Norman Bates, Silence's Hannibal Lecter, Halloween's Michael Myers, Elm Street's Jason Voorhees, and Friday The 13th 's Freddy Krueger. Ted Bundy, Helter Skelter's Charles Manson, Killer Clown's John Wayne Gacy, American Cannibal's Jeffery Dahmer and Monster's Aileen Several years ago, Hollywood even made an on-the-cheap TV movie about Sammy deCiprio's Full House Murders. Only that name wasn't sexy enough for the Hollywood.
"Sammy, Jr.," the copycat killer painstakingly reenacting Sammy deCiprio's Full House Murders, has just struck again, killing a fourth victim. In the back of the Arcadiana Poker Room, we find a dead man slumped over in the same overstuffed easy chair The Fat Lady was found in so many years ago.
While LVPD Strip Homicide Detectives Rook and Blake examine the body, my mind wanders away and I think to myself, "What will Hollywood call the Straight To Hell sequel? Shot ..
. " " ..
. through the heart," says Rook. "What?
!" I ask, suddenly confused that the Detective has completed my thought. "Sammy, Jr.
, our copycat, has shot this victim through the heart. Just like all the others," says Rook. "No," say Weldon Blake and Penelope Fallon at the same instant.
over the wound." "Sammy, Jr. has made a mistake.
" Weldon Blake asks, "Are you sure that the body of 'The Fat Lady' was found Detective Rook and I answer the question with a simultaneous, "Yes," to which he adds "absolutely," and I, "positively." "Maybe it's a mistake," offers Rook, "A sin of omission." "No," I answer and Red Penny echoes, "No.
" "For an obsessive-compulsive copycat killer like Sammy, Jr., it's not about killing" I tell Rook, "It's about killing exactly the way his 'hero,' Sammy deCiprio, killed. Up until now, every recreation of the Full House Murderers no little detail.
If it's not here, then its absence has to be ...
" Red Penny finishes my thought: "A sin of commission." "Why?" asks Rook.
"What does it mean?" "I don't know. Up until now, Junior has done only one thing differently from Senior.
He's given his victims obscure literary names. Maybe the name he left on this victim can tell us something." The two detectives search through the dead man's pockets.
Rook finds a scrap of paper and says, "I guess our victim's name was Muert. It says here, 'Malone Muert. And is signed-Estagon.
'" "Let me see that," says Red Penny, taking the note from Rook's hand. "Idiot. His name wasn't 'Muert'!
This note is in French. 'Malone Muert' means 'Malone "All right. Then I guess his name was Malone.
" "You just said his name was Malone." "No, I did not. Malone Dies is a play.
Haven't you ever heard of Samuel Beckett? 'Nothing is more real than nothing?'" "How can nothing be more real than nothing?
" Rook asks. "I have no idea who this Beckett character is, or what you're talking about! I only want to know what this man's name is.
And if you ever again call me an idiot I'll ...
" Red Penny's eyes go wide. "Idiot!" she shouts, putting her hands over her face.
Rook becomes enraged. "Miss Fallon, I warned you not to say ..
. " and is stopped by Red Penny, who screams, "Idiot!" before turning to me and saying, "Talbot.
He was a Beckett character. I was face to face with Sammy, Jr. and I didn't know it.
I am such an IDIOT!" "So," says Rook, "you're telling me this character is named Sammy Beckett?" Penelope Fallon's rage goes red.
She calls Detective Rook something way, way Richard Rook's rage goes purple. He calls her a name that would make his mother die of shame. As much as I'm enjoying this fight, and, truth be told, I am enjoying it immensely, I am forced to step in and break it up before Lucy and Ricky come to blows.
I push Red Penny to one side and Weldon Blake shoves Detective Rook to the other. "Steel cage later. Murder investigation now.
" "Penelope. I need you to take a deep breath and tell me what you mean you were face to face with Sammy, Jr." Several very deep breaths later, Red Penny begins, "I was at the poker table.
Which was your fault. I told you I couldn't play poker. Only you insisted .
.. "And he tried to pick me up.
" "Vladimir. He told me his friends called him Didi." "I'm waiting!
" says Rook, to which Red Penny replies, "Vladimir was waiting too." "Waiting? Waiting for what?
" "Not for what. For who. He was waiting for his next victim.
He was waiting for Godot." "Godough? Who is this Godough?
" I tell Red Penny to tell her story. "We knew that Sammy, Sr.'s fourth murder victim was found dead in a chair in the back of the Arcadiana Poker Room and so we set a trap for Sammy, Jr.
Talbot sat down in the chair. "I sat down at a nearby poker table. We thought the only way for Sammy, Jr.
to get to Talbot was to walk right by the poker table. Only Sammy, Jr. was already at the poker table.
He was waiting for his victim to arrive. While I was folding my cards without even looking, Sammy, Jr., who called himself Vladimir, started flirting with me and, when I told him I wasn't interested in him, he asked why I was playing a game I wasn't at interested in, either.
I never got to answer. Both Talbot and I saw ..
. something ..
. and drew our guns. Vlady escaped in the chaos.
" "My head hurts," says Rook. "How is it you know this Vlady is actually Sammy, "Sammy, Jr. left the 'Malone Dies' note on the dead man.
Right?" "So 'Malone Dies' is a play by Samuel Beckett." "It doesn't matter.
What does matter is the name on note." Rook checks the note "Estagon?" "That's right.
'Vladimir,' sometimes called 'Didi,' is a character in another wait for Godot, who never shows up." "And that other character," asks Rook. "what's his name?
" "If I knew I wouldn't be asking." Rook blinks S.O.
S a couple of times and turns to ...
"Blake. Does this make any sense to you at all?" "Richard.
I'm sorry but, in some kind of all-the-world's-a-stage way, it does." team moves in. They lift the victim onto a stretcher.
For the first time I get a good look at his face and yell, "WAIT!"" "Wait for what?" asks Rook.
"Go for the dough?" "Godot," corrects Red Penny, "it's pronounced ..
. " "Shut up!" I tell the two of them.
"Just shut up and listen. I know this guy. He's not a John Doe or even a John Godot.
This is an old-time poker playing pimp named Ratzinski, known up and own the Strip by his street name...
." Only I don't say his name. Instead, I haul Rook away and whisper it into his ear, "Harry The Rat?
" says Rook. "Isn't he the guy who made the flesh bet?" "One and the same.
" Rook and I exchange a long look, "Blake," says Rook to the young detective, "go with the body. Call me from the M.E.
's Office with the COD." "The cause of death is a shot through the heart. I don't think .
.." "Not thinking is good.
Listening to my orders is even better. Go." Weldon Blake goes, following the M.
E.'s "bag-and-drag" team out the door. When the door closes, Red Penny asks, "What was that all about?
" I answer, "That, Penelope, was all about a famous poker bet Harry The Rat made a long time ago." "Flesh bet?" asks Red Penny.
"Did 'The Rat' make a Shakespearian pound-of-flesh "More like 110 pounds of flesh bet." "What did he bet?" "Not 'what,' Penelope.
Who. Harry The Rat was a Strip Pimp who, out of chips, bet one of his working girls instead." "And not just any girl," says Rook.
"No. Not just any girl. Harry The Rat bet the most beautiful and the most expensive Las Vegas call girl of her time.
" "That's ridiculous!" says Red Penny. "Poker players can't just go around betting other people in a card game.
Not even in Las Vegas." "In a public card game? No.
But in a private game? Between consenting adults? Anyone can bet anything.
There a reason the phrase 'flesh bet' was invented in Las Vegas. Haven't you ever heard the story of 'When Harry Bet Sally?'" It seems from her sour expression that Red Penny has heard, and rejected, the "Believe every word.
The dead man is Harry. I think you already know who Sally is." "That story is just poker gossip.
It isn't really true ...
, is it?" I answer, "I'm afraid so, Penelope." "But I know her!
" she says in protest "Lots of people have," says Rook. "Do you know," asks Red Penny, "who she is?" "Not only do I know who is," I reply.
"I know who she was. LVPD Vice knew her as Lay Down Sally, and Mustang Ranch Sally, and In The Alley Sally, and Long Tall Sally. And one night, her pimp, Harry The Rat, lost her in a poker game to the one player at that table who had the cash to cover it, which is how Everybody's Gal Sal became the wife of multi-millionaire Fremont Blake, the mother of young Weldon and, after Fremont's death .
.. " Detective Rook corrects me, "His suspicious death.
" I nod in agreement " ...
after his suspicious death became 'Buffy Blake,' the richest woman in Las Vegas." Red Penny shakes her head. "Even if what you say is true, so what?
How can this copycat of the fourth Full House Murder, have any thing to do with Sall ...
Buffy Blake? The 'Flesh Pot' Game was years before the original Full House Murders. This death is nothing but a strange coincidence.
Mr. Ratzinski was just at the wrong place at the wrong time and Bang! No more Harry The Rat.
Thinking and that's stopping Sammy, Jr. before he kills again! You should get over to the scene of the fifth murder, shouldn't you?
" "She's right!" says Detective Rook, as if remembering something he's forgotten. "It's the Full House Murders that are important!
" and, having been brought to that realization, walks off. "Why did you find it necessary," I ask Red Penny, "to manipulate Detective I thought she'd deny the whole thing but, in this, as in so much else, I was wrong, "Talbot. I have a confession to make.
Now that I know the story of when Harry Bet Sally is true, I may know something about these murders. Something Red Penny simply ignores this and continues " ..
. to me earlier tonight. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but now I know it's important.
" She takes a deep breath. "Welly, Detective Blake, invited me to his home tonight. He said we could have the whole house to ourselves.
His mother was going out to meet with an old family friend." Here she stops and I prompt her into finishing by asking. "Who was Buffy Blake's "I didn't get a last name," says Red Penny.
"Weldon just referred to him as his Uncle Harris." I think this over and don't like it at all. "If you're right, then Detective Blake's 'Uncle Harris' is, in fact, our dead poker playing pimp, 'Harry the Rat,'" and Buffy Blake, the woman who he once 'owned' now owns half the Las Vegas Strip, including the casino in which you and I work, may have killed him.
If you're right, we're dealing with The Queen Of Death." Freeroll Starts in 1 hr. 10 mins.
Freeroll Starts in 1 hr. 40 mins. Freeroll Starts in 2 hrs.
10 mins. 1.10 BBP Starts in 3 hrs.
5 mins. Starts in 3 hrs. 10 mins.
Freeroll Starts in 3 hrs. 40 mins. Starts in 4 hrs.
40 mins. 1.10 BBP Starts in 5 hrs.
5 mins. Freeroll Starts in 5 hrs. 10 mins.
Freeroll Starts in 5 hrs. 40 mins. Starts in 6 hrs.
10 mins. Freeroll Starts in 6 hrs. 40 mins.
2.20 BBP Starts in 6 hrs. 50 mins.
Freeroll Starts in 7 hrs. 40 mins. 3 BBP + 0.
30 BBP Starts in 8 hrs. 20 mins. 4.
75 BBP + 0.50 BBP Starts in 8 hrs. 30 mins.
Starts in 9 hrs. 10 mins. 10 BBP + 1 BBP Starts in 9 hrs.
35 mins.
News RSS