So Much White

The warm dark liquid would've gone down David's throat smoother without all the papers littering his desk. The sight of it made him want to torch the room. So much white had no right to occupy his otherwise black abode. 

"Alfred, what exactly am I looking at?" The mafia boss refused to sit as he drained the coffee mug. He returned it to the butler without looking away from the desk. He refrained from gritting his teeth. 

"Your neglect, I believe, Don." Alfred set the mug down on the desk's edge before moving around the side.

"They have been piling up here for the last two weeks. Most of them need your signature." The butler indicated to the tallest, most precariously stacked pile of papers on the desk.

"The only papers that should be on my desk need my signature." David could sign papers in his sleep. Everyone knew why they had been left on his desk to build up.

"You have been spending too much time out, Don. You request everything of importance be sent here. The one place you've hardly been spending time at." Alfred enlightened the mafia boss as he continued to organize the papers. He was diligent in his work as David stood to the side, watching with growing annoyance. Indeed this problem wasn't one to be laid at his feet.

"The rest you'll find, Don, is informational. Business deals, other mafia families. Police business, those were delivered late last night. I believe Miguel, who mentioned you'd likely want to report on short notice." David snatched the papers from Alfred in one quick move without stepping forward. Finally, someone had something valuable for him!

The mafia boss didn't care about the why as much as the who. He'd already made the call to ensure the why didn't matter. All he needed to know was whether this new police chief would be worth his time.

Prior work experience, background, abilities, comrades, and salary. Those were the only things that mattered to David Bianchi. Weaknesses couldn't easily be leveraged when it came to the police—especially those higher in rank. 

They were the ones who never put anything on the table that they weren't willing to lose. That included family. They hadn't made it as far as they did without realizing the risks. Whoever would be the new police chief would likely fall within this same category. A man who was equally as cold and calculating as David. Hardly a challenge but one that would either be a valuable asset or a total waste of time that would need to be dealt with swiftly. 

"Don. I believe that you should let those be for the time being. Several other documents here would benefit from getting your attention first." David didn't pay Alfred any heed, however. He snapped his fingers and pointed in the direction of the door. An indication that the mafia boss no longer wanted his services. David would take care of whatever was in front of him in any order he liked. 

"Don't blame me then, Don, when everything piles up further and you're in a worse mood than usual." Alfred's parting words as he took the coffee cup with him went ignored by David. They didn't even warrant a snort of indignation from the mafia boss. Such a thing would never happen. David would let his men care for the worst work before letting matters go that far. That was what they were there for, after all. 

"Where is what I'm looking for." The mafia boss let out a low growl as he flipped through the papers, eye scanning the words rapidly for the desired information. Indeed there was enough known about this police chief that his ambitions and interests would be marked. Why did his men waste their time putting this together in such a rush if not? 

Without taking his eyes off the papers before him, David flipped his cell phone open with one hand and used speed dial to call his right-hand man.

"Don?" The wary response that met David's ears told him more than the papers in front of him possibly could have. The man knew he was in hot water before David said anything.

"What Am I looking at here, Miguel? I thought I told you to provide everything I needed here; otherwise, why would you put this in front of me?" David continued scanning the document as he waited for the other's reply. 

"Er. I believe that is because there was nothing else left to add. We covered all the bases you asked for. Not everything could be easily found. I did most of the work, but Sinclair filled in the rest. He was the one who spent the most time around the police department." Miguel's voice wavered as he finished speaking. The silence that followed his words unnerved him. A silent David was never a good thing. 

"And where is Sinclair then, and why is his name not on this report?" David flipped through the pages as he waited for a satisfactory response. Sinclair again? Two for two, that man had recently dropped the ball with him. Something would have to be about that. 

"Sinclair is still trying to gather additional information. He's also revising the deal you pushed back yesterday, Don. If you would like, I could connect him to the call, and we could discuss this right now?" As much as Miguel was eager to pass the ball onto someone else (something that didn't go amiss by David), the mafia boss rejected this idea. 

"No. Please request that he come here to see me when he finishes. I expect he will be able to report to me on both of these matters. Especially about this police matter. I need this information yesterday." David didn't even let Miguel verify that he would do as he was told before he ended the call and dialed someone else. 

"I need a favor from you because it seems no one else is currently reliable. I hope you will be able to do it in a timely manner. Otherwise, I don't know what I will end up doing with all this white."