[Note, I decided to make several revisions since the first time it was uploaded.]
Cassandra, Vito and Burke. All three of Lincoln Clay's top lieutenants were waiting for him at the long abandoned Eaglehurst Plantation for a final sitdown where they would discuss what to do next. When he finally arrived Lincoln entered the room, completely unarmed which was rather unusual for him, but ready to discuss what to do next.
"Sal and Giorgi are gone. And after all the shit we've been through... We run this city," he told his partners in crime who were all pleased to hear it.
"After all the bullshit, it's almost impossible for me to wrap my brain around the fact that we actually did it. You're a fucking Saint, Lincoln. And I'm honored to know you," Vito replied.
"We're not here 'cause of what I did, or 'cause of what any of y'all did. We're here because we stood together..." he paused.
"Aye we did, lad," Burke replied.
"Hell yeah! This city is ours now, we control everything," Cassandra replied.
At that moment police sirens could be heard in the background. Nobody paid any attention to it at first as this was common in both the city and the bayou.
"We all got screwed over by Marcano, big time, Burke here probably the most..." Lincoln continued as the sound of sirens drew ever closer making the three lieutenants a bit nervous, "...but this life we lead, it ain't worth, man. How many lives did we ruin to get to this point?"
"Lincoln you outta your mind, what the hell is you saying? We won," Cassandra asked.
"Hey, I think I hear sirens getting closer, maybe we should talk about this anoth..." Vito said never getting to finish his sentence as he was rudely interrupted by the sound of a helicopter above the building and a flash of light blinding him for a second though the windows and the cracks in the wall of the old building.
"Lincoln, what the hell is going on?" Burke asked in anger, ready to pull out a gun on Lincoln.
Lincoln didn't reply.
"Hey, kid, snap out of it, we made it this far! No pigs are taking us down today!" Vito urged him.
Lincoln still stayed silent. He just got off the chair, got down on his knees and put his hands above his head anticipating what was about to come.
"It ain't personal," were his last words moments right before a SWAT team stormed the building. Cassandra was quickly subdued as she was closest to the door. Vito tried to flee but was quickly put up against the wall and handcuffed. Lincoln was arrested as well with no incident. Burke managed to flee to the other room, but with no other way out he came back with a weapon in his hand.
"Drop the gun now, Burke!" one of the officers warned him.
"Ha, the fine gentleman with the uniform here already knows who I am... You lead them here, lad, after all we've been through. Together. How could ya do this to us?"
"It this true, Lincoln?" Vito asked, refusing to believe it.
"Like I said, it ain't personal. If it was, y'all would be dead by now. I am giving you a chance at redemption in this life."
"Redemption? Redemption!? My son died because of me," Burke replied as he broke down in tears.
"Drop the weapon now!" the officer insisted.
"Burke, listen to the man. Drop it!" Lincoln insisted as well, "you don't need to do this, think about your daughter. Think!"
Eventually Burke complied and was also quietly taken in custody without further incidents. He would however cry all the way to the station. All three of Lincoln's underbosses were taken to the back of a paddy wagon. Lincoln was taken to the back of an unmarked police vehicle.
"Lincoln, you double crossing piece of shit! You rat! You'll be dealt with for this! You think this ends here? You don't even know who the fuck you're dealing with!" Vito shouted and struggle, only the more he struggled the more abusive the cops acted towards him. He hadn't felt this much anger since his first month in federal prison 22 years ago. He would kill them all, only this time they had the upper hand.
Cassandra decided to play smart. She'd come peacefully, stay silent and get a lawyer. Many defense attorneys at the time were dying to make a name for themselves and take on the case of a colored female wrongly accused of a crime and mistreated by a racist police while in custody.
In the end though, none of it would ever do either of the three any good.
Decades later...
Excerpt from the Lincoln Clay documentary...
After he killed Sal Marcano, Lincoln Clay took over, but... it was only a brief tenure. Feeling remorse over his criminal activities he decided to turn himself in to the FBI and cut a plea deal. The FBI would wire him up and he would expose the identity of his top lieutenants and their involvement in the matter. Lincoln would also agree to plead guilty to a mere five counts of involuntary manslaughter and nothing else in exchange for information that would break up the criminal enterprise that he had just taken over.
This was quite possibly an unprecedented case in the history of law enforcement anywhere, an entire network of crime brought down from the very top rather than the bottom, normally we have trouble getting the lower ranking criminals to talk, but Lincoln deliberately caused the implosion of his own organization despite there being no personal gain to it all.
Lincoln Clay was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, but was paroled after serving 4. I am afraid I do not know what happened to him after his release nor would I be at liberty to say if I knew due to the protocols of the witness protection program, although I can assure you that these programs have been reformed and improved drastically since the assassination of Thomas Angelo in 1951 at the hands of the remnants of Salieri's crime family. Frankly his sentence was a travesty of justice considering the horrible things he did, but we did manage to obtain substantial convictions. All three of his lieutenants were sentenced to life without parole. Burke died within months of his conviction as by that point his body was already riddled with cancer. Given the quality of the healthcare system in the 60's, I doubt he could have done anything different outside of prison, but he did live long enough to make sure his daughter wouldn't get implicated in any of the crimes. Scaletta died in prison in the 1998 from natural causes, leaving Cassandra the only survivor of the trio. She is currently locked up in the female wing of the supermax ADX Florence due to several attempted escapes over the years. She stays 23 hours a day in solitary confinement and is not allowed to send or receive communication, nor to be visited. In total 231 people were convicted, 54 of which got the death penalty and the shortest sentence was 10 years, Clay's sentence. I can only hope he straigthened up and put that life behind him for good.
New Bordeaux however did not last long free of organized crime. Within a year a man going by the alias of Thomas Walters took over and he was later revealed to be none other than Joe Barbaro, an old associate of Vito's long believed to be dead. Barbaro ran the city for two decades until he was arrested over a couple of clumsy mistakes however he got out on bail and disappeared again before the trial. Since then, the city has been in constant gang warfare with no particularly party claiming dominance.
As for the involvement of ex-CIA agent John Donovan in Lincoln's crusade against the mafia... I'm afraid that's also classified.
- Johnathan Maguire, Retired Federal Agent
In the end Lincoln made the right decision, turning away from the dark path he was on. You know, I think he may have learned to accept the world for what it is and his place in it, take responsibility for his actions, carve a righteous path. We kept in touch, used to get postcards from in while he was incarcerated. Then... uh... the postcards stopped. Heard he had taken on a new identity. I can only hope he's doing okay in whatever program the feds have for him. And that he found meaningful employment and a good woman to settle down with. Is all I gotta say. (He concluded with a tear in his eye.)
- Father James, Retired Priest
(The agent smiled for second.) You know, Father James speculated that Lincoln is probably half-Italian, well one of the peculiar things about this case is that the manhunt for Joe Barbaro, who in all likely hood is probably dead by now given what year we're in, inadvertently revealed some pretty interesting facts about Lincoln Clay himself. Barbaro is Lincoln's father. Neither of them knew this and back then there was no DNA testing available. Looking back at it now it kinda makes sense. Joe had a thing for loose women and lived about 5 or 6 years in New Bordeaux starting with 1945 while hiding from Clemente. Lincoln was born around that time, sure the birth certificate says January 1945 but to tell you the truth, nobody knows for certain what date Clay was born on. The paperwork didn't even exist until 1947 when he became a ward of the state, social workers most likely filled in a random date.
What a world... Just like I've always said, part of fixing the crime epidemic is fixing fatherlessness.
- Johnathan Maguire, Retired Federal Agent
2016 - Present
Lincoln Clay, now an old man known as Mr. Harold Davis sat on the front porch of his home in Arizona, just smoking a cigarette and staring the sky.
A suspicious looking sedan pulled over across the street. Two men, probably late 30's or early 40's got out of the car and walked over to him. Lincoln saw them but pretended to ignore them.
"Mr. Clay?" one of the men asked.
"Mr. who? You got the wrong place, boys, I'm Harold Davis," Lincoln replied very calmly.
"Nice try, but not good enough. Mr. Scaletta and Mr. Galante send their regards, Mr. 'Davis'."
The other man revealed a gun hiding under his coat, but hesitated to shoot still not seeing any reaction of panic or fear in Clay's face. That never happened before and that wasn't a good sign.
Then Lincoln spoke.
"I bet you're wondering, why am I not reacting? Is it because I'm playing a mind trick on you or is it because I have the right guarantees to fuck you over even if you kill me? Neither. It's because you already lost. Five decades too late. I'm dying. Cancer. Y'all lost. Do what you gotta do."
The hitman wasn't entirely convinced until Lincoln started coughing up blood.
"Do it!" Lincoln insisted.
Bang...
The two men stayed almost completely silent all the way back to their boss. With one exception.
"Not one word about this, you hear me? Not. One. Word. Roberto is angry enough that we couldn't find this guy over a decade ago."
"Agreed," his partner replied.
"Just let me do the talking."