Sammy Keyes and the Showdown in Sin City Read Online Free PDF

even though I know that Mrs. McKenze has been tearing her hair out for months over her husband’s gambling, she still always
acts
like nothing’s wrong. She drives the same car and dresses the same way and talks like everything is just dandy.
    But inside the mansion, dishes have been flying.
    Anyway, the point is, she would never let on to me that her world was falling apart, and according to the McKenze Code of Honor, Marissa should never have made a peep about it to me or anyone else.
    So when Marissa says, “Jail?” I can see the tired wheels in her mother’s brain calculate the damage as she looks from her daughter to me and back again. And I can tell she’s trying to devise some cover-up reason why her husband could possibly be in jail, only the wheels won’t turn.
    She’s just done.
    “Mom?” Marissa finally prompts. “Why’s Dad in jail?” Then she adds, “Sammy knows about the gambling,” which makes Mrs. McKenze put a hand up to her forehead like she can’t believe Marissa did such a stupid thing. So Marissa tells her, “Look, I had to talk to somebody—living with you and Dad has been a nightmare!”
    Mrs. McKenze closes her eyes and nods. “I know.” She gives a sad little shrug. “And I’m afraid things are beyond repair at this point.”
    “What happened?” Marissa asks, sliding into the chair beside her.
    Mrs. McKenze looks at me and sighs. “I hope you can be a good friend to Marissa and keep this between us.”
    I nod and Marissa says, “Sammy’s like a vault, Mom. You know that.”
    Her mom takes a deep breath, holds it for forever, and finally says, “He punched Leon in the face. Broke his nose.”
    “He punched
Leon?
But … he always talks about Leon like he’s his best bud.”
    “Well, your father was—and probably still is—drunk.”
    Marissa shakes her head. “But still, he
punched
him?
Why?
”
    “Because your father came to town with a big bundle of cash and lost it all at Leon’s blackjack table.”
    “How much money are we talking about?”
    “A lot.”
    “But … where’d he get the money? I thought everything had been cut off.”
    Mrs. McKenze studies her for the longest time, and finally she says, “He got it from his brother.”
    “Uncle Bruce?” Marissa gasps, and when Mrs. McKenze nods, I understand right away that this has become bigger than a gambling problem.
    This has become a hole so dark and deep that there is no getting out of it.
    See, Marissa’s family may have been rich, but Marissa’s uncle is richer. And Marissa has told me that it’s not just that her uncle has more money than her dad, it’s also that her uncle is an eye surgeon. And since he’s on local commercials and billboards promoting his “world-renowned vision center,” he’s become kind of a celebrity in Santa Martina. People around town see him and whisper, “Hey, isn’t that the guy on the billboard?” And when Marissa’sdad meets new people, more and more he gets asked, “Say, are you related to Dr. McKenze?”
    And as Dr. McKenze’s world-renowned vision center became at least
county
-renowned, he got richer and now lives in a place that makes the McKenzes’ mansion look like a tract house.
    Which all of a sudden hit me was maybe the reason Mr. McKenze started gambling in the first place. How else was he going to keep up?
    Anyway, after Marissa gasps, “Uncle Bruce?” she follows up with “Why in the world did he lend Dad money?” but I’m pretty sure I know the answer.
    He didn’t know his brother had a gambling problem.
    “You’ll have to ask your father how he managed that,” Mrs. McKenze says as she collects her things and stands up, and I can tell she’s thinking she’s already said too much.
    “Wait, so what are we going to do? Bail Dad out of jail?”
    “I’m not sure how to go about doing any of this.” She frowns. “But I’m sure Sammy’s mother is wondering what’s taking her so long, so we should get going.” And after we’ve