Dragons Wild

“And then you take bets based on those point spreads?” Griffen said.

“Oh, we take some direct bets on single games,” Mose said, “but most of the money comes from the bar cards.”

“The bar cards,” Griffen repeated. “I’ve seen some of those around, but never really got into them myself. How do they work?”

“It’s a really sweet system,” Mose said. “Whoever came up with it should get some kind of reward. I’d say they should get a piece of the action, but there would be no way to control it.”

“What we do is print up a bunch of cards that list all the NFL games and the top fifteen or twenty college games along with the point spreads. We have ru

He paused to laugh and shake his head.

“The thing is, most people kill themselves getting greedy. You see, on the back of the card are the payoff odds. The more games you pick and the more you bet, the more you stand to win. Folks would usually be okay…break even or come out a little ahead…if they stuck with picking just three games. Instead, they get sucked into picking five or seven games because the payback is bigger. Of course, to win all their picks have to be wi

While Mose was speaking, Griffen got up, unasked, to freshen their drinks. Returning from the kitchen, he set his mentor’s drink in front of him, then resumed his seat.

“So, when you say I’ll be working the management side,” he said, “what exactly does that entail?”

“Well, first of all, you’ll have final say on who we take on as ru

“You forgot to mention ‘honest,’” Griffen said.

Mose sighed.

“Now that’s another part of management,” he said. “Every so often, one of your ru

“I’m missing something here.” Griffen frowned. “How can they steal from us with the setup you’ve got going?”

“The most common way is when they start skimming,” Mose said. “As you can see, most of the people who do the bar cards don’t get any money back because they lose. A ru

“How do you catch something like that?” Griffen said.

“Just like the players, the skimmers get greedy,” Mose said. “If they settle for a couple cards a week, they can probably get away with it. If they do, they start holding more and more back. That’s when we can spot it. A ru

“Then what do you do?”

“What you get to do is investigate.” Mose smiled. “You have to check around and find out if there really is some skimming going on, and if there is, if it’s the ru

“And if we find out that someone is skimming?” Griffen said. “What do we do?”

“Now don’t be thinking Hollywood gangster scenes again,” Mose said. “If it’s the ru

“That seems fair enough,” Griffen said. “Do we do anything about recovering…”

Just then, his cell phone started ringing.

“Excuse me a minute, Mose.”

He glanced at the caller ID, but didn’t recognize the caller. For a moment he debated letting it go to voice mail, but decided it might give Mose the wrong impression about his diligence.

“Griffen here,” he said into the instrument.

“Mr. Griffen? This is Jumbo. You may not remember me.”

It took a second, but Griffen placed the name and voice. If was the man who had been serving as Gris-gris’s bodyguard when they first met.

“I remember you, Jumbo. What’s up?”

“Something’s happened I thought you should know about,” Jumbo said. “I hate to bother you, but…”

“No problem,” Griffen said. “Tell me what’s happened.”

He listened for several minutes, his mouth tightening into a grimace.

“Okay. I think I get the picture,” he said at last. “Are you on a cell phone? I’ll get back to you in a little while and let you know. Thanks for the call.”

He flipped his phone shut, cutting off the co

“Okay, Mose,” he said. “You’ve been saying that we have to take care of our people. Exactly how far does the definition of ‘our people’ extend?”

“Why? What’s happened?”

“Well, it seems that Gris-gris has been picked up by the police under some rather strange circumstances,” Griffen said. “Is he considered one of ‘our people’? Should we do anything about it?”

“You tell me,” Mose said.

“Excuse me?”

“Gris-gris pulled out of our network under my management, then signed back on directly with you,” Mose said. “Since then, he steered a lot of new independents our way. More important, Jumbo called you, not me. I figure that makes it your call as to whether or not he’s one of ours. He thinks so, and Jumbo thinks so. The only question now is if you think so.”

Griffen took a deep breath, then blew it out slowly, puffing his cheeks.

“In that case, I guess he’s one of ours,” he said.

“In that case,” Mose said, “there’s an attorney and a bail bondsman we usually use when our people get into trouble. Hang on and I’ll get you their numbers.”

“Actually, Mose,” Griffen said, “let me try something else, first.”

He flipped his cell phone back open, scrolled through his directory, and hit the “send” button.

After four rings, there was a pickup on the other end.

“Yeah?” came a gruff voice.

“Good evening, Detective Harrison,” Griffen said with a smile, even though he knew it couldn’t be seen at the other end. “This is Griffen McCandles.”

There was a brief pause. Mose’s eyebrows went up and Griffen smiled at him.

“Okay, Griffen. What’s up?”

“Something has come up, and I was wondering if you could check into it for me.”

Another pause.

“It seems that one of our people has been picked up by your colleagues,” Griffen said. “He’s known as Gris-gris, but his real name is…”

“Yeah. I know him,” the detective said, cutting in. “What’s the charge?”

“That’s sort of what I was hoping you could check for me,” Griffen said. “According to the information that was passed to me, they haven’t charged him with anything.”

Again, a pause.

“Actually, they can do that,” Harrison said. “Legally, they can hold someone for seventy-two hours for questioning without charging them.”

“I’ve heard that,” Griffen said. “This seems to be a special situation, though. From what I’ve been told, he was picked up because he was walking down the street arm and arm with my sister. Strangely enough, they let her go.”