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“He’s a brother-in-law of one of the partners. His name is Leonard Hansen.”

“And?”

“So far as I know, he’s as honest as the day is long.”

“Okay.”

“So far as I know, is what I said.”

Helene came into the office with two mugs of coffee and a half-dozen Danish.

She gave Phil—maybe innocently, maybe not—a good look down her dress as she put his mug and the Danish on the coffee tab

le in front of him.

“No calls, and make sure nobody walks in here on Mr. Chason and me, Helene,” Joey said.

“Yes, sir, Mr. Fiorello.”

Joey waited until she had left the office and closed the door.

“Where was I, Phil?”

“You were saying that so far as you know, the manager of the Howard Johnson is honest.”

“Right. And, so far as I know, he knows how to run a motel. We take a nice little profit out of that place.”

“Okay.”

“Okay. Now, maybe I’m wrong, and I hope to Christ I am, but two things worry me.”

“Such as?”

“The drug bust, of course. And then me not hearing about it for three days. Not until last night, and it happened on Thursday.”

“Why does that worry you?”

“Like I said, I really hope I’m wrong, but with the amount of money we’re talking about, hope don’t count.”

“I’m not sure where you’re going, Joey. You think the manager has something to do with the drugs?”

“What I’m saying, Phil, is that we don’t pay him a whole hell of a lot of money. I don’t really know what I’m talking about here. But drugs in a Howard Johnson motel?”

“What are you thinking?”

“I don’t have any idea how it could have gotten started, but hear me out. You got a guy making peanuts, like Leonard Hansen. He finds out that he can pick up a couple of hundred tax-free by loaning somebody a motel-room key for a couple of hours. You beginning to see where I’m coming from?”

“Yeah.”

“And all of a sudden, it comes out—I have the highest respect for the detectives who work Narcotics—that my Howard Johnson motel is a no-tell motel. Not hookers, but much fucking worse—as far as the Howard Johnson people are concerned—drugs. That’s all Howard Johnson would have to hear. So long, franchise. They’d pull that franchise so quick . . .”

“I see your point. So you want me to check this Leonard Hansen out?”

“I really hope you find him as clean as a whistle,” Joey said. “But you understand, Phil, why I have to know?”

“I understand your problem, Joey.”

“And discreetly, Phil. Like I said, he’s a brother-in-law of one of my partners. He would get pissed in a second if he heard I’d asked you to check this guy out.”