Page 38 of Princess's Revenge

More importantly, I don’t want anyone recognizing us on Cassaduchi turf.

I drive to the north side of town and cruise the streets patiently while Andrea changes the radio stations, alternating between music, news and traffic reports.

I don’t feel good about this at all. In fact—I’m hoping she’ll change her mind.Any way you look at it, this is bad news. If I’m seen, this could mean a death sentence for all of us.

It could mean instant war.

Andrea squeezes my thigh and pulls me out of my reverie, “You alright?”

“Yeah,” I nod, “just thinking.”

“About?”

“Nothing.”

There’s a long pause, then she says, “We’re not backing out of this,” and glares at me like a school teacher. “Now, what’s all this driving around in circles for?”

“This is their neighborhood—The Cassaduchis.I know some of the mid-level guys, not all, but some. I know where wemightfind some capos, but that’s not mid-level and we definitely don’t want to do that.”

“So?”

“So, some of these businesses—the laundromat, the massage parlor, the dry cleaner, the pizza parlor, they’ll be paying protection money.”

She looks at me sideways, “And?”

“And when we spot someone I recognize going in to make their collections, we can wait for him to come out and make an example of him.”

“I see.”

I shake my head, “This isn’t going to be easy, Andrea. He’ll park at the curb in full view of everybody. It’s daytime. He’ll walk in and walk out. I don’t know how you plan on killing the guy without anyone noticing you.”

I see her purse her lips, “You do your job, I’ll do mine.”

I find myself shaking my head again. “This is a bad idea.”

Andrea is silent. Hopefully she’s reconsidering.

After a while she turns to me with curious look, “What’s the point of shaking down a tiny-ass pizza parlor? They probably don’t even make more than a few hundred a day.”

Smart girl.“There are other ways you can pay. Sometimes we don’ttaketheir money, wegivethem money in exchange for a service.”

“Like?”

“A pizza parlor is a cash business. We have certain funds we can’t declare. A cash business is great to launder money. We give them the cash, they inflate the revenue on their books, then they can bank the money and become a silent partner in a legitimate business for us.”

“Then why not go full legit?”

“Because that new business will always be shown as running at a loss. We don’t want to pay capital gains tax. It’ll be a bar or a club or something. You need a liquor license so the IRS wants to keep tabs on you.”

“I see,” she nods thoughtfully.

“We’ll pay more salaries than we need to. We’ll buy more booze than we sell and declare the excess aspersonal use.So, that bar or club is where we get our free liquor. The cash we get from the patrons can go directly into our pockets or another business.”

She smiles at me, “You are an incredibly smart young man, Francis!”

I laugh, “I didn’t come up with this, it’s just how it’s done.”

“Nonetheless,” she pats my thigh. “Hey, how do the guys make their collections?”

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