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29

Author: Thekla Jackiv
last update Last Updated: 2025-06-04 01:32:16

The casino rose out of the ground like a golden sin someone had lacquered over and called progress. I stepped out of the car attached to Elky’s arm, dressed in black glittery chic like a high market problem no one had guts to deal with. The air smelled of cigarette butts, sweaty desperation, and money being converted into life’s regrets. Somewhere behind the pink marble columns, a broke drunk’s laughter fluttered like a dying bird.

To my left, a valet took the car keys with all the reverence of a priest handling important relics. To my right, the big guy’s hand hovered at the small of my back, not yet hurting but warm enough to burn a hole in it.

Inside, the lobby was all mahogany wood tables and blindingly white teeth that didn’t grow in their owners’ mouth. Chandeliers the size of small economies dangled from an ornate ceiling. A strings quartet played something classy enough to seduce a diplomat, and sharp enough to convince him he had secrets worth trading.

I kept my eyes soft a
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  • The Vision She Hid   36

    Elky walked back in front of me holding my hand. He was wooden-faced and didn’t say a word on the way to my bedroom door. He opened it, kissed my forehead, and went out. The door closed behind him. The room was silent. I smelled the dying scent of sandalwood in his cologne and wished he stayed longer. I was looking around the room like a frightened rabbit. Somebody was too persistent in trying to shoot me down for no particular reason. That somebody was nuts. It drove me nuts too. None of it made sense. Elky Jennings was next to me. True, he had a small army of hitmen, but they wouldn’t miss. Not three times. Elky had no motive for murdering me because that would kill his chances to collect money from Marconi. A steady income stream that was. If his rivals had a motive for murdering his wife, the three lousy shooters didn’t seem like the type of guys they would select for the job. I was in Gianni’s bad books after spotting him pinch a USB from the dead capo but I wasn’t foolish enough

  • The Vision She Hid   35

    At the end of rusty spiral stairs we got out and walked along the narrow hallway and out of the black door that opened up to the rooftop. It was crispy cool air outside. We were high enough to be above the foggy mist from the sea. The moon lit the roofs down the hill, and I breathed too deeply, not liking the height too much.The big guy hold my arm. There was a small gazebo there, a wrought iron with doors on both sides. Big Elky Jennings opened the door in front of us and said: ‘Lets have a drink inside, shall we? It ain’t up to your class, rabbit. But a fresh air and a bit of privacy will do us fine.’‘What about the bug?’ I asked.He shook his head a little and gently pushed me inside. I sat onto the right side of the long bench covered with blue and white chinoiserie cushions. ‘Oh, yeah, Gianni and his bugs,’ he said. ‘You got to shoot him, rabbit. That’s the law. I hope you are not a lousy shot.’I looked down into the garden. Nobody was there.“Hell, he ain’t there,’ Elky said

  • The Vision She Hid   34

    Gianni didn’t smile this time. There was no half-moon smirk, no ‘just joking’ glint in his china-blue eye. Just the cold efficiency of a man who was determined to keep his secrets secret.“May I come in? Silly question, huh?” he had a small ladies gun in his hand, and he was swishing it around like spoiled child a water pistol. This was one of those nights people enjoyed playing with loaded guns, I thought. I nodded, pointed to a chair, or rather where I thought the chair might be.“You should be careful where you step,” he said. His voice sweet and low, silk soaked in kerosene, and he had the lighter handy. “Even blind girls can fall down the narrow staircase now and again”I turned to face him and smiled. I made it sweet like a drop of arsenic in honey. I was done being frightened and pushed around and threatened and shot at for the night. So I gave old Gianni the look of a woman with a powder puff in one hand and a .45 in the other. His mouth parted. I guessed .45 did the trick.“F

  • The Vision She Hid   33

    “Why’d the ballet teacher give you that song and dance about the apartment, the passport, and the inside job assassin – all that just for a laugh?” Felix ask me, holding my hand and walking me upstairs like an impressionable soul in great shock.‘They wanted me to go over there and prove I was a traitor all along. They figured I’d go anywhere to see my mum and dad – maybe just to check up on my mum. That got my attention away from the busy part of the house. They could tell better if I am off the track if there is a camera watching my blind side,” I did some thinking aloud.‘That’s just your guess,’ Felix said sourly. “By the way, don’t worry too much about cameras in East wing. I’ve dealt with them for a day or two,” Felix said.I said: ‘Sure.’We sat down at the round table in a cosy corner on the landing of my floor. We had few things to run through with each other.Felix swung his long legs around, planted his large feet on the parquet floor and put a hand with a Glock on his knee

  • The Vision She Hid   32

    Elky gulped his large drop of whiskey in ominous silence. Nobody dared to comment on Marconi’s cowardly stunt. I guessed the suitcase of dough had covered it for them, together with the dent to their boss’s honor. Marconi left, and the gang was pressed together like bad ideas at a family reunion, all flashy suits, sharp stares, and wet lips whispered of favors no one could afford to return.I sat where Elky put me—just far enough from the action to look harmless, just close enough to get killed if someone missed their target. My hands were folded in my lap, and my fingers were tense as piano wire. The trick wasn’t acting blind. It was making blindness look delicate. Like I’d definitely break before I noticed too much. Big Elky Jennings was finishing another drink, playing monarch with a crooked crown, flanked by his loyal cutthroats and backstabbers. His older sibling sat opposite us, giving a vibe of a man who could commit murder with a napkin just to boast about it. The air betw

  • The Vision She Hid   31

    It was a good music for a Thursday night but nobody was listening. Around ten o’clock the casino floor was shut, and anyone admitted inside had to present an invitation signed Gianni. The live band gave up on playing jazz nobody cared for. Big Elky Jennings dropped his welcome act the minute the doors were closed for the random punters and ordered a glass of whiskey. The rest of the gang lit cigarettes and just sat there looking bored.I sat at the bar, which was on the same side of the room as the two beefs with Kalashnikovs on their arms. I was turning a tall glass of a fancy cocktail decorated with a plastic girl in bikini sitting on top of a sliced orange. All the important faces were at the center, around the three roulette tables moved together for the occasion.Young Felix appeared from nowhere, leaned beside me.‘The Macroni’s boys are late,’ he said.I nodded without looking at him.“Where is my father now?” I whispered to the floor, so no one could lip read.‘Shush. Wrong ti

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