six for five on a short-term loan.”
He watched her shrug without unfolding her arms.
“What the guy does,” Chili said, “is look in the
Karen moved to lean against the doorjamb and Chili noticed she was barefoot. He wondered if she wore anything under that T-shirt she slept in.
“So what the wife does, she identifies stuff from Leo’s bags. Tells ’em what to look for and there it is, his monogrammed shirts, what kind of razor he used, things only she would know about. So Leo’s identified and gets his name in the paper. A couple days go by, people from the airline come to see the wife, tell her how sorry they are and all and offer her a settlement, the amount based on what he would’ve earned operating the drycleaner’s the rest of his life. Leo had some kind of trouble with his kidneys, so they were giving him about ten years.”
“Yeah, but wait,” Harry said. “The best part, the guy hadn’t even thought about a settlement, he’s so happy to get out from under the shylock. All of a sudden he realizes he can sue the airline, go for at least a million. It’s the loser’s grandiose dream, see, but now he’s pressing his luck . . .”
Karen said, “How much is the wife offered? . . .”
Chili started to tell her as Harry said, “Three hundred grand, and they take it, money in the hand, babe. The guy has his wife cash the check and he takes off for Las Vegas with the dough. Gets there, he’s supposed to call her, tell her when to come out . . . Wait, he does call her a couple of times.”
“Twice,” Chili said. “Basically stringing her along.”
“After that, nothing,” Harry said. “She never hears from him again. Meanwhile, the guy’s hot.
Runs the three hundred grand up to almost half a million . . .”
“He comes to L.A.,” Chili said, and stopped as Harry raised his hand.
“It drives the guy nuts, he’s winning but can’t tell anybody who he is. You show in a back story his motivation, his desire to be famous, pal around with celebrities, the headliners doing the big rooms. Now he’s got the dough to buy his way in, mix with celebs and he can’t resist the temptation. Even if it means he’s liable to be revealed as a fraud, and very likely shot dead by the shylock, he makes up his mind to go for it. Where else but Hollywood. That wouldn’t be a bad title,
“I don’t know about his wanting to meet celebrities,” Chili said, “that’s something new. But, yeah, he comes to L.A. Then, after that, I don’t know what happens.”
He saw Karen waiting. She seemed patient, moved only that one time. He turned his head to see Harry looking at him, Harry saying after a moment, “That’s it? That’s your great idea for a movie?”
“I said I had an idea, that’s all.”
“That’s half a movie, with holes in it.” Harry looked at Karen. “Maybe forty minutes of screen time.”
Karen said, “How did you know Harry was here?”
Like that, getting back to it.
“His car’s in the garage,” Chili said.
“You called, that was four days ago. How did you know he’d be here this evening?”
“I’ve been stopping by. See if there’s a gray ’83 Mercedes around with ZIGZAG on the license plate.”
“So you walked in. What if all the doors were locked?”
“I would’ve rung the bell.”
“Hey, it’s okay,” Harry said. “The guy’s a friend of Dick Allen’s. He’s not gonna take anything.”
“It might be okay with you,” Karen said. “What you’re doing, Harry, you’re bringing your dirty laundry into my house and I don’t want it.”
Chili felt she was going to keep talking but Harry moved in saying he should’ve rung the bell. Why didn’t he? Chili said he wanted to surprise him, catch him with his pants down, so to speak. A little humor there. Nobody laughed though or even smiled. Karen asked, what if she had called the police? Chili told her Harry would’ve explained to them it was okay, just like he explained it to her now. She stared at him and he stared back at her until Harry told him, well, anyway, he had the beginning of an idea but it was full of holes.
“In the first place,” Harry said, “it’s not believable the wife would get a settlement that fast. From an in
“They did,” Chili said. “I didn’t tell you all the details, how nervous she was about it and all.”
“Harry doesn’t realize it’s a true story,” Karen said.
They were both looking at her now.
“That Miami flight that went down in the Everglades, it was on the news every day for about a week, covering the investigation, interviews with witnesses, relatives of the victims from around here . . . Harry was busy.”
Chili caught the tone. So she knew about Harry’s problems, but wasn’t exactly crying over them.
Harry was squinting, as if to get his memory to work, saying, “Yeah, on the news . . .” and then turning to Chili. “That’s where you got the idea.”
“Part of it, yeah.”
“And you made up the rest.”
“No, it’s all true, Harry, everything I told you.” This got him squinting again. Chili could see his mind working. He expected to hear from Karen, but Harry was staying with it.
“The part about the shylock?”
“Everything.”
“Wait a minute. You’re not the guy, are you?”
Chili said, “You mean Leo?” shaking his head. It was getting good.
“You wouldn’t be talking to me if you were.”
“I’m not the guy, Harry.”
Again he expected Karen to jump in and say something as Harry started thinking, looking up at the pots and pans before getting an idea.
“You know the wife?”
“Yeah, I know her. Fay.”
Harry seemed to like that. It got him hunched over the table. “You’re related to her. Wait— you’re her brother.”
Chili shook his head, not giving him any help.
“But you’re a close friend. She asked you to help her find her husband.”
“I talked to her, that’s all.”
Chili waited. Harry was still thinking of it as a movie instead of real life. You could see him going over the story in his head, trying to come up with the answer. Staring at his glass now to see if it was in there.
Harry said, “Okay, the guy goes to Vegas . . .” Then stopped and looked at Chili. “How’s the wife know for sure that’s where he went?”
“Take my word for it.”
“Okay, he’s in Vegas,” Harry said, “he can’t trust anybody . . . So he uses an assumed name. Right?”
“Larry Paris.”
“How do you know?”
“Trust me.”
“Okay, he starts gambling, gets hot right away . . . Wait a minute, you made that part up. The guy
Now he was back to real life, putting in things he knew, but still making it sound like a movie. Chili felt like