When the Tik-Tik Sings by Doug Lamoreux

Author:Doug Lamoreux [Lamoreux, Doug]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Creativia
Published: 2015-07-31T23:00:00+00:00

Twenty – Two

Big surprise, the press conference was a waste of time. The department heads reported generalities, Mayor Light offered his patented smile and repeated reassurances all was well in Tourist Town, the reporters (Forester in particular) pressed for answers to unanswerable questions, and Erin repeated the reply, “We have nothing to add at this time; the investigation is ongoing,” so many times she felt dizzy. She wasted more time listening to Mickey Cooke's phone ring and decided to get out and get air. She wanted time to think with movement around her. She wanted to make something happen. And she wanted her snitch bothering realtors. That meant finding Mickey, which meant going to The Mystery Casino, out on the island and pushing him off his stool at the roulette table.

The Mystery, formerly the Duncan Greyhound Park, was a combination dog track and casino. The tourists thought of it as Vegas on the Mississippi – the cops thought of it as 'The Racino' –income for the city and a headache for law enforcement. Located on Chaplain Stevens Island, The Mystery boasted 30,000 square feet of gaming space with a thousand gaming machines, sixteen card and Roulette tables, and three restaurants: The Bur Oak Grill, Buffalo Bill's Steakhouse, and The Jackpot. Between all they fed, and occasionally fleeced, over a million visitors a year.

That night, members of the management were not the only ones with an eye on taking customers. That night Vong walked the casino floor.

Vong was a gorgeous copper-skinned beauty, an inch under five feet tall, slender but firmly curved. Like most women of the Philippines, she had long straight black hair and a wide nose and mouth with full red lips. But she had thick brown eyebrows and her almond-shaped eyes were hidden behind sunglasses. The glasses looked pretentious indoors, but revealing her eyes in public might have caused a stir. Vong's eyes had an interesting effect on people. One other difference separated her exotic features from those around her, though one had to look closely to notice it. She was missing the philtrum, that vertical groove running from the nose to the middle of the upper lip. Vong didn't have one. Vong wasn't a mammal, nor was she a human being.

Vong circled the bright, boisterous gaming room, taking her own gamble, she'd admit. Desperate as she was for sustenance, she had no choice. She sniffed the air, searching. She ignored the stares of those passing, thinking, let them look and wonder. She had half a mind to doff the sunglasses and really give them something to stare at. Americans disgusted Vong. American men were cowards, more women than men, and the women were revolting bitches, all helpless to protect themselves or those they claimed to love. So selfish, they couldn't generate enough interest to propagate their own species. Fat, lazy Americans didn't have children anymore; didn't even bother to replace themselves. The men remained children, playing with toys, while the women pretended to be mothers, dressing little dogs in human clothes and pushing them in baby carriages.

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