarette in front of her and smoke trickling from between her lips. “How’dja
know?” She saw my expression and laughed. “Actually, it’s Wanda, sport. I hope you bet better than
you guess names.”
Heading back to my car, I hoped the same thing.