“Hey, Niko.”
“Yeah.”
“You ever know what it was that happened in that house? Karras and his buddy, they didn’t leave one thing alive. I mean, what happened?”
Stefanos looked out across the water. “Karras and the Italos... sure, I know what happened. Those two, they didn’t know enough to get off the bus.”
“What?”
“Nothin’. It’s just a story.” Stefanos stood straight. “C’mon, let’s take a little walk around the speedway, re. That okay with you?”
“Me?” said Costa. “I don’t give a damn nothing.”
Nick Stefanos picked up the boy, who was also named Nick Stefanos, and the three of them walked over the lush green grass, passing a Negro couple who sat together, their arms intertwined, in the shade of a flowering tree.