Chapter Eighteen (18)
Chapter EIGHTEEN – Father and Son
“His name is Bud Winner,” Big Denny said to his father. “He’s an ad guy. He has an office here in St. Louis and another one in Las Vegas.”
“What else did you find out?”
“The manager of the club is a guy named Richie. Louie works for him. Says he’s a good guy. The place looks like a gold mine. It’s an all-cash business. They must do five to ten grand every night, six nights a week. I figure they are doing about $2.5 million.”
“Did you figure that in your head?”
Denny hesitated “You think I’m stupid?”
Big Tony tilted his head sideways, gave him a wry smile but said nothing.
Finally, Denny said, “No. Dominic had a calculator.”
“Did you meet the owner, this Bud guy?”
“No, he wasn’t there. Richie said he comes in a couple times a week to check on things.”
“You need to get close to Richie. Become a regular. Make some friends. Get to know the bartenders and cocktail waitresses.”
“One of the bartenders came in for dinner the other night. He recognized me from the club. He was with a good-lookin’ chick who looked familiar. I think also works at the club.”
“So, you already got your foot in the door.”
“You wanna come with me one night?”
“No. I leave it up to you and Dominic. When the time is right, I’ll meet with this guy Bud, and we’ll see if he’ll play ball with us. Movin’ on… what else is on your plate?”
“Dominic says the new guy, Frankie, might be an earner. He’s got a line on a shipment of some new electronic video games. He says there will be 400 of them coming from the Sears warehouse in Ballwin.
What the fuck is a video game?
“You hook it up to your TV.”
“And then what?
“Well then you play ping-pong.”
“On a TV?”
“Yeah. Two people sit in front of the TV. Each of them has a little gadget that controls their paddle. The ball goes back and forth until one of them misses it and the other guy scores a point.”
“Why not just play ping pong?
“Well, you don’t need a table, or a ball or paddles and you can just sit in your living room and play.”
“Fuck that. Who the fuck is gonna buy that?”
“Kids. Lots of kids. And mommy and daddy are gonna buy it for them for Christmas, which, by the way is only two months off.”
“What do they go for?”
“Retail is a hundred bucks.”
“We can get $75 or $80. We can move them all in about two or three weeks. Dominic’s little calculator tells me that’s about $30K. We clear $25K after expenses.”
“That ain’t small potatoes.”
“Yeah, and Frankie’s guy is on the inside. He can give us steady intel on shipments as long as we don’t get too greedy.”
“What else?”
“Santo has a new card game. He’s been hosting a game every week playing draw and five card stud, but the two high rollers all the way from Biloxi want to sit in on some Texas Hold ‘em so he’s got a hotel room at Westport all set up. Ten grand buy-in. Three guys who play in the regular game wanna sit in and I thought I might sit in for a few hands. We got a regular from Binion’s in Vegas coming in to play and he’s bringing a dealer.
“So, you got ten grand to buy in?”
“I got five and Santo said he’d stake me for the rest.”
“Where did you get five grand?”
“Remember that piggy bank you gave me when I was 10? I hit it with a hammer and broke it.”
“Funny guy. Don’t come crying to me when you owe Santo his stake.”
“Don’t worry Pop. I can handle myself.”
“What is the take on this?”
“Maybe fourteen grand. We take 20% from the winner.”
“How about Jimmy down south?”
“His crew got a new Beamer and a ’67 Stingray the other night. They are driving them to Chicago to unload them with your buddy Vincenzo. We won’t get what they are worth, but we need to unload them quick. We’ll see how generous Vincenzo can be. Maybe we get $25 grand.”
“So, add it up in your head smart guy. What is the weekly take?”
“That’s $30K plus $14K, plus $25K. I guess that’s about $70K…round numbers. But that’s just new business. Add that to the regular weekly income from our partners of around $100K and we are lookin’ good.”
“Keep it coming. But soon we gotta clean it. We can’t just stuff it into a mattress or keep it in the freezer. Work on that disco. We need somebody we can trust on the inside.”
“We got Louie. He’s the head bouncer.”
“Do they trust Louie? He’s not so smart.”
“I don’t know.”
“Who can you trust to be our eyes and ears?”
“Maybe the new guy; Frankie.”
“Great. See if Louie can put in a good word for him and get him a job there.”
“When the time is right, I’ll step in, meet with this guy Bud, and seal the deal.”
“You got it Pop.”
