The Bali Hai Enchantment Spa Murders: The Hammer
- ISBN-10
- 1973403463
- ISBN-13
- 9781973403463
- Pages
- 252
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2017-11-29
- Author
- William Singley
Description
On crisp winter nights when the wind funnels along Pacific Avenue between the immense Atlantic City casinos like the frozen breath of a Norse legend, people, hookers and hustlers, take refuge in comforting places like the Flamingo Lounge where Frank sings, much to MADD's chagrin, have one more for the road.Three guys, not working stiffs, but casino types, are there on a regular basis: a Bodyguard, a Jitney Driver, and a Limo Guy and they're fueled with cocktails and like so many people dream about one big score to nudge them, so to speak, over the top.They have that score. The plan is to rob a train! Are they nuts? Wait. Listen.Hit the Amtrak early morning train carrying used casino dollars to the Federal Reserve in Philly to be thrown in a furnace and replaced with fresh, stiff, green bills cashiers can snap like castanets when paying off winners.The heist isn't a Western 'B' movie with galloping horses and six-shooters charging through the exits on the Atlantic City Expressway to grab a cash box from Old Dusty at the reins. It's easy pickings. Well-used money with little security. The Monday after the Fourth of July weekend, wearing Salvation Army wardrobes, they pull it off, clean as a polished martini glass held up to the light.No horses were used, but whoa!When they split the loot it's short from the big payday promised by their leader, the Bodyguard. He suspects someone is holding out. There's a brief discussion and the next thing you know one of them is dead, found in his burning jitney and his house robbed. Another is targeted. The Limo Guy, a friend of Tommy Palmer's.Tommy's daughter, Kelli arrived unannounced in Atlantic City for the Labor Day weekend. She'd been summoned by Detective Gino Lombardi, one of Atlantic City's finest and Tommy's pal, to see if she could pull her Dad from the doldrums that overwhelmed him after the murder of Carla, a up and coming jazz singer he was protecting."So," she asks when she finds Tommy in the Saratoga Bar on late Friday afternoon, "Is this my Dad, Vietnam veteran, ex-Honolulu street cop who used to ride the big ones at Sunset spending the rest of his life on a Saratoga stool?""There's worse places," he joked and slid off the stool for a big hug. For the weekend he squires her around, bicycling, surfing, and visits to the area's good restaurants, then drops her at Philadelphia International with a promise to get back to living like his old self; helping people in a jam. That's what Tommy does.The first thing he runs into is the Bali Hai Enchantment Spa murders. Tommy's friend, the Limo Guy and his Asian girlfriend who he promised to help with an immigration problem are shot-gunned running out the rear of the spa.The next thing is a slab of a man known at The Hammer, a casino bodyguard, a bully as big and thick as an old Convention Hall wall, who, no surprise, likes to hurt people.Tommy suspects this wouldn't be fun.
