The Lagotti Family Series

by Leopold Borstinski

  SHUN HUANG SAT on the other side of the table to Mary Lou in a nondescript meeting room in an anonymous hotel chain in the heart of Los Angeles. Also present was Bobby, Shun’s brother and a bodyguard each. There was no need for the muscle for either side because no-one would be stupid enough to attack these two bosses in the middle of peace talks.

  “We have come here today to end the difficulties between our families. Both have suffered loss...”

  “Some more than others.”

  “... but the important thing is for us to draw a line under all the unpleasantness and to find a way to move forward.”

  Mary Lou had spent a week of shuttle diplomacy to get Shun in the same room. The intermediary they‘d used had convinced him the war must stop and that Mary Lou was open to compromise. Word on the street was she'd ordered Shun‘s head on a platter - the work begun by Alice was to end with Mary Lou. The truth was Mary Lou didn‘t care whether Shun lived. She wanted him to stop muscling in on her drugs supply lines. Every day she wasted fighting him was another day when earnings were down.

  “We are here to prevent more blood being shed. One of my sons died due to our differences.”

  “That is a lamentable state of affairs and I am truly sorry for your loss. If we reach an agreement today, I guarantee no member of your family'll die at our hands.”

  “Your word is important here because it is all you have. Without power or wealth, we are alone before our gods with only what we say to keep us on a true path.”

  “You have my word. But in exchange, I need to know you will cease your encroachment into my territories.”

  Beat.

  “You have carved out a niche for yourself here in LA at our expense and attacked my property in Las Vegas. You must put an end to both of these matters.”

  “My son paid the ultimate price for our actions in Vegas. Now I am left only with daughters. Your business operations and your children will be safe there - from our involvement.”

  “And what about LA?”

  “We need to earn a living and our access to Chinese sources means our product is much cheaper than yours. I‘m talking opiates here. Let me be clear: we are not departing the city just because we are inconvenient to you.”

  “I understand and respect that. Your family has done well in a short space of time. At our expense though.”

  Mary Lou stared at Shun while they spoke but Bobby made sure he was on top of the entire roomful of people. They had talked through their game plan for the meeting into the small hours sat in the summerhouse and then later in bed. Bobby had been told that Shun‘s brother wanted blood revenge and had been put in his place by Shun. The man might be a grieving father, but he was a smart businessman first.

  “Yours is the biggest heroin operation in California. We were bound to nibble at the crumbs on your plate.”

  “What I propose is a way for you to consume a three course meal.”

  “I am here to listen.”

  “Build up your business by all means. If you open up territories we are not yet covering then we can support you with the resources we have available. For that we receive twenty per cent of your turnover. In areas of ours which you now occupy I must ask you to share more of your good fortune because it has been gained off the back of twenty years hard work on our part. In these places, we will get fifty per cent.”

  Shun stared at Mary Lou for fifteen seconds and then leaned over and whispered to his brother, cupping his hand in front of his mouth to hide the movement of his lips. Mary Lou didn‘t bother to even strain to eavesdrop. She knew their plan and how she would respond no matter what he said. Bobby continued to survey the room.

  “What would these resources be?”

  “People, guns, processing labs. I could even get you some office space if you wanted.”

  This last comment raised a brief smile on Shun‘s face. He resumed his whispering and Mary Lou went on staring. As their conversation appeared to carry on for a while, she stood up and walked over to the coffee pot to get a second cup. By the time the mug was empty, Shun and his brother had finished their dialog.

  “Under the circumstances, we are open to sealing a deal but the price you ask is too rich for us... Ten and thirty per cent.”

  Mary Lou picked up her coffee and pretending to take the last sip from it. She opened her clutch bag and applied lipstick using a makeup mirror. She saw the impatience in Shun‘s eyes.

  “Twenty and fifty. Your family remains safe and we do great business together. And we both get to dip our beaks in the trough.”

  “Twenty and forty?”

  Shun knew the money was to be made from South LA and other Lagotti territory. New areas would be harder to capture and he wanted an easy life. He was too old to spend a year or two fighting his way across LA, block by block.

  “Fifteen and fifty. Take it or leave it.”

  Mary Lou placed the lipstick in her bag and waited for the whispering to subside.

  “We agree.”

  “And five per cent ownership of the Ace of Spades.”

  The brother‘s blood vessels nearly burst out his temples but Shun showed restraint. He looked at his brother and stared back at Mary Lou.

  “Done.”

  The tension at the table dissipated with nods all round and Shun walked round to Mary Lou so they could shake on the deal. With business settled, there was nothing more to say and everybody left. Bobby held back briefly to let the meeting room manager know they were done - and settle the check. Before they walked out the lobby, Mary Lou told him to wait while she headed off to use a hotel phone.

  “Just called off the hit on Shun and his brother.”

  Bobby smiled. They had taken the time to cover every eventuality. Cutting the head off the snake was one of many options they‘d considered.

  1995

  9

  “YOU‘VE DONE WELL here. Revenue is up and the place is running nice and smooth. You should come back to Palm Springs.”

  Bobby and Alice sat in her office in the early evening. She‘d enjoyed being at the helm of Lady Fortune and had forged a comfortable life. Sam visited from Boston most weekends which meant Alice could concentrate on work but still fall into the arms of someone she cared about. And the sex was good too. Would she be able to recreate all that under the watchful eye of her mother? Besides, running a casino was fun and when there was an occasional spot of bother, she‘d shown herself she could handle it.

  “Vegas is more my town. The bright lights. The buzz when you hit the streets. You can taste it. There‘s green coming out of every manhole cover. This is a moneymaking wet dream of a city.”

  They lounged on the couches Alice had introduced to the vast expanse of the office almost as soon as she‘d moved in. Bobby missed a trick - she encouraged people to stick around and have informal conversations so they‘d reveal more of what they were thinking. Alice was so much more than a black designer pants suit and red lipstick. She knew that was all Frank saw - on one of the rare moments he was sober.

  “It‘s a great town for sure and you can always visit it. No-one‘s saying you should never come back. But you need to listen to me. Your mother and I would like you on the west coast. We have some issues in California and you and your brains must be here to sort things out.”

  “Mama wants me to return?”

  “Yes. You can live in LA if you don‘t want to hang in sleepy Palm Springs.”

  “She asked for me? Not Frank?”

  Thoughts of Valentine‘s Day holed up in the suite with Sam were evicted from her mind.

  “I‘m in. Let me know when I need to move. And you‘re right, I can‘t stay cooped up in Palm Springs.”

  “Until you get yourself sorted, you could use the top floor of the Palace.”

  “Who‘ll take over at this end?”

  “No-one can replace you, dear.”

  “Right...”

  “I‘ll go back to keeping an eye on things. We‘ll bring in a manager. And before that Fra
nk can earn a day‘s wages.”

  “Don‘t spend too long in between trips if you want the place to be still standing.”

  Bobby issued another smile. She much preferred the adult relationship she had with him.

  “And Naldo comes with me.”

  “Naturally. I wouldn‘t have hooked you two up if I thought you‘d separate so easy.”

  Alice smiled now, realizing how important Friscetti was in her newfound world and the trust he‘d been given to mind Alice Lagotti, daughter of Mary Lou.

  THEY SAT AROUND the pool in the afternoon, tumblers of whiskey in their hands. In the five days since Alice returned to California, she had spent the first day unpacking. The thought of living in the Palace long-term was too weird to handle, even though she‘d lived above a casino and hotel for months. Somehow that felt normal whereas in her childhood, it was somewhere to visit for sure, but Mary Lou never allowed the twins the run of the joint. There was something taboo in the woodwork.

  As an adult she got the fact it was a glorified whorehouse and cocaine dispensary although nowadays the selection of narcotics was far wider than that. The prostitution continued, but the parties were drying up. New Hollywood wanted different nighttime escapes and shipping in younger girls wasn‘t the answer. Frank would be in his element though he‘d fuck his way through the profits in his first week.

  Then she flew Sam over and they pretended to be tourists around Beverly Hills, much as her mother had done decades earlier when Alice was barely able to walk. Days of sightseeing and nights of naked bliss. Sam was proving to be an essential part of her life.

  “Would you think about moving west at some point?”

  The question came out of the blue in the middle of horsing around on a couch in the living room. They both had their hands up each other‘s skirts while they watched a movie.

  “Maybe. I‘m doing well in Boston and my company only has a small practice out here. It would be like a demotion.”

  Beat. She was an account exec at a media and marketing firm: she needed to be where the clients were. Sam‘s finger continued its massage, having stopped for a moment.

  “I‘m not saying no, dear. Just it‘d be a big move for me and, well, we‘ve only been going out three months...”

  Sam was right: Alice was moving way too fast. There would be time enough. Instead, she should lose herself in the moments they had together here and now. To that end, she closed her eyes and focused on Sam‘s first finger. When she opened her eyelids, she was back sitting with Mama and Bobby on a lounger by the pool.

  “Palm Springs is quiet in the Winter.”

  “Gets cold at night though.”

  “Sure, but I‘d forgotten how restful the town is.”

  “That‘s not Palm Springs - it‘s 20 Oakcrest Drive.”

  “Yeah. Only have happy memories of this place.”

  “What about Cindy?”

  “Who?”

  “A family friend, you might say. But it doesn‘t matter. You don‘t remember her and she‘s long since gone.”

  They each took a sip of their drinks, almost in unison.

  “Tell me: why am I back on the west coast? Can‘t be to have another drinking buddy.”

  “Huang was a red flag to me. I know we have resolved them as a problem...”

  “In the short-term.”

  “... but they represent a bigger threat to our organization.”

  “How so?”

  “Entry into narcotics is getting easier by the day. Any fool with a bag of pills and some foot soldiers can take over a handful of blocks. Before you know it has happened, they control a district and you‘re fighting to retrieve what‘s yours. Doesn‘t mean we shouldn‘t fight for every inch we own, but the struggle will get harder, more gangs will appear and it won‘t be like the good old days when five Families ran the country. We‘ll have to deal with each bunch of sniveling upstarts one-by-one.”

  “So we must find additional ways of earning money before it gets taken away by the Feds. They are proving way too successful at getting stool pigeons to squawk.”

  “And what have you come up with?”

  “Us? Nothing. We‘ve been around too long. We need someone new to the game to introduce a touch of zing.”

  “Get Irma to mix me a cosmo. It‘ll be a very long night.”

  ALICE LEFT OAKCREST at six in the morning. By midnight the cosmos weren‘t cutting it for her so she moved over to vodka tonics. This made her chatty and giggly but nothing more. Mama and Bobby gave up by two because her conversation was slurring too much for anything to make any sense. So she flipped around the cable channels in search of inspiration. Three hours later, Irma came downstairs to find Alice dribbling on an armchair and called her a taxi.

  When she woke up in the Palace, her eyes widened like a spark had been lit inside her. She rummaged round the apartment until she found a phone and dialed as shakily as her still-drunk finger would allow.

  “Mama, I‘ve got it. We‘ll reinvent the numbers racket.”

  “Don‘t say another word. Go back to bed - you‘ve only had an hour‘s sleep - and come over this afternoon to talk this through.”

  The line went dead and Alice checked her watch. Mama was right. She got out of her clothes and sloped into bed. Within two minutes of closing her eyes, she was sleeping like a baby, albeit a loud snoring infant that reeked of booze.

  “YOU CAN BET your bottom dollar that everyone loves to gamble.”

  Mary Lou and Bobby sat in the summerhouse while Alice paced up and down taking occasional sips from her orange juice.

  “The Lady Fortune proves that‘s true. Hell, Las Vegas proves I‘m right. Americans will gamble on anything. That‘s why before the war, they‘d even bet on a number. That was all the numbers game was, right?”

  “Yes, but you know they rigged it?”

  “Of course. Arnold Rothstein was behind all that, yeah?”

  “Love the history lesson. This trip down memory lane is fabulous but...”

  “Don’t you see? Haven‘t you been watching the news?”

  Bobby and Mary Lou looked blankly at each other. Had they been so caught up in their own little world to have missed a life-changing event? Alice waited as patiently as she was able for the penny to drop. When the two turned back to stare at her eager for a clue, she knew she‘d have to wait until hell froze over before any flicker of recognition from her audience.

  “California State is starting a lottery. Ordinary Joes will slap greens down on the counter of their local convenience store hoping to win millions. Instead of a shady dude writing their lucky number in a ledger, they‘ll walk round with a shiny piece of paper printed by us with the digits neatly circled.“

  The expressions remained the same: abject incomprehension why Alice was so excited.

  “There‘s a load of security around printing the tickets but the store owners won‘t care if the pieces of paper are real or not. They get paid by the Joes. Having real looking lottery cards would be fantastic and we must have sufficient cash to grease enough palms in the right places. It‘ll be like we‘re printing our own money, only we do it through a network of retailers.”

  Everyone was quiet for a spell until Mary Lou punctured the silence.

  “What if someone wins using one of our tickets?”

  “Either the fake is good in which case the Joe gets his cash. Or it‘s not and the storekeeper takes the heat.”

  “And then word goes round they bought the cards from us and...”

  “... and nothing. I‘m talking about looking and acting like a wholesaler here. They won‘t know the difference. We charge the same as the real guys only our costs are lower because we're not using high tech printing presses or having to pay union rates.”

  “It‘s so simple, why didn‘t we think of it?”

  “You‘ve been doing this too long and don‘t drink enough cosmos.”

  “She has a point.”

  “About the cosmos anyway.”

  For
the first time since entering the room, Alice slumped down on an easy chair. She drained her juice and slammed the glass down on a nearby table.

  “Oops, misjudged the height of that.”

  Mama sent Bobby to the kitchen for more juice and a large pot of coffee.

  “And cookies.”

  When both he and Irma returned with a bountiful supplier of drinks and munch, they worked through the fine detail. Planning a successful new venture was down to the small print. Alice‘s big picture made perfect sense but the little gotcha details would send them to jail.

  Four hours and two plates of cookies later, they thought the master plan was sound. No, they knew the scheme was one hundred per cent bullet proof.

  “Let‘s sleep on it and go through everything again tomorrow. Do you want to stay for dinner?”

  “No, I‘ve got stuff to do. Thanks Mama.”

  “It‘ll only be a bowl of pasta.”

  “I mean for wanting me to be in on this with you.”

  “Silly. Apart from Bobby who else could I turn to in my hour of need?”

  Alice shrugged then kissed her mother on the cheek before she left. Mama could have called Frank. That was the answer to Mary Lou‘s question that Alice didn‘t want to hear. And Mama hadn‘t said.

  At home, Alice stepped out of her jeans-blouse combo and went back to bed. She so needed more sleep. Before she allowed herself to close her eyes, she put a call through to Sam.

  “I‘ve missed you.”

  “Me too.”

  “Would you like me to hop over to Boston this weekend instead of making you fly over here?”

  “No. My house share isn‘t as cozy - or private - as your penthouse. Besides, I get a chance of glimpsing a cavorting A-lister at yours.”

  “That‘s the nicest way anyone‘s said you live over a whorehouse I‘ve ever heard.”

  “I know you‘re embarrassed about it, but I think it‘s hot. All those people naked beneath us humping away. Bestial - that‘s what it is.”