Cozy Up to Death-Murder-Blood by Conway Colin

Author:Conway, Colin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Original Ink Press
Published: 2020-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

“Prescott Honeywell?” Owen said. “Sounds like a fancy pants. I thought cover names in the WitSec program were supposed to be boring.”

“Not all of them.”

“Mine is.”

“Owen Hunter is not boring.”

“Owen is totally boring.”

“It’s a fine name.”

“For a nerd.”

“Quit being a baby,” the lawman said. He leaned an elbow on the counter. “If you ever met the man, you’d understand why he earned the name. He was a regular fussbudget.”

“What did he do?”

“He was a scam artist.”

“A grifter?”

“That’s like lumping Picasso in with a house painter. Mozart in with…” Onderdonk’s eyes drifted to the poster on the wall, “Mötley Crüe.”

“I like the Crüe.”

“And I like Pabst Blue Ribbon. That doesn’t make me a beer connoisseur.”

Owen smirked.

“Prescott’s real name was Alexander Zacharia Swoboda.”

“Alphabet soup.”

“His mother oversaw the games of chance for a traveling carnival. They plied their trade through the rust belt. His father ran an illegal poker game that followed the circus. Guess who made more money?”

“Mom?”

“Of course. Unsuspecting marks walk up and gladly hand over their hard-earned dollars in exchange for an out-weighted opportunity to win a cheap prize. It was a sheer numbers game. There are far more people willing to lose five or ten dollars than there are willing to play poker and lose hundreds. Mama Swoboda raked in the money hand over fist.”

The cat moved to the lawman and rubbed against his leg.

Owen sat on the stool behind the counter. “The man grew up in a circus but was a fussbudget?”

“When chaos is your world, you rebel by going straight.”

“I didn’t,” Owen said.

“Stop interrupting,” Onderdonk said. “So young Alexander internalized his mother’s teachings, and from his father, he learned how to count cards. Then he did what any enterprising young man would do.”

“He went to Vegas.”

“He went to college. I told you he went straight. Keep up.”

Owen frowned.

“But while in school, Alexander ran a side business.”

“Poker games?”

The lawman tapped his nose.

“So, he wasn’t entirely straight?”

“Straight enough. You see, he didn’t play poker. He’d learned from his father’s mistakes. Instead, he ran a poker room inside his apartment, always taking a percentage from the players who were there. He took a few dollars for entry, then he’d take a small fee every hour to cater to the guys playing in the games.”

“Where did the scam come in?”

“Who said there was a scam?

“You said he was a scam artist.”

“Hold your horses. Right now, he’s going to school. Learning things. He’s charging a fee to run the games and enjoying the life of a college student. The kid had the tiger by the tail, so to speak. Then one day, a local mobster in the Philadelphia area walks in. Donny Fingers—”

“Named because…?”

“He was pinched for shoplifting while a kid. Anyway, Donny says the kid can’t be running illegal card games in his town without paying tribute to the crew.”

Owen smiled. “College hadn’t taught him the right things.”

“Alexander wasn’t stupid and agreed to pay Donny’s family. He kicked up the twenty percent that Donny wanted. Knowing that the mob was looking out for him and that they wanted him to be successful, Alexander expanded.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.