Lo siento por el muerto

"Lo siento por el muerto" by Arnold Briggs A Prohibition-era crime novel set in 1928 New York. Two men, Vernon Fraser and Edgar Sikes, surveillance operatives from Chicago, tail dancer Peggy Haynes for five days, suspecting connection to gangster "Big" Al Scorpio's organization. At a roadside diner, Peggy meets Lloyd Leblanc, Scorpio's enforcer and her unwilling boyfriend, who physically abuses her. When Peggy reveals receiving mysterious midnight phone calls with the phrase "Lo siento por el muerto" (I'm sorry for the dead), referencing supposedly-deceased gang member Brant Rogers, Leblanc dismisses her fears. Fraser intervenes to stop Leblanc's violence; Leblanc draws a gun and fires. Fraser subdues him brutally. The narrative suggests Rogers's death may be staged and that Scorpio's organization faces internal threat, with Peggy caught in escalating danger she doesn't fully understand.