Chapters 11 and 12 Summary

Part II is titled, "Ybor, 1929-1933." In Chapter Eleven, "Best in the City," Joe gets off a train in searing West Florida heat. On the platform, he spots a stunning mulatto woman whose fluid movements as she walks captivate him, but she shoots him an arch look for staring at her. Moments later, he sees her again with a man, the two of them speaking Spanish. Dion appears, dressed loudly and grown fat. He has come to pick up Joe, who is now his boss. In the car, he gives Joe a handgun and explains the uneasy local dynamics between the various Latino ethnic groups. Dion drives to the Port of Tampa, where they step down into the hold of a cargo pit and go through a door to a long underground tunnel that takes them into the city, where they...