ATONEMENT (2 page)

His
inebriated
body swayed
from
side
-to-side
and
to
compensate
he barreled out his
chest, put out
a
foot
to
stop
the
swaying
motion
then
experienced a case of flatulence.
He
chuckl
ed at
its
loud foghorn sound
in
the heavy silence
, unashamed of the personal
indecency
. He took wobbly steps thinking, ‘
the car is right there, certainly a
nother step or two
is not an impossible
feat.
’
Then he
debated whether to
drive or climb inside, lock the doors and let sleep
nullify the
liquors’ affect
.
Eventually, he navigated to it
, proppe
d himself against the door
and
fumbled in his pockets
in search of the
key
. Footsteps approached and he grew cautious.
He
forgot the hour, forgot a lot of things but not
his position.
In Italy he was
an important man, a
well-known
member of the criminal elite, a
Capo
for the Messini Clan
and a damn
good one!

“Money, give it to me!”
A strong
voice
at his back
demanded
.

He cracked up
and tried not to pee his pants
as he turned
.
The thuggish man resembled many others
with d
ark hair, darker eyes and olive skin. He was shorter than Constantine and too skinny to be taken seriously.
What
audacity
provoked a man to dema
nd
another’s belongings?
P
erhaps
,
t
he
crook
was
slow
-witted
,
this would account for
his
foolish request.

“Give you
my
m
oney?”
He sc
offed,
“
Forget
it;
I’m not a charitable man.”

The
mugger
presented a knife
and
shov
ed
it menacingly in Constantine’s face, “Your money drunk!”

The threat of being sliced at the hands of a hoodlum
did not amuse
him.
He leaned his neck forward toward the knife, “Cut.”

The man’s eyes widened
. He should have known this was
one of those realit
y shows where people are pranked
for sport
. He
found no humor in being used for comedy relief
and searched the landscape
for camera
s intent on ending
the charade
. He found only darkness. The transient distraction was a window of opportunity
for Constantine and h
e took hold of the skinny
wrists and
reversed
the
tip of the weapon
. It happened
with such speed
t
he
mugger
could not move his neck in time.
The
point punctured his
throat and
the shocked
eyes widened more.

The
degenerate
would have died eventually but Constantine’s mood was foul
. H
e yanked the knife out the man’s
neck
,
gripped his jacket
,
pull
ed
him
closer and
plunged
the
blade
several more times into the man’s
f
lesh
until he tired. The
robber’s
coat
was
later
released and
the
bloody
carcass
struck the pavement
in
an unrecognizable mess.

“Lazy bum
, work like the rest of us
!” He
spat
then s
traightened
his spine
. A profanity escaped
when he saw the amount of
blood staining his brand new suit.
“
Merda
!”

This
night should have ended pleasantly,
however
in
life
there are
always unexpected troubles
which
u
sually
occur
when a person’s at their happiest. H
e stooped
and cleaned
the
knife
on the dead man’s clothes
then his arms were
seized from behind
, he was snatched upright
and
the
weapon taken
from his hand
. His head
swiveled
back and forth to find himself
restrained by
uniformed
police.
One held the knife aloft and the other put handcuffs on
him
. He sa
id nothing. Sobriety was over-rated.

“Caught
red-handed
as they say in those American
crime
stories
,
” t
he policeman
gripping the stained blade
remarked
. “We witnessed
everything
.”

“Then I
’ll
have no problem with the magistrate since you saw th
is
thief’s
knife at
my throat. Self-defense is
not a
crime.”

There was a
loud
ch
ortle
, “Really
, I saw no such thing
?”

Constantine search
ed the streets for
their vehicle but
failed to
see
the obvious
blue car with POLIZEI etched on the side. He said noth
ing more and waited.

He was
pulled back a few steps
by the silent officer as his partner bagged the knife
as evidence, snapped a photo
of the dead man and
then took
one of Constantine
who quickly
turned his face
away. T
his was not proper police procedure and the purpose of the photo
highly
questionable. Now, he wished he had not stopped in this hole of a place and waited to drink
at
an
upscale
bar
closer to home.

Constantine
surveyed
the deserted street
and clearly
saw
the state of the place
with
its dilapidated buildings
and squalor
. In his rush to appease his thirst he
dismissed the
se
obvious signs of
neglect
for
his liquid fix.
The neon sign of the bar was all he
noticed and seeing the place from a renewed perspective, he questioned his own judgment.
This section
of
town was under the
control
of
the
Lameza
family
.
How could they prosper
when they reigned over such
destitution
?

“There
’s
a way for you to avoid prison and this incident can ‘
poof’
disappear.” One officer said
close to his ear
.

Constantine
continued
in his silence
.

“These photos
and our video, edited of course will show
how violently you murdered this innocent man after a simple disagreement
. It
will incite the anger of good citizens, especially the
Adiopizzo
groups. You
’ll
rot in jail
for the rest
of your life, if your associates do
n’t
kill you first.”

The corners of
Constantine’s
dry mouth
turned downward.