“I’m glad to hear that,” Conte says, “because they’re playing kind of rough around here. Did Donnie tell you about they’re blowing guys up here?”

“Forget about it,” Lefty says. “Doesn’t mean shit. They’re blowing guys up because they done something wrong.”

“Yeah, but I wanna make sure I don’t do nothing wrong.”

“You’re not doing nothing wrong.”

“Okay.”

“Let me tell you something,” Lefty says. “Once you start rolling, I’ll be there with you for the first ten days. When I get it set up and I come out to Chicago, you gotta meet the people. Understand? Once I get the proper introduction, I’ll have dinner with you and them. There’s no problem over here. We’re in like Flynn. Put Donnie on the phone.”

I take the phone.

“Donnie,” he says, “he didn’t sound too enthused what we’re doing here. He’s worried about people bombing out there.”

“He’s enthused, but he’s nervous. He doesn’t know what’s going on.”

“I don’t blame him for being nervous,” Lefty says. “But that’s got nothing to do with us. The guy might have been a stool pigeon. The guy could have been anything. Tell him not to worry about anything. And to keep near that beeper, because I might have to reach him anytime now, now things are moving.”

“Donnie, is Tony there with you?”

“Yeah, Lefty.”

“Tell Tony, where’s Rockford?”

“Rockford, Illinois?”

“Yeah. ”

I ask Conte where Rockford is. “He says it’s about ten miles outside of Chicago, Left. Why?”

“Some people are making some phone calls and I got to go out there, to see people out there. They will set up an appointment for me. I gotta wait for a call. He’s gonna make a call to this place Rockford, wherever that is. He’s gonna give my name and when I’m coming out. And I gotta lay the cards on the table what I’m doing there. That’s the whole thing in a nutshell. Mike entertained six of them last week. He didn’t give me the bill. He ain’t worried about it.”

“Everything at Mike’s went all right?”

“Everything is perfect. The guy kissed me on both cheeks. We can do anything. I stood with them about an hour and a half, then I excused myself. Because Mike was still with them. They were bullshitting about old times. Tell Tony to keep near the beeper.”

A guy had a pizza joint next door to Lefty’s social club. Lefty decided he didn’t like him anymore, so he beat him up and threw him off the street. The guy was an ordinary citizen, and he now wanted $2,000 cash for damages. Lefty said if he didn’t come up with the money, the guy would press charges and Lefty could face six months in the can. Mike Sabella thought Lefty should take over the joint and make it his own pizza parlor. Also, Lefty was still getting muscled over the jam his son got into when he tried to rob a guy for diamonds and the guy turned out to be connected. They were leaning on him for $3,500 more.

So, while pushing the matter of the sitdown on Milwaukee, Lefty was poor-mouthing as always.

“Some people wanna meet me tomorrow at Newark Airport,” Lefty told Conte over the phone, never giving Conte as much information as he would give me, his partner. “Here’s the situation now. You see, we’re broke. I have no goddamn money. You understand? Now I got to entertain these people. I ain’t even got a car to get out there tomorrow. And then I gotta come out there where you are by plane. You gotta get me a reservation. Now, I gotta see if I can scheme tomorrow morning for some bread someplace and a car to get there. And when I do come out where you are, you gotta meet me and we’ll go see these people out there, because they’re gonna have to know you better than they know me. Because you’re representing me. Understand?”

“Yeah.”

“But the question is, I got exactly twenty-three bucks in my pocket. How the fuck do I get out there tomorrow?”

“Maybe we could do a car-rental deal,” Conte said, stringing him out.

“This guy tomorrow is giving us names. Bosses. They’re the main guys, you know. They’re looking to help our situation over there. One hand washes the other. I gotta entertain this guy all day. The guy is eighty-one years old. He’s a heavyweight. The guy owns hotels out there at Newark Airport. How do I entertain these people all day with twenty-three bucks?”

“Well, I’ll have to send you some bread,” Conte says finally.

“Yeah, but I’m embarrassed because Donnie says you don’t feel too enthused about all this here, how we’re breaking our ass over here.”

“Hey, I never said I wasn’t enthused. Certainly I’m enthused.” “

“Let me tell you something. That’s why I got mad at Donnie. Guy’s a jerk-off. Says you weren’t enthused. I says, ‘Don’t you think he’s gonna meet these people?’ Because when you see these people, forget about it. And you’re gonna sit down with these people with me.”

“I don’t want nothing to happen to me,” Conte says. “I do what you tell me, right?”

“Right. There’s no problem. Where is Donnie now?”

“He’s out.”

“I don’t understand this frigging guy. He’s out. See, the question is, if Donnie wasn’t gonna do nothing out there with you, he shoulda been in with me. Now he could run around with me. But here I’m stranded by myself.” “

“I’ll send you a grand in the morning, Western Union.”

“Make it as early as possible. And tell that guy Donnie not to do nothing but stay by you. I will definitely have to come right out there after I see these people tomorrow. You’re gonna sit down with these people and me. We’re gonna entertain them people, you and I and Donnie. Take them to dinner. We’ll get everything straight. And everything that you listen to, you know from the ground floor in. Everything that’s going on. And we got no problem. You stay by that beep. The first beep you get from New York, I’ll tell you what plane I’m taking and everything.”

The man he was to meet at a motel near Newark Airport was Tony Riela, an aging Bonanno captain with contacts to Chicago. It was Riela that had kissed him on both cheeks at CaSa Bella. The understanding was, Riela would make the calls to Chicago to set up a meeting. The Chicago people would call people in Rockford. And those people would make the introductions to Balistrieri in Milwaukee.

Lefty had a successful meeting in Newark. The day after, he called to announce that he was coming to Milwaukee for the sitdown. It was now July 24. More than a month had gone by so far in arranging for the meet. He gave Conte the flight information and told him to write it all down. “Get me that same room in that same Best Western, right? Them people come from right in that town. I’ll explain everything when I see you. Where’s Donnie?”

Conte hands me the phone.

“He wrote everything down?” Lefty says.

“Yeah, he got it all.”

“Listen to me carefully.”

“I’m listening.”

“Don’t let it go any further.”

“Okay.”

“I got me a sitdown with the two main guys in that town where you are now. I can’t get no names until I get out there. When I get there, I gotta make a phone call back into New York at six o‘clock, tell them where I am, what room number. They call the Chicago guy. He’s gonna come and pick me up. They’re gonna take me away. They’re gonna talk to me. And they’re gonna check this guy out completely.”

“Okay.”

“I hope he’s all right.”

“Yeah, Tony’s all right.”

“I mean, I don’t wanna get him scared by saying that, and I representing him.”

“Right.”

“They wanted to know if he was a local guy. I said, definitely a local guy.”

“Yeah.”

“Now, once they call me, I’ll be on standby there. When I call New York and they call back, it might take a day, might take two hours. In other words, I cannot move away from that room. We’ll have to eat and drink and sleep there. Understand?”

“Yeah, we wait.”

“They’ll send representatives down to pick me up and they’ll take me to go with these people. We all go—me, you, and him. But I go into a separate room with them for the first conversation at the table. I represent the situation. They cause him a table. When everything is all right, then I call him in, I introduce them after the first conversation.”