You boys are gonna get yourself quite a sunburn out here dressed like that.
Only had one pair of cuffs.
Didn't want them running off on me while I was waiting for backup.
Knocked over a filling station just over the Utah state line.
- Were they armed? - Nope.
Smash and grab from the register.
Arizona state police lost them on 91, put out a BOLO.
And you spotted them.
- Yes, sir, I did. - Hmm.
Certainly wish you hadn't.
Three states.
If I wanna put you boys away here in Nevada,
I gotta extradite you from Utah and Arizona.
Lot of paperwork.
I hate paperwork.
What do we do?
Shoot them.
If you won't, I will. Give me that.
Out here, nobody's gonna be the wiser.
Of course, we could just, uh, make sure
the money's returned to the rightful owner.
Send these boys on their way.
It's probably easier than digging three graves out in this heat.
Probably.
We're gonna have an understanding.
If you're ever caught in my state again making trouble,
you're not gonna leave it alive?
- Yes, sir. - Uncuff them.
Now, get out of here.
You had them going there for a minute.
Oh, it's easier to scare than it is to jail them.
Sometimes there's a difference between the law and justice.
I'd have been fine doing all that paperwork, though.
Well, why didn't you say so?
Dr. Safran, wait.
There's a patient with an emergency.
I told her you were heading out for your lunch break.
Can you fix it?
Come on. You'll be good as new in no time.
Thank you.
Go ahead, Cheryl. I'll take it from here. No need for us both to miss lunch.
So thank goodness it was just a dress rehearsal for the fan dance.
Those feathers make it impossible to see,
so when Darlene stepped upstage instead of downstage,
- well, that's when it happened. - Deep breath.
And again.
Do you mind the radio?
- If you're sick, you should go home. - I'm okay, Miss Rizzo.
- It's just the pastrami. - It better be.
If you end up with the flu and I end up with half a count room, you're fired.
- Who's in charge here? - I am.
Marty Gilson, Gaming Control Board.
Mayor signed a new city ordinance this morning,
authorizing a gaming control auditor in every count room on the Strip.
I'll need to examine any and all records
pertaining to the Savoy's gaming business.
Then I suggest you get a warrant.
Well, I suggest you read the ordinance. I don't need a warrant.
Gaming is not a right in this state, it's a privilege.
- And that is an open container. - I got it.
Gonna have to cite you, friend.
Nevada Revised Gaming Statute 463B clearly states:
no open containers in the working area.
Now, that is good work.
Real good. Best I've seen, except the paint job.
There could be thousands of fakes running the cage this minute.
What are we supposed to do? Drop every chip in the joint in bicarb?
Only one guy in town I know who could even come close to this,
a crossroader named Jackie Sullivan.
- The slot cheat? - Recently, Sully's diversified.
If he's not behind this, my money says he knows who is.
Find him.
Now, how long do the mayor's eyeshades
plan on hanging around my room?
For the foreseeable future, it seems.
Gonna cause lot of problems back home.
Big ones.
I got Red on a plane to Chicago now to explain it to Angelo.
If we don't get the mayor off our backs and his thugs out of my room,
it could be the end of everything we've worked for.
I mean, who gives a damn about some fake chips if there's no more casino?
Heading out?
I have some business to take care of.
We're supposed to have lunch.
I'm sorry.
Me too.
You know what?
Forget about lunch. I'll make it up to you.
Dinner at any restaurant in town.
And you're absolutely sure that something else won't come up?
I made an art form of dining alone in Chicago, Vincent.
- You said it would be different here. - Look, I told you I have business.
I'll see you tonight.
Dr. Safran?
Hello?
Anybody there?
Dr. Safran?
Hello?
Anybody
- No. - All right. Thanks for your help.
Hygienist says she didn't see anything suspicious before she left for lunch.
And, uh, the ex-wife's on her way.
- What's that? - It's a knife.
- On it. - Looks like gold.
As in gold fillings?
Could be. Don't know. What do you got?
Found this in his office.
Turns out Dr. Safran here was quite the gambler.
Guess his luck ran out.
Howard.
For years, I thought those hushed phone calls
meant he was having an affair.
Then I realized Howard could never love a woman
the way he did a three-team parlay.
Last straw was when he lost what was left of our son's college fund
on the LSU-Texas A&M game.
That's when I filed for divorce.
You mean it's not final?
No.
We're halfway through the state waiting period.
Three more weeks.
Guess that doesn't matter now.
- Howard have a will? - Not that I know of.
You know, as his next of kin,
you stand to inherit twice as much as you'd get in the divorce.
All of nothing's no more than half.
Howard was broke.
What about gold? He keep much in stock?
Not enough worth killing him over.
Maybe a hundred dollars' worth.
We found this in Howard's desk.
It looks like a record of bets he placed.
Seems he owed his bookie almost $40,000.
That much?
Did you ever hear Howard mention the name of Polack?
Polack? No. Why?
Well, it's what he calls his bookie here in his notes.
See that? "Polack."
Maybe he meant, you know, an actual Polish person?
God bless Howard, the man couldn't spell to save his life.
- Mayor Bennett. - I'm in the middle of a meeting.
You'll have to make an appointment with my secretary.
That's funny. I thought I already had one.
Written on that little memo line on the check
that my casino wrote out to your reelection campaign?
- You heard the man. - Five-figure check?
Have you gone soft in the head?
That would explain all these crazy new count room regulations.
I'm sure you can understand. The city and state tax people
have to be certain they're receiving an honest count.
A month ago, you were walking hand-in-hand down the aisle
with every casino in town.
Now, all of sudden, you've got the gestapo in here? I don't get it.
Mr. Savino, I serve at the pleasure of the people of Las Vegas.
A lot of those people aren't too pleased
with the way you and your kind conduct business around here.
My kind? You mean honest, tax-paying citizens?
If you'd like to discuss this at length,
I encourage you to make an appointment with my secretary.
You are gonna regret this.
Mark my words.
Mr. Savino, you just threatened a public official.
That's a Class-C felony.
Someday, Bennett,
when you're looking back and wondering where it all went wrong,
it was right here, right now.
We gotta get Bennett out of office and this guy in.
Guy's name is George Grady.
He's the no-name running for mayor against Bennett.
Get me everything there is to know. Find him and bring him to me.
Bennett refused to play ball.
Get him out of the game, but we're running out of time.
There's a debate in two days, and they're gonna put it on television.
We gotta find Grady before then and whip him into shape.
About the other thing...
- You found Sully. - Yeah.
- Where is he? - He's in the men's room.
How about now?
You sure you don't know anything about any bogus chips?
- I swear to God. - Oh, Sully, Sully.
You really wanna add blasphemy to your list of crimes?
He ain't talking.
I'm surprised. You're a smart guy.
You name any country in the world,
he'll make you bad bills so good
it'll make the real stuff look fake by comparison.
He's a real artist.
So I suggest you start painting us a picture.
I wanna know everything you know about these fake chips.
I'm telling you, if I could make chips this good,
I'd be doing it all over town.
Not here, but I'm sorry. I got nothing.
Throw some cold water in his face. See if that jogs his memory.
Have a seat.
I've been trying to get this name right and I just can't for the life of me.
James Wisniewski a.k.a. Jimmy the Polack.
You've got quite a record here, James.
- It's like reading War and Peace. - You bring me in to talk literature?
Sure.
In fact, I got a story for you.
Guy meets bookie,
guy can't pay debt to bookie, bookie kills guy.
Sheriff, that's a fairy tale.
A bookie kills a guy who owed him money?
That's just bad business.
You're saying you didn't kill Howard Safran?
No, I didn't kill him.
And he didn't owe me money.
Not anymore.
He paid off his debt last Tuesday. All 37, 4.
- Howard gave you $37,400? - Cash?
Yeah. I was surprised too.
The guy couldn't even make his payments till last week.
Guess he came into some money.
- Got a minute? - Yeah.
I've been going over Howard Safran's books
and I found something a little strange.
What, he had a cash surplus of 37 grand?
No, but he had certain regular monthly expenses.
All pretty much what you'd expect,
but there was one thing I couldn't figure out.
Every month, Howard wrote a check for $165
to Oakgrove Property Rental.
Different address from his office.
Maybe his ex-wife is wrong.
Maybe he was keeping a girl on the side.
Mr. Grady, Vincent Savino.
Nice place you've got here, Mr. Savino, top-notch.
Are you a gambler, Mr. Grady?
Me? No. My, uh, business keeps me busy.
Dry-cleaning out on East Bonanza and Charleston.
You ought to come in sometime.
I drove by it, saw a couple of your campaign posters in the window.
Just about the only ones I've seen in town.
Well, posters are expensive.
I'm putting every penny I can into this, uh, election.
You're eight points behind. Now, don't get me wrong.
An unknown challenger against an incumbent mayor,
most cities in this country, you'd be down 20, 30 points by now.
Any idea why that is?
Bennett's gotten too big for his britches.
Menus.
You don't buy supplies from his cronies,
you get inspectors checking out your sewer lines for violations.
- People are fed up. - Damn right they are.
When Bennett was first elected, 25,000 people lived in Vegas.
Over the past eight years, number's nearly tripled.
Dreamers, outsiders moving here in droves.
Guys like you and me. Now, Bennett, he's not one of us.
He and his cronies, they'd tar and feather us
and run us out of town if it was still allowed.
But there's more of us now than them.
Yes, sir, there are.
The good news is, you can get their attention.
Turn the whole thing in your favor with the debate.
The key is television.
Now, more people are gonna see you on that night
than in the entire campaign put together.
You come out on top, you could turn this race around.
I like my chances.
I like them better with my help.
Bennett's part of the past in this town.
You wanna be part of its future, then you need me.
And you need me.
- You cold? - No.
Could've fooled me.
You barely said a word at dinner.
I'm just not all that interested in idle chitchat.
You know, I'm sorry about today.
You and I being together all the time, it's gonna take a while to adjust.
But you said it'd be different, that there would be no secrets.
If all you want is a lovely wife,
there are plenty of silent, fawning girls around
- who would jump at the opportunity. - I'm not interested in those girls.
- I should go back to Chicago. - Oh, come on, honey, please.
You and the kids, I'm used to protecting you,
sheltering you from my life, from my business.
You think if I wanted a sheltered life, I would've married you?
You really wanna know what's going on?
If I can't figure a way to get Bennett out of office, I could lose the Savoy.
As long as his auditors are in my count room,
I can't get the skim back home.
If he wins this next election, it'll be even worse.
The papers say Grady's only eight points back.
Well, we're running out of time.
Our best shot is this debate in a couple of days.
But I've met the guy.
He's gonna need all the help we can muster.
Well, there's always a way.
You just have to find it or buy it.
What my father said is the Cook County way.
Yeah, but this ain't Chicago.
There's no precinct captains to strong-arm.
There's no county commissioner like your father.
I was reading about the Las Vegas Coalition of Women Voters.
They're hosting an event tomorrow night.
Figured I might go if I find myself dining alone again.
The article said that, as a group,
women did not vote for Bennett in the last election.
So, theoretically, their votes are up for grabs.
Get them to turn out for Grady. That's smart.
Worked for Kennedy in the primaries.
Believe me, Grady's no Kennedy.
There's always a way.
Doesn't look like a love nest.
- Guess we're late to the party. - Yep.
Find something?
Howard wasn't making fake teeth.
He's making fake chips.
Reckon he bit off more than he could chew.
I guess this explains the gold
found on Howard's hands the night he was killed.
Yep. Not to mention how he managed to pay his bookie.
Who knows how many chips he made before he got knocked off.
Enough to get him in trouble.
You think Savino caught him trying to pass fake Savoy chips?
- That's what I'm gonna ask him. - Great. I'll go with you.
Nope. You stay here. I need you to log that evidence.
Pop...
You said you were fine doing paperwork.
You said that?
Oh, you're an idiot.
There he is.
Sheriff, deputy.
You know, you boys ought to consider using a telephone once in a while.
We thought you'd wanna hear it in person.
Someone's been making counterfeit Savoy chips.
You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?
We've spotted a few fakes, yeah.
We're conducting our own independent investigation.
You, uh, know who's behind it?
Local dentist, Howard Safran.
Unfortunately, he's dead.
Unfortunately for him. Not for me.
My problem is solved.
Not quite, Mr. Savino.
See, someone cleaned out his lab, took most of his supplies.
Whoever killed him could be churning out fake chips right as we speak.
Look, this whole town runs on trust,
on the faith that those chips are as good as cash.
You start getting too heavy with fakes, you start to undermine that faith.
- It's bad. - So bad you'd kill to avoid it?
It's easier just to change out the chips.
It's a pain in the ass and a major expense,
but if things got bad enough, that would solve the problem.
But you'd wanna stop it before it got to that point, right?
Any help you could afford me in that area would be greatly appreciated.
Is this you asking me for help?
I think this is what we would call a mutual-interest situation.
And I thought I'd seen everything.
I do have another possible lead.
But you've gotta give me your word you won't bust my chops.
Not you. Just him.
Relax.
Mr. Savino tells me you're the guy they talk to in town
about making counterfeit chips.
Is that right?
Vince, you brought the law?
No, he ain't like the real law. Right, Lamb?
I'm law enough to get you out of here.
But I don't know nothing.
Dr. Howard Safran, that name ring a bell?
No. Who's he?
A local dentist making bad chips.
A dentist?
- Do you know him? - No.
But there's this thing I heard about out of Monte Carlo.
Guys making fake chips out of dental cement.
Real good stuff, they say.
Has the right feel, weight, everything.
You don't see it done much in the U.S.
because you need a license to buy that stuff here.
I wanna thank you all for sticking around until the end
to hear my most important position.
Now, I know this goes against popular opinion,
but I cannot be swayed on this.
Salt is clearly more effective on red wine stains than club soda.
What the hell happened to Grady?
That suit he's got on costs more than he has in his campaign fund.
- How's he paying for this? - That's a very good question.
Sorry I'm late.
Who is that with Savino?
- It's his wife. - His wife?
Yeah.
- How did Grady do? - Well, see for yourself.
All these ladies didn't stick around after the speeches
- just for the punch and cookies. - Ha, ha.
You always had a way of looking at a man and seeing his potential.
I'm afraid getting him ready for the debate won't be easy.
We could coach him on his opening remarks,
but locking horns with Bennett on live television?
It's anybody's guess.
- What's with you? - Oh, just enjoying the fresh air.
Feels good to be out in the field for a change,
not at the station, trapped under a mountain of paperwork.
Don't get used to it.
You sure we got the right place?
Owner confirmed this is the place around here
to buy professional-grade dental cement.
Next closest source is in Carson City.
Said if he was gone, the night watchman would let us in.
He ain't letting us in now. Grab that door.
Some days, I really miss the ranch.
Owner says the only thing missing
is an industrial-sized case of dental cement.
That makes sense.
The killer knew the molds he stole were useless without that stuff.
Because he clearly didn't have a license
to purchase medical-grade product, he kills to get it.
Great. Now we've narrowed it down to someone who isn't a dentist.
Let's narrow it down a little bit more. Who knew Howard was kiting chips?
Not many people. He wouldn't be advertising it.
Whoever killed him knew what he was up to.
Could be he had a partner.
I can go talk to Mia Rizzo, maybe check their records
and see who was working at the time the fake chip was spotted.
That's a shock.
You volunteering to work with Miss Rizzo.
What?
- Get out of the truck. - Please, don't shoot.
Just shut up and get down. Let's go.
Come on. Put a little hop in the step, cowboy.
- I got kids. - And I got hemorrhoids,
but you don't hear me complaining about them, right?
- Yep. We got the right truck. - Nice.
Okay, you got what you wanted. Just let me go.
Do I look like a guy who's about to kill someone?
I'm chewing gum for God's sakes.
Look, for the inconvenience.
Now, get the hell out of here. What have we got?
We gotta hit all the dame hangouts:
uh, nursing schools, beauty parlors, secretarial pools.
You know, some days, it's a pleasure coming to work.
Thank you.
He certainly is handsome, isn't he?
He certainly is.
It'd be a shame if people don't vote for him just because he's Catholic.
Yes, it would.
But somehow I don't think it'll be a problem.
These days, how you look matters more than who you are,
and I think Kennedy looks to be our next president.
You think it's that simple?
Well, I also happen to know
he has some very influential friends in the great state of Illinois.
Ha, ha. Well, that certainly can't hurt.
I'm Laura.
Katherine. Pleasure.
Likewise.
- How you doing? - Hello.
Compliments of George Grady, running for Las Vegas mayor.
Use your brand-new TV here
to watch him mop up Bennett in the debates, okay?
We know Howard paid his bookie $37,400 last Tuesday.
So I figure we start on that date, work backwards,
looking for transactions in that amount, right?
But who's to say he cashed in all those chips at once?
Or only that much?
There's no way to know.
We could be here all night.
Worse things have happened.
So, uh, how long you been interested in hydroelectric power?
Excuse me?
Well, your little field trip to the Hoover Dam
with our esteemed District Attorney Reynolds?
Figured, you know, you must be interested in hydroelectricity
because I can't think of any other reason you'd go outwith that guy.
Jerry Reynolds simply offered
to show me around town and I accepted.
Jerry. Isn't that the name of a cartoon mouse?
He seems perfectly nice to me.
Not that it's any of your business.
And as far as I know,
his brother didn't beat up my father and throw him in jail.
So that's one thing he has going for him.
It's the only thing.
Sheriff.
There's been another murder.
Counterfeiter killed a security guard.
At a casino?
Medical supply wholesaler.
And while he was at it, our guy,
he stole enough professional-grade dental cement
to pave a highway between here and L.A.
You're gonna be buried in fakes before you know it.
It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
This is impossible.
Look at these.
"One thousand nine hundred and fifty.
Nineteen hundred, 1950."
All around the same amount. All cashed in within the same shift.
You add them up, and you get, uh...
I don't know, just under 40 grand.
Not exactly what Howard owed his bookie, but that's real close.
Twenty-two of these transactions have the same cashier code, number 189.
And they add up to $37,400 exactly.
Did you do all that in your head?
Cashiers have to file paperwork with a name and address
of all transactions over $2,000.
It's Savoy policy.
Howard was being smart, he didn't wanna leave a paper trail.
Jack, it's an internal policy. There's no way Howard would know.
Unless whoever was working the window that day was in on it with him.
Cashier 189. That's it.
- Hold it right here. - Bang, there it is right there.
- You got no leads on this guy? - No.
If I were you, I'd beef up my security.
I'm gonna switch out the chips.
New chips.
Looks good.
Wait a minute.
Don't you think he'd know that you'd eventually switch out all the chips?
Probably. Seems like he does his homework. Why?
He steals enough cement to make a hundred thousand fake chips,
but he knows there's no way in hell
that he's gonna be able to cash them in all in one fell swoop.
Yeah, he's gonna have to cash them in a few grand at a time.
Doesn't make any sense.
Can't take them to the cashier's window.
So there must be some other reason he'd want all those chips at once.
Guy was dressed in the same uniform,
came at the same time, wheeled the same cart in the vault
as the delivery guys always do.
Uniforms, carts, you can get all that second-hand.
Then he pulled a gun.
He took those chips from the cart, replaced them with cash,
wheeled almost 500 grand right out that door.
I want my hands on this guy.
I got to tell you, we have no idea who this guy is.
No, but she might.
Hey! You can't just take her out of here.
I promise you, I can find out who she's working with a lot faster than you can.
Not a chance.
Son of a...
I want every cashier, waitress, busboy, maid,
anyone who's ever looked at that woman
in my office in five minutes.
You got two dead bodies on you.
And if you cooperate, the judge might spare you the chair.
But, you know, you're gonna do hard time,
it just depends how much.
I didn't do anything.
I was working when the robbery happened.
You found me at my window.
Uh-huh. The same window you laundered chips from?
My job is to change out tokes.
Over 37 grand's worth?
At 1,900 a pop?
During one work shift?
All from Howard Safran?
I get a lawyer, right?
I thought the name Holly Edwards sounded familiar.
It was in the dentist records we were looking through.
She's a patient of Howard's.
Holly,
look at me.
And I want you to listen, and I want you to listen good.
We got you paying out fake chips
in a casino that has a fake-chip problem.
And all the while, you're a patient of a dentist
who got killed for making fake chips.
It doesn't take a genius.
So say you're sorry
and then say the truth.
Sorry.
You're halfway there.
Howard was my dentist.
He had debt, I had debt.
We thought we could help each other.
He'd make the chips,
and I would cash them.
Always under 2 grand.
Never any names on the paper trail.
It was safe, easy.
Nobody gets hurt.
At least, that was the plan.
Whose plan?
Jesse, my boyfriend.
He said it was only a matter of time before the casino caught on to us,
so we needed a big, one-time score.
So he figured out a way to trade counterfeit chips for cash
without having to go through the cage.
Howard didn't wanna do it.
He told Jesse, no.
So Jesse killed Howard.
He took his molds
and he started making chips for the heist.
- Is that the way it happened? - Yes.
Jesse swore to me that he wouldn't hurt Howard.
He swore.
But he did.
Did it ever occur to you that you might be next?
Is this really necessary?
If you look shiny, people watching at home will think you're sweating.
Why would you be sweating unless you're nervous, untrustworthy, sickly.
- Okay, okay. - Right.
That'll be all. Thank you so much.
even businesses have to be back.
- Casinos can't just take... - Sir?
Yeah?
Men don't wear makeup.
Hello.
Katherine. What are you doing here?
I could ask you the same thing.
Well, I'm volunteering for the Grady campaign.
- You? - I work for the city.
Oh.
Not for Bennett, I hope.
No.
Grady's looking especially mayoral these days. ls that your doing?
Well, like I said, people only see what you appear to be.
Well, if you volunteer for his campaign,
I can only assume there's more to Grady than meets the eye.
Oh, there is.
I'd be very interested in learning more about him.
Well, why don't we go to lunch this week?
- I'll tell you all you wanna know. - That would be perfect.
Hi, Jesse.
I'm surprised you're so young.
I put the word out on the street I was looking for Jesse Lynch.
They were just lining up to roll over on you.
Usually takes longer to make so many enemies.
That belongs to me.
Move.
I told you I'd find him before you, sheriff.
You don't get points for knocking down the calf.
You get points for roping him.
It's my gun in his back.
And it's my rifle aimed at your head.
- Please don't let him kill me. - Shut up.
All right, you got your money. You've been made whole.
Now, hand him over and be on your way.
Let me ask you something, Lamb.
You got any mountain lions up there on your ranch?
Got a few.
What if one of them came down and started killing your livestock?
Taking what was yours, out of your house,
off of your son's plate.
You'd kill that lion, wouldn't you?
I'd kill him dead because the law says I can.
Ah, you don't care about the law.
The first time I ever set eyes on you,
you were knocking out half the crew at McCarran.
And you weren't even a sheriff yet.
I'd call that taking the law into your own hands
which is exactly what you'd do if you were in my position.
The only difference is, you hide behind that tin star.
But you know as well as I do,
there's a difference between the law and justice.
But killing a man for stealing your money
is not gonna serve either one.
So hand him over or I'm taking you downtown too.
Lynch.
He's all yours.
Fair enough.
Put this back in the vault.
- Good work spotting those fake chips. - Thank you.
starting with the incumbent, Mayor Ted Bennett.
Old guy looks sick,
like he got a fever or something.
Or sweaty.
I'm trying to watch.
local business owner, George Grady.
Mr. Grady, your opening statement.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I, uh, wanna thank
my opponent, Mayor Bennett,
for the fantastic job he's done in his eight years in office.
Mayor Bennett's an important part of this city's past.
But this election is about the future.
America was built by outsiders.
By people who came from someplace else,
giving the best of themselves
to make this the greatest nation in the world.
And that's what I wanna do right here in Las Vegas.
I wanna give the best that I've got
to make this the greatest city in the nation.
I hope you'll let me try.
- Not bad. - It gets better.
- Mayor Bennett? - Thank you, Mr. Moderator.
I'd like to begin by addressing Mr. Grady's points one-by-one,
showing that though his heart, uh, might be in the right place...
- Damn thing. - Guess timing's everything.
Uh, I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor. I'm being told we've lost the signal.
Excuse me?
The antenna's down.
Oh, for crying out loud, how does that happen?
Technical difficulties.
Grady came out of the gate pretty good.
He could've held his own against Bennett.
Why take a chance?
People always remember the last thing they see.