Chapter One A TALE OF TWO CITIES — CHICAGO: 1995 - 1925 off is edgy about all the kids on the street. There are civilians all over the place and old folks on the porches even though it's been dark for hours. The temperature's barely into the fifties, but on the heels of a brutal winter in Chicago, any wind that's not from the north is an icebreaker. Detective Frank Goff is in the back seat of a blue Chevy Suburban across from an aging brick six-flat on 113th Street. This is a lower-middle class black neighborhood, mostly homeowners trying to keep their places up and not succeeding. The building Goff and his crew are watching is just a couple of blocks off State Street, “that Great Street,” but when you get this far south—and this late in the 20th Century—it loses any resemblance to the boulevard of song and fable. The van's windows are heavily tinted, but to be on the safe side Goff has added burlap curtains. He can still see through the mesh, but from the outside, the heavy cloth will shade any accidental kick of light from metallic objects. Scotty Freeman is at the wheel,