Elizabeth Street Part 39

This is it. Here's the final payment. I want my daughter returned immediately. If you delay, next it is your coglioni. coglioni. They'll start to itch, blister, and fall off. They'll start to itch, blister, and fall off.

Giovanna allowed Rocco to take the final payment to the arranged spot in the dumbwaiter at 304 Elizabeth Street.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1909.

A loud rap at the door startled Giovanna. It was them. It had to be them. She flung the door open. Instead, she looked into the faces of two even more startled settlement workers.

"Buon giorno, signora. Many people in this area are getting consumption and we have come to teach your family how to avoid becoming ill..."

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1909.

When Giovanna returned home from buying bread, there was another booklet about consumption in front of the door. She picked it up with difficulty because Anthony was in the sling at her chest. Inside, as she tossed it into a pile of papers to be burned, a note fell out.

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In seconds, Giovanna was in Inzerillo's cafe, the gun in her waistband at the ready.

"We need to talk!" ordered Giovanna, walking into the back room without stopping.

Closing the door, Inzerillo hissed, "What do you mean coming in here this way for all to see!"

Giovanna grabbed the gun and put it to Inzerillo's head. "Is it better they see you dead?"

"Signora! Put that away."

"Not until you sit down and listen," she said, locking the door.

"Okay, I will listen."

"Read this," she ordered, thrusting the note in his hands.

Inzerillo read it. "I agree this is most unfortunate."

"It's more than unfortunate, you crook. It's suicide. I know now they are playing with me, and I am done playing. Here's your message, disgraziato." Giovanna felt liberated by dropping all pretense with Inzerillo. "My daughter is to be delivered safe and unharmed to me immediately. If not, letters will be sent to the police and newspapers. These letters will give evidence that Lupo and his gang were involved in the Bank Pati bombing and the kidnapping and murder of Mario Palermo. They will tell how Leo took money from Edwin Reese for the elections, and, finally, they will have evidence of Lupo's counterfeiting. If anything happens to my daughter, to me, or to anyone in my family, people unknown to you have been told to deliver the letters."

Inzerillo remained seated and silent. The only sound was Giovanna's labored breathing. Eventually, Inzerillo said, "That is quite a message, signora."

"That's only the half of it. You'll all be braying at the moon in jail with the curse of the malocchio. Lupo thinks he can cast the evil eye? He'll learn what a midwife can do!"

"Signora, because you are so upset, I am going to ignore the fact that you keep implicating Lupo and me in this crime. We have not touched your daughter. But because I am a man of honor, I will deliver your message and use my influence to see that your daughter is returned immediately."

"I want word by tomorrow. If not, the letters will be sent and the curses cast."

"How much longer do we have to keep her?" nagged the older Gallucci brother's wife.

"There is nothing out here. We're going crazy," chimed in the younger woman.

"Shut up!" yelled the older of the two kidnappers.

"Shhh, someone's at the door," whispered his brother.

The older brother drew his gun and motioned their wives and children into the bedroom. The younger brother, gun also drawn, opened the door.

"Lupo! Pietro!" Putting his gun away, the younger brother said, "We didn't know you were coming."

The older brother lowered his gun but kept it in his hand, saying skeptically, "It's dangerous for you to be here."

"Dangerous? What's dangerous is trusting you," growled Lupo, barging through the door.

"Lupo, what are you talking about?" asked the younger brother in a panic.

When Lupo and Inzerillo seated themselves at the table, the brothers calmed down.

"What's going on?" asked the older brother.

"That's what we came here to find out," answered Inzerillo. "It seems that the fruit seller's wife knows more than she should."

"We told Leo! After she grabbed me in the church, we told Leo to tell you everything she said, but Leo thought you'd be angry we were followed," whined the younger brother.

"Grabbed you in the church..." repeated Inzerillo.

"And Lupo, she's a witch! She gave me the rash that caused these scars. My brother too!"

Seeing Lupo's disgusted expression, the older brother retrieved Giovanna's notes. "Every time she sent money, she sent letters. We have them here," he said, handing them to Lupo, who pa.s.sed them to Inzerillo without looking at them.

While Inzerillo read the notes, Lupo interrogated the men, ending with, "So, what did you do for Edwin Reese?"

"We don't know an Edwin Reese. The first time we saw his name was in the witch woman's letter. We asked Leo, but he said she was crazy."

"s.h.i.+t for brains. s.h.i.+t for brains," muttered Lupo.

"So what do you want us to do, Lupo?" asked the younger brother. "If she knows so much, do we kill them both right away?"

"You'd have to kill the entire family. Others too."

"Is that what you want?"

"No, you idiots, that's not what I want. I just got out of jail. The feds are watching me. It took four hours to get here. I don't need dead bodies and letters pointing to me."

"Lupo, this has been going on a while," reported Inzerillo, handing Lupo the notes from Giovanna.

Standing up to face the brothers, Lupo ordered, "The kid is going back. Don't shave, and wait for instructions."

Angelina, hearing the men call someone Lupo, decided that the wolf had come for her. She was too tired to be afraid, and instead, unconsciously, she scratched an L L on her leg over and over till it bled. Seeing the blood-red on her leg over and over till it bled. Seeing the blood-red L L, she wished she knew how to spell because then, when they found her, they would know who had killed her.

"Leo, I give you a job, and it's not enough that you f.u.c.k it up so bad. Who's Edwin Reese, Leo?

"Lupo, I got your share right here!" sputtered Leo, trying to break free of Tommaso the Bull's grip on him.

"Leo, you do a couple of kidnappings and you think you're a big man. You move in on election money."

"I told you, Lupo, I got the money for you."

"I don't like not knowing things, Leo."

"Lupo, I was doing you a favor..."

"You're trading on my name, Leo. Do you think those politicians would have anything to do with you if you weren't working for Lupo?"

"Of course not, Lupo. Lupo, tell Tommaso to let me go and I'll show you the money."

Lupo nodded to Tommaso, who kept his eye on Leo as he went to his jacket.

Pulling out an envelope, he handed it to Lupo. "Here. There's sixteen hundred dollars in ransom money. And Lupo, that family didn't have a stack of money somewhere. I found out they're waiting for another payment. Because of me, we got that much," bragged Leo. "And here," he continued, taking out another envelope from his jacket, "seven hundred dollars for getting out the vote."

Lupo took the money from the envelopes and fanned it in front of his face. "You know, Leo, that's lots of exposure for a little over two grand. Sloppy, very sloppy."

"Lupo, I know things didn't go perfect. But you gave me two idiot greenhorns!"

"I want you to return the kid. Deliver a letter right away telling them the girl will be back within the week. After you deliver her, tell the Gallucci brothers to clean the place out. No clues. Give them this," Lupo peeled off bills totaling three hundred dollars, "and tell them to go to Chicago. I never want to see them again."

"With pleasure," smirked Leo.

"I'll settle with you when the kid is returned. Now get out of here."

When Leo left, Lupo gave orders to Tommaso. "When the kid's returned, make sure it's common knowledge that Leo did the job, and then make him disappear for good."

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1909.

The note was slipped under their door while they were sleeping.

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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1909.

"A week! Why a week?" questioned Giovanna of Inzerillo in his back room.

"You're a formidable foe, signora. They have to be sure that they won't be ambushed by the police or greeted with one of your curses."

"If they are playing with me, signore, even your family will not be safe."

"Enough with the threats, signora. I give you my word that your daughter will be returned within the week."

"Your word." Giovanna stopped herself from spitting.

SAt.u.r.dAY, DECEMBER 4, 1909.

Scratching the scab of the L L, Angelina watched the blood trickle down her leg. She scratched off another scab and watched that rivulet join in with the first at her ankle. Stretching out her other leg, she scratched scabs off her thighs and held imaginary races to see which line of blood would reach the floor first.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1909.