Riding the Rap Read Online Free PDF Page A

deal so he leave you alone, huh? Won’t be snipping off any your valuable parts.”
    â€œWe could use another guy,” Chip said. “We’ve talked about it enough.”
    Louis said, “You want to hire him?” trying to make the man come out and say it.
    â€œIt’s an idea.”
    â€œGet somebody knows how to do the job,” Louis said, “’stead of sitting around discussing it to death?”
    Chip didn’t care for that kind of talk. He said, “My friend, the idea is foolproof. What we’ve been discussing is who we start with.”
    He was watching the TV screen again. Louis looked over to see Bobby Deo in that P.R. shirt like he was going to a fiesta, Bobby now inspecting the swimming pool: the pool scummy and ugly with the filter system shut down to save money, algae growing in it like seaweed and turning the water brown.
    â€œSay you put the deal to him and he likes it,” Louis said, “you still owe Harry. He sent Bobby; he can send somebody else.”
    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.
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    Louis said, “Hey now,” seeing the sly grin on the man’s face, knowing exactly what the man was thinking.
    â€œHire Bobby,” Louis said, “to get Harry Arno.”
    The man nodded. “What do you think?”
    â€œDepends if Harry’s the kind we looking for.”
    â€œHe’s loaded,” Chip said. “All the time he’s running his sports book he’s supposed to be cuttingthe 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.”
    â€œI 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?”
    â€œWent 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?”
    â€œSay he’s got all this skim money,” Louis said. “Where you think he keeps it?”
    â€œThat’s the first thing we find out.” Chip was looking at the TV screen again, at Bobby Deo comingaway from the pool toward the house. “How much Harry’s got liquid he can get his hands on.” Chip moved across the room, glanced at Louis to say, “Here we go,” and opened the door.
    He stood waiting as Bobby came through the sunroom into the study, Bobby looking at the TV screen, the empty patio showing, then at Louis standing with his hands on his hips, then at the shotgun lying on the sofa.
    â€œYou understand,” Chip said, “you were covered all the time you were out there. If you hadn’t