“I need to clean up around that toilet bowl,” Cleo said.
“I’ll clean it up. Let’s get you to bed.”
It was music to Cleo’s ears as Mick placed his arm around her waist and escorted her to the bed.
Teddy kicked Monk beneath the table, forcing Monk to look at him. Then Teddy motioned for Monk to look at them. They could see into the bedroom and bathroom from the living room, and they saw as Mick helped walk Cleo out of the bathroom and put her to bed.
“And he wonders why Ma kicked his butt out,” Teddy said.
“I’m a neat person, Mick,” Cleo was saying as he laid her in bed. “Tell them. Tell them I’m a neat person, Mick.”
The “them” she was referring to were the two capos stationed in her bedroom. They sat in chairs against the wall and were on their phones pretty much ignoring her.
But Cleo,being Cleo, wanted to impress them. “They say I’m a slob because I’m sick. I told them if their son would have beat the shit out of them, they’d be a slob too. But I’m not a slob. Am I, Mick?”
“You’re not a slob, Cleo,” Mick said as he headed back into the bathroom to clean up her mess.
“You know that, don’t you, Mick?” She was still going on and on as Mick remained in the bathroom cleaning the throw-up that escaped around the toilet bowl.
But he didn’t come to that house to do her dirty work. That was why, when he got out of that bathroom, he began his search.
Teddy and Monk could see him looking beneath tables and even the bed. “What are you looking for, Pop?”
But Mick said nothing. He went into the living room, looking in the various corners and in the middle of the room and beneath tables and the sofa too.
“What’s going on, Mick?” Monk asked him.
But Mick was singularly focused. But he didn’t find what he was looking for. He didn’t see it. And he was tired of trying.
But when he suddenly began hurrying into the bedroom, Teddy and Monk, seeing the change, got up and hurried in the room too. And when Mick went straight up to that bed and didn’t hesitate to pull out his gun, cock it, and then put it inside of Cleo’s mouth, everybody gasped. “What are you doing, Pop?” Teddy asked frantically.
“Where is he?” Mick asked Cleo. “I’m giving you one chance and one chance only to tell me where that fucker is. If you don’t tell me, I’ll pull this trigger so help me, Cleo. And you know I don’t fuck around.”
Cleo looked as if she was going to throw up again as Mick slowly pulled that gun out of her mouth. But he kept it aimed at her face. “Now where is he?” Mick asked in a hardened voice.
When Mick saidhe, everybody knew exactly to whom he was referring. Ricardo DeSouza, the perp they had every available man on the streets searching for, was right there in thathouse? They were astounded!
And Cleo looked defeated. Her voice was a whisper. “He’ll kill me if I tell.”
“And I’ll kill you more if you don’t,” Mick said. “Where is he?” he asked with clenched teeth.
Cleo began pointing toward the living room. “In the living room. Beside that chair Monk Paletti was sitting in. Move that chair, and you’ll see where some of those floorboards don’t have nails in them. That’s where he is. But he’s heavily armed, Mick. And you promised me you wouldn’t kill our son, Mick.” She was in tears.
But nobody gave a fuck. Mick, Teddy, Monk, and both capos were already running out of that room with all of their guns aimed and ready.
Teddy nodded his permission and the two capos moved the chair as Mick, Teddy, and Monk had their weapons ready.
And sure enough, they saw three slabs that weren’t nailed down. The capos were ready to open them up, but they looked at Mick. And Mick gave the nod.
As soon as they quickly pulled up the floorboards, the two capos stepped back. And that was when Mick, Teddy, and Monk leaned over, looked down into the hole, and saw Ricardo DeSouza balled up like an infant.
“Come out with your hands up!” Teddy yelled at him. “One false move and we’ll light your ass up! Come out and come out now!”
But they got no movement.
“Is he alive?” Monk asked.
Nobody knew. “Cover me,” Teddy said as he sat his gun down and prepared to go down in that hole. “If that fucker moves an inch, don’t hesitate.”
