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I Showed up at his house, beat him until he was barrel holding on to life then shoved him into his very large chest freezer in hisbasement and padlocked it so he couldn’t get out. Then three days later I called Derek back and told him to go check on the guy. I also made sure to tell him where the key was.
“Hey Raniero, how are you?” Derek asked after the third ring.
“Wish I could say I was doing better. How are you?” I replied, walking out from under the bridge.
“I’m alright, though I have a feeling I will be less alright now that I’m hearing from you.” He snorted, then added, “No offense.”
“No offense taken. Listen, I found a body under the River Street bridge.”
“Where do the lowlifes hang out?” He asked.
“Yeah, that’s the place. You know it, huh?”
“Sure I know it. Made a lot of busts down there when I was just starting out. Always good for a raid. Caught at least one twice a week.” He hesitated. “What wereyoudoing down there?”
“Had a guy missing and one of my other guys found him. Just showed up here to check out the scene and it was the guy we were looking for alright, got a needle in his arm, been dead for a few days I think.”
“Okay….” He drew out the word, clearly not understanding why it was that I was calling him. “So I get that there’s a body, but don’t you guys usually like to handle things yourself? I mean… I appreciate the call, but I’m just a little confused.”
“It’s not our hit and has nothing to do with our business. I can call a cleaner to handle it, but this isn’t a drug overdose. Well… not an accidental one. The guy, Gizmo, wasn’t a needle freak. Wasn’t his drug of choice and we think someone murdered him. I want to know who so I can find out why and see if we have a problem on our hands or if it’s an isolated incident.” I cleared my throat. “I need to keep my people safe, you understand.”
“Oh, I understand.” He chuckled and I could hear someone talking in the background. There was a muffled answer and thesound of an intercom going off. “Yea, I’ll send a team out there and have them look for evidence, but places like that are so riddled with fingerprints and crap that I doubt we are going to find something even if it was foul play. We don’t know how long he’s been dead or how many people found him and went through his pockets looking for things to sell.”
“Thanks, Derek. I owe you one.”
“No, you don’t.” He said and I could hear the smile in his voice. “Keeping on your good side is how I get to sleep at night. Doing something as simple as this is an easy thing compared to what you’ve done for me over the years.”
“Hey, you look the other way when it comes to our business so I feel like we make a great team.” I pointed out. He laughed, but it was the truth. One thing my father taught me was to make friends with powerful people. It made them look at you less and it helped out in the end. It also helped that we were friends before either of us became what we were now. We used to trade Pokemon cards and talk about girls over peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Bonds like that were hard to kill. “Hey, Derek?”
“Yea?”
I hesitated, not sure if I wanted to share this next bit or not, but for whatever reason, be it nostalgic purposes or the fact that I didn’t have anyone to share it with, I felt the need to tell him.
“I got married.”
There was a pause on the other end of the line. I waited, letting him process that information.
“No shit. Well… congratulations! Honestly never saw that coming.” He paused again. “No offense.”
“No offense taken, neither did I.” I told him honestly, with a smile I couldn’t help plastered on my face. I stepped over the fence and headed to my car. “See ya later Derek.”
“Bye Raniero.” He said and hung up.
I got back in my car and let out a deep breath knowing what I was going to have to face this evening and not wanting to. I would figure something out. I had to figure something out because there was no way anyone except me was going to use my wife.
My wife.
The thought did funny things to me, which I decided to ignore as I threw the car into reverse and backed out of the space so I could make my way to the studio and pick up Anita.
Things were certainly going to get interesting.
Anita
“Four more punches, let’s go!” I called out to the group I was teaching. Sweat poured down my back and I counted as I punched the bag with all my might 4 more times, cheering everyone on in between punches. A few of my students were lagging behind, barely even punching the bag, but it had been a hard class so I wasn’t surprised. At least they were still going through the motions and hadn’t given up. I gave them major props for that.
“Two, come on guys, just one more! ONE! Great job everybody! You kicked serious ass today!” I told them, clapping my hands together. Everyone, even my best student who usually had energy after class, was too tired to clap. They were covered in sweat and breathing heavily, and only a few of them had smiles on their faces.
Yes, this was a good session. I was elated and I couldn’t keep the grin off my face, especially when I happened to look out the window and see the figure leaning against a now familiar car.
