Page:Scarface.pdf/91

 Tony's inquiries showed him that the best ex­ecutive of the lot was Johnny Lovo, who had his headquarters in Cicero, a rather large but some­what frowsy suburb which joined the city on the west. Though the stranger could not discern where the city left off and the suburb began, Cicero was a separate entity with its own government and the city police had no right to meddle there. It im­pressed Tony as an ideal place from which to oper­ate and that night he went out to see Johnny Lovo.

Those were the days before the present great secrecy as to gang leaders' movements and where­abouts was necessary and Tony had no difficulty in locating his man at his headquarters on an upper floor of a hotel whose appearance was far better than its reputation.

Lovo was a short, squat, dark man of perhaps thirty-five, with fine clothes, a large diamond ring and stickpin, and a ready smile on his not unhand­some face, who constantly chewed a long black cigar. He had been prominent in Cicero for some years as an operator of vice and gambling dens. Prohibition had merely placed in his hands another weapon with which to continue his pursuit of enor­mous wealth.

Tony liked him instantly. Here was a man who