Trick Baby Read Online Free PDF Page A

grand out of the mail basket at headquarters in the morning. Now, be direful and don’t crack my spine when you pat me on the back.”
    Blue said, “Folks, congratulations! A mouthpiece would envy your plan. It’s fair and airtight.”
    I saw Dot’s eyes congeal. Blue had flung die pack of ramped envelopes on the tabletop between them. Dot folded his arms across his chest and leaned back.
    He was pounding his feet against the floor again. Blue reached into the pack and pulled out the flued envelope. He casually placed it to the side. He tore a section from one of the others. I handed him my ball point.
    He started to scribble the incriminating note. He finished it and pushed it across the table to Dot. Dot, without unfastening his arms, leaned forward and peered intently at it. He grunted agreement to its text. Blue fanned the two grand again and folded it lengthwise down the middle. He placed his glass over the bilk.
    Blue addressed the trick envelope. Then slipped the note inside it. He picked it up. Held it in his left hand with the addressed side square in Dot’s view. His thumb and index finger grasped it at bottom center. The slit in its bottom crease was an inch or so above the fleshy web between Blue’s thumb and index finger.
    Blue pulled the folded money from beneath the glass with his right hand and held it under Dot’s eyes for a moment. The money magnetized Dot’s head. He was half out of his seat as Blue started to thrust the bills into the envelope.
    Dot’s eyes were no more than six inches from the front of it. Blue’s hands were steady as he threaded the bills past the wad of paper down the flue. Only the cavorting vein at the side of his hand leading to that web betrayed his terrible tension.
    I thanked the saints I wasn’t laying that flue for Dot. I saw the money peep through the slit. Then ride down to the cup of the web. I dropped my right hand to my lap. I had to retrieve the money from Blue.
    Blue tightened the web around it. The envelope almost touched Dot’s face, blocking his view. Blue’s left hand, web and money, blurred to his lap. He casually licked the flap of the envelope now in his right hand. His empty left hand had streaked back to the tabletop. The blur and streak had been one.
    With both hands he tightly pressed the moistened flap against the envelope lying on top of the others. I had reached to the side of Blue’s thigh when Dot screamed. My hand was paralyzed holding the bills beneath the table.
    â€œHold it now, you slick bastard! Don’t move your hands!”
    He wasn’t screaming at me. He had vised his hands around Blue’s wrists. Now he turned to me. I was really nervous now. Maybe he was wise to the flue. He still held Blue’s wrists.
    He said, “Now you, Trick Baby, riffle those envelopes apart. If there’s a twin to the one with my payoff in that pile you slick sonsuvbitches will never play the switch again.”
    I was ecstatic! Dot had suspected that we’d pulled the ancient switch-game on him. He hadn’t been wise to the flue.
    My right hand left the two grand temporarily. I speared the pile of envelopes apart with my index finger. They were all blank and clean. Dot freed Blue’s wrists. They both grabbed at the dummyenvelope at the same time. Each had a firm grip on each end of it. They both stood holding it between them. Blue put his hat on.
    He said, “Do we have to go to the mailbox in this ridiculous manner, Mr. Murray?”
    Dot tightened his grip on the fake payoff.
    He said, “Blue, I’ll die and go to the bottomless pits of hell before I let you flimflam me out of my two grand. We’ll drop it in the box together.”
    I palmed the two grand off the seat. I stood up and released it into my overcoat pocket. I took a sawbuck from my trouser pocket and dropped it on the table. I picked up my battered hat from the floor, straightened the crown and put it