Prologue

Splitting the Baby

Solomon Sappirino sat in a large office on the top floor of a nondescript office building near the Nassau-Queens border. If he looked out his window in one direction, he would see cars crawling by on the Long Island Expressway. If he looked in the other direction, he would see the urban sprawl as New York City continued its relentless march east.

Solomon liked to consider himself a CEO. He had convinced himself that there were few differences between astute businessmen, leading politicians, and someone in his line of work.

He ran a criminal organization and had no qualms about his occupation.

Reaching over his large teak desk, Sol hit the intercom button on his nearly antique phone. “Have them searched and sent in.”

Sol was confident that his two men were not fearing repercussions in spite of their failure. After all, he had just lavishly rewarded a man he thought of as The Ape. The Ape wasn’t the brightest of his employees, but had no compunctions when it came to violence. He got things done, and that was a priority for Sol. The Ape was another tool in a box that contained many, each with different virtues. Where broken skulls were necessary, The Ape was sent in.

The two men entered the office and hovered near the door. Sol smiled to himself as he noted their tasteful suits. He wanted his men to be professionals, and professionals dressed for success. Remaining seated, he gestured for them to step forward.

“Gentlemen, where is my son?”

The two men looked at each other and silently debated who should speak. One finally cleared his throat.

“Boss, we didn’t get him. It was the wrong house. We’ll definitely get him next time.”

As if their home in Great Neck was a modern Jerusalem, Sol’s wife had fled and took their son to her own Sheba. He’d spent an obnoxiously large amount of money to track them as far as the safe house for at-risk women on eastern Long Island.

Unfortunately, the charity they found had numerous homes, each housing up to seven women and numerous children. His employees had chosen the one home they thought most likely to hold his wife, arrived the previous evening and left after having killed everyone there.

“Gentlemen, I’m going to explain the way I operate. I want you to pay close attention. If I need a coconut cracked open, I will send a strong man who won’t have to rely on his intellect. When I need something extracted, I will send someone with the skills of a surgeon. Get in, get what’s needed, and get out as unobtrusively as possible. You were supposed to be my surgeons.

“You brought attention to yourselves and possibly attention to me in exchange for ... what, exactly? What did you gain from last night’s activities? Shall I answer for you? You gained an enemy who is now forewarned. My son is my heir. You have just made it more difficult for me to get him back. What do you think I should do about this?”

Neither of them answered, so he continued. “Gentlemen, the question wasn’t rhetorical.” T

he first man looked to the second and shrugged. “I don’t know, boss. We messed up. Tell me what we gotta do to fix this.”

The second man stood straight and met his employer’s eyes. “Mistakes were made. Maybe we were too eager. Give us the rest of the day to work out a new strategy. We’ll have your son back by the end of the week.”

Sol listened to them both, nodding slowly as they spoke. “End of the week? With planning? Where was this forethought twenty-four hours ago?”

The second man was more ambitious than the first and overestimated his own intelligence, while the first was smart enough to ask for help and insightful enough to know that he needed guidance. Sol pulled out his gun and shot the second man in the thigh, shattering his femur. As the man fell to the ground, Sol turned to his other employee.”