3 Sin City Hunter (8 page)

Stepping out of the elevator, I walked down the hallway and past the shops and restaurants
,
making my way toward the entrance. As I turned the corner to go to th
e front desk, I pulled up
and dropped back. Standing at the front desk was Dudley in a tired gray suit today. The tie still looked the same, and he was wearing the same small bowler. He was arguing with Carl, the man who had given me so much grief Friday night in the casino and again Saturday morning at the pool. Did they know each other? What were they arguing about? I watched for another minute, b
ut I was too far away
to hear what they were saying. The argument stopped abruptly, and Dudley
stormed
out the front entrance. Carl turned his back to me and walked out the exit toward the monorail station.

I walked up to the counter and
said to the
clerk, “Those two men
.
What
were they arguing
about?”

The clerk
frowned
at me, obviously irritated
I would even ask, and said, “I’m sure I wouldn’t know.” She turned from me and
moved
to the other end of the counter.

I wasn’t surprised
she wouldn’t tell me. It was none of my business after all.

“I can tell you what they were argui
ng about,” said a boy who appeared
to be about 1
3
years old
and was
standing at the other end of the counter. I
gave him
a puzzled look, and he said, “I’m supposed to wait here for my mom and dad, so I was watching those two argue.”

Ok,” I said. “What were they arguing about?”

“We’re leaving today, so I’ve been here a week,” he said. “I like to walk around in the areas where I’m allowed to be, and I watch people and listen to what they say. It’s free entertainment.” He gave me a little smile and a chuckle as he said, “I actu
ally saw and heard you tell the
old guy, Carl, off yesterday at the pool. He’s a pretty slimy guy. From what I’ve overheard, he’s been staying here for a few months, and the staff doesn’t like him. He acts like he has some important role in the hotel, like he owns it or something, and he bosses people around. I think he’s kind of psycho.”

“Ok,” I said again. “What were they arguing about?”

“It wasn’t much,” he said. “When I first walked up, the guy in the suit was telling him to leave something alone. The old guy, Carl
, started telling the suit
he needed to leave
the hotel. Carl figured out
the guy wasn’t a guest and said he’s been hanging around too much and not gambling or spending any money. The suit said it was a free country, and he could hang around as much as he wanted. Carl threatened him and gave him one of those
do you know who I am?
lines. He told him if he didn’t leave, he would have him permanently removed. He tried to sound like a tough guy, but he’s just a jerk guest in the hotel. The suit must have believed him though, because he left in a huff.”

“Ok, thanks,” I told the kid and leaned against the end of the counter beside him.

He gave me a smile and said, “Who are you waiting for?”

I
returned the smile
and repeated his earlier words, “I’m supposed to wait here for my mom and dad.” He laughed out loud.

I saw my parents walking across the casino floor. Dad had his arm ar
ound Mom and they looked
cute together. My parents were attractive. Dad still had quite a bit of wavy hair even though it was salt and pepper n
ow. He had a nice tan and was in
good shape. His best facial feature was his crow’s feet. It was obvious he liked to laugh, and he wore the smile lines on his face.

M
om was trim and wore her
auburn hair in a chin-length bob with bangs. She was always dressed stylishly in slacks with a pretty blouse or sweater depending upon the time of year. It was a mystery to m
e for a long time how two people with
dark hair could have a naturally blonde daughter, and I used to tease my mom that I was sure I was the milkman’s ki
d. To shut me up, she showed
a picture
to me
of her mother as a teenager, and I was surprised to see Grandma and I looked like twins as young girls.

Now Darby was coming across the floor, too. I thanked the kid again for the information and went to greet them.

“Good morning, honey,” Mom said. “Did you sleep well?” She gave me a hug and a kiss, as did Dad.

Darby caught up and said, “Good morning, Sunshine. Did I wake you this morning?”

“I slept really well,” I told my parents and then turned to Darby and said, “and you didn’t wake me. I didn’t hear you get up, or leave, or anything.”

Dad went to
get
the car while the three of us waited for him in the hotel entranceway. Darby and Mom filled me
in
on their slot machine exploits of the night before. They were up over $800 at one time, but managed to feed it all back into the machines and then some. Dad came out about even at the end of the night.

Twenty minutes later, we were pulling into a restaurant on the other side of the airport called
Eggs-travaganza!
As we
exited the car, I asked Dad, “How did you find out about this place?”

“Tom and Bitsy,
” Dad said. “They come to Vegas often
, so Mom called Bitsy and got a big list of places to go, things to see, and some
out-of-the-way restaurants they go to all
the time.”

The restaurant was a typical, friendly
,
dining establishment which
was nicely decorated
. It was bright with
plenty of light coming in through the windows. We were seated at a table in the middle of the room. The menu had
eggs
prepared
in so many ways,
it was hard to make a decision. I
decided to go with
a Fresh Veggie Omelet. I didn’t want to start my day off too heavy, and th
e omelet
sounded really good.

After our orders were placed, Dad asked, “How about going downtown after we see the dam? Tom says a trip to Vegas wouldn’t be complete without spending some time on Fremont Street.”

Mom and Darby were nodding, and I said, “Sounds good to me. Is the
re something in particular
you want to see there?”

Dad had a silly grin on his face and said, “Your mom wants to
go down t
he zip line.”

“Me, too,” said Darby with a big grin.

I swear Darby and mom were like two little kids together. “You’re kidding,” I said in astonishment while looking at Mom. She was even grinning like a little kid. “I’ll have to see it first,” I said hesitantly. “I’m not good with heights, so I’ll decide later.” I looked at Dad and asked, “Are you going to do it?”

“Not a chance,” he said with disdain. “It runs over top of people on the street, and I’m not crappin’ my pants or barfin’ for all the world to see.” Dad looked so serious, we burst out laughing at him.

Before I
could stop
laughing, my eye caught the man at the next table. He was holding a newspaper up as he read it. My heart leapt into my throat. “Oh no,” I said in distress. “Oh no, no, no.” I could see the newspaper wasn’t local. It was a USA Today. I grabbed my purse, ran out of the restaurant, and quickly purchased a copy of the paper, as well as the local paper, from the machines outside the door.

Mom, Dad, and Darby could see where I had run off to, so they didn’t follow me, but they
were p
uzzled
by
my behavior. I came rushing back in, sat down, and hurriedly flipped through the USA Today pulling out the sports section. There on the front page was a huge picture of me in Dell’s arms. We were both looking lovingly into each other’s eyes with big smiles on our faces. An inset picture showed my hand on his arm with my ring as the focus of the picture. The headline screamed, DELL GRADY TO WED. There was a smaller picture showing me touching Dell’s arm and gazing lovingly at him while we were seated at brunch
. Below that was one of us
hugging
after
we stood from the table. The piece de resistance was a final picture of me on Dell’s back with Dell beaming as he was running through the airport. I scanned the article quickly and could see the name Susan
peppered throughout
.

I tossed the paper toward Darby and grabbed the local paper. Their sports section had si
milar pictures and a story mirroring
the one in USA Today. I put my head in my hands and moaned.

Darby was already laughing. Mom picked up one of the papers for her and Dad to see, and I could hear her gasp. “Susan Hunter!” she exclaimed. “What have you been doing now? How are you going to explain this to Mick?” Mom was starting to look distressed. Dad seemed to be in Darby’s camp and was chuckling as he read through the story. “Susan,” my mom said with a look of horror on her face, “are you having an affair?”

Darby burst into laughter.
Mom
looked even more confused. The waitress brought our food. The man next to us could overhear us and started looking through his paper to see what we were talking about.

“No. No
.
N
othing like that,” I said in exasperation. I started grabbing up the newspapers and cramming them onto the floor between my purse and
the
chair. Of course there was no alcohol served here, but a breakfast of Jack Daniels sounded way better than
the
eggs right now.

Over breakfast, I filled them all in about meeting Dell on the
air
plane, the piggyback ride in the airport, the cell phone videos with the newscast
; and then,
falling into Dell’s arms, having brunch, and our conversations about getting married. I finished with, “And I can get us all tickets to the hockey game Tuesday night.”

Dad and Darby nodded their heads and looked at each
other
as if to say
that’s a really good idea
, but Mom
erupted into uncontroll
able
laughter. “Susan Elizabeth Hunter!” she finally eked out. “How in the world do you get yourself into situations like this?”

Darby reached for my hand under the table, gave it a little squeeze, and looked at me with kind eyes. I knew he was telling me not to worry about it, but I was worried. What if Mick saw this? There was no way he would understand without knowing the context of the pictures. And even then, would he really be ok with it? If I saw pictures like this of Mick and another girl, I would probably explode from anger no matter what the story behind them. I was afraid this wasn’t going to end well. For my parent’s sake, I forced myself to try and set the angst aside and have a good day with them.

A little over an hour later, we were nearly to the dam. Dad and I were in the front seat, and Mom and Darby were in the back. Darby was filling her in on how he met Nate
in Florida
a
nd what they’ve been doing
since.

Dad drove over a little rise, and I let out an “Ooh.” There, spread below us, was Lake Mead. The view was breathtaking. The ride to the dam was on a winding road, and the surrounding terrain was rug
ged. It was truly a marvel
the dam had ever been constructed here.

The popular tourist site was busy
,
but not terribly crowded. As we walked out onto the bridge atop the dam, I tied the belt of my coat a little tighter. It was still warmer than usual today with temperatures in the high 60s, and the sun was shining, but
when you were in
shaded areas, you could definitely feel the chill in the air.

We spent
the first hour of our visit
enjoying the sunshine and the spectacular view from atop the dam. Darby and I brought out our cell phones and
snapped
pictures of the view, of Mom and Dad, and of each other. A nice Japanese man used Darby’s phone
to take
a few pictures of the four of us together.

Dad went to
buy
tickets to take the guided tour through the turbines, generator room,
and a few top-secret tunnels
. He had always been fascinated with how things worked, and I knew he couldn’t wait to get inside the dam to see what was making it tick.
Mom and Darby were going
with him, but I b
egged off and assured them I would be better off
staying topside. My churning stomach was only able to eat half of my breakfast, and I didn’t relish the idea of being in small spaces and having to feign interest in the tour guide when my mind was still out-of-control over the newspaper articles. I would have at least an hour
to
settle down
before
they returned.