Chapter #8Mobster Man. by: Unknown Jumper spread some glossy prints in the space between dishes on the table. Lisa looked at the one thrust into her hand. It showed three men standing at the back alley of a restaurant. One tall guy in a black suit had his back turned away from the camera, but the other two were shaking hands. One looked like the chef of the restaurant. The other man was stout and dressed in a white suit which had the front partially open, showing a swamp of chest hair. The man had greased back black hair, a thin mustache, a golden medallion around his neck, and the biggest most ridiculous dark glasses ever.
“Who am I supposed to be looking at?” Lisa asked.
“The bald chef is just Louie Lasagna,” Jumper said with her mouth full, pointing with a chicken bone. She almost left a grease stain on the photo. “This guy is Emilio Gluttanos, Columbian smuggler and dealer.”
“As in drug dealer?”
“You tell me.” Jumper placed another photo in Lisa’s hands. In this one, Emilio was watching Louie and the tall guy unload crates from the back of a black van. “I don’t know what is in those crates, but I do know what Emilio smuggles around. Typically it’s minor contraband items like illegal cigarettes, bootleg, or rare and endangered plants and animals that he sells to the restaurants.”
Tilly reached out across the table. “Ooo, I like this picture.” The three figures were blocked out by a red, shadowy form.
Jumper snatched it out of her hands. “Shut-up! So what if in the heat of excitement I dropped my camera into my takeout pasta?”
“Although he is a criminal, he doesn’t seem to be that bad,” Lisa said.
“I know. He maintains the persona of a small time criminal to hide his major trafficking.” Jumper showed them a stack of documents. “These are building permits for many of the new franchises in the eats. For a man who only lives in South Barkalow two weeks out of the month, Mr. Gluttanos contributes a lot of money to the building of these fine establishments. Because of this, he has been able to set up a system so he can smuggle his big ticket items to through SB to the other parts of the US. He also launders mob money with these area restaurants.”
She presented another photo in front of them. This was a zoom in of one of the crates sitting by a truck. Although the word on the crate was upside-down it was still easy to read. ‘Explosivo’
“You may have already guessed, but that is Portuguese for ‘Explosives.’ I think it was a crate of hand grenades that he was transporting somewhere. And then we have this…”
She removed a vial from her bag and taped out a few crumbs of tan powder onto a napkin. Lisa craned her neck to see. “What is that?”
“I don’t know what it is but this is the closest Emilio gets to actual drug trafficking. I call it ‘Emilio’s Fat Powder.’ It’s an unknown seasoning made by traditional mumbo-jumbo means from wherever he gets the stuff that predates all weight gain powder. It’s very potent and highly addictive. One pound of this stuff can lead to a weight gain of tenfold. The higher ups in this town can’t get enough of it. It’s also used in many of the restaurants in ‘The Eats’.”
Lisa looked down at her sandwich with concern.
“Don’t worry, this place doesn’t use it…yet. I know all the joints that distribute this stuff. My only question is why he would bring something so valuable into the country and then just scatter it like bread crumbs to the birds.”
“Haven’t you told any of this to the police?” Lisa asked.
Jumper crumbled up the napkin and then hid it in her pile of chicken bones and other garbage. “The SBPD is too fat and incompetent to do anything about it,” she snickered. “I just need to get this info out to a third party outside of this town and let them deal with it.”
Tilly elbowed Lisa in the ribs. “I-I’m a reporter,” Lisa stammered.
“I thought so. Tilly said that a reporter was coming through town anyways. If you help me with my investigation, I’ll give you the story of your dreams. How about it?” She stuck out a hand.
Lisa shook it, then winced when she realized that Jumper’s hand was covered in grease.
Jumper stood up from the remains from her dinner. “We’ll, we can start first thing in the morning. Now if you excuse me, I have a hankering for BBQ, Thai, and pasta to fulfill.”
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