VINNIE: I could demolish you if I really had a mind to. You haven’t forgotten that have you?

CARTER: No! (Pause.) I haven’t forgotten that.

VINNIE: Good. (Pause.) I still own all the negatives, you know. I still have them in my possession. All the early correspondence.

CARTER: Could we just get down to this problem you’re having. This big problem that couldn’t wait.

VINNIE: I’m not holding you up or anything am I?

CARTER: I’ve got to catch a return flight in about two hours.

VINNIE: Returning to the family?

CARTER: That’s right.

VINNIE: Little wife? Little lady?

CARTER: Hey, don’t think you can trot right across my head, pal! Just because you did me a couple a’ crumby favors a long time ago.

VINNIE: Favors?

CARTER: A long, long time ago! (Pause.) There’s certain limits—certain parameters. I’m not gonna be blackmailed, Vinnie.

VINNIE: Farthest thing from my mind.

CARTER: Good. Now, what’s the problem?

Pause.

VINNIE: Uh—I got arrested about a week ago.

CARTER: Oh great! That’s just wonderful! Arrested! Now you’ve gotten yourself arrested!

VINNIE: Don’t worry. Nothing showed up on the records. No trace of you anywhere. No trace of Simms. You’ve been very thorough about all that.

CARTER: What’d you get arrested for?

VINNIE: It was—kind of multiple charges.

CARTER: Terrific.

VINNIE: “Trespassing”. “Invasion of Privacy”. And uh—“Harassment”.

CARTER: Harassment?

VINNIE: Yeah. Harassment.

CARTER: You didn’t assault anyone, did you?

VINNIE: No. I don’t do that. That’s not my specialty. You know that.

CARTER: Who’d you harass then?

VINNIE: No one.

CARTER: All right—Who charged you with harassment?

VINNIE: A woman.

CARTER: Here we go—

VINNIE: But it won’t stick. Told me to stay away from her house. Hysterical reaction on her part, is all it was. Petty-anti stuff.

CARTER: Hysterical reaction to what?

VINNIE: She felt I’d deceived her, I guess.

CARTER: Deception is not harassment.

VINNIE: Exactly my point.

CARTER: What else did you do to her?

VINNIE: Nothing. I didn’t touch her. We never even kissed. Never hugged even.

CARTER: So, it’s just a uh—“psychological” thing with her, I suppose. Same old, same old.

VINNIE: Must be. I can’t figure it out.

CARTER: What’s the “Trespassing” deal? The “Invasion of Privacy”?

VINNIE: Uh—See, I had her believing that I was a detective.

CARTER: Oh, Vinnie—

VINNIE: A real detective. She was absolutely convinced.

CARTER: That’s the deception part. I’m talking about the—

VINNIE: She went right along with it. I showed her my badge, handcuffs, the gun, false ID. She got very excited about the whole thing.

CARTER: You’re not carrying a weapon again are you?

VINNIE: Only on dates.

CARTER: You can’t take chances like that, Vinnie. Walking around here with a weapon. Did they find it on you?