night when he got home, Jack found his two beloved Irish setters, Yeats and Maude, to whom he’d promised a big yard and long runs in the Arkansas hills, decapitated with their guts pulled out and strung around the bushes in front of his house like Christmas lights.
The pain had gone deep. Jack had truly loved those dogs.
But he was a patient man, and he knew how to bide his time. He’d gone on along to Hot Springs and set up his casinos, of which Joey the Horse got his 20 percent. One out on Lake Hamilton at Gardiner Place, a handsome former mansion now a superb restaurant with full-tilt gambling in the gigantic basement, which you could reach through an underground tunnel that led right from the marina where you could pull your boat up. Another in the old Quapaw Bathhouse right in the middle of town on Central Avenue.
Jack had been very busy—and very successful. He’d pat his pocket and say, “Early, I’ve got the sixth tailbone of a black cat in there, brings me luck.” But it wasn’t any Irish Channel mojo that made the man so good. He knew what he was doing, he wasn’t afraid of work, and he was a good guy. People liked him. Early liked him a lot.
So things were going great, just rolling along, until that day just a couple of weeks ago, To Lush Life’s running in the sixth, and Jack’s in his favorite spot, way over at the top of the grandstand, you can see the horses making the last turn. Early’s up in the Oaklawn Club with the white linen napkins and the roses on the tables, which he likes to do every once in a while just because he can, Jack gave him the membership as a little perk. All of a sudden Early spots Speed McKay. He can’t believe his eyes, but it’s the little man all right, romancing this curvy blonde, a couple of years on her, but you could tell she’d been the real article in her prime, and Speed’s saying to her, “I once knew another filly named Lush Life, just Lush Life without the To, but she was a lazy nag, couldn’t go the distance, dropped dead rather than run.”
Early wants to pull out his gun, pop the stupid little son of a bitch right there. Damn him! But the Oaklawn Club wasn’t exactly the place to do that, not that he would really, he just wanted to so bad he could taste it. As soon as the race was over, To Lush Life won, bless her sweet heart, paid ten to one, he ran to find Jack.
“I want you on him like a fly on shit,” had been Jack’s response. Early knew that Jack was hoping that where there was Speed, there’d be Doc. So Early had spent the past few weeks following the little man, watching him romance the blonde. It wasn’t long before he reported to Jack that their little Speed McKay seemed to be getting himself engaged to the ex–beauty queen who had won herself a million dollars in the Texas lottery not all that long ago.
“You don’t say?” Jack had smiled and told Early to keep on keeping on. So Early followed them to the gate when the lovebirds flew off to the Bahamas and to New York, though he hadn’t gone on either trip. Jack said he was interested in what was happening here at home. Like Speed renting a big stone house out on Lake Ouachita. Early kept watching, and one thing he noticed that was real odd was that the bride-to-be never showed at the lake house. Never set foot in it. Never drove by. Never bought even a lamp for it. Now wasn’t that strange, that she wouldn’t take an interest in their love nest?
“Let Speed go, watch the house,” Jack had said.
Which is how Early came to see Doc and then Mickey drive up to the big stone house yesterday.
Jack had said, “So who’s the woman?”
Early did some backtracking through friends of friends in New Orleans and found out that Doc and Speed hadn’t been working together for a long time now, that Doc had been partnered with this Mickey Steele for a few months. And he was almost sure she was the woman he had seen Speed having lunch with at the Carousel Club the week before.
Now
The pain had gone deep. Jack had truly loved those dogs.
But he was a patient man, and he knew how to bide his time. He’d gone on along to Hot Springs and set up his casinos, of which Joey the Horse got his 20 percent. One out on Lake Hamilton at Gardiner Place, a handsome former mansion now a superb restaurant with full-tilt gambling in the gigantic basement, which you could reach through an underground tunnel that led right from the marina where you could pull your boat up. Another in the old Quapaw Bathhouse right in the middle of town on Central Avenue.
Jack had been very busy—and very successful. He’d pat his pocket and say, “Early, I’ve got the sixth tailbone of a black cat in there, brings me luck.” But it wasn’t any Irish Channel mojo that made the man so good. He knew what he was doing, he wasn’t afraid of work, and he was a good guy. People liked him. Early liked him a lot.
So things were going great, just rolling along, until that day just a couple of weeks ago, To Lush Life’s running in the sixth, and Jack’s in his favorite spot, way over at the top of the grandstand, you can see the horses making the last turn. Early’s up in the Oaklawn Club with the white linen napkins and the roses on the tables, which he likes to do every once in a while just because he can, Jack gave him the membership as a little perk. All of a sudden Early spots Speed McKay. He can’t believe his eyes, but it’s the little man all right, romancing this curvy blonde, a couple of years on her, but you could tell she’d been the real article in her prime, and Speed’s saying to her, “I once knew another filly named Lush Life, just Lush Life without the To, but she was a lazy nag, couldn’t go the distance, dropped dead rather than run.”
Early wants to pull out his gun, pop the stupid little son of a bitch right there. Damn him! But the Oaklawn Club wasn’t exactly the place to do that, not that he would really, he just wanted to so bad he could taste it. As soon as the race was over, To Lush Life won, bless her sweet heart, paid ten to one, he ran to find Jack.
“I want you on him like a fly on shit,” had been Jack’s response. Early knew that Jack was hoping that where there was Speed, there’d be Doc. So Early had spent the past few weeks following the little man, watching him romance the blonde. It wasn’t long before he reported to Jack that their little Speed McKay seemed to be getting himself engaged to the ex–beauty queen who had won herself a million dollars in the Texas lottery not all that long ago.
“You don’t say?” Jack had smiled and told Early to keep on keeping on. So Early followed them to the gate when the lovebirds flew off to the Bahamas and to New York, though he hadn’t gone on either trip. Jack said he was interested in what was happening here at home. Like Speed renting a big stone house out on Lake Ouachita. Early kept watching, and one thing he noticed that was real odd was that the bride-to-be never showed at the lake house. Never set foot in it. Never drove by. Never bought even a lamp for it. Now wasn’t that strange, that she wouldn’t take an interest in their love nest?
“Let Speed go, watch the house,” Jack had said.
Which is how Early came to see Doc and then Mickey drive up to the big stone house yesterday.
Jack had said, “So who’s the woman?”
Early did some backtracking through friends of friends in New Orleans and found out that Doc and Speed hadn’t been working together for a long time now, that Doc had been partnered with this Mickey Steele for a few months. And he was almost sure she was the woman he had seen Speed having lunch with at the Carousel Club the week before.
Now
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