Nino Marchesi: A Short Story Of The Gilded Cage

There was a time, maybe a couple of years ago now, when the name 'Nino Marchesi' could have been heard in the Gilded Cage. Not up in the front of the house, of course, where Vinnie's beloved girl sang her songs and customers put out hard-earned dollars that would end up in the coffers of the mob. No. Instead Nino's name was reserved for the back rooms and only a select few lips. Vinnie would light up a nice, fat cigar and take a few puffs on it while letting the smoke drift around under the lights of that dark back office. Then he'd tap out the ashes and mention a 'problem' he's been having to this Consigliere across the desk from him. Say, for instance, some nobody mick was running illegal booze into the city for some clubs in Vinnie's territory and hurting his monthly take. He'd say how it sure would be a fine thing if a kindhearted citizen did something about all that illegal …show more content…
It'd catch light. And there would be a long trail of blood in the sand leading to some blubbering kid in a suit he sure as hell didn't pay for himself, laying face down in the sand, and with a pair of bullet holes drilled into his back that the coroner would get paid not to notice. A Capo would get a phone call, the Consigliere would get called by the Capo, and then the next day Nino would find an envelope almost too thick for his mail slot pushed through his dingy old apartment door. Except maybe that wasn't a 'nobody' dead on the side of the road. Maybe that was a boy by the name of Sean Donaghue - the youngest son of 'Big Ox' Donaghue, the head of the Irish mob that had been trying to strike a deal in the booze trade with Vinnie's gang. Suddenly word gets out that it was an Italian-looking man who killed his son. Maybe one who got paid. Then a year's worth of deals and negotiations are in jeopardy of going down the drain with all the blood from the gang war that is sure to break out if something isn't done to alleviate the