on the other end if he could check

Barker shook his head no while pulling a phone from his pocket. "How much?" asked Piccolo. "Don't know, maybe a million over a period of years." Barker was still shaking his head. "No way. Anybody who wins or loses that kinda money, we'll know him well." And then, into the phone, Barker asked the person on the other end if he could check on a Reuben Atlee. "You think he won a million dollars?" Piccolo asked. "Won and lost," Ray replied. "Again, we're just guessing." Barker slammed his phone shut. "No record of any Reuben Atlee anywhere. There's no way he gambled that much around here." ' "What if he never came to this casino?" Ray asked, certain of the answer. "We would know," they said together. Chapter 24 He was the only morning jogger in Clanton, and for this he got curious stares from the ladies in their flower beds and the maids sweeping the porches and the summer help cutting grass at the cemetery when he ran past the Atlee family plot. The soil was settling around the Judge, but Ray did not stop or even slow down to inspect it. The men who'd dug the grave were digging another. There was a death and a birth every day in Clanton. Things changed little. It was not yet eight o'clock and the sun was hot and the air heavy. The humidity didn't bother him because he'd grown up with it, but he certainly didn't miss it either. He found the shaded streets and worked his way back to Maple Run. Forrest's Jeep was there, and his brother was slouched in the swing on the porch. "Kinda early for you, isn't it?" Ray said. "How far did you run? You're covered in sweat." "That happens when you jog in the heat. Five miles. You look good." And he did. Clear, unswollen eyes, a shave, a shower, clean white painter's pants. "I'm on the wagon, Bro."