Page 178 - Labelle Gramercy, Detective

Slow Burn

“Now, that’s carrying the separation of church and state too
damned far,” I grumbled. “I’d love to break his alibi.”
“You’ll get your chance, unless we get a confession first.”
We headed south and east into a part of town occupied by
junkyards and truck stops. “Does Quigley seem a more likely
suspect?”
“You tell me,” replied Labelle, giving me no opportunity to do so.
“He became fascinated with the state lottery when it started a few
years back. He could barely wait for his eighteenth birthday when he
could buy a ticket. The odds are no mystery, about twenty-seven
million to one against winning the jackpot by guessing all six
numbers. But people have come up with all sorts of preposterous
theories on how to pick winning numbers. They write books on the
subject, and other people read them. The point is that most tickets
are worthless, and many people buy them only in hopes of winning
the jackpot. Other combinations of correct numbers win smaller
prizes, of course, and that is where Quigley saw his opportunity.”
“But the drawing is honest, isn’t it? There really is no way to
predict even three of the six.”
“Yes, but many people do not immediately cash in tickets with
three or four correct numbers, either forgetting or not caring to
check more carefully once they learn someone else has won the
jackpot. Now, anyone with five or six correct numbers is going to get
a lot of money, so those tickets have to be redeemed at a lottery
office—where they are closely scrutinized. Tickets with three or four
correct numbers, however, must be cashed in at a lottery ticket point
of sale, like a convenience store. Quigley found a forger, and they
printed fake tickets the night following the announcement of a draw.
Each bogus ticket had four correct numbers, worth from sixty to
eighty dollars, depending on the jackpot. He and his friend figured
they could travel around the county and pass all these forgeries in
one morning, getting themselves a few thousand dollars before the
lottery commission got wise.”
“But?”
“The teenage forgers didn’t realize the lottery computer validates
all the numbers on winning tickets. They were tripped up on the two
non-winning numbers they had to include on each ticket. Once again
a Carbone quint ran afoul of the law in a bumbled scam. Quigley and

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