Chapter 51

"It's poker, Eames."

"It's murder, Bobby."

"No, I know, I know… but, still… it's a game. To him. He's playing his cards, and playing the other people, same as tournament poker. And he's damn good at it. That's why we haven't pinned it on him yet."

"Bobby, is this leading to something? Some kind of suggestion on how we do this maybe?"

"We play him. Tell him the case against Lou is… is falling apart. He'll scramble. It'll force his hand."

"If you can pull it off. He thinks he knows your tells, didn't you say that?"

"I can pull it off." Bobby rummaged through the notes in his binder. He realized Alex was staring off into the distance. "What?" he asked her.

Her brow furrowed and she shook her head. "It's just… there's more to this motive than… than breaking away from a mentor. He's angry, Bobby. To go to all this trouble to set up Lou? And how the hell do you get blanks to kill someone?"

"Maybe we ask him." Bobby waited, and saw she was still in thought.

"You remember what I told you? About the loss of a spouse?"

"Yeah, you said…" Suddenly, it dawned on him, what she was trying to say. "You said you're angry. Josh was angry… at Lou."

"And you said yourself nothing will kill your game like anger."

"And he blames Lou for… for everything. Losing her, losing his game. In one hand… he's trying to get his vengeance and get back into the game." Bobby thought longer. "He's playing… everyone. He played Lou, Kip… Angela, Niles, you, me…"

"So how are we gonna get anywhere with this?"

"Well, we… we play him."

"Like how?"

"Look, I have an idea, but I don't think you're gonna like it."

"What, Bobby?"

"It's a… it's a magic trick." He gestured with his hands. "Russian Roulette. You… you load the gun right in front of your audience, you know?"

"You can't be serious."

"It's perfectly safe, let me tell you."

She frowned, but she said no more until he had explained how the trick worked. "And you think you can pull that over on Josh."

"Yeah… yeah, I think I can." He waited, but she gave him no indication that she was willing to go through with it. "What, you have a better idea?" he asked, frustrated.

"No. I've got nothing." With a frown, she nodded. "Okay. Get what you need and let's go."


They sat with Josh and Angela at his kitchen table. The centerpiece was a round of poker chips. Josh fiddled with a few as he listened to Goren and Eames. "You think Lou might actually beat this?" he asked the detectives.

"Well, Angela will testify that she saw you load blanks," Alex tossed a hand in the woman's direction as she spoke.

"I'll swear to it," promised Angela.

Bobby nodded, and he stared at the murder weapon in his hands. He'd brought it with them, and already had it out of the evidence bag. "I mean, h-how could this gun and-and this bullet kill Kip McGonagle?"

"Well, obviously, I've given this a lot of thought," said Josh. He leaned his weight on his arms against the edge of the table. "What Lou must've done was break the lead off a live round, poke it down into the barrel of that .38."

"You mean turn it into a muzzle loader."

"Yeah. Like the guns in his bar. So I load the blank behind that bullet, fire it… it's deadly."

Bobby opened the chamber on the handgun and spun it as he looked down the empty barrel. He was checking it carefully for a second time tonight, making sure there was no way his plan could backfire. "Right, well, that could work," he said quietly.

"It did work," Josh told him. "It's something I'll regret for the rest of my life."

"Killing Kip?" Bobby asked, "Or getting played?"

"Getting played?"

The two men stared at each other a moment, each trying to read the other's tells. Bobby replied to his question. "Yeah, well, your game had gone bad. You needed to… turn yourself around, right?" Bobby looked as sincere as ever.

Josh laughed, still staring, still studying Goren's face. Finally, he looked over at Angela and shook his head. "You're wrong," he said, and got to his feet.

"No, I don't know, Lou goes down, you get a suspended sentence, and… what's left of Lou's empire, Angela." Goren glanced over at her as he said this.

"Knowing Angela was cheating on Lou set everything in motion," Alex explained.

"Josh, what are they saying?" asked the girl.

He clapped his hands together. "They're fishing," he told her. "It's their game."

Alex continued, "If he got you to lie in your proffer, your immunity is gone."

Before Angela could reply, Goren pulled the hammer back on the .38. The loud click distracted everyone. He glanced around the room once more, and decided to follow through with it. Bobby stood and walked over to Josh, reaching into his pocket as he did so.

Snow was absently shuffling a deck of cards in his hand.

"Josh," Bobby called, "I know that you're… you're-you're good at card tricks." He made a point to hold the gun where Snow could see him load it. "You're amazing with your hands… that he can palm a live round," Bobby turned and explained to the women. He turned back to Josh, then looked back to the ladies, holding the seemingly loaded gun in his hand, the barrel pointed inward, almost at himself. "Did I just load this?" he asked them all.

"Yeah," said Snow.

"Yeah? Did you see me load it?" he asked Angela.

She nodded. "Sure."

"Careful with that," Josh called, as Goren swung it around, gesturing with the hand that held the gun.

"Why?" Bobby asked. "Is it loaded,uh, or is it empty?" He smiled.

"I know what I saw," said Josh. "What is this?"

"Oh yeah? You wanna bet?" With one swipe of his foot, Bobby kicked over the coffee table, spilling things all over the floor. He continued to move toward Josh. "You wanna bet that I don't have the rage to take a life like you did?" Goren punctuated his sentence by holding the gun very close to Snow's head. He saw the fear on the younger man's face. He knew he was pulling it off.

"I don't have rage, Goren," said Josh, and he moved a little away.

Bobby strutted and walked past. "Oh yeah?" He turned back to Josh. "You know… you let Penelope die."

"I didn't let her die, don't you ever say that." He didn't raise his voice, but there was anger in his face.

"Yeah, you did, it's obvious. Your rage… you know, it-it destroyed your ability…your ability to read things."

"I didn't miss anything."

Bobby cocked the gun and held it up between them. "You did!" he almost pointed it at Josh, but at the last second, kept it up in the air.

"There's a live round in there!" Josh cried.

Angela gaped at them, her heart racing. Alex closed her eyes and prayed that Bobby would keep his head.

"No, you missed!" said Goren. "You did! You missed her… her tremors, you know? Her-her slurred speech, her-her dizzy spells. And-and-and now, I'm playing you," Bobby said, with a quick glance at the gun.

"Nobody's playing me."

Bobby thought about telling him. It's what he'd promised Alex he would do. But now, inches from Josh, in the heat of the moment, it didn't feel right. He wrestled with himself for a moment, trying to make the decision. "You missed her tells, Josh," Bobby finally said.

"Missed her tells?"

Bobby smiled. "Yes."

Now the rage bubbled to the surface. "I missed her tells, huh? I missed… I missed glass, breaking in the middle of the night?" He pointed to the kitchen. "I missed her in the kitchen with all the lights on, telling me that it's dark?" He walked toward the kitchen as he spoke, and Bobby followed. "Telling me, she can't see her feet, cut and bleeding from the mustard jar that she dropped? I held her, and I cleaned up the glass. But it didn't matter. It was too late."

Bobby pressed on. "Where were you for the early signs? Atlantic City? Las Vegas? Were you at Lou's table?"

Josh turned back and walked to the other end of the room again. Bobby kept step with him. "He said, 'you're slacking, Josh! It's time at the tables that makes a champion, all wives call and complain.'" Snow stopped walking and turned back to the others. "Like I cared about the tables! You know, all-all-all I wanted was to be with her! He took that away from me."

Goren stepped closer again. He put his face inches away from the younger man's. "He played you." Bobby pushed Josh back against the wall with a palm to his chest. "Lou played you like I'm playing you now." He held the gun up in the air again.

"No, I played him. He's in jail right now, pissing himself because I put him there. For her."

Bobby put a gentle but firm hand on Josh's shoulder. "You killed Kip MgGonagle?"

"You're damn right I did." Goren nodded, and Josh kept talking. "It was part of the game. Nobody plays me."

With a relieved nod, Alex sat back and scratched her upper lip.

Bobby thought it over once more, and though he knew it wouldn't fly with Alex, he held the gun to his head and pulled the trigger. All they heard was a tiny click.

He dropped the gun down and showed Josh. "Well, see, you're wrong. Josh, it's an old magician's trick, you see?" He held up his thumb, which still held the bullet. "Beeswax on the thumb… just an old… trick." Bobby felt sorry for him. "You're gonna have to… call your lawyer. Tell him to meet you downtown, okay?" Goren turned his back and walked away from Snow, not the least bit worried that the man would retaliate.

Alex glared at him, and Bobby avoided her eyes. He called for the uniforms, and Alex arrested Josh. Bobby placed another call to ADA Niles, and they arrested Angela, as well.

He maintained his silence as he got into the car with her. She'd held her tongue for almost an hour, now, and in the privacy of the SUV, she let loose.

"Bobby, what the hell was that?"

He pursed his lips. "I was playing him. Like we discussed."

"No, that wasn't what we discussed. At no time did we discuss you holding the damn gun on him or on you."

"I didn't hold it on him. Never once."
"You came close enough."

Bobby sighed.
"I mean, you just gave him his out. No way will that confession hold up in court."

"I didn't hold the gun on him!"

"That's not what his lawyer will say."

Bobby smacked the door with his hand. "Damn it!"

The car was icy silent for a few minutes. "It's… it's all right," Goren said, having convinced himself.

"What?"

"Josh… his lawyer may suggest it, but he won't back down. He-he-he'll stick to his confession. He's proud. He's proud that he played Lou Cardinal. He got his revenge."

"Well, let's hope so, Bobby." She still frowned, but she said no more.