Chapter 1

The lights in the cabaret lounge brightened again and the spots centered on the casual figure on the stage. As Johnny Dutton finished another number the applause was spontaneous and enthusiastic.

The lounge was almost completely filled, though more with middle-aged women than others and the young singer had a way of capturing the audience completely. His delivery was ultra-casual and the smooth richness of his voice was a portent of the great star many figured him soon to become.

As the orchestration behind him launched into a Bossa Nova medley, the man singing in the center of the stage had the total attention of the women in the audience, but many of the men had settled on a different attraction.

To these men the stunningly beautiful girl seated alone at a small table held more fascination for them than any male singer could ever have.

Even in the dimness of the showroom it was evident that the leggy brunette was extraordinarily lovely. Her glossy ebony hair was very long and draped casually over one shoulder, so black and glistening that it seemed to be a deep royal purple. The darkness of her hair was strikingly contrasted with the china white of her skin and the light grey-blue eyes.

She sat oblivious to the stares of the men in the audience, intent only on the singer, and as he finished his song her applause was even more enthusiastic than any other.

Johnny, if he hadn't been blinded by the spotlights and could have seen the distraction the girl was causing, might have been filled with a combination of annoyance and pride. He wouldn't have liked the influence she had on his audience, he wanted them to see and hear no one but him-- but the girl was Laura, his wife. And there were times when he wanted to stand and shout, "Look, you unfortunate people! Look at what's mine, all mine!"

At the small table the same desire was passing through the girl's proud admiring thoughts.

He's so wonderful, she thought silently, so talented and handsome. Oh, Johnny, they all love you so much, but no one can ever love you the way I do! No one can ever want you the way I do, from the moment I first saw you!...

She was jolted suddenly from her silent reverie by the scrape of a chair that was moved out from her table. She looked up into the oily slickness of the man's face who was joining her without invitation and felt a chill of revulsion pass quickly through her.

Deke Vito! Johnny's boss, and the man who controlled the hiring of all the talent that was booked into the cabaret shows in the three major clubs in downtown Reno.

Anyone seated nearby would immediately have noticed the distaste on her face, but it went unseen by the swarthy man as he joined her. He wasn't unhandsome in a Latin sort of way, but the small sharply trimmed mustache and his slick oiled appearance caused an unpleasant reaction in almost anyone who met him.

Perhaps he had sensed this so many times in his fifty two years that his subconscious had built in an automatic screening device and he no longer even noticed the adverse reactions.

Laura slid her chair to the side slightly to make more room for him only to have him move closer still, until their thighs were touching.

He's so repulsive, she thought. So Goddamned sneaky! But, for Johnny's sake I can't offend him.

She nodded at him, trying to affect a warm smile, and returned her attention to her husband as he began another number. Deke Vito glanced at her half-filled drink and snapped his fingers at a passing waitress.

As he gave the girl the order, Laura watched him fondle the woman's leg.

That Pig! He'd never get away with it if he didn't have so much control in this casino. And he thinks the girls let him touch them because he's so attractive!

"Laura, Baby... that chick's got nice wheels, but they ain't nowhere as gorgeous as your legs." He leered at her in what she thought he figured was a seductive glance. "Yes sir, Johnny's got himself a nice little thing going hasn't he?"

He leaned over to pat her hand as he spoke, and she had to fight the desire to jerk it away from him. She reached for a cigarette, using it as an excuse to remove her hand, and tried to change the direction the conversation was definitely heading.

"Deke. What do you think of Johnny? Isn't he great! He sure has this crowd wrapped around his little finger, doesn't he?"

"What, oh yeah. 'Course they're just a bunch of frustrated ol bags hungerin' for a young guy." He chewed on his cigar as he gazed contemptuously around the people filled room. "Hey, don't get me wrong. Your boy's alright. Someday he might just get somewhere. Yeah, someday, if he's got the right influence behind him." He nudged her painfully. Yeah, I might just decide to give the kid the right push... if I had a little cooperation. Know what I mean... ?"

Good God! she thought. He's finally come right out with it. She tried frantically to think of something to say that would avoid acknowledging his question.

"Come on, Deke," she laughed hesitantly. "You know we'd both appreciate anything you could do. Johnny thinks you're the greatest manager in the world." She paused. "Hey, listen, Deke... he's going to do that song everyone likes so much..."

But the man just leaned closer, ignoring her. "Johnny? No, Baby, I'm thinking of a way you and I can help his career... you and me."

Just as she started to pull away from him they were interrupted by the waitress with their drinks. In the moments that it took him to find his pen and sign the drink tab Johnny finished the last number in the set and the house lights came on.

She watched her husband finish the song on his knees like Al Jolson, bowing his head to the standing applause of the audience. He's so terrific, she thought. I can't hurt his career with Vito. Please, God, get him over here before Deke gets a chance to continue!

The man at her side turned disappointedly from the waitress to watch Johnny Dutton thread his way through the milling crowd toward the table.

"Hi, honey... Hey, Deke, how'd you like the show! Boy, these people are great. Man, what a great set! Hey, how did you..."

Laura watched her husband's excited gesticulations, heard him rattling happily to his manager. Her relief at having him break up the conversation that Vito had started was spoiled by the realization that Johnny was loaded again.

Whenever he finished a set with a good audience he was always wound up, but again tonight she recognized the glassiness in his eyes, the soft slurring in his voice when he spoke, and knew that he'd been drinking heavily again.

It was strange. He could get up on the stage completely smashed and it never showed in his singing but as soon as he got away from the lights and the music it became very obvious to anyone that knew him.

Even Vito saw it. "Johnny, baby... you're on the sauce again. Man, you gotta cool it." There was a cold harshness in his voice, enough to make itself known to the singer.

"Hey, no Deke, I just had a couple," he said soberly. "My throat was kinda' sore."

Then he grabbed his manager by the arm. "Come on," he said cheerfully. "Let's hit the tables, tonight I feel lucky."

Laura reached out for him and he saw the movement, the apprehension in her eyes. "Don't worry, Honey. Have a quick drink at the bar and I'll be right back." She started to protest, but before she could answer him, he shouted to the bartender at the lounge bar. "Hey, Harry, fix this lovely young lady up with another daiquiri and keep an eye on her for me, willya."

"Sure thing, Mister Dutton. Great show!"

As she was led to the bar Laura got a little consolation out of the bartender's remark. She knew everyone was impressed with Johnny and perhaps she was being a little unfair to him. Every entertainer had to unwind a little after three hours of constant work. Besides, if Johnny really was lucky tonight it would make up for some of the money he'd lost during the past few weeks.

The men at the bar parted to give her a seat with undisguised admiration in their eyes as she perched herself on the stool and tugged her short skirt back down to cover the shapely softness of her thighs.

Johnny kissed her lightly on the cheek and then he and Vito wove their way through the throngs of little old ladies at the slot machines with their paper cups of nickels, fighting their way to the center crap table.

Harry, true to his word, moved up to her end of the bar and mixed his drinks from that side. He stood there and talked to her, protecting her from the more confident men who had edged up with the hope that they might be lucky enough to pick her up.

"Laura," said Harry, "that man of yours sure is talented. I hear an awful lot here at the bar and, just like me, everyone thinks he's going to be a great star. But," he added thoughtfully, "he's got to watch the booze."

She turned to the kindly old man behind the bar, thankful for his company and the advice she knew only too well to be true. Besides, he was talking about the only thing that really mattered to her anymore. Johnny. Johnny and his success.

"Thank you, Harry. You know how much it means to him. It's all he's ever wanted. And..." she continued with a sigh, "the drinking's just temporary." The men standing nearby had heard the bartender's remark and each of them, if for no other reason than an excuse to talk to the beautiful girl, moved close enough to say that they agreed.

She sat there for a little over an hour, acknowledging the talk whenever she had to, and watching her husband at the dice table. She could tell from his animated expressions and joyous laughter that he was winning, and also from the trips that the cocktail waitress was making to the table that he was drinking very heavily. Vito was still there along with about fifteen other people, but they were all standing back watching her husband make one winning pass after another with the dice.

As Harry poured another daiquiri for her she thought inwardly that she really couldn't criticize Johnny's drinking. Sitting there, she had already had five or six of the rum-flavored cocktails and she could feel the dizzying warmth spreading through her.

She glanced around wondering what time it was but there were no clocks on the casino walls. "The City Without Clocks." In Reno, as in any of the other gambling centers in the country, the casinos were open 24 hours a day and none of them displayed any clocks on the walls. Inside the clubs it was impossible to tell night from day and the casinos had no desire to remind anyone how long they had been drinking or gambling.

Laura turned to one of the hovering men for the time and was amazed to find that it was almost three in the morning. She was due back in the casino at noon in her job as a cocktail waitress. Turning to watch Johnny again, she realized there was no way to get him peacefully out of there in his present exuberant condition, particularly while he was ahead.

She called Harry over to say goodnight and rose a little unsteadily from her stool.

A few moments later, during a lull when the dice were being passed to another player she pulled Johnny to the side to tell him she was leaving.

When he felt her hand on his arm he jerked away angrily and started to say something, but she interrupted him...

"No, Darling, I'm not asking you to go. I have to, because I'm due back early in the morning."

He mumbled something unintelligible and turned back to the game, patting her clumsily on the buttocks.

He's so different so cold, when he's drinking. He never drank so much before, she thought. It's only been since he started working here. And the gambling! If only he was working somewhere besides a casino! It was so much better before.

She and Johnny had only been married a little over three months and working in the casino just three weeks. His last job had been in Denver and until they'd reached the gambling areas in Nevada she had never known he had such an insatiable desire to gamble.

Now, it was only her money as a waitress that kept them going. And that wasn't enough. Although he was being paid very well to perform in the cabaret, in the past weeks he'd lost every cent on the tables. She'd pleaded with him to stop, they couldn't even pay their rent, but it had only led to violent arguments.

Finally, she had reconciled herself to the fact that there was no way to stop him, and she only hoped that he'd be through here soon.

His next engagement was supposed to be in either San Francisco or Hollywood and the temptation of gambling wouldn't exist. Maybe then they'd be able to get along a little better. She might not even have to work.

She made her way through the crowded club and out onto the brightly lit street. Even in the middle of the night the streets were full of people crossing from one casino to another, the winners smiling and the losers scowling.

Laura walked through the tunnels of flashing neon lights until she came to a darkened street several blocks away. She turned there, passing through a part of Reno the tourists never see. Winos and derelicts sprawled in blackened comers and row after row of sleazy buildings offering rooms for the night for those fortunate enough to scrape up fifty cents or a dollar.

The street always made her uneasy and though the night was warm she shivered as she pulled her coat a little tighter.

She paused under a street light and stared at the ramshackle box-like hotel on the other corner. She was looking for a light in the manager's room. Old Mr. Rogers, the manager, always seemed to be wandering around at any hour of the day or night, and he was the last person in the world she wanted to see.

He had been hounding Johnny and her each time they came in for the overdue rent, and more than that, every time Laura turned around he seemed to be watching her. He was like all the others and she knew exactly what he wanted from her. There was no mistaking that evil glint in his eyes.

She stepped back out of the light and waited until she was satisfied the dirty old man wasn't awake to see her come in and then dashed across the street to the hotel's front door. Laura opened the door as quietly as she could and slipped inside. The single bulb hanging from the long cord in the hallway cast eerie shadows up the narrow flight of stairs to her and Johnny's rooms.

She walked quickly up to the apartment and locked the door and then rested on the edge of the bed to let the pounding in her heart slow down a little.

Even before she removed her coat, she went into the bathroom to run the water in the tub and then mixed herself a strong drink in the closet- sized kitchen, happy she had missed their lecherous old landlord and his obscene looks he always gave her.

Moments later she sat on the creaky bed in her slip and sipped her drink. The bourbon and the soft music from the radio wasn't enough to dispel the gloom that had settled over her as she recalled the way Johnny had been acting lately. Feeling the tears beginning to well up in her eyes she quickly finished her drink and went back into the kitchen to make another before going back into the bathroom.

The El Diablo Hotel had once been the private home of a wealthy Spanish family and remnants of its past glory could still be seen in some of the fine woodwork that still remained or in the old photographs in the lobby that depicted it with the great verandah and fluted columns.