Chip said, “Not if Harry isn’t around,” and like that the man’s confidence and superior attitude were back in place. Like the whole conversation had been leading up to the Chipper delivering his punch line. Not if Harry isn’t around.

Louis said, “Hey now,” seeing the sly grin on the man’s face, knowing exactly what the man was thinking.

“Hire Bobby,” Louis said, “to get Harry Arno.”

The man nodded. “What do you think?”

“Depends if Harry’s the kind we looking for.”

“He’s loaded,” Chip said. “All the time he’s running his sports book he’s supposed to be cutting the wiseguys in? He’s skimming on them. A sheet writer that used to work for Harry told a friend of mine it’s a fact. Twenty years he skimmed something like two grand a week over what he made for himself. Finally the wiseguys got suspicious… You must’ve heard about it.”

“I was upstate at the time,” Louis said, “but I heard, yeah, they send a guy to whack Harry out and he shoots the guy dead and takes off?”

“Went to Italy for a while,” Chip said, “comes back-I don’t know the whole story, but it’s like it never happened, all the trouble he had with the wiseguys. But now the feds’ve shut him down, he’s out of business.”

Louis noticed Bobby Deo on the diving board now, hands in his pockets, looking down at the scummy pool. Louis said, “So Harry’s closing his books, collecting what’s still owed him, huh?” watching Bobby on the TV and realizing the man’s hands weren’t in his pockets, he had his business out and was right then taking a leak in the swimming pool. Louis said, “You see what he’s doing?”

After a moment Chip said, “He spotted the camera and thinks I’m watching him,” the man not sounding too surprised. “Letting me know he doesn’t care to be kept waiting. Anyway,” Chip said, “I even thought of Harry as a possibility, when we were making out the list. I was gonna mention him to you, see what you thought?”