Vengeance List (Foley & Rose Book 1) by Gary Gregor

Author:Gary Gregor [Gregor, Gary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gumshoe Books - A Next Chapter Imprint
Published: 2019-11-05T16:00:00+00:00

15

With the exception of an uneducated, and usually unsuccessful flutter on the Melbourne Cup, Australia’s richest horse race, Sam Rose was not a gambler. He long ago arrived at the conclusion the horses he followed, followed other horses. In all the years a casino existed in Darwin, he had never so much as dropped more than a dollar or two in any of the numerous poker machines that occupied one end of the main gambling room.

The casino was a place, Sam believed, expressly designed to separate the tourist, and indeed the many locals, who followed each other like sheep through the doors each day, from their hard-earned cash. He could never accept that poker machines, and indeed gambling in general, could have anything other than a negative effect on those who indulged in such foolhardy pastimes. Money was too hard to come by to shove it down the throat of a mechanical creation designed with one specific purpose in mind - to relieve the vulnerable of their money.

He also didn’t understand why Darwin’s casino should be named Diamond Beach Casino, given there was no such place as Diamond Beach anywhere near Darwin. The casino was just a short distance from the city centre, at Mindil Beach. He supposed the name Diamond Beach tended to convey to the vulnerable, an image of style and sophistication perhaps not displayed by the name Mindil Beach.

On the rare occasions he went to the casino, he preferred to frequent the opposite end of the building’s ground floor, a quieter place, where the hum of murmuring, hopeful punters, and the seductive, tuneful calling of poker machines, would not infringe on his thinking time.

He sat on a high-backed stool at a large, horseshoe-shaped bar in the casino’s piano lounge. Behind him, a young man dressed in a white suit, complete with bold red tie and sunglasses, tinkled at an impressive, black, grand piano. Stools placed strategically around the piano were meant to entice romantic souls in love, or wishing they were, to sit and stare longingly into the eyes of their partner.

Perched atop the piano, and easily accessible to those seated around it, a large, oversize brandy balloon invited the deposit of tips. Later, as the ambience and the alcohol combined to intoxicate the minds of those who lingered while listening to the pianist’s musical inducements, notes of varying denominations would find their way into the glass. Accordingly, as his tips improved, so, proportionately, would his playing.

Sam glanced into the mirror behind the bar and for a few moments watched the reflection of the musician at work. It was early afternoon, and most of the stools around the piano were vacant. He tried to recognise the tune. He knew it well, but couldn’t remember the title. Eventually, deciding it was of little significance in the overall scheme of things that currently occupied his mind, he returned his attention to the people around him.

Only four other patrons, all male and obviously together, and each of them more than a little inebriated, sat at the bar.

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