Chapter 11: The Payment Plan

I had pressed record in my coat pocket at the side door, and I still hadn't let go of the phone.

I walked across the green carpet to Neil's table and stopped across the felt from him.

He looked up, and every drop of color went out of his face.

"Hazel."

"Hello, Neil. Is this the client?"

The dealer froze with a card in his hand.

At the next table a man in a golf shirt turned in his chair to watch.

Danica straightened up from kissing Neil's hair and smiled at me.

It was a lovely smile.

"Sweetheart," she said. "How did you find us?"

"I followed my pay."

I put the stack of statements down on the felt, next to his chips.

"Twelve months of it," I said. "Every other Saturday, from a machine in your lobby, from my account. The household budget."

Neil stood up so fast that his chair fell over.

"Hazel, listen. Let's go outside. I can explain all of it."

"Explain it here."

"You don't understand."

"Then say it so I do."

He looked at Danica.

She tilted her head, and she didn't help him.

"I only needed one more month," Neil said.

His voice had gone high and thin.

"I had a run going, Haze. I was going to win it back before you ever had to know."