He knew that was a lie and hated himself for how easily it came to him. He wrote the number on the bill when Lucia gave it to him in a tired voice.

As she spoke, he let his eyes drop to her V-neck T-shirt and saw the start of her firm little breasts there, then forced his gaze elsewhere. Ogling the bereaved would be a new low for him, and he’d only just caught himself.

‘Listen,’ he started. ‘About your sister—’

‘Let’s not talk about it, okay?’ she said quickly.

‘Sure.’ He wondered what the hell they were supposed to talk about instead. Her schoolwork? Her pool-hustling career? Read any good books lately? Fucked any nice johns?

‘I need to go,’ she said. ‘My mother’s flight is boarding.’

‘You’re not going with her?’

‘Louis is. I’m going back to LA. I got to work tonight.’

He jerked his chin at her mother and brother. ‘Do they know where?’

‘What do you think?’ There was no anger in her voice, only contempt.

He shrugged apologetically.

‘Yeah,’ she said wearily, and stood up.

‘I’m going home too. You want to try and sit together?’

‘I want to be alone. Thanks for the coffee,’ she said, and walked away. Well brought up, even in the face of his crassness.

He saw her briefly later as they boarded but her eyes were fixed on the back of the woman in front of her, and she worked hard at not looking around.

*

He met Ness in the parking lot of the Bicycle Club. Her cheek was swollen and her eye half closed. ‘Don’t stare,’ she said.

‘Okay,’ he said, but couldn’t stop.

‘I’m not coming in with you.’

‘Okay.’

She held out three rolls of cash to him. He knew now it was thirty thousand dollars. ‘Change up one at a time. If you go through the twenty, change up five, then only change the last five if the tide’s turning your way.’

‘Okay.’

He felt awkward. He wanted to touch her face and tell her soothing things but neither would help. Just looking at her made him feel weak and useless, and the fact that she barely made eye contact with him didn’t bolster his self-esteem.

‘Don’t be fooled by pocket pairs.’

She was trying to lighten the mood, he knew, but he just opened the door and unfolded himself from the Lotus.

‘And keep your mouth shut.’

He ignored that. There were no guarantees. ‘Where shall I meet you?’

‘Right here,’ she said.

Tom almost hoped he’d lose so badly that they wouldn’t want him to play any more.

He played recklessly for the first hour but luck smiled on him anyway and bumped the first ten grand up to sixteen. Halfway through the second hour he remembered his rent was due, his pay cheque wasn’t, and he’d put a flight to Oklahoma on his credit card that wouldn’t be redeemed as expenses for at least two months.

His attitude changed but his luck didn’t. Five hours after he’d left her, Tom woke Ness with a tap on the passenger-side window, slid into the car, and handed her eighty-nine thousand dollars. He’d never even broken the second bankroll.

She smiled lopsidedly and he felt some of the weight of the past few days lift from him. ‘Fifty-nine thousand dollars’ profit, Tom.’ She gave him a mock-grumpy look. ‘You couldn’t make it an even sixty?’

He gestured resignation with his hands: ‘The tide turned. I got out of the water.’

She handed him his ten per cent.

‘Buy you a doughnut?’

To his surprise, she accepted.

*

She ate two glazed doughnuts, then followed him back to his place where he put clean sheets on the bed, then made slow, careful love to her, mindful of the bruises on her face and arms.

It was a long time since Tom had felt so tender in bed. Long before Ella had left, their lovemaking had become perfunctory and hollow. But Ness’s new vulnerability made him take care – and he’d forgotten how good it could be when care was taken. She cried when she came, which confused him, but then she immediately pulled him up and into her body, so he figured it couldn’t be anything too bad, and his own release was intense.

He still knew he’d messed up. But he hoped this made up for some of it.

It would have to.

Fucked if he was saying sorry to two people in one day.

31

NESS LEFT WHILE he was still asleep, which made him feel part whore, part relieved. Breakfast small-talk was not his thing.

He lay for a while thinking of the feeling of being inside her, and of the $5,900 he’d earned the night before, and couldn’t remember when last he’d woken to such a sense of well-being.

After a shower, he called Halo and asked for a ride to Santa Ana to pick up his car.

‘It’s my day off,’ complained Halo.

‘That’s lucky,’ said Tom, cheerfully.

Halo whined for a bit while Tom ignored him, but finally agreed to come over. It was only after he’d secured his agreement that Tom told him he had made progress on the investigation.

‘What?’ said Halo, suddenly interested.