“Carlo is in Florida but his head is somewhere else. He does not want to be here right now. He doesn’t want to be seen or talked to. Don’t forget how well I know him and how he thinks. For all intents and purposes, Carlo is hiding out.”
– The Blue Suit speaking with Josh Resnek
By JOSH RESNEK with THE BLUE SUIT
Monday afternoon the Blue Suit and I drove down to Revere Beach. We ate at Kelly’s. That is, we got food to go from Kelly’s. Can you guess what the Blue Suit wanted? Sure you can. Two orders of clams, a lobster roll and a roast beef sandwich with a large fry and a chocolate frappe. I ordered a clam chowder. I paid. The tab came to $110.00.
Had this been 1967, the tab would have been something like $18.00.
Monday’s weather made us hungry.
It was almost warm enough to eat outside.
We chose to eat inside my Honda Fit parked at Eliot Circle by the beginning of the beach and watching the waves, which were rolling in like a herd of galloping Palominos. Sitting so close to the Blue Suit while he is eating…well…it is a fairly disgusting thing to do.
He gobbles his food. He spits when he talks. He burps and then he shovels more food into his mouth. He licks his fingers. He picks up his behind from the car seat just a bit and lets some air out. It is a bit like breathing in poison gas.
“Please don’t do that again,” I told the Blue Suit.
He apologized.
He loves Kelly’s tartar sauce. He’d plunge a clam into the tartar sauce, then spread ketchup on it, and then it was into his mouth with French fries, cole slaw and sips of Coca Cola to get it down. He saved the lobster roll for last and alternated between bites of the roast beef sandwich and the lobster roll. When he finished with the food, he began sipping the frappe.
He talked about Carlo.
“Carlo is now facing the MCAD (Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination) complaint filed against him by the superintendent of schools. He just lost about $200,000 he would have received in longevity payments for the next four years and what’s worse, he believes the council or some outside counsel or attorney is going to force him to pay back the $180,000 he received. That money is gone. I know it is. He owes money everywhere,” the Blue Suit told me.
“Then there’s the lawsuit against the city clerk and the city clerk’s lawsuit against him and now he’s refusing to deal with the FBI retrieving two electronic surveillance devices inside the ceiling in the office of the woman he wants to remove as superintendent! The surveillance cameras could not have been placed by Carlo. Maybe someone else did it out of devotion to him. Just the same, many people I speak with believe Carlo might well be behind the surveillance cameras in the ceiling of the superintendent’s office. How ironic that Carlo made a statement indicating he wanted a full investigation. He asked for the DA of Middlesex County to investigate. He asked for the Attorney General to investigate. He did not ask the FBI to look into the matter when in fact it is the FBI that took the surveillance devices after inspecting the superintendent’s office. Why wouldn’t he have mentioned the FBI?”
“You tell me,” I asked the Blue Suit.
“I believe he has a handler at the FBI. How else can we explain nothing having to do with Carlo’s various wrongdoings being investigated?” the Blue Suit told me.
The Blue Suit finished the frappe, making so much noise sucking the straw when nothing was left of it in the container that I had to ask him to stop.
He began anew.
”Then there is the school committee takeover. That has so far been an absolute failure. Carlo is done with Mike McLaughlin.”
“How does Mike feel about that?”
“Mike wishes he never got into this mess. He understands how foolish being associated with the mayor’s takeover plan has made him appear to be. But Mike is trapped. Besides, the mayor has something on him, that’s why he stepped down from the city council to run for a school committee seat. Mike wishes he never did that. Carlo wishes Mike would just disappear. He does not believe he can rely on him.”
“And what about the mayor’s buddy Mike Mangan?” I asked the Blue Suit.
“Carlo will use and abuse Mangan. Mangan won’t complain. Mangan won’t shy away from doing as the mayor asks him, either.”
“What about Mangan being appointed to the finance committee of the school committee?” I asked.
“What about it?” the Blue Suit replied. “Mike’s got a good head for figures.”
“Yeah. I understand. Didn’t Mike have a problem with his campaign account a few years back when he was running for something or other?” I asked.
“That was no big deal,” the Blue Suit replied. “He used about $6,000 he raised to pay for his rent and other necessities. The only problem? He got caught. He was fined by the Office of Campaign and Finance and had to pay the money back. I think he’s a perfect pick for the school committee finance committee,” the Blue Suit joked.
“I’ve got real news for you. Carlo is done with Eric Demas. The best part about the mayor being done with him is that Demas doesn’t know this yet. His time is coming. The moment the mayor is asked how the longevity payment of $40,000 never made it into the city budget, he will say this: “I had nothing to do with that. Demas did it on his own.”
“Demas convicted himself about two months back when called to answer for his actions by the city council, he replied about the hidden longevity payment: “The mayor never asked me to do anything for him.”
“You can be sure Demas will become the fall guy for the mayor receiving $180,000 he should never have received,” said the Blue Suit.
“How will Demas defend himself?” I asked.
“He’ll just leave and that will be the end of him,” the Blue Suit answered.
“What about Carlo’s cousin Anthony DiPierro. He’s a really big feeling younger guy isn’t he?” I asked the Blue Suit.
“I don’t care for Anthony. He’s as nasty and mean spirited as they come in this city. If I were him, I’d be very careful about now. I’m told by Carlo there are some very nasty e-mails that could end his political career floating around out there.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me?” I said in reply.
“Tell me about them, please,” I asked.
“You’ll find out soon enough…and so will Mr. Smooth and Suave DiPierro.”