Kenosha Chief of Police Israel Duke ambulated out of the Racine City Hall with pep. He was thinking of his future; a permanent vacation to Hawaii with his wife and children, where he could finally never be bothered by those bastards in the Chamber of Commerce, demanding they be given a reason for the money coming through waste management. All so tiring since Daley was kicked off in Bronzeville. He was told to walk to the back of the building to collect the cash, which he did gaily. A cagy-looking soldier stood in the alley with two massive duffel bags. He giggled and grabbed them from the man and ran off to his escort bus, adjoined by his cadre of suits who would handle all the confusing paperwork.Two-hundred-and-fifty million dollars in these two bags. What an amount!

“He did what?”

The shadowy man spoke with elegance not common to the average Chicagoan. He smoked a cigar while leaning back in his eames chair, frustrated at the meek voice on the other end of the line. He grimaced and slammed the phone down after hearing what was said in full. The man took a long puff from his cigar and gestured towards his compatriot standing in the doorframe, hands clasped.

“C’mere.” The shadowy man leaned in. “I want you to tell those fucks at the commerce building that they need to pull their shit together. Tell Stew to ring up Bobby J. and have our boys in blue refuse Follette’s demand to leave Kenosha, and to tell Follette that he’s a fool for agreeing to any kind of arrangement as asinine as what Duke just did.”

The capo nodded.

“I will not stand to see one goddamn greencoat so much as step foot in that city. Kenosha means too much for us to lose without recompense. Capice?”

“Capice, boss.”

Cold winter night fell on 56th street. Duke had just made it home from a long day of negotiation and celebratory drinking. He wondered woozily if any planes left Chicago for Hawaii at five-thirty in the morning, assuming he could get his wife and kids up and to the airport in a half hour. Maybe, he thought, but I need some shut-eye first. He had almost made it to the top of the porch drunkenly carrying the two large sacks of money before a man emerged from the snowy twilight, and shot Duke twice. The assassin swiped the bags of money from Duke’s lifeless hands and ran off, never to be identified.

[ALL ESTABLISHING AGREEMENTS MADE BY DUKE WITH WISCONSIN ARE NULLIFIED. CHICAGO RETAINS THE 250 MILLION DOLLARS GIVEN TO DUKE.]