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building permits, or twenty contract killings.”
    â€œI gather you’ve done your homework on Lucan Alfano,” I said.
    â€œOf course I have. I don’t sit here fixing traffic tickets for the mayor’s kids all day, you know.”
    â€œWow. Who would have thought?”
    â€œAlfano was a fixer,” Hernandez said.
    â€œFor the Atlantic City casinos,” I said, “although I doubt he would have stooped to anything as mundane as traffic tickets.”
    â€œJesus, Mulligan. You mean to tell me you have sources in Jersey ?”
    â€œI’m very resourceful, Oscar. It’s my best quality.”
    â€œSo what did your sources have to say about why Alfano was coming to Rhode Island?”
    â€œThey were clueless,” I said. “Yours?”
    â€œThe same.”
    â€œCan you trace the money?” I asked. “That could lead us to whoever he was working for.”
    â€œCan’t be done. They’re all circulated bills. No consecutive serial numbers.”
    â€œI only caught a glimpse,” I said, “but to me they looked like freshly packed bundles with bank bands on them.”
    â€œDoesn’t help us any,” Hernandez said. “Anybody can buy bank bands, manufactured and color-coded to Federal Reserve standards, for less than seven dollars per thousand. And for three hundred bucks, you can buy a counting machine that will spit out counterfeits and bundle the good bills for you.”
    I slid a Partagás out of my shirt pocket and clipped the end. Hernandez got up and threw open the window behind his desk. Then he sat back down again and said, “Got another one of those?”
    I handed him a cigar and leaned across the desk to set fire to it with my Colibri. He puffed, plucked it from his lips, and studied the band.
    â€œKind of pricy for a scribe who lives in a dump on America Street.”
    â€œNot the way I come by them. If you want, I can get you a box.”
    â€œHow much?”
    â€œNo charge. I get ’em for free.”
    He raised an eyebrow at that.
    â€œSorry,” I said, “but a reporter never reveals his source.”
    We smoked in silence for a few minutes.
    â€œAlfano owns some pawnshops and a payday loan outfit in Jersey,” he said. “The payday loan company deals mainly in checks, but pawnshops are a cash business.”
    â€œWhich makes them a great way to launder money,” I said.
    â€œYeah. Chances are we’re never going to figure out what the hell this was about.”
    â€œAnything on the cause of the crash yet?”
    â€œInvestigators from the FAA and the NTSB started combing through the wreckage this morning. It’ll be at least a couple of weeks before they tell me anything.”
    â€œAnd six months before they release their final report,” I said.
    â€œSounds about right.”
    â€œOkay to print the names of the crash victims?”
    â€œYeah. The notifications were made this morning.”
    I thanked him, rose to leave, and then turned back when I got to the door.
    â€œI don’t suppose you’ve got a photo of Alfano you could let me have,” I said.
    â€œWhat for?”
    â€œI’m thinking I might show it around. See if it gets a rise out of anybody.”
    â€œI’ll e-mail you a copy.”
    I was halfway home when my cell stared playing the theme from The Godfather, my ringtone for Zerilli.
    â€œHi, Whoosh. What’s up?”
    â€œI need to see you. We got trouble.”

 
    6
    The little market on Hope Street was the destination of choice for stocking up on Yoo-hoo, Ding Dongs, Red Bull, Cheetos, malt liquor, Juggs magazines, and illegal tax-stamp-free cigarettes. It was also the place to go in Providence to lay down an illegal sports bet.
    The old brass bell over the front door clanked as I pushed through it and wound my way down the cramped grocery aisles to a short flight of stairs in back. At the top, I knocked on a