"I knew it!"
Steve couldn't hide a smile when he saw his partner get off the edge of his desk and come closer.
"How do they figure into all this?"
Noting the return of the typical Mike Stone bloodhound intuition, Steve handed the Teledex printout over to his partner, only to watch him put on his black-rimmed reading glasses.
"The Nuygen's are part of the Vietnamese Tong, and were just beginning to get established in Lower Manhattan. Our killer took out their two most powerful leaders and that seemed to have scared the rest of them enough to scatter and disappear. Lt. Woods says they traced members of the Zaputto's into the Midwest and believes they're trying to recreate their stronghold on drugs in the Chicago area. Which leaves us with our buddies from the Scalino clan."
Looking at the sketch drawing of the different mob districts scattered throughout the New York Metro area, as well as the last names listed below, Mike frowned.
"That doesn't make sense. The Scalino's have always been in San Francisco. What was Mario doing in New York? He's has his dirty fingers in every part of organized crime in this town as it is. Don't tell me he's been running his business on either side of this country?"
"Not Mario.", Steve said triumphantly and gestured at the globe on Mike's file cabinet, circling both ends of the north American continent with his index finger, "Gino and his cousin Sal. Turns out that for a couple of years now, Gino had focused increasingly on moving a lot of his business over to the east side. Maybe the family grew a little too big here in San Francisco. Or the Scalino's tried to grow their overall territory."
"I thought Frankie Scalino was an only child. Where does this cousin Sal fit into our picture?"
"I knew you'd ask that.", Steve said gleefully and crossed his arms, "That's because Sal isn't his biological cousin. Lt. Woods said that Gino sort of adopted him into the family, which caused quite the turmoil within the Scalino house. Because Sal's legal name is Salvadore Rossi. And the Scalinos have looked down onto the Rossi's for a long, long time. To them, they're scum. And now guess who was the first murder victim?"
Mike drew in a deep breath when the realization hit him, but remained quiet for his partner to finish talking.
"See, I didn't put the dots together until I asked which drug market Gino was specializing in and Lt. Woods said that their records indicate PCP. On the other side, the Rossi's were heavily involved in Heroin and Crack. What better way to expand the market than to merge houses. This way the enemy of his enemy became his friend. By merging the two families, it would have given both of them most of the NY area to play in. None of the other mobs were nearly as powerful. Except, somebody didn't want for that to happen."
"Ok, Buddy Boy, so let's assume good old Frankie Scalino decided to grow his influence, and sends his older son to New York for a little while to feel out the area, maybe create a foothold. Gino gets into hot water when his family finds out that he's merged houses with one of the Rossi's. Maybe he ordered his other son Mario to bring him back to his senses a bit. But Mario is too power-hungry for that. So he decides to kill his brother instead, which would give him the full inheritance once Frankie dies. To keep his hands clean, he hires this Russian hitman to carry out the murder and clean the east side a bit along the way. But Gino gets away and comes back here, where our hitman catches up with him and kills him. Now Mario begins to enjoy the taste of blood and decides to have him do more of the dirty work for him and further expand his influence. Maybe he found out about Barbarino being a double agent for DeSoto, so he decides to have both of them murdered, which gives him free reign over the drug market of Embarcadero district."
"Which gives Mario Scalino both; the motive…and the opportunity."
"You did some pretty good thinking for an old man.", Mike teased and patted his partner's cheek. Steve flashed a brief smile but then his expression turned serious again.
"One thing still doesn't figure. Why all the killings in New York, when our hitman was after Gino and his newfound family? Could it be Mario trying to clear the path for him to take over the East side? It would be hard for him to run the ship on both sides of the country."
"I think it's time we ask him about that. Come on, let's go Buddy Boy."