Memphis: Chapter 2

Zeus growled at her.

Delaney shook her head. “You don’t scare me big man, so just quit your bitching. I grew up with three older brothers and I learned to give as good as I got. If I got bloody, so did they.”

Alfredo chuckled. “Yeah, your brothers finally left you alone didn’t they, girl?”

Delaney nodded. “And that pissed my dad right off didn’t it? They could hit me but I couldn’t hit them back? No way was that gonna fly.”

Alfredo looked amused. “But we digress, honey.” He stared at the bikers. “I was told you have two books, I want to see both of them. As far as I know, my dad only left one book. I think I might have an idea who wrote the second book and if he did, it’s a lie.”

“A lie?” Zeus asked. “How do you know that?”

“In some ways, my father was a cruel man,” Alfredo replied. “He enjoyed making people jump through hoops no one should have to jump through. He had one friend he liked to play his games with and at times, he was downright mean to this guy. But Lucky took it, he took all of my father’s games and I think he got the last laugh.”

“What does that mean?” Memphis frowned at him.

“Can I see the books you found?” Alfredo asked.

Zeus studied him for a moment then nodded.

Diabolus went over to the table then came back and handed him the books.

Alfredo sat down and pulled out his spectacles as he opened his father’s book. He skipped through it quickly and stopped on one page. He ran his hand over the paper to straighten out the wrinkles and then he read the words his father wrote carefully. He shook his head and looked up at Zeus. “May I ask where you found this book?”

“In the fireplace,” Zeus told him. “We moved the mirror and we found that book and a drawing of the clubhouse as it looked back in his time.”

Alfredo got to his feet and hobbled over to the fireplace. As he glared at it he said, “I always hated this thing. It was overly big and you could never start a fire in it. Dad would never allow it, but he had to have the damn thing built. Then he would stare at it and sometimes, he would smile and nod at it. I never knew why. Then one night I couldn’t sleep and I heard him out here fussin’ with the damn thing. I crept down the hall and peeked around the corner, that’s when I saw his biggest secret.” He swung the mirror out and stared at the stones behind it, the stones that made up the chimney. He turned and pointed at them. “There’s your gold gentlemen. Behind these stones is where he hid the melted gold.”

“Not in the base, but in the chimney?” Diabolus asked, as he looked mystified.

The old man nodded his head. “The reason he put the mirror up there in the first damned place was to hide the gold bricks until he could stone them. I saw him adding the stones and covering up the bricks. He kept the mirror up there to hide the raw mortar. Then the Marshals came along and we had to leave in a hurry and we couldn’t get back here for a while. When we did come back, Dad was happy to see the fireplace was still here and still undisturbed.”

Diabolus stared at the fireplace. “Well, there’s one way to find out isn’t there?” He disappeared into the kitchen to return with a hammer and a chisel. He and Memphis went over to the fireplace and stopped to study it for a moment.

Alfredo pointed at a spot and said, “I’d try there.”

Diabolus nodded as he fixed the chisel in the grout and slammed the hammer in to break the mortar. The mortar began to chip. When the hole was big enough, Diabolus stopped and blew away the dust. Then he froze and shook his head. “Boss, you ain’t gonna believe this.”

“Yeah? Well, try me.” Zeus scoffed. “At this point, I am a believer in wild shit already.” He stepped forward and saw the same thing he did, the gleam of gold behind the stone. He turned to stare at Alfredo. “What the fuck, man?”

“I told you already, more fucking head games.” Alfredo shrugged his shoulders. “By telling Lucky he put the gold in the fireplace base, he knew Lucky would be close and yet, soooo far away. He would believe my father lied to him again.” He then walked over to the fireplace hearth and kicked at one of the stones close to the corner. There were several of them that had no grout between them and he kicked them too. It took several boot strikes to get even one to loosen but he finally got one to break free. With a grunt, he knelt down to remove the loose stones nearby.

The group peering in from behind him could all see a hidden box under the removed stones.

Alfredo lifted the box out of the hole and placed it on the stones. “I think this is where his real account book is hidden.”

“His real account book?” Zeus asked in surprise as he stared at the older man. “What the fuck was wrong with your family, old man? We got tunnels, an old garage, storerooms full of casks that hold not whiskey but fucking gold flakes. Safes full of old funny money. We got hidden doors inside of fucking closets and shit, a fake fireplace and walls that don’t belong. And now you’re telling me that your dad made bricks out of gold and decoy books?”

”He would have had to have a real account book as he always kept methodical records.” Alfredo nodded.

“Methodical?” Diabolus exclaimed. “The man was fucking certifiable to say the least. Didn’t they have any loony bins, back in the day? Cause he should have been locked the fuck away, man.”

Alfredo stared at him and then he laughed.

They all stared at him as if he might need a loony bin too.

“He was mostly sane,” Alfredo explained. “Despite what it looks like. You gotta realize somethin’ here. You didn’t live back in them days. So you have no idea what he was up against. When he was a younger man, he had fucking Eliot Ness running around with his God damned Untouchables who were busting the mob and bootleggers, right and left. Then he had bosses in the mob that would cut people’s fingers and toes off just for shits and giggles! Let alone what they did to a person when they were actually mad. All, while he would be hiding all this booze and money, dealing with unstable kingpins, all along the way. Then he would get a visit from the family’s head once a year, so he would have to show this book and his accounts to the head of the family. The rules demanded that. As one of the Family’s Lieutenants, if you cheated the family they would immediately put a bullet in your head and very often, they did just that. Back then, the Family was a law unto their own and they took what they wanted and very often, they took stuff they didn’t even care about. They were more powerful than the police were and it was only after Ness and the IRS took down Capone that things began to change and the Family started to respect the laws of the land. Many men died during that time because they fought the turnaround but not my dad, he lived to be an old man.” Shaking his head, he added, “But that didn’t mean he learned to play their game. He just played his own game.”

They all had listened. He spoke of a past they couldn’t even picture in their heads, but it did explain some of the things they had found here.

“And who was this man you called Lucky?” Marty wanted to know, as she did look intrigued about this wild past.

“Martin Luccino. He was my dad’s best friend even though my dad never treated him right. I can’t imagine why, after all the times my dad tricked him and made him look like a fool but he never quit on my dad.”

Zeus looked around the room and his hard gaze settled on Click.

Click raised his head to stare back at him.

”Find out who is in the Dragon’s MC,” Zeus ordered. “And see if one of them is related to this Martin Luccino.”

“Lucky had one son and two daughters,” Alfredo informed them. “You might want to try the names Hayes and Briggano as well.”

Click nodded then left the room.

Alfredo picked up his cane and hobbled back to the table. Sitting down, he looked at Delaney. “Well girl, I have a feeling this is gonna get messy. Alijala and Romano are not going to be happy that all the family secrets are out now. And when your dad gets out of the pen, he’s going to be furious that I held all this knowledge back from him.” Shaking his head, he said, “But the gold doesn’t belong to us and it has to be returned to the Family. My son wouldn’t do that and you and I both know it. So all of this had to come down the way it did.”

“You know who to call?” Delaney asked him.

“Yeah, I know who to call but I don’t know that he’ll take my call. His father told my dad a long time ago to lose his number. My dad tried playing his head games with him and it didn’t go over so well.”

“Maybe he would take the call if I phoned him,” Zeus spoke up. “We can tell him we found the gold and then understood it was Mob gold and we wanted to make sure it got back to the right people.”

“Do you think he would listen?” Diabolus asked.

Alfredo shrugged. “All you can do is ask.”

“Give me his number,” Zeus replied.

Alfredo took out his old leather wallet and fished through it. He then gave Zeus the piece of paper he held in his hand.

Zeus stared down at it. “Yeah, I have heard of this man before. Both good and bad shit.” He let out a sigh and placed the call. When a voice came on the line, Zeus introduced himself. “Mr. Vincinti, you don’t know me but I think I have something in my possession that might belong to your organization.”

“Who the hell is this?” a smooth accented voice asked.

“My name is Zeus and I am the president of the Brothers at Arms MC.”

“Okay and why have you called me, Mr. Zeus?”

Zeus explained it, “My MC bought the old Raggetti property in Festus, Missouri, seven years ago. Then a few months ago, we ran into some trouble with the Raggetti family members. We recently found out why. They think the Ragettis had gold buried on the property somewhere. Well now… we think we found it and one of Barrett’s sons who’s with the Marshal Service knows this.”

“Interesting but what does that have to do with me?” Mr. Vincinti wanted to know.

“The gold doesn’t belong to us and we don’t want it,” Zeus informed him. “We’d really not rather go to war over it, because too many people have died over this already.”

“Listen figlio,” Mr. Vincinti spoke again. “The owners of that gold are no longer alive and their heirs have no idea it belongs to them. I’m almost inclined to just leave it alone.”

“If you do that, sir,” Zeus growled lowly. “You risk not only our lives but others as well. And what if those heirs find out that you wouldn’t claim the gold for them, won’t that cause problems for you?”

“Is that a threat?” The man on the other end growled his words.

“Absolutely not, sir. I don’t know the heirs but we are going to battle with the Raggetti family soon over this gold. Barrett is due to get out of prison and his enemy George Kent may already know about the gold. He’s a Marshal. I have a feeling it’s gonna become a race to see which one of them gets their hands on the gold.”

“That gold does not belong to the Marshals,” Mr. Vincinti stated in a low voice.

“It doesn’t belong to the Raggetti’s or us either, the only difference is the Raggetti’s want it and we don’t, but I’m not just gonna give it to them either,” Zeus explained. “I know Alfonzo Raggetti liked to play head games and your organization got caught up in them but that’s not how we roll. And I sure as hell don’t want to turn it over to the Marshals as it doesn’t belong to them either but you can bet your boots, they will try to claim it. They might even come up with a way to say it’s stolen and they need to take custody of it to get it back to where it belongs and then it will disappear because the real owners might not step up and claim it.”

“I see…” Vincinti’s smooth Italian voice hummed over the phone.

“Is there a list of the family members that gave their gold into Alfonzo’s keeping?” Zeus wanted to know.

“Si, such a list exists,” Mr. Vincinti admitted. “Why do you ask?”

“Because we found one storage room with about fifty whiskey casks full of gold nuggets. Alfredo tells us his dad had three of these rooms. We sealed the first one we found but then we found out that Alfonzo melted down some of the gold and made it into bricks. So we have no idea who’s owed what but I can almost guarantee you one thing…” Zeus paused. “If war comes to Festus, the whole world will find out why and what you did or didn’t do to stop it.” Zeus then ended the call.

Marty gasped as she stared at him with round eyes. “Was that a wise thing to do? Pissing that man off could just get you want you don’t want, a war.”

Alfredo nodded his head firmly. “What she said.”

“Well, to be fair, this Vincinti character said he wanted nothing to do with our mess in the first place,” Memphis defended Zeus’ actions. “And why would he? All this shit went down almost a hundred years ago.”

“It is still his mess by rights,” Alfredo acknowledged.

Zeus nodded. “But without knowing who else to contact, we seem to be at a stalemate.”

“And we don’t even know who’s left of the Dragon’s yet,” Marty added.

Alfredo shook his head. “Well, I can guarantee you one thing. You just lit a fire under his Armani suit covered ass. Now, he’ll have to get involved whether he wants to or not.”

“How do you figure that?” Zeus asked. “He just more or less told us it was our mess.”

Alfredo grinned. “Then you had to go and tell him you’d snitch on him and that is something no one has ever done before, well not and lived anyway.”

Marty looked over at Zeus and gave him a slow, meaningful nod of her head. “What he said.”

Alfredo looked over at her and told her, “Damn, I like you!” He chuckled.

Lindy tisked under her breath and shook her head as she glared at Zeus. “Great, hot shot, you just pissed off the one man you never want to piss off.” She sighed heavily. “Well, it was nice knowing you boys.”