America: Starting with the Last Liberty

Chapter 97 Conspiracy 4K

Ultimately, Francis still did not reveal the whereabouts of the Bonanno family's liquid assets, and despite Rosen's attempts at waterboarding and electric shocks, he remained steadfast.

Francis knew very well that he could live as long as he didn't reveal where the money was, but once he did, he would really die.

This guy is quite stubborn; it's unlikely we'll be able to get him to talk anytime soon.

"Rosen, what do we do?"

Sofia became anxious after learning that Francis had nearly emptied the Bonanno family's cash flow.

The Bonanno family has over 500 official members, plus a bunch of peripheral members. Maintaining so many people is very expensive.

If a family's funds dry up, the impact will be enormous.

Today, the Mafia is almost like a well-organized company, and it goes without saying what happens when a company runs out of money.

It's definitely impossible for Sofia to become the chairperson.

"Sophia, don't worry, I'll take care of this."

Sophia was relieved after hearing Rosen's assurance.

At this stage, Sofia believes that Rosen is omnipotent, and she will unconditionally believe whatever Rosen says.

"Rosen, are you staying tonight?"

Sophia looked at Rosen with hopeful eyes.

Rosen hesitated for a moment. Although as a bodyguard he should indeed stay by Sophia's side to protect her, he also had other things to do and could not stay by Sophia's side indefinitely.

We have no choice but to stay here tonight, since Sofia really needs protection right now.

Francis set a bad precedent by bringing the Bonanno family's internal power struggle into the open.

It's hard to guarantee that someone won't try to emulate Francis and kill Sophia outright.

So Rosen decided to find Sophia a personal female bodyguard for safety reasons.

Silent all night.

That night, Rosen held Sophia until dawn, then left the bedroom at daybreak.

However, this time, Rosen was almost seen by the servant who got up early for work, and his heart was pounding when he arrived at the guest room.

Is this what it feels like to have an affair?

It was certainly exciting, but Rosen didn't want that kind of excitement.

Because of this incident, Rosen couldn't sleep after returning to his room. Remembering that he hadn't bought the intelligence for the mission yet, he prepared to look at the three pieces of intelligence.

-30000

[Intelligence 1: Francis Ritchie recently transferred all of Martin Bonanno's gold and cash to the Bank of San Martin.]

[Intelligence 2: Luca Pastore has located the bloodline of Martin Bonanno and will soon return to Los Angeles.]

[Intelligence 3: Antonio Costa is secretly in contact with Frank Castro.]

Saint Martin Bank?

Is this named after Martin Sr.?

Francis has actually kept the Bonanno family's gold and cash in the bank, which is a bit troublesome.

If this guy transferred the assets through legal means, then Rosen will have no choice but to resort to last resort.

The possibility is quite high. After all, Francis is a lawyer, and he certainly knows how to legally turn other people's money into his own.

We can only investigate the Saint Martins Bank line first.

Luca Pastore left Los Angeles for more than half a month, and it turns out he went to see Martin's illegitimate son. This guy is really loyal to Martin.

It seems we need to get Sofia into power as soon as possible, otherwise it will definitely be a blow to Sofia when Luca arrives in Los Angeles with Old Martin's illegitimate son.

After all, Sofia was just old Martin's wife, and not even his first wife, so she couldn't compare to old Martin's children.

Furthermore, if Luca supports Martin's illegitimate son, Sofia will be even more distressed.

Luca's prestige within the Bonanno family far surpasses that of Francis.

As for Antonio's contact with Frank Castro, Rosen found it somewhat strange.

Rosen has been looking into the Bonanno family over the past couple of days, but he hasn't found the name Frank Castro, and the name doesn't seem like an Italian name at all.

Is Antonio in contact with other gangs?

Rosen was lost in thought when dawn broke.

After breakfast, Black Sonny came to find Rosen.

"Mr. Rosen, now that you're becoming a full member of the Bonanno family, you'll need to meet with the other family members. Leverti will take you on a tour of the Bonanno family's territory."

Rosen glanced at Leverti, who was all smiles, and for some reason, he felt that the man looked more like a godfather than a lackey.

(Al Pacino, who plays Leverti, also played Michael Corleone in The Godfather.)

"I understand. Please wait a moment, I have something to report to Madam."

Rosen told Sophia about the situation at St. Martin's Bank and asked her to use the Bonanno family's influence to investigate.

"St. Martin Bank? I seem to remember that! The robbery of Pacific Standard Bank made that guy a little uneasy about his assets, so he had Richie acquire a bank and deposited gold and some bonds into it."

Sophia's words made Rosen's expression turn strange. He hadn't expected that it was because of him that Old Martin wanted to consolidate the assets.

However, something about this feels a bit strange. Could it be that the information Phil and Dennis received was also arranged by someone?

Rosen decided to ask Alberto when he had time; the guy was much more honest than Francis and would answer any questions he was asked.

So Rosen treated Alberto quite well, providing him with food, drink, and even cigarettes.

"So, Richie orchestrated all of this?"

"Yes, during that time, that guy would talk about these things with Richie every day in the study. Unfortunately, I wasn't concerned about family affairs at the time, so I didn't know the specifics."

Rosen thought for a moment and offered one possibility.

"I think Richie obtained temporary authorization from Martin Luther King Jr. to transfer assets. After Martin Luther King Jr. was hospitalized and unable to revoke the authorization, Richie had the opportunity to transfer those assets to his own name."

"Rosen, is there any way we can get the assets back?"

"If Old Martin is conscious, there's still a chance."

"Then I'd rather he just lie there like that forever!"

Sofia cursed old Martin through gritted teeth, and Rosen patted her on the backside.

"Don't worry, there's always a way! Sophia, you investigate St. Martin's Bank and how Richie transferred his assets. I'm going out for a walk with Levitt."

"Rosen, be careful!"

Sofia hugged Rosen and gave him a breathtakingly passionate kiss.

Rosen could sense Sophia's affection; clearly, this woman in love had come to rely on him.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. But you, if anything unusual happens, call me immediately."

"Um."

Long Beach, south of Los Angeles.

Long Beach is exceptionally lively during the day; after all, it is the second largest city in Los Angeles County and the seventh largest city in California.

However, although Long Beach is large, the people living there are generally not wealthy, and it is incomparable to Santa Monica and Beverly Hills.

The residents here are mainly African Americans, Mexican Americans, and lower-class whites.

Many of the white people living here are of Irish descent.

A fierce-looking old man got out of a car, followed by several young men.

The group looked around and found that there were only some black people sitting idly on the side of the street, some of them smoking.

"Fuck! Those damn niggers! They're not working in broad daylight! They should all be sent to the cotton plantation to pick cotton!"

Such blatant discriminatory remarks naturally angered several Black people in the neighborhood.

Several Black men, taking advantage of their size, stood up and tried to cause trouble.

"Does your mom want to get herself killed by messing with you?"

The young men next to the old man immediately pulled out guns from their pockets.

One of the handsome young men even took a shotgun directly from the car.

"Do you bunch of black devils want to get shot?"

Seeing the old man's intense firepower, the black men had no choice but to leave.

The old man spat on the ground, a disdainful expression on his face.

"See that? That's a black guy, a coward who bullies the weak and fears the strong! Let's go!"

The old man led several young people into a basement bar.

It was broad daylight, so the bar was definitely not open for business, but there were already several customers sitting inside.

One of the customers sitting at the bar was about the same age as the old man who came in; both had gray hair.

The fierce-looking old man immediately opened his arms and walked over with a smile after seeing the old man sitting at the bar.

"Hey Antonio, it's great to see you!"

"Me too, Frank."

Antonio stood up and hugged Frank, then the two took their seats, while the rest of his underlings sat on the side.

(Frank Castro)

"Antonio, do you know why I get so happy every time I see you?"

Compared to Frank's bright smile, Antonio's smile looked forced, indicating that he was not in a good mood.

Why?

"Because good things always happen when you come to me, how could I not be happy?"

These words made Antonio's smile disappear.

"Frank, are you being sarcastic?"

Frank patted Antonio on the shoulder with a big smile.

"How could that be? You know me, I, Frank Castro, just like to joke."

Antonio's expression then returned to normal.

"Frank, I need your help with something."

"I knew your sudden contact meant something good was going to happen! Tell me, what is it this time?"

"I want you to send someone to Bonanno Manor to kill Francis Richie."

Frank's smile slowly faded, replaced by a look of surprise.

"Francis Richie? Aren't you partners?"

Antonio took out a cigar, lit it, and took a puff.

"Francis's scheme has been exposed, and to prevent him from implicating me, I have no choice but to eliminate him first."

Frank raised an eyebrow, his expression turning strange.

"What a sad story! How did things turn out like this? I remember everything was going so well for you guys before. It's only been a few days!"

The events that occurred at the St. Lucy Church gathering did not spread. After all, Francis's murder of Martin Jr. was not exactly respectable, so most of the Bonanno family's official members remained silent.

Some scattered news has been leaked out, but two days is not enough for it to spread, so the Los Angeles underworld is still unaware of the major changes that have occurred in the Bonanno family.

Antonio glanced at Frank and slowly recounted what had happened at St. Lucy's Church.

This matter was bound to get out eventually; Frank would find out sooner or later, so Antonio didn't try to hide it.

Unexpectedly, what Antonio said caught Frank's attention.

"A clown in a suit? Fuck! Isn't that the guy who robbed Standard Bank of Pacific?"

Antonio looked at Frank with surprise.

"Do you know him?"

Frank slammed his fist on the table in a huff.

"Yes! I had a shipment hidden in Standard Bank, but somehow a clown in a suit found it, causing me to lose over a million dollars! I was so angry that I filled that damn security supervisor's tank with cement and sank him into the Pacific Ocean! By the way, Billy, what was that security supervisor's name again?"

The handsome young man, Billy, immediately answered Frank.

(Billy Kostigan)

"Rupert Lawrence".

"Yes! That's the name!"

"Frank, so you know who that clown is?"

Frank shook his head.

"I don't know. The security supervisor had seen the clown, but didn't get a photo. He only knew that the man was an Asian youth."

"Asian?"

Antonio looked thoughtful; he had already heard that a handsome Asian young man had appeared with Sofia yesterday.

Coming to his senses, Antonio continued the previous topic.

"Frank, about what I just said—"

Frank simply smiled at Antonio, without directly agreeing to his request.

"Antonio, let's talk about the payment first!"

"Frank, didn't I already give you the business around Caltech?"

It was clear that Antonio was quite dissatisfied, and his tone became much harsher.

Frank quickly put his arm around Antonio's neck and spoke to him in a friendly manner.

"Antonio, you want me to take action in Malibu, not Long Beach! You know the security situation in Malibu. If it were in Long Beach, I definitely wouldn't charge you a single penny!"

Malibu is a well-known affluent area in Los Angeles, home to top-tier wealthy individuals.

Even Tony Stark from Marvel has a ranch in Malibu, which shows how special this place is.

Killing someone in Malibu is a far more serious matter than Rosen playing tricks on the Los Angeles police.

After all, Rosen only embarrassed the Los Angeles Police Department, but killing someone in Malibu could potentially cut off the LAPD's revenue stream.

If the wealthy people in Malibu get angry about the murder and stop donating money to the police department, the Los Angeles police will have to fight Frank to the death.

This explanation made Antonio's expression soften slightly.

"Frank, I'm a little short on cash lately, I'll give it to you later."

"In principle, the Castro gang doesn't accept credit, but since we're good friends, I'll take the job!"

Antonio immediately smiled.

"Frank, when your men are making their move, please take care of Sofia Bonanno for me!"

"Old Martin's woman? No big deal!"