Prologue

New York city, New York, April 22nd, 2006, 7:30 A.M

A silver limo pulls up in front of the Gatsby Hotel, a tall black haired Caucasian male exits the vehicle via the driver side door, he's wearing a very fancy tux, as if he just come from a wedding, his hair was long and tied in a ponytail, and he had a very fierce scowl on his face, it was scary enough that a crowd of people would cower away at his presence. So, he grew his hair long and tied it up in a ridiculous fashion to offset his intimidation factor just enough so he could speak to others without scaring the liveliness out of them.

This man had a name, his name was Jim Talent, and he worked at a little bar on East First Street known as the Ace in the Hole. He was a bodyguard, one of the ones assigned to 'patron' duty, a duty to protect the paying patrons of the bar at all costs.

Today one of the bar's commoners had called ahead the night before and arranged a pick up and Jim was in charge of the pickup, thirty minutes pass and during that time, Jim made many calls, all of which went unanswered. He was beginning to become worried, something must be wrong, the man who called for him to pick him up was very well known amongst the staff at the Ace in the Hole, he was their best friend and they knew a lot about him. Jim knew for certain that his client was always punctual and that he never drinks the night before a pick up. He knew he must still be in the hotel; he didn't have a car of his own in New York, his vehicle was in Los Vegas. He also knew that he'd never get a taxi to the bar, so the only conclusion was that he was still here and must have suddenly become unwell. But that conclusion might also be wrong, if that indeed was the truth, then why did he avoid answering the phone?

Jim could wait no longer; he had a duty to make sure that his client was safe, he entered the hotel to find the client and make sure he was alright.

The people at the desk looked up at the man almost immediately as the staff heard collective gasping followed by a bewildering silence, they noted the man looked more intimidating than anything they had seen before. But his ridiculous hairdo helped them let down their guard to the man's constant scowl.

"Excuse me." Jim asked in a polite voice, it was uncanny how the tone in which he spoke contrasted with his permanent look of disapproval. "I'm a bodyguard, here to pick up my client and he has not yet arrived at my vehicle for me to pick him up, he's typically punctual and he would have notified me if he wasn't able to come, so I would like to visit his room and check on him."

"I'd be much obliged to tell you which room he is staying in." Stated a female staff member, her name tag read 'Maria' she was on the brink of laughter and she could see in Jim's eyes that he wasn't going to hurt her if she chose to laugh, she could tell he really was just a gentle soul that somehow had his face contorted in an expression which would naturally drive anyone away. "But I'll need the name of your client before I can tell you which room his in."

"His name is Richard Yates." Jim replied.

"Wait… the Richard Yates? world famous gambler with many rumours of cheating floating over his head?"

"I'm afraid so." Jim states laughing. The woman assisting him following him and laughed as well.

"He's on the top floor, he's in a master suite, the number on the door is 403." She stated.

"Thank you. I'm very grateful, and you did a great job." Jim stated, his eyes made it seem like he was smiling even though the expression on the rest of his face didn't change. The lady who assisted him blushed and waved goodbye.

Jim entered the elevator, he was hoping that Richard was ok, but he was going to be sorely mistaken.

He arrived on the floor which Richard resided on. He found the door to his apartment and knocked. But there was no reply, he waited thirty seconds and knocked again, he was met again with silence. He waited a full 2 minutes before he did another attempt at getting a response from Richard. Jim knocked once more hoping that this third knock would be the one Richard would respond to, but Richard wasn't responding.

Jim waited three minutes after his third knocking attempt had failed, he put his ear to the door, the only thing that could be heard was the faint sound of birds singing outside, the room sounded empty, not even the hum of an electrical device could be heard from the room. It was deadly silent, and Jim tried to open the door with the knob, but it was locked.

Fortunately for him there was a maid working nearby, she seemed to be a descendent of a Latin American family. "Excuse me," he asked while the maid was passing, she stopped and her expression went from concentrated to holding in a laugh. "I think my friend is in trouble, would you mind opening the door?"

She nodded and opened the door with the keys she always carried, she only opened it so only a slither of light beamed in from that room, she then went back to her routine, thank goodness she did bother to investigate further than that, otherwise she might have been scarred for life.

Jim entered the room to find the shock of his life, Richard was laying on the floor, dead. There was a marking around his neck, as if he was strangled, and in his right hand between two of his fingers was a card, the card was the ace of spades with a hole punched in the card, just two millimetres above the exact centre of the card. The last detail Jim personally noticed before calling the police was that the table just in front of Richard was in disarray, and the drawer that belonged to it had been yanked out and was now lying to the right of Richard. The drawer itself was currently right side up.

Jim immediately left the scene, as he didn't want to disturb it any further than opening the door. He knew that if he did anything else he would have been in big trouble.