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EXCERPT:
The two men stood at the edge of the Pauline Street Wharf and watched as the chest made of pure cedar drifted slowly downward into the Mississippi River.  “How long you think it’ll take ‘til it’s out in the Gulf?”  “About half a day, if it even gets that far.”  The two men laughed as they watched the cedar chest disappear from their sight as it was swallowed up by the murky waters of the Mississippi River. 

They looked around them.  It was just after midnight.  They headed back to the warehouse where the Giaconi Cedar Furniture was made.  “Lucian will be pleased,” Johnny said.  “Yes, yes he will be,” Sammy agreed.  Sammy “the snake” Malini and Johnny “JoJo” Galioso had worked for Lucian Giaconi since they were in their teens.  They had first worked for the old man, Lucian, Sr., and now they worked for his son, Lucian, Jr.  They didn’t think that the son could possibly be more ruthless than the old man, but time had proven them wrong, very wrong.

******

Rick Mason had been working for years to get close to the Giaconi family, and now he had located the city of its elusive boss.  It was New Orleans, not Chicago, as he had once thought.  Chicago had been a decoy set up very carefully by the owners of Giaconi Pizza.  The two families were connected somehow, but Rick didn’t know exactly how, yet.  He suspected that this Lucian Giaconi was the head of both; that they were really just one family, and not two, which was originally suspected among the Feds.  Rick Mason had studied the intricacies of organized crime for years, and he knew very well how their cover-ups worked.  The idea was to keep as many layers between the head of the family, the boss, and the actual crimes committed as they possibly could.  Let the lowest layer do the dirty work, and it kept the focus off of the top.  That way, the family’s business was not disturbed, and could continue uninterrupted.  Rick had also watched Jeff as he walked to his car after leaving the warehouse.  He had gotten a good look at him and had also gotten an image of him with his digital equipment especially made for night imaging.  “Well, that’s a start,” he said aloud.