Judge & Jury

"Maybe one more station." Nordeshenko shrugged, looking toward Julie.

"All in," she said, flipping her cards and pushing the balance of her chips into the pot.

Four spades. Nordeshenko had been right. He had read her trying to make a flush. He still had high hand. And the Cowboy was bluffing.

The dealer turned over a queen of diamonds. Nordeshenko didn't even flinch. Now he had aces and queens.

Julie winced. She hadn't made her flush.

"Well, what'ya say we just put a little more coal in the burner and see what the river brings?" Cowboy cackled loudly, pushing the rest of his chips into the center-$10,000.

Murmurs went up from the people watching. It was clear this would be the final hand. The wi

Cowboy stared at him, not smiling now."You stickin' around, Ivan, or what?"

"Miraslav," Nordeshenko said.

Cowboy took off his shades."Huh?"

"My name is Miraslav," Nordeshenko said, meeting the bet.

The dealer turned over his last card, the river. A deuce of hearts.

Julie groaned.

Nordeshenko knew his aces and queens should be a wi

Then, amazingly, Cowboy countered with a $5,000 raise of his own. Nordeshenko was stu

"Ivan, still with us?" Cowboy tilted back in his chair, clucking unpleasantly.

Nordeshenko reached in his jacket, counted out $5,000 in hundred-dollar bills, and laid them in the center of the table. This was no longer just an amusing diversion.

"Aces and queens." He flipped over his hole cards.

"Oooh." Cowboy blinked, as if stu

But then he gri

He flipped over his hole cards. Two more deuces. The last card had given him three. Nordeshenko felt as if he'd fallen off a cliff. The moron had been pushing the pot the whole way with just a pair of twos.

Cowboy leaped up, ooo-eeing like a donkey, raking in his chips. Nordeshenko thought he'd like to wipe the grin off the fool's face. But just as quickly, the irrational urge subsided.

Not tonight. He had work to do in the morning. Important work. Whatever he had lost tonight was just a fraction of his fee.

"You know what they say, Ivan," Cowboy said, stacking his wi

Nordeshenko stood up and took it. The imbecile was right about one thing: he'd been lucky tonight. Luckier than he would ever know.

The Israeli was going to let him live.

Chapter 7

IT WAS AFTER EIGHT O'CLOCK that night when I finally made it back to Casa Pellisante.

Home for me was the same rent-controlled apartment in the Hell's Kitchen section of Manhattan on Forty-ninth and Ninth I'd lived in for the past twelve years. I had a view of the Empire State Building from my study window and could kick back on the roof after work with a cocktail, looking out on the red sunsets over Jersey City. On weekends, I could step out the front door right into the Feast of St. Ignatius or a West Indian parade, or grab a beer at an Irish bar sitting next to some Westie I once put away.

I also had Ellen Jaffe there.

Ellen was a hotshot anesthesiologist over at St. Vincent's, with wavy auburn hair, a small button nose, and long, slim ru

Ellen was pretty, smart as a whip, and just as dedicated to her career as I was to mine. That was a problem. I worked days-and half the nights, lately, preparing the case. She was taking doctoral classes at Cornell Medical and doing her hospital rotations at night. We used to spend entire weekends together in bed. Now we could barely find a night to be in the same room and watch TV.

She said I was fixated on Cavello, and she was probably right. I shot back that she must be having an affair with Dr. Diprovan-Diprovan being the solution of choice when putting people under these days.

Whatever it was, it was killing me how things were sliding downhill between us. But you either fight for it or you don't, and lately, neither of us was fighting a lot for anything.

So I stopped at Pietro's on the way home and picked up an order of the bestamatriciana in New York -Ellen's favorite. She didn't work Monday nights. Let's not call it a party, but it would be the first quality time we'd spent with each other in at least a week.

Add to that a bouquet of sunflowers from the Korean grocer up the block. I had also left Ellen a message on the machine to set the table.

I turned the key in the front door and saw the table in the dining alcove set for one.

"Buonasera, signorita."

"Nick?" I heard Ellen call from the bedroom.

She came out of the bedroom in her navy Burberry windbreaker and ru

"Diprovan again." I sniffed, trying to hide my disappointment, placing the food and flowers on the kitchen counter. Ellen's cat, Popeye, brushed against my leg."Hey, Pops."

"I can't help it, Nick." Ellen's eyes went to the flowers. She smiled, making the correct co

"Jeez, what'd you get fired or something?"

"Just a little carried away, I guess."

"No." She shook her head and sighed as if to say,Nothing's going right for us, lately."Not carried away. I'm sorry, Nicky. They're waiting on me. I can't even put these in a vase."

"No sweat." I shrugged."Actually, they were for me."

Ellen had these red glasses on that I found sexy as hell for some reason. Her small breasts peeked from under a tight-fitting top. I found myself getting aroused. Foolish. Maybe it was just this momentary feeling that I was free from the anticipation of the case. Or the sense that I had to do something… for us. I don't even know. As she tossed a few things in her purse, I put my hands on her shoulders.

"Nick, Ican't. I'm AWOL." She tensed against me."I gotta go. Hey, I almost forgot. How'd it go today?"

"Well." I nodded."We got a decent jury. Everybody's ready. Let's just hope Cavello and his lawyers don't pull any fast ones."

"Nick, you've done everything humanly possible, so stop killing yourself. Ma

"Tell Diprovan hello."

"Nick…" Ellen shook her head, unamused. She turned back in the doorway."I'm sorry about the di