The Good Thief's Guide to Vegas Read Online Free PDF

one-hundred-dollar chips, though not as many. They were scattered carelessly around the perimeter of the purple fort like a moat. But then I imagine you can afford to be a little blasé about century tokens when you have something in the region of eighty thousand dollars to wager.
    Right at that moment, it was around eighty thousand dollars more than I had to my name. And his left hand, which featured a gold signet ring and a set of finely manicured nails, was resting in the small of Victoria’s back. Now true, we weren’t an item. Victoria was my literary agent and my friend, nothing more. But Josh Masters didn’t know that. He didn’t have the faintest idea. And he evidently didn’t care.
    ‘So, Josh,’ I ventured, ‘Victoria mentioned you have some kind of magic show?’
    ‘Right here in the magnificent Fifty-Fifty,’ he drawled, his attention fixed on the roulette felt.
    ‘So what would you call yourself? A children’s entertainer?’
    ‘ Charlie .’
    I swear, Victoria actually spoke in italics. She also gave me a warning look. It was a pretty severe kind of warning look.
    ‘What?’ I said. ‘I like magic, as it happens.’
    ‘Since when?’
    ‘Since I was a kid.’
    It was true. In my boarding-school days, I’d taught myself a whole bunch of card tricks, and before too long, I’d reached the stage where I was able to invent some tricks of my own. That was just how my mind worked. I was a kid who liked puzzles, and magic was exactly the kind of activity that entertained me when the other boys were out playing rugby or cricket or kiss-chase (and this despite, or maybe because, it was a single-sex school). Well, magic and learning to pick locks, but you get the idea.
    As it happens, I was quite proud of my card play, and every so often I’d put on a small performance in my dorm. Over the years, I developed a reputation as a bit of a conjurer. So perhaps in some ways Josh Masters and I were kindred spirits. I guess that could be another reason why I hated his guts.
    ‘Let me show you a trick,’ I said. ‘It’s a real corker.’
    ‘Thanks, buddy, but I’m good.’
    ‘Humour me, why not. Do you have a deck of cards and a pen I could borrow?’
    Josh sighed and rubbed his face with his hand. ‘Listen – Chaz, is it?’
    ‘Charlie.’
    ‘Right. I’m kinda busy here.’ He jerked his eyebrows towards the roulette wheel. ‘So . . .’
    ‘So?’
    ‘Maybe another time.’
    ‘But it’s a good trick.’
    ‘Hey, I’m sure it’s terrific.’
    ‘Then why don’t you let me perform it?’
    ‘Charlie,’ Victoria cut in. ‘Josh has a very successful show here at the casino.’
    ‘And?’
    ‘And he must get people wanting to show him tricks all the time.’
    Josh slapped me on the arm, as though that was the end of the matter, then turned to the roulette felt and started to lay some bets. He placed ten purples on red, plus another eight scattered across the numbered squares.
    I pointed my thumb at his back and leaned towards Victoria.
    ‘What’s his problem?’
    ‘He doesn’t have one. He’s offered us free tickets for his show tonight. Which is really generous of him, don’t you think?’
    No, I didn’t think it was spectacularly generous, not when I considered the amount of chips he was setting down. But at least there was one consolation – as he reached across the table, I thought I could see hair plugs dotting his scalp. I was about to mention it to Victoria when he turned back and pressed two more purple chips into her palm.
    ‘Get lucky.’ He lifted her hand and kissed her fingers.
    Victoria chewed her lip and gazed at him excitedly, before turning her attention to the table. After a moment’s hesitation, she laid both chips on the corner between red 16 and 19, and black 17 and 20. A thousand dollars, at odds of eight to one. I was about to ask her what on earth she was doing when every other player at the table stacked their chips on top.
    An elderly woman in a gold lamé