Chapter Four
The caravan of cars reached Moe's Diner, a retro-looking restaurant located on Garden Cove Drive-in Key Largo. Mannen got out of Di Laure's car, and picked up Clarity, leaving Baggio with the other drivers. The various local bosses stepped out of their cars, and walked inside the Diner. Mannen sat down in the middle of a three person booth, after Harvege, one of the Cappis, went in first. To his right, one of the other Cappi, Monfort, moved in. Sitting on the other side of the booth at the far end near the window was Moe Alamy, the owner of the diner. To her left, or to Mannen's right, in any case sitting beside the old lady, Ambrosio, the retainer of Di Laure, filled in for his boss. Clarity sat beside Ambrosio, after Mannen insisted on it, and showing to the retainer of Di Laure the security tag that Clarity was wearing, which said 'Swankeye general security'.
"She's like you Ambrosio, you work for Di Laure, she is part of my own security. You're here, she can be here as well."
Ambrosio finally agreed and let Clarity sit beside him reluctantly, while he placed a used ten year map of Florida on the table. Mannen looked at the area of South Florida unfolded by Ambrosio in front of him. In terms of Syndicate business, the counties of Martin, Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade belonged to Di Laure. The Keys were neutral territory, because some of the Cappi had local mansions there. As a newcomer, Mannen had a license to operate in the county of Monroe, where there were only swamps, and he'd forged an alliance with Larry 'Lee' Harvege, who led the southern counties of the South District, Lee, Hendry, and Collier. Mannen wanted to talk about a more democratic share of the Miami-Dade county business, in effect diluting Di Laure's stronghold on it, and pushing the man north towards the counties of Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee, and Saint Lucie, the county of Fort Pierce, traditionally the turf of Moe Alamy. Sarasota, Desoto, and Highlands, belonged to Mush Revving, a former ostrich meat butcher, and the two counties south of that area, Charlotte and Glades, were led by Harvey Monfort, the posh gentleman of the group, who came from the corporate and residential security sectors in Florida. Mush Revving and Monfort, were pivotal votes, for whatever was decided, and Mannen and Di Laure ensured good terms with both of them.
Clarity looked at Moe Alamy, noticing that she was knitting at a frantic pace. The old lady was half way done with a woolly breast. The knitted breasts were used by expectant moms to learn about breastfeeding, and Moe had come to be appreciated in the local community as a result. As a side result of that line of work, Moe also appreciated the women who received the woolly breasts, before they became expectant moms, often inviting them for a chat on sexual matters, 'you know, just so that you know about the stuff before you get into it', according to Moe.
"Nice woolly," said Ambrosio. Moe stopped knitting, flexing her index.
"Thank you, yeah, not too bad," said Moe. "Where is Gavino?" She liked to keep her protege near her.
"Mr. Di Laure could not make it to the meeting," said Ambrosio, "he's busy at home doing some numbers on the business."
The 'business' of the Cappi at the diner was diversified, but focused on meat distribution and retail sale in South Florida. Some of the Cappi were large meat packers, owning a cattle ranch in the sunshine state, and some, like Di Laure and Moe, were involved in meat distribution and retail sales, providing meat to burger franchises, or owning some of them, like Mclannan's.
Moe looked at her woolly and returned to knitting. An expert at knitting since age twenty three, the old lady liked to brag that she had more ideas while knitting than any of the Cappi, who were simply busy with washing their black limos, letting others work for them. Her knitting was a space of reflection for her, and the other Cappi reached out to her when things were not going well, to learn about some of the benefits they could derive from learning how to knit on their own. Ambrosio began the meeting by placing the salt shaker used for burgers in the middle of the table.
"You came this time, Joe, thank you for doing that. Last time I needed to write everything down, because I had Lord Moorehead III in the booth, across from me."
Mannen kept his eye on the salt shaker, an item indicating who was the mobster of all mobsters in South Florida. That man was Di Laure for now, he owned the salt shaker and ruled the others. Mannen said nothing to Ambrosio, knowing that his Great Dane Lord Moorehead III was very good in his role of front man at Lofty. The dog was loyal and it understood nothing about Lofty, so it always did its job well. And the four legged mammal was grateful, when you offered it a good, regular Benebone, its favorite chew bone toy. Mannen liked the fact it did not complain about payroll. Which is why he kept the dog in a lavish living surrounding in Cayman, having built a two bedroom, two bath dog place, with its own label 'Lord Moorehead home', atop the entrance. Mannen checked his smartphone, doing a brief search on the web. He was looking around in Florida for a Great Danish female, a dog companion for the Great Dane, to ensure continuity of the dog's tenure at Lofty, with another dog, namely Lord Moorehead IV, or Lady Moorehead. Mannen wasn't ruling out having a female dog to act as front person for him at Lofty.
"Glad everyone is here, I called the meeting because the general philosophy of the syndicate is not working that well," said Mannen, "this idea of adapted socialism put in place by your boss, has some serious limitations." He was looking at Ambrosio, and so it was clear that he was referring to Di Laure.
"Nothing wrong with how we do things," said Ambrosio. "Our business philosophy works all right, Joe. You have two cows, you give one to your neighbor."
"Right, and then?" Asked Mannen.
"You ensure you own both of them, and the neighbor thinks he owns the other. Then, you charge protection to the neighbor to keep the cow or recover the cow, so you can give it to someone else, who can pay for that protection. The alternative, is to collude with your neighbor and get more share of the market, by fixing distribution, prices, supply."
"Then, you never do the work in general," said Moe, "we all agree on that." Lee Harvege nodded, approving the words of the old, shriveled lady, whose wrinkles showing on her face, matched the age and use of the map on the table. Monfort agreed as well, and Ambrosio as well. Mannen was pleased, because something had been agreed at the meeting. A large order of fries was ordered, and the general mood at the table became less tense.
"Adapted socialism adapts to the needs of the people, where people matter, as long as they are below you," said Ambrosio. "This is what Mr. Di Laure wants you to approve, by signing our general business agreement on meat business in South Florida."
The retainer of the Miami-Dade chieftain pulled out a piece of paper which had the signature of Mush Revving, Di Laure and Moe on it. There were three blank spaces left for signatures, one for Mannen, and the others for Harvege and Monfort.
"No, I don't agree with that line of logic," said Mannen, "it's flawed, in big ways, Beefonomics does not have reach right now. The idea I am considering has more reach, it makes sense."
The whole logic of Ambrosio was based on this stupid philosophy that Di Laure used as reference, ideas from a meme circulating among mobsters, called Beefonomics. Mannen pressed on the shriveled edge of the map, placing the salt shaker on the bottom right area to prevent the map from folding on itself. His move altered the frantic pace of Moe Alamy, who stopped knitting her breast. Clarity noticed that the woolly boob was nearly complete, Moe was working on the nipple.
"The general socionomics of the business is somewhat clear now," said Monfort, "we all understand that, and it works, doesn't work too bad. What do you propose Joe?" Mannen took a deep breath and opted out of a fry offered by Ambrosio.
"In an era and environment of today, bringing large amounts of disruption, you want something more like adapted bureaucratism. At lofty, we let you know that you have two cows, then we offer you leasing for one of them, to keep the use of it, but give Lofty the property and ownership of the cow. Then, depending on how you work, you'll be left with the possibility of buying the cow after twenty years, for a dollar or so, or you'll
be left with nothing, if there's no work or single dollar to pay for the cow. We give the people a sense that they own something, we don't just charge protection, it doesn't work, the social environment is changing."
"What about the other cow? What do you do with it?" Asked Harvege.
"We take the other and milk it, or we use it as front person for the business, just in case something happens with Lord Moorehead. It is relevant to understand how to go about when money is being diluted everywhere. Other things matter today, besides money. The business we do needs to reflect that." Moe was nearly finished with her woolly breast. She set it aside on the table and brought the salt shaker towards her.
"Well, you won't get a twenty percent share of Miami-Dade, Joe," said Moe. "It's that simple, Gavino owns that area, been owning it for years. You gotta show more value, so that we consider sharing some of our meat business or territory with you. We like prosperity and we don't see that with your business. We want to own more things. We'll buy your share in Monroe if you don't pay attention to it, or keep bothering us with these ideas." Mannen gave his own view of things to the old lady.
"You should consider lending some money to Lofty or its pawn service in Miami. North Florida Bank has the money to bring about growth in South Florida. I can show you where things are going with money or the financial system. Things are moving around places or areas that are not very good."
"North Florida is my bank, that's my bank," said Moe, "don't touch my bank. You got problems of your own with Lofty, and in Cayman, don't come to us to solve those."
Mannen was not that pleased with the reply of the old lady. He thought about picking up the woolly breast to understand how it was made, but he settled his hand on the salt shaker off the table, moving it on the map of Florida, towards the region owned by Moe, the area between Palm Beach and Martin.
"All right, Moe, I think that you are not quite seeing things as they are, you are looking at what you like to see. Let's call it a truce, keep things as they are. I may have to go back to Cayman, for other business. Let's keep talking," said Mannen.
"All right then, Joe is making sense, no change in market share or the county share for each of the business areas," said Ambrosio.
Harvege nodded, followed by Monfort. They brought the news to Revving, who was seated behind them, talking with one of the waitresses and how they could meet for a cooking class at the Diner. Revving also agreed to keep things as they were. Mannen attempted to get up and sat down again, realizing he was in a booth, and lacking the space to slide out of the booth. Monfort slid out, followed by Mannen and Harvege. Mannen looked across the table at Ambrosio, who was placing the salt shaker in the middle of it to let everyone know that Di Laure ruled South Florida.
"Tell Gavino I want to talk to him next time, tell him to come by with you and Giacomino," said Mannen.
Ambrosio nodded, knowing his boss was not on very good terms with Mannen, as a result of a previous dispute about the ownership of the salt shaker. Whoever owned the salt shaker owned the Syndicate business in South Florida, and single ownership by any particular boss was not accepted by Mannen, who wanted more of an assembly rule of things by several persons, not just one.
The chubby guy living in Tavernier left the diner with Clarity and got in the back seat of Jaguar 73. The pretty good car exported from Cuba, was parked in the drive-in area of the diner, with Baggio driving in the front seat. Mannen liked to leave the meetings at the diner first, which is why he bought some burgers from the diner, while the other Cappi stayed for a few drinks at the diner counter, after the meeting. Mannen didn't want to be that close to his rivals. Besides, there was no Coperini & Onelsen whisky at Moe's Diner, there was just beer and some bootlegged gin. Moe put out her head from the drive-in booth, giving several bags with burger and fries to Baggio. Sometimes, she did the work herself. The butler pulled the car away from the diner drive-in area, with three burgers and fries on the passenger seat. He offered one pack to Clarity, and another to Mannen.
Mannen kept saying to Baggio and Clarity that Moe Alamy was running the business of Di Laure, and several of the mobster's ideas. Hiding behind a veil of innocuous knitting, she was denting out at meat procurement and distribution in all of South Florida. Her plan was to own a whole woolly meat distribution breast, spanning all of South Florida. And then, to work on the other woolly part, North Florida, to complete the breast set.
"Looks about right," said Clarity, "the metaphor is more nurturing, than the actual reality of the plan."
"Take a look at this, boss, on the rear seat television set. Monfort has just sent me a file, explaining how Taylor found us here in Florida."
Mannen turned on the rear seat television-screen, and took a look at a satellite map of South Florida, which had been seen by Taylor. The chubby banking agent looked closely at the provider of the images, written at the bottom of the photograph. Cayman authorities had found his home in Tavernier through a company called Aerial Window Stock, an aerial footage company established in Moore Haven, county of Glades. Living in opacity was finished. It was not easy for Mannen to open his generally private living space to others, but it was probably the only way to bring sustainability to business. But his living arrangement at Swankeye in the form of leasing the place to himself, through Lofty Leasing, was private, and no one had the right to be nosey about that. This led him to a task for Clarity, she was going to be part of the entourage of Moe Alamy. He reached for two burgers and fries, and gave one of each to Clarity.
"I want to know where Moe lives. I'll show you what you have to do. Let's go back to Swankeye, Baggio."
The driver looked at the rear view mirror, looking for the large head of his boss in the back seat.
"What do we name this operation boss? I need to put it in the Jaguar general business file, in the general business navigation system of the car." For Mannen, everything was about understanding general ideas, then others dealt with the details of things.
"Gonna do this with Cocoanomics, this is going to be a Cocoanomics thing, call it cocoa moe," said Mannen. Clarity ate some fries from the diner, and wondered whether working for Mannen would turn her into a woolly breast item like the ones Moe Alamy liked to knit.