“Don’t know,” Bennett said. “He said he couldn’t play tonight.”

“He couldn’t play last time either,” Vargas said.

“He’s a busy guy,” Bennett said.

“Yeah, he’s busy,” Vargas said. His voice was getting colder by the second. “Fortunately, we’ve got Alex here to take his spot. I guess you’re not as busy as Swanson is, eh Alex?”

“I asked him to play,” Jackie said. “So we’d have six guys. Is there something wrong with that all of a sudden?”

“No, not at all,” Vargas said. He emptied his glass, then got up for a refill. He brought the bottle back with him this time.

“It’s a shame you didn’t get a chance to meet my wife, Alex. Her dog you got to meet.” He looked around the room. “Where’d that dog run off to, anyway?”

“He’s under the table,” Gill said.

“What’s he doing down there?”

“He’s licking himself.”

“Okay then,” Vargas said. “Now that we’ve established that…” He poured himself another triple, spilling some on his precious table. He didn’t bother to clean it up.

“Maybe you should ease up on that,” Jackie said.

“Always the bartender,” Vargas said. “Don’t worry, I’m not driving tonight. My wife took my car, anyway. She left me the little Miata, which she knows I hate. The car, I mean, not the dog. It’s like driving a little tin cigar box.”

“King high,” I said. “It’s your bet.”

“Five bucks,” he said. “On the king. You wanna know something funny, guys? You wanna know who that was on the phone just now?”

Apparently, nobody did. He told us anyway.

“That was a private investigator,” he said. “Did you know that there’s only one private investigator in the whole county?”

Oh no, I said to myself. Please, God, no. This will not be good.

“He struck me as kind of a goofball at first, quite honestly. But I gotta hand it to him. He’s got some energy. Just give the guy a little money, point him in the right direction, and he’s all over it.”