Steak and eggs

Louie gestured towards the waitress attempting to get her attention. 'Hey toots could we get some more coffe over here?' she sauntered towards them with a blatant attitude of contempt. They were notoriously bad tippers and they stayed and talked long after their food was gone. She poured the coffe in silence and walked off. Louie remained silent without even a hint of a 'thank you.' 'I don't know what the fucks her problem.' He said loud enough for the whole diner to hear. 'Your the one who always wants to come her.' Sal replied sipping his coffe. 'I told you that you fuckin moron its the only place where they won't be listening to us.' It was a dubious claim to be sure as Louie was frequently tailed by at least one FBI agent but it seemed reasonable at face value. 'So you take care of that thing for me?' Louie asked. 'What thing?' Sal asked wholly vexed by the question. 'You know with that guy Jimmy...' Sal paused for a second. 'Oh yeah we took care of that last night. Louie sighed. Sal was a big guy and could hit like a ton of bricks but he was not much on brains. He came from a family in Sicily that had been enforcers for La cosa nostra going back a century. Louie had remembered hearing from someone that some of his kin going back had been inbred. 'You gotta be careful out there now. Keep your nose clean, be careful what you say to anyone.' Louie looked around the diner anxiously. 'We been hearing things that we may have a snitch.' Sal's faced remained impassive but he was listening intently. 'Could be anyone so just watch out.'

Unionman

'I refuse to answer the question on the grounds that it might tend to incriminate me.' John O'neil had repeated the line so many times that he was almost unaware that he was saying it. The senator had hammered on along this line of questioning for a half hour with the same results. It had been a parade of flashy dressed mobsters, union officials, all repeating the same mantra. He wondered why they even wasted their time with it. The senator knew the questions would elicit the same response by the gangster's but the questions continued. John had found a blank spot on the wall and had been staring at it repeating the same refrain. He was getting irritated by the comitte members dark stares. It helped that he had finished off a fifth of scotch before going in to testify. Most of the comitte members were WASPs of some description most of them well off from middle America, while most of those summouned to testify were urban ethnics of some description Italians, Irish, Jews. John listened as the senator continued to drone on about corruption, vice, and the destruction of this country's values. For John it was ironic considering how many upperworld politicians and law enforcement officals who enabled them to operate. The scotch had started to wear off and there was still several more characters to be called to testify.