"Kenny, I need you to meet at Patterson Avenue, number 751. See you in a few."

I hung up the phone. I needed to meet Kenny urgently. Since the start of the Purple Gang operations, back when the name was only a joke to those involved with it because of the color of our LSD papers, Kenny had been an outstanding worker and an even better friend to me. He was aware of the good news. And now I needed him more than ever.

While a cab was taking me to my destination, I looked outside, lost in thoughts. How my life had changed in the last few years! I used to be a renowned scientist until my discovery made me a...renegade, forcing me to the obscure side of the law. It was still very clear in my head how it all began. The scientific community judging me for the creation of a new drug. The government not being open to dialogue, making me look like evil when I was actually trying to do something positive with my discovery, at a time when I really believed it would be possible.

Then I remembered how I started to get into criminal ways. The meeting with Don Astra, that had made everything possible. Astra was the first to show me that many times the underworld could be much more ethical, sincere and even fair than the sphere of the society I was used to be a part of it. I remembered how Astra welcomed me and made my LSD production possible and I also remembered the pain of losing him, of seeing him gone forever.

A movie was rolling in my mind now, as I remembered how Uncle @Joseph_Ligambi stepped up and also began such a great friend and business partner. He made sure we would continue our production exactly the same way. Besides that, he worked together with me for some time, 

making me absorb some of his personality. I began to see myself more and more distant from legality and increasingly immersed in an underworld that had welcomed me and helped me. That Albert Hofmann who had left Switzerland full of dreams and goals of making the world a better place to live through scientific researching was the smallest part of me now. I was just different now, worried about other things, like profit, for example. 

Forced by the government. Was it true? I started to reflect. Was I honest with myself? Had there not been some alternative route? Was I forced to criminality or the power and that kind of power and money was things I ever wanted, deep down my soul...?

The cab parked. 751, Patterson Avenue. I paid the driver for the ride and got out of the car. Kenny was already waiting me outside the warehouse.

"Fuck off, mate." Said Kenny while the bouncer of a bar dragged him off the establishment, the bouncer was behind him, with his hand on the back of his neck, pushing him towards the exit. Kenny was holding a bottle of whiskey on one hand, he had started a bar fight because he thought a thug looked at him the wrong way, perhaps Kenny was wrong since he was heavily drunk, but he didn't cared, he just wanted to punch something. As Kenny and the bouncer finally exited the bar, Kenny turned his body swiftly, raising his arm. Kenny's elbow met the bouncer's nose, hard, probably breaking it. The bouncer stunned, hit the wall and leaned against it, trying to recover consciousness since the hit almost knocked him out.

"I said, fuck off." Kenny growled, looking at the bouncer and tidying his leather jacket that was all messed up. Still looking at the guy, he took a big swig out of his bottle then raised his hand and hit the man in the face with the bottle, shattering it in a million pieces. The bouncer slid the wall, falling in to the ground, knock out. Kenny took a deep breath, the smell of blood and whiskey made him smile, but then he realized he had wasted good whiskey and got angry again.

"Look what you made me do, man." He said, kicking the bouncer in the face and almost falling on top of him, he was struggling to stay standing due to the amount of alcohol he drank that day. He spat on the bouncer then walked towards the next block, where he was living in a shit hole of a apartment.

Upon arriving, Kenny fell down on his couch and quickly fell asleep. A few hours later, he heard his phone ringing and cursing it he got up and walked towards it and picked it up. It was his boss, AlbertHofmann asking Kenny to go somewhere. Kenny just said ok and hung up.

"RONNIE!" Kenny screamed, looking for Shy-Ronnie, they were sharing the apartment since Kenny had no money to afford a another place since he got shot on Easter and had to hide under a new name, leaving all his valuables and money behind. With difficulty, he walked towards Shy-Ronnie's room, where he noticed a lot of new Rihanna posters on the wall, face palming, Kenny said to Ronnie, who was jacking off on his bed.

"Wash your hand and get your car key, I need a lift." Shy-Ronnie almost had a heart attack when Kenny caught him wanking, he turned red then quickly got up from his bed and put his dick back on his pants.

"Knock next time, Mr Russo!" Shy-Ronnie said, while cleaning his hand on a nearby towel and walking towards his night-stand where his car key were resting. 

"It's Ligambi now, Ronnie. Don't call me Russo outside the apartment or we'll get in trouble." Kenny said while Shy-Ronnie quickly nodded his head signaling that he understood. He got the car keys and both men went downstairs, to the garage.

Kenny arrived a little early on the location Albert gave him, so he just sent Ronnie back home and walked towards the warehouse, he lit a cigarette and leaned against the wall, waiting for his boss. With the cigarette dangling on his lips, he started thinking about his past life and got lost on his thoughts. Ten minutes later Kenny noticed a cab and Albert getting off, so he took a long drag of the other cigarette he lit and threw the butt on the ground, eyeing his boss approach him.

"What's up chief?" Kenny said, trying his best to not look drunk as hell.

As I walked towards Kenny, I immediately realized that he was not normal. When I got close enough, I noticed that his body exuded alcohol. Without taking notice of the fact that Kenny was completely drunk, I shook his hand and nodded to him. He could have his "flaws" but always proved himself efficient.

"Good morning, Kenny. I suppose you have heard the news."

I turned to the warehouse door and searched for the keys in the pocket of my jacket. The door was a heavy iron door, the hinges were a little rusty. I had to push it hard to be able to pass through. It was obvious that the warehouse had not seen much movement lately. The walls were a bit musty and there were some wooden boxes thrown across the floor. On the right side, there were a few more doors.

"Perfect." I hissed, with a smile. I was sincerely excited. "Close the door, please, Kenny."

I took a few steps inside, looking all around with legitimate fascination. Our goal would be to turn that into a home for the Purple Gang. A big ample space, but a lot of work to do. I turned around to Kenny again, who was having a hard time closing the door.

"Are you okay, Kenny?" I asked sharply.

Kenny shook Albert's hands while listening to him. The news he talks about should be about the new crew on 12th street that Albert was going to lead and Kenny would be at his right side. Kenny nodded his head in agreement, signaling that he was aware of the news. He looked at Albert and waited for him to grab the keys and open the door.

"I talked with Joe about it." Said Kenny, letting out a little yawn. "Seems like our hard work finally paid off, eh?" Kenny followed Albert into the warehouse, looking around he raised an eyebrow and said. "Well this place is a shit hole. We're going to have a lot of work to do."

Kenny heard Albert telling him to close the door and he tried but something was wrong and he didn't noticed so he kept slamming the door, trying to close it. He leaned down and took a close look at the door, blinking, trying to focus. His vision was a bit blurred so he took some seconds to notice what was wrong. He turned around and look at Albert, who was making a question.

"Yeah I'm fine don't worry. Seems like the door handle is broken on this side so, can't close the door without the key. I'm gonna get a toolbox later and fix it." He walked towards Albert, looking around. The warehouse was all fucked up, broken windows, trash all over the place. He sighed than rubbed his beard, trying to figure it out where they should start.

"I can talk with Vincent to get some of his boys to help us out on fixing this place. It's going to be hard work though." Kenny walked a little deeper into the warehouse. Pointing at a pile of wooden boxes, he said. "We should start by removing the trash from the floor. It's going to free more space for us to work on the rest. After we fix the place up, what are you planning to do?"

I nodded at Kenny, turning my attention back to him again.

"What is life without work, Kenny?" I said rhetorically and smiled quickly.

I looked again to the walls and the ceiling. I took a few slow steps around, arms folded back.

"This may be a shit hole, yes. But it is something else, also. An opportunity - a huge one. Do you agree?"

I kept walking forward, slowly, making sure Kenny was following me.

"Our first top priority is to get this place fixed. We need to start right away."

"Yeah well, hard work pays off." Kenny started walking slowly around the warehouse, seeing where all the wooden boxes are. "I'm going to start piling up this shit in one corner. Then we can take it outside and burn it. Or we can save it if you think we can do something with it."

Kenny sighs then nods to Albert and walks towards the corner where he will pile up the boxes, he grabs one on the way and starts kicking another, arriving at the said corner, he places them in a way where he can put one on top of another to occupy less space. He started walking around and gathering every box he could see, after thirty minutes, he finished the task.

"Albert!" Kenny screamed, looking for him. He listened Albert's voice and walked towards the sound, finding him gathering some junk as well.

"So, the boxes are piled up. What do you plan to do with them?"

While Kenny was going to pile up the boxes, I started walking to the right side of the building. There were 3 big rooms there and I immediately started to visualize my office taking place in one of them. I entered the first one, the door was ajar. It was a small room, the walls were peeling and it smelled musty.

I looked around. A few more boxes throwed at the room's corner and next to it there was an ice box. The box was locked with a padlock. I picked up the kicks from my pocket again and started trying to open the box. With one of the smallest keys, I succeeded.

Kenny approached that very moment, I had just opened the box and I was shocked for a moment. I ignored his question, to be honest I barely heard it.

"Take a look."

I got up, walking two steps back, allowing him to have a better vision of the box. Inside of it, dipped in ice, there was a dead body, 3 or 4 days fresh it appeared. The corpse's skin was extremely pale and there was a trail of dried blood on its face from a wound on the top of its head. I scratched my chin.

"Well, I was not expecting this..."

"Oh shit." Kenny said approaching the box with his jacket sleeve covering his nose, he doesn't know if the guy is already smelling bad but he doesn't want to risk it, due to the quantity of alcohol he drank, he'll probably vomit it all if he smells that stinking air. Kenny leaned a bit, to take a better look at the guy who was there, he immediately recognized him.

"Fat Chip Ianucci." Kenny said, closing the box. He slapped the air, trying to get rid of the smell then he lowered his arm, "freeing" his nose. "You don't know him? He's a rat, violated the code of omertà. I was looking for him but seems like Joe got to him first."

Kenny sighed once again, taking a deep breath, he opened the box again.

"We'll take care of it. Call the family waste removal, I'll drag the body and place it near the wooden boxes so this room doesn't get all smelly"

Kenny grabbed the dead man's arm and pushed him, dropping him on the floor. Kenny walked towards Fat Chip leg and grabbed it and dragged him towards the wooden boxes. Upon arriving, he let go of his leg and reached for his jacket, he lit a cigarette and walked towards Albert to see about that family waste removal.

I nodded. Fat Chip Ianucci, the name was familiar. I remembered reading it in the papers. To violate the laws of the omertà, so valued by the sicilians, was a quick way to finish dead, and it was not necessary to be a sicilian to know it. 

"I will be right back."

I left Kenny taking care of the corpse and went to the other unchecked rooms to look by a phone. Unfortunately, there was none. I remembered seeing a public one at that very avenue, on my way to the warehouse. I headed to it, leaving the place and walking quickly. 100 meters way, there was the telephone. I dialed Joe's waste removal company number, which I had already gotten used to call frequently, as they were responsible for collecting my lab's waste. I heard a familiar voice on the other side, a heavy sicilian accent.

"Sammy, hey. It's Albert. Look, I am cleaning the warehouse at the Patterson Ave. I believe you know where it is... yes, yes, exactly. Ok, I will be waiting for you. Thank you."

I hung up and walked to the warehouse again. I entered and Kenny was waiting for me again. The corpse was at the entering room, near the boxes, followed by a trail of water from the room it had been in before. I closed the door quickly, afraid someone would see it.

"Sammy is coming. He should be here soon." I said. "I guess we just have to wait."

"Alright." Kenny said, he placed his cigarette on his lips and grabbed a chair. He dragged it to the middle of the warehouse and sat there, smoking his cigarette and taking a look around. The windows were busted, that was going to be hard to fix it. He probably would call one of his contacts, the Master Mirror, the man deal with glasses, mirrors and such so he would be able to fix the windows.

He turned his gaze towards the boxes and the dead body, he was waiting on the waste removal to take care of him so he could burn the boxes. Finishing his cigarette, he remembered that the door handle needed fixing, so he walked around, looking for a toolbox. He found one and grabbed it. Kenny walked to the door, placed the toolbox on the ground and got down on his knees.

After some minutes he finished fixing it, he got up and looked at Albert, he signaled him and the man walked towards Kenny.

"The door closes now, but be gentle when closing it. I'm not a handyman so this could break easily. I'll get someone who knows what they're doing tomorrow to fix some things around here." Kenny grabbed the tools and placed them on the toolbox, closing and grabbing it again. He heard a noise outside, probably the waste removal. He looked at Albert, who gently placed his hand on the door handle and pulled it, to open the door. As he did that, the whole handle fell down from the door.

"Ah for fuck sake." Kenny threw the toolbox in the ground and walked towards the door. "I'll get someone tomorrow to fix this shit." Kenny collected the door handle and pointed his head towards the waste removal crew, Albert went to meet them and Kenny went to place the door handle on the toolbox.

I took the waiting time to walk around the place again. That would be our heardquarters and I was planning what to do to make the place conducive. It really would need a lot of work. After a few moments, I got back to Kenny just to see he had fixed the door, apparently. I could see that it was perfectly fixed...until the handle fell pathetically on the floor. I held on to hold back the laughter.

"Yeah, get someone, Kenny." I said to him.

I heard a truck parking outside. That should be the waste removal truck. When I opened the door, Sammy and another young man had alredy jumped out of the truck.

"Come on in, Sammy."

The big man Sammy entered, followed by his helper. I shook both their hands. Sammy asked what I had for him and I pointed to the corpse. He raised his eyebrows and I stood impassive. He said to me not to worry that he would take care of it and went back to the truck. After a few moments he returned with two big black plastic bags. Without asking any questions or saying anything at all, he and his worker wrapped the corpse and carried it to the truck, as if they were not doing anything special. Kenny and I just watched, silently. I followed them outside.

When Sammy was ready to go, he just got in the truck, honked for me twice and went on his way, simple like that, and I came back inside. 

"Well, Kenny, let's continue?"