BooksBarbecue
Back The Deal Goes Down
Chapters (55)
  1. Cover
  2. Other Titles
  3. Dedication
  4. CHAPTER ONE
  5. CHAPTER TWO
  6. CHAPTER THREE
  7. CHAPTER FOUR
  8. CHAPTER FIVE
  9. CHAPTER SIX
  10. CHAPTER SEVEN
  11. CHAPTER EIGHT
  12. CHAPTER NINE
  13. CHAPTER TEN
  14. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  15. CHAPTER TWELVE
  16. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  17. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  19. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  21. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  22. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  33. CHAPTER THIRTY
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  43. CHAPTER FORTY
  44. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  53. CHAPTER FIFTY
  54. CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
  55. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Instead of going home to cut logs and split them for firewood, I headed in the other direction, keeping an eye in my rearview mirror, for a sedan with out-of-state plates, driven by a man who wasn’t fat, just as a test. I didn’t notice anyone suspicious. When I got into Kingston, I made several sets of extra turns, to see if anyone stayed with me through the meaningless meanders. If they did, they were very good, and I didn’t spot them. I parked on Fair Street, by the Department of Motor Vehicles. I strolled around the Old Dutch Church to the Courthouse, went inside, took the elevator up to the DA’s offices, then down the stairs to the side exit, through the parking lot, then around to the Crown, and over to Green Street. I was certainly being paranoid. Better overcautious than caught is a good general rule for life.

I went to see Lucinda Morton, who’d been my accountant back when I was making enough money to need an accountant. It wasn’t tax season. She wasn’t very busy. I only had wait about fifteen minutes. When we got into her office, I said, “Hypothetically, strictly hypothetically, how would I launder a couple of hundred thousand dollars?” It turned out to be far easier than I’d ever thought it would be. I thanked her, rose to go, and shook her hand.

She said, “If it gets too much more than that, please keep us in mind.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

THE GOLD DIGGERS OF OUR NEW CENTURY

ELIZABETH HAD ALREADY JUMPED FROM her old company. To start her own. With offices, of course, in DUMBO.

DUMBO is no longer a cute little elephant with ears so large he can fly.

It’s the most recent hippest place to be.

For the first half of the twentieth century, Greenwich Village was New York’s place—all of America’s place—for the arty and avant-garde. By the 1960s, being bohemian was so attractive that it pushed the rents up. There was another neighborhood, right next door, full of rundown factory and warehouse buildings. Back then, it was illegal to live in commercial loft spaces. But these were artists. It was their duty to defy conventions. Besides, the space was cheap. And big. The artists were often handy, as well as young, lacking in cash, but full of sweat equity. They put in showers, real bathrooms, illegal kitchens, and walls to make separate rooms. Their presence made the neighborhood hip. Real estate dealers and developers moved in. Zoning laws were changed to make the living legal. That area, South of Houston Street, got renamed SOHO, and prices went up, driving the artists out.