And all Eli had wanted was information.
The Fianzo Family had long controlled the Red Hook docks, where they were beneficiaries of a cut of anything unloaded there. Saul was startled to learn this included the Colicchio imports—olive oil and wine, the finest cheeses, things that were forbidden during the war and remained prohibitively expensive to import via legitimate channels after the war was over. The docks also gave the Fianzo Family easy access to shipping channels, allowing them to get anyone or anything they wanted in or out of New York. After World War I, the Fianzos had been quietly renowned for their gunrunning operation. The docks allowed them to conceal crates of army surplus artillery on their way to somewhere else. The docks allowed them to spirit Lorenzo Fianzo, Tommy Sr.’s brother, back to Sicily when the Bureau of Investigation caught on. The docks gave the Fianzos steady income, as the unions designed to protect the longshoremen became incubators for corruption and extortion.
Eli Leibovich wanted control of those docks.
Saul started paying more attention to his and Joey’s monthly meetings with Tommy Fianzo. On his way into the building he would count the men he saw posted casually around—two smoking outside the front, one standing in front of Tommy’s office door. Once he got home he would scribble down every detail he could remember. Different men in front this week but same guard in front of T.F.’s door. Office window has clear view west but obstructed by stack of shipping crates to the southwest. If occasionally a flicker of guilt arose—Joey’s face, offering Saul wisdom, a job, his daughter’s hand in marriage; or Sofia, wide-eyed and beaming on the day Julia was born; or Julia herself, the warm, savage heart of her, exploding across the living room to hug Saul when he got home—Saul tamped it down, reminding himself that the Fianzos were villains for the Colicchio Family too. I’m helping them. He can almost convince himself.
Of course, Saul’s new side job doesn’t just put him at risk. It risks destabilizing the peace Joey Colicchio has upheld since 1930. It risks starting a lethal turf war between Eli Leibovich and the Sicilian Families. It risks the very lives of everyone Saul loves.
Each month, Eli Leibovich receives Saul’s scraps of information warmly, invites him for supper. At first, Saul declined; it felt unsafe, it felt disloyal. But curiosity and Eli’s genuine charm won out. Eli’s mother, who now lives in her own wing of Eli’s sprawling apartment, hugged Saul the first time she met him. A beautiful boy, she called him, and Saul blanched and felt his heart and his stomach switch places; such was the power of being hugged by a mother who shares some inarticulable spirit with his own mother.
How simple family seems, from the outside. How desperate Saul becomes about the state of his own.
* * *
—
At home, Saul has started picking fights. Small ones, about Sofia’s work hours. Julia’s puzzles and playing cards, crusted in sugar or snot, abandoned on the living room rug. Why can’t we eat together like a normal family? he asks one evening, sharp and dismayed. Julia, reading at the table as she balances steamed carrot slices on her fork, and Sofia, who has just run in, late again, look at Saul in surprise. Sorry, they say, which is unusual, because both of them are fighters, and Saul wonders what is so unstable about him that he has surprised them into apology. I made chicken, he says, by way of explanation. It gets cold.
* * *
—
Tonight, when Saul reaches the pay phone, he very consciously stands up straight and strides into the stall and pulls the sliding door shut behind him. The booth smells like hot trash and concrete. Saul pulls out his handkerchief and wipes the earpiece of the phone before sliding his dimes into the slot and dialing.
“Eli Leibovich,” Eli says as he answers.
“It’s me,” says Saul.
“Saul! Right on time. Any news?”
“Nothing much this month. I’m sorry. You know, I’m not even sure they have plans for expansion right now.” Saul can feel his usefulness ebbing. There is little he can pass along to Eli, other than the small details he can catalogue as he walks up the stairs to the Fianzo office and then back down.
“Everyone has plans for expansion, Saul,” says Eli. “It’s human nature.” And then, “Tell you what: meet me for a drink this evening.”
Saul is due at home. Sofia will notice if he’s gone, and she might mention it to Rosa, or Joey. She might mention it to Antonia, who might mention it to Paolo, whose friendship with Saul has deteriorated over the last year along with his mental health and his own marriage. Paolo, who wanted so much more than his desk job.