Tod Goldberg - Gangsterland

Dennis laughed in a way Jeff didn’t find in the least bit authentic. “Well,” Dennis said, “next time you come through, call first. We’ll have lunch.”

“I’m not ever going to come back this way,” Jeff said.

Dennis rolled his window back up, gave Jeff a two-fingered salute, and was gone.

It was amazing to Jeff how much paperwork accumulated during a cover-up. He and Matthew were parked across the street from the Four Treys Tavern in Roscoe Village, waiting to meet up with Fat Monte. They’d made him hours earlier, walking out of his apartment, which was only a few blocks down Damen, and decided to follow. When he ducked into the Four Treys, likely to watch the Packers and 49ers play in the Wild Card game, they decided to let him percolate a bit before they made their move. Besides, they had plenty of reading to do.

“No wonder Stateville is always ankle-deep in problems,” Matthew said. “They’re meticulous in their record keeping of negligence.”

What Dennis gave them wasn’t exactly the Pentagon Papers . In fact, to the layman, most of what he gave them would appear meaningless and mundane. Neto Espinoza was sent directly to Stateville on a parole violation and pending his trial on drug-trafficking charges — he was arrested near the Canadian border with over fifty pounds of heroin hidden under the bed lining of his truck — and was looking at serious time, particularly with the gang enhancement charges saddled on top of everything else.

Normally a person like Neto, with gang affiliations and Family ties, too, would find himself segregated from the general prison population while he awaited his hearing, since the danger level was high. Both the Family and the 2–6 would want to make sure he wasn’t going to snitch, and there was a good chance they’d want retribution for losing so much product, since fifty pounds of heroin was worth a cool million dollars, maybe even more during the colder winter months when distribution slowed down.

On the other end of the spectrum, the state would want to keep Neto segregated for the very hope that he would snitch, a kid like him easy bait for a decent interrogator. That’s how Jeff had found the CI Sal Cupertine killed, after all. And he was sure that if given the chance, he could have turned Neto Espinoza, too, if only he’d been aware of his existence.

All of which made the fact that he was put into the general population exceptionally suspicious. His first cellmate was a career bank robber named Kyle Behen who was also awaiting trial, but he was moved out last April in favor of Thomas “Lemonhead” Nicolino, a career Family member (and, notably, a part of Fat Monte’s crew) whom Bruno himself had dimed out a few years before. Five days later, Neto was dead. Ten days, he’d already been cremated.

The autopsy report came back with huge sums of cocaine and heroin in Neto’s system, enough to cause a perfectly healthy person to die of a heart attack. Problem was, the report also indicated that Neto had injected the drugs.

Into his chest.

Approximately, the report said, thirty-seven times.

Matthew shook his head in disgust and handed the papers to Jeff. “It’s a joke. That’s what that is.”

The autopsy report showed that the “injections” managed to crack Neto’s sternum in five places, not exactly a common self-inflicted wound. Jeff flipped through the stack of papers to see when the autopsy report was filed: June 27, 1998. Nearly three months after Neto’s death and cremation. Just another drug-induced heart attack. No mention of any likely complicity via a third party.

And who was going to complain? Not Neto’s family. Not Neto’s public defender. Certainly not Neto’s coworkers in the Gangster 2–6 or the Family. The benefit of killing someone like Neto Espinoza in prison was that he existed beyond the law; the only people who cared about him were criminals. That was always the challenge when dealing with organized crime: You had to force those who suffered the most — the living — to turn their back on an entire way of life. Jeff thought he’d made some headway with Jennifer Cupertine, but the truth, he realized, was that Jennifer had already turned her back on the Family. That wasn’t the issue. The problem was that she hadn’t turned her back on her husband.

Neto Espinoza was murdered in prison for what he might do or say when he found out his brother, Chema, had been murdered. Simple as that. Jeff didn’t think of Lemonhead Nicolino as the killing type, but who knew anymore. The whole world was a Ponzi scheme.

Matthew cracked the knuckles on his right hand, then his left. Grabbed his chin and popped his neck and shoulders. He shook out his arms and legs, every joint along the way snapping audibly. Jeff watched him for a few seconds, imagined what it would be like to see that running at you on the lacrosse field, holding a stick. It wasn’t that he looked angry, it was that he looked ready to uncoil.

Matthew turned on the radio to check the score of the game. The 49ers were leading the Pack by three with a couple of minutes left. “What do you think?” Matthew said.

“He should be filled with joy right now,” Jeff said. He reached into the glove compartment and pulled out two guns, handed one to Matthew, and stuffed the other in his ankle holster. He didn’t think they’d need to shoot Fat Monte, but it never hurt to be prepared.

“Let me do this one,” Matthew said.

“Are you afraid I might lose it on him?”

“I know you liked Paul Bruno,” Matthew said.

“I still do,” Jeff said.

“Right,” Matthew said. “Let me hook him. If you feel like you need to get into the conversation, feel free, but let me hook him.”

The Four Treys was one of those neighborhood taverns that didn’t seem all that concerned about looking like anything more than a place to get drunk and watch sports. There was a long rectangular bar in the middle of the main room surrounded by brown vinyl high-backed bar stools, a few three-top rounds, and then a larger room with a pool table and space for someone to stand up with a guitar and butcher “American Pie” on Open-Mic Monday nights. Weekends, the place would fill up with twentysomethings who lived close enough to stumble home, softball teams, and the odd bachelor or bachelorette party. Jeff remembered coming here on a date once, even, after a Cubs game, Wrigleyville just a twenty-minute walk away.

It wasn’t the kind of place you expected to run into a Mafia enforcer like Fat Monte, but there he was, sitting by himself at a three-top, a pitcher of beer in front of him, staring at the football game on the big-screen TV, just like the fifty other people in the bar. There was just over two minutes left, and the Packers were driving.

“You mind if we take a seat?” Matthew said.

“Go ahead,” Fat Monte said, without even looking away from the TV. “Favre is going to win this ball game. Unbelievable.” They sat and watched, and sure enough, a few seconds later, Brett Favre threw a looping pass to Antonio Freeman in the end zone. “Cocksucker,” Fat Monte said. He slammed his hand on the table twice. He finally turned and looked at Jeff and Matthew. “Where was the defense?”

“Plenty of time on the clock,” Matthew said.

“49ers can’t beat the Packers. It’s just how it is,” Fat Monte said.

“Gotta admit,” Matthew said, “if Favre were on the Bears, you’d love him.”

“I don’t have to admit shit,” Fat Monte said, though not in a threatening way. Just a couple of guys talking football in a bar. “Favre couldn’t hold Jim McMahon’s dick.”