Crimes of August: A Novel

Eight

[98] eight Ilídio, the numbers game bankroller assaulted by Inspector Mattos , was a proud man. He had started his life as lawbreaker by working for Mr.Aniceto Moscoso,the great numbers game financier in Madureira.With extreme efficiency he provided security for Mr. Aniceto’s betting sites. He avoided the use of violence but, when necessary, hadn’t hesitated to kill the usurper of a site or anyone else who was creating serious problems for Mr. Aniceto’s business.His industriousness had led to several promotions within the rigid hierarchy of the numbers game command.Finally,with the help and protection of his patron, and the acquiescence of the other large-scale bankrollers , Ilídio came to control several gambling sites in the city. He became a small-scale bankroller. His businesses, like those of all the others, large or small, prospered endlessly. Ilídio’s ambition was to one day become a major bankroller, like Mr. Aniceto. The humiliation he had suffered at the hands—or rather,the feet—of that inspector had become unbearable for him. He believed that in the world of lawbreaking, and especially among his subordinates, there was no one who didn’t know and talk about what had happened. The only way to put an end to his shame and recover the prestige he assumed he was losing was to kill the inspector.This was something he couldn’t do personally: killing a person with his own hands was a violation of the rules established and followed by bankrollers, and he planned to obey them. So he ordered the summoning of a trustworthy assassin known as Old Turk. Old Turk owed that nickname to his white hair. He was only forty-two [99] and was younger than another gunman calledYoungTurk,a guy who couldn’t be trusted, not only because he dyed his hair and mustache but also because he was a coward and a liar. Old Turk, on the other hand, a reserved man, mysterious, dedicated to his family and his work, was respected for his discretion and feared for his efficiency. No one had ever seen him boast, and yet in the performance of his activities he had already killed more than twenty people—all of them men. “I want the old one, you hear?” The message was spread among the annotators and other subordinates of Ilídio. Old Turk was tracked down in Caxambu, Minas Gerais, where he had gone over the weekend to visit his mother. “Mr. Ilídio, day after tomorrow I’ll be in Rio to do the job,” he said after hearing the proposal. Aniceto Moscoso also learned of the summoning of OldTurk.Concerned,he called a meeting with Ilídio, at a barbecue restaurant in Saenz Pena Square. “We don’t kill policemen,” said Aniceto,“we buy them.” “The fucker isn’t for sale.” “They all have their price.I speak from experience.I’ve been in this business a lot longer than you.” “The bastard humiliated me. The whole city’s laughing at me. He’s gotta die, so I can look my children in the eye again.” “The best revenge is to buy the guy.” “That son of a bitch doesn’t have a price; he’s crazy.Everybody knows that.” Aniceto Moscoso tried to convince him that it was a mistake to go forward with his plan, but Ilídio wouldn’t yield and left without promising anything. It was the first time in the relationship between the two that a request of Moscoso’s was not quickly heeded by his former employee. That same day, Moscoso went to see his friend Eusébio de Andrade, the big bankroller in theWest Zone and a mentor to whom the other bankers would go for advice. The two men had in common a passion for football. Andrade was a benefactor of the Bangu Athletic Club and Aniceto Moscoso was the honored patron of the Madureira Athletic Club, whose football stadium [100] had been built with his money. In general, the numbers racket was viewed as criminal,butAndrade’s and Moscoso’s sports activities gained them favorable publicity in the media and in society, despite both clubs being small groups in the outskirts. Andrade and Moscoso urged the other numbers bosses to sponsor activities that interested the public, without, however, encountering much receptivity.“The problem is that our colleagues are very ignorant,”said...