“Take your time,” Dino said.
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STON E T U R N ED TO Dino. “How about some tennis?”
“Okay,” Dino replied, “but is this tennis business or business business?”
“A little of both,” Stone said.
They changed clothes and drove to the Olde Island Tennis Club. Chuck Chandler was working with a student, a very pretty girl in a tiny tennis dress. He stood behind her, holding her arm as she swung.
“I like the teaching position,” Dino said.
Stone went into the pro shop, found the reservation book and led Dino to a vacant court. They hit balls for a few minutes, then Chuck finished with his student and joined them.
“You need more backswing in your serve,” he said to Stone. “You could pick up another ten miles an hour of ball speed.”
“I’ll work on that,” Stone said.
“And Dino, you need to turn your body more when you hit the ball; you’re using too much arm and not enough full body.”
“Okay,” Dino replied.
“You guys want to play a three-handed set?”
8 2
L o i t e r i n g w i t h I n t e n t
“Sure,” Stone said. He and Dino played Chuck, and Chuck beat them six-four. They sat down for a break.
“Chuck,” Stone said, “when Evan Keating paid you the hundred and thirty grand in cash for your boat, what did it look like? New bills or old?”
“A mix, I guess. It was all neatly wrapped, some of it with rubber bands, some with bank wrappers.”
“What was the bank name on the wrappers?”
“I don’t really remember, except that it was in Miami. Something Security.”
“Think hard.”
“South Beach Security, that’s it.”
“Never heard of it,” Stone said.
“I’ve never heard of half the banks in Florida,” Chuck said. “I’d never heard of any of the banks in Key West until I moved here.”
“May I ask, what did you do with all that cash?”
“Well,” Chuck said, “I had a yard bill at Peninsula Marina for around forty thousand, mostly materials and shed rental; I paid off about twenty thousand in personal debts, I bought a T-bill for fi fty thousand, and I put the rest in my safe. Sometimes you can do better deals for stuff if you’ve got cash.”
“Yes, you can,” Stone said. “Did you fill out the federal forms for big cash deposits at your bank?”
“Yeah, and at my brokerage house, too. I thought I might expect a visit from the feds, but my banker told me the feds are inundated with those forms, and they never get around to checking most of them.”
“Don’t forget to pay your taxes on the sale of the boat,” Stone said.