Breach of Trust

47

Last night, I’d only known two things-Starlight had leapfrogged Bert Wozniak’s company for a big project, and Starlight was being given a pass by Charlie in our shakedown scheme. Now I knew more. Joey Espinoza’s brother-in-law was the owner of Starlight. And that brought back this little tidbit from the first time I visited Charlie’s office back in December, when I passed by her office: Joey Espinoza’s wife was on Charlie’s payroll.

And now I knew how sensitive a thing it was for Charlie. Raising the topic with him almost cost me everything.

Here was how I figured it. Joey wanted his brother-in-law’s company to get the sweetheart state contract. He talked to Charlie. They probably cut a deal. The PCB does what it does, manufacturing a reason why the lowest bidder-Adalbert Wozniak’s company-isn’t qualified. Voila, Starlight gets the contract. Wozniak feels cheated. He starts making some noise. He even goes to the state’s inspector general to complain. It comes back to Charlie. He and Joey decide that Wozniak has to be silenced. Especially because, at this point, Joey is already securely in the grasp of the federal government. They’ve already sunk their hooks into him. The absolute last thing Joey needs is more trouble. So Charlie handles the details. Wozniak is gunned down. It looks like one of those gang things that happen far too often. A tragic, senseless loss. An unsolved murder. Terrible, but not unusual, not in the part of town where Wozniak had his offices.

Only there’s a problem: The murder is pinned on a teenage member of the Columbus Street Cannibals, the same gang that Joey Espinoza has been tied in to. The heat actually turns up on Joey. So Charlie does what he can to keep Joey from singing about the Wozniak shooting, and the Starlight Catering deal, to the feds. I’ll hire your wife while you’re inside, he tells him. Maybe he offers to cover Joey’s mortgage, too. Maybe a job afterward. Joey won’t lose his house or his wife while he’s serving time. Probably other promises are made, too. Whatever it takes, to keep Joey quiet from his new federal friends.

Damage control.

Adalbert Wozniak wasn’t murdered because he refused to pay the Cannibals’ extortion demands. He was gunned down because he was about to expose a pay-to-play scheme involving Joey Espinoza, Charlie Cimino, and the Procurement and Construction Board.

I felt sure of it. But there were still things I was missing. I was missing the connection to Ernesto Ramirez.

And I was missing proof of any of this.