Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich

Author:Ben Mezrich
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria Books

Seventeen

Boston, Halloween 1995

Vegas had Fight Night. New Orleans had Mardi Gras. Boston had Halloween.

Thousands of college students howling through the streets, dressed in costumes that were usually more about skin than scare. Glowing jack-o’-lanterns and dangling plastic skeletons leading the way to overflowing campus keg parties, Ivy League masquerade formals, and brewery-sponsored bar celebrations. Crowds of witches, ghosts, Victoria’s Secret–garbed fairies, and the odd Star Wars character roaming throughout the Back Bay, most of them too inebriated to feel self-conscious about how ridiculous they looked. When the bars and parties finally shut down a little after two in the morning, drunken hordes of bizarre Brothers Grimm characters poured back onto Boylston and Newbury, in search of the rarest creature of all—a vacant taxicab.

“Like a Salvador Dalí painting come to life,” Kevin mumbled as he followed Fisher and Martinez up the front steps to Micky Rosa’s apartment building at the base of Beacon Hill. October had been a particularly balmy month, and this evening was no exception. Most of the costumed girls they had passed had been dressed as genies or school-girls, showing even more skin than usual. Kevin was reminded of the outfit Teri had worn the last time he saw her in Vegas: a backless rhinestone shirt and tight leather pants. This was just about the only night of the year that she would fit in around Boston. Truth was, Kevin could not imagine her outside of Vegas. Or, more accurately, he couldn’t imagine himself with her outside of Vegas.

They reached the front door to the building, and Fisher searched for the bell. The building was a converted five-story town house, split into three separate condos. Micky owned the top two floors—impressive, considering this was one of the most expensive parts of town, a charming mix of old and new wealth within easy walking distance of both the Commons and the Charles.

Since they had called ahead, Micky was expecting them. He buzzed them inside and sent the elevator down to pick them up. He was waiting for them in the hallway and ushered them into his living room with a wide smile.

Though the apartment was obviously expensive, the decor was right in tune with Micky’s disheveled appearance. Mountains of books were spread over the hardwood floor, and the shelves that ran along the far wall were so cluttered they buckled in the middle like they were about to collapse. There were two poorly matched couches facing each other in the center of the room, and a torn, aging leather easy chair tucked into a corner.

As Kevin followed Fisher and Martinez to one of the couches, he noticed that most of the books were about card counting and Las Vegas, and most of the items on the shelves had to do with blackjack: dozens of unopened decks of cards, actual Vegas shoes, memento chips from various Strip hotels, even a pair of dealer uniforms that Kevin recognized from the Mirage. It was obvious from just a quick glance at the way Micky lived that his world revolved around blackjack.

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