San Diego Siege

Two men in airport service-white moved out of the lengthening shadows of the terminal building and intercepted him halfway between plane and car.

'Mr. Simonetti?' the thickset one pleasantly greeted him.

The messenger frowned, but broke stride and replied, 'Yeah?' — his eyes flicking toward the waiting vehicle.

The tall man quietly informed him, 'Trip ends right here, Sammy.'

The ominously-tipped black Beretta showed itself, the muzzle staring up into the courier's eyes.

The other man reached inside of Simonetti's jacket, took his weapon, then nudged him on toward the LTD.

'You guys out of your minds or something?' he asked them in a choked voice. 'You know who you're hitting?'

'We know,' the tall one assured him. He opened a rear door and shoved the flustered man into the back seat.

The other guy was sliding in from the opposite doorway. He grabbed Simonetti's hand and went to work on the wrist-lock with a small tool.

The captive's eyes were showing panic. He groaned, 'Hey, Jesus, don't do this to me. How'm I going to tell Mr. Lucasi about this? I can't go walking in there with a naked arm.'

'You'll think of something,' the pleasant one replied.

'Look, boys, no shit now. You want to make a score? I mean a real score? Look, leave it alone. There's nothing in here to do you any good. I can steer you to a real score. I mean, millions maybe.'

The icy one commanded, 'Shut up, Sammy.' 'Look, you're never going to be able to enjoy it. You know what I mean. You can't just walk up and hit the combination this way. You're dead men the minute you walk away from here. Get smart, hell man. I can steer you — '

The Beretta's silencer had steered itself right into Sammy Simonetti's hardworking mouth. He froze, then made a pleading sound around the new pacifier.

The big guy gave him a moment to get the feel and taste of oral death, then he withdrew the weapon and told the shaken courier, 'Not another word.'

Simonetti's eyes promised total silence and a moment later the other guy defeated the lock at his wrist.

The guy chuckled and told him, 'Count your blessings, buddy. I was about ready to take arm and all.'

The hard one placed the car keys in the courier's freed hand and told him, 'Look in the trunk. But not right away. You wait awhile.'

Simonetti nodded his head in thoroughly cowed silence and the two men in white turned their backs on him and walked around the building and out of sight.

He'd been on the ground less than a minute.

Who would ever believe this?

That slick and that easy, those guys had just clipped the combination for more than a hundred grand.

Nobody would believe that ... especially not Ben Lucasi!

The shaken messenger rattled the car keys in his hand, wondering vaguely what the guy had meant by, 'Look in the trunk.'

What would he find in there? The remains of Chicano and the Schoolteacher?

Simonetti shivered.

Nobody would believe this.

Then he became aware that something was mixed in with the keys in his hand — he'd thought it to be part of the key ring or something.

But it was definitely not a part of the key ring.

They didn't put marksman's medals on key rings.

A chill ran the entire length of Simonetti's spine and his guts began to quake.

Jesus!

They'd believe it, all right.

Goddammed right they'd believe it!

4 The track

The San Diego territory had long been considered a tenderloin area for La Cosa Nostra. This 'key' territory — bounded on one side by one of the world's ten greatest natural harbors and on another by the Mexican border — until recently had functioned as an 'arm' of the DiGeorge Family, the Los Angeles mob which had already tasted the Executioner's war effort.

With DiGeorge's death and the dissolution of that 'family,' the national ruling council, La Com-missione, stepped in to administer the syndicate's interests in that area.

Ben Lucasi had been a DiGeorge underboss. He and 'Deej' had been longtime friends. He'd hated to see Deej have to go that way ... but in his secret moments, Lucasi would admit that even the darkest cloud usually carried a silver lining.

Under the new setup, Big Ben was practically autonomous — reporting directly to the Commission of Capo's at the national level of government.

San Diego was no longer an 'arm' of anything or anybody. San Diego now belonged to Big Ben Lucasi, period. And, yeah, Big Ben (who measured 5'4' even in elevator shoes and weighed-in soaking wet at 120 pounds) liked things a hell of a lot better that way.

He was not, of course, a full-fledged Capo. Not yet. But that honor would come, just like all the other good things had come. The whole California territory was reorganizing itself around San Diego.

One of these days the boys all around the country would be referring to this arm as The Lucasi Family. And why not? Where the money was, that's where the power was — and now that he was no longer getting a lot of jealous bullshit from L.A., Ben Lucasi was mining the San Diego gold like it hadn't been mined since the forty-niners.

What with Agua Caliente a few minutes south and with Las Vegas just a hop over the mountains by plane — hell, a guy would have to have his mind in his balls not to make a goldmine out of that happy circumstance. And the whole goddam fuck-in' U. S. Navy sitting out here at his right hand, running back and forth to the Orient — what kind of a lamebrain wouldn't turn a thing like that to his profit?

Some of the locals were starting to snicker about his 'seagoing Mafia.' Which was okay. Let them make jokes. Lucasi owned also a 'khaki Mafia.' Let 'em laugh — that was okay. As long as everybody was laughing there'd be no worry. Meanwhile San Diego was fast becoming the underground capital of the western world, and Ben Lucasi was becoming the most powerful non-Capo anywhere.

The Lucasi home was an unpretentious but modern split-level situated in one of the new neighborhoods near Mission Bay Park. He lived there with his third wife, Dorothy — a 23-year-old ex-showgirl from Las Vegas. Lucasi was 56. He had a daughter, 35, and a son, 32, from his first marriage. The son worked in a casino in Nassau; the daughter, at last report, was somewhere in Europe 'with another lousy gigolo.'

The first Mrs. Lucasi had died under mysterious circumstances while the children were still quite young, during that era when Bennie was scrambling everywhere for the buck. His criminal record from those early days reveals arrests for pandering, rape, felonious assault, theft, gambling, arson, extortion, intimidation, black- marketeering, manslaughter, and murder. The official FBI report on this very busy criminal enumerated 52 specific charges… with but 2 convictions and 2 suspended sentences.

He had spent a combined total of 66 days behind bars.

His last arrest had occurred in 1944, on a black-marketing charge.

Lucasi had come west at the end of the war, settling first in Reno, Nevada for a few years, then on to Las