The Tale of the Wolf (The Kenino Wolf Series) (18 page)

Adriano’s family were shocked, his parents rose up and went to Anna.

‘
The bastard’s run off with Dimitri. My fucking fiancé has run off with my own brother.’ She flashed the letter around, screaming at any one who came near.

I give up. I surrender. There’s no such thing as normal. There was no point hoping. It was a waste of time.

The place was dumbstruck.

‘
Well that’s a turn-up,’ Tabatha said.

‘
I saw them together at the party,’ Muzzi whispered guiltily.

‘
It’s going to kick off any minute, babes.’ Tabatha was pulling my arm. She wanted out.

The various brothers were rising from each side of the aisle, as were the other relatives. A kick-off was coming. And, as they say in the sporting world, it was going to be a humdinger. Tabatha grabbed my arm.

‘
We need to go now … unless you want to spend another day with the police?’

She was right.
I’d spent so much time with the police recently they were going to name a cell after me.

‘
Good point! After you.’

Muzzi saw the manoeuvre and was quick to follow behind, as were Curtis, Leon, Kelly, and a fair few others. All of us retreating to The Hanging Man

I heard what had happened a bit later from Boom-Boom, when he turned up at The Hanging Man. Marisol had stayed to comfort Anna; loss comforting loss. It had started with curses and ended up with the police arresting many, and the odd one ending up in hospital. In between there was much punching, kicking, gouging, numerous swearwords in Italian and Anna running screaming from the registry office. Not exactly as it had been planned! Mice and men, and all that jazz …

The Hanging Man had turned into the unofficial post-disaster reception, as everyone that hadn’t been arrested or taken to hospital turned up, including Anna who was still being comforted by Marisol and was still in her wedding dress.

Marisol told me that Longy was being buried on Saturday. They had released the body and she wasn’t going to waste any time. She wanted him at rest.

‘
And the only way he can rest is if you find out who did it,’ she stated.

‘
You know I won’t stop,’ I said. And for once I wasn’t lying. The wedding had got me thinking about Michael. He should have been there. ‘You heard anything from Michael?’

‘
Not a word. His baby brother’s dead and I still haven’t heard a word. It should’ve been him being buried!’ She wasn’t joking. She hated Michael that much. ‘Why?’

‘
Just curious.’ I hadn’t told her about Longy going to see Michael when I’d seen him, and I still wasn’t going to tell her. Seeing all the mad Mediterraneans at Anna’s wedding had started me thinking about Longy. I still knew frig all, but I knew Michael was the key. The fact he was absent made me sure of it.

I stepped outside. I needed to phone Bosley. He told me he hadn’t found Michael but had a few leads that he was checking out. He’d let me know how they went. He also warned me that The Beggar was still in town. A reliable source had told him so. He warned me to watch my back.

Thanking him I hung up.

‘
What’s up?’ Tabatha had followed me outside.

‘
If I’m ever going to find out what happened to Longy, I need to find Michael.’

‘
Where do we start?’ she replied.

‘
We?’

‘
We.’ She was in. He was our friend, so of course she was in. Of course, she wanted to know. She didn’t need to explain.

As glad as I was that Bosley was looking, I knew there were limits: to what he could do, to the places he could go, would
know
to go. Finding Michael required a two-prong attack. Bosley going overground and me going under.

‘
This ain’t going to be pretty. Might end up dangerous,’ I said.

‘
Worse than the wedding we just went to?’

‘
Maybe.’ I laughed.

‘
Well, you’re gonna need me then.’ She was right, for so many reasons.

‘
We’ll see what happens at the funeral. If Michael don’t show, we gotta go digging.’

‘
Cool. Gives us enough time to get the rocks back.’

‘
You have a one-track mind!’

‘
They’re difficult to forget.’

‘
Very true.’

‘
You wanna a lift home?’ She was offering me a lift in my own car.

‘
Cheers, Tabs. Enjoying Betsy are ya?’

‘
Love her.’

Friday 9:30 a.m.

We turned up at Muzzi’s early, Tabatha and me. She knew the score with Muzzi, knew if we didn’t help him clean up, he wouldn’t be able to do Longy’s wake. It must have occurred to quite a few other people as well, as when we arrived there was already an army of helpers scrubbing away. Boom-Boom was in a bright pair of marigolds mopping the stairs, which when he saw me clock them said,

‘
One word and I’ll beat you to death with this mop. Y’oright there, Sis?’ He was asking her whether she wanted me dead.

‘
Fine, Bruv.’

‘
Boomy ... Boomy can you give me a hand?’ Marisol was calling. He looked at Tabatha and me and knew the ‘Boomy’ business was making us laugh.

‘
One word, Wolfy, just one word,’ he threatened waving the mop at me. ‘Coming Marisol.’

‘
That
was worth getting out of bed for.
Boomy
in Marigolds,’ I said to Tabatha. We were both sniggering like twelve year olds.

Curtis was vacuuming away, while Anna, who’d thankfully got changed out of her wedding dress, was polishing the windows.

I actually didn’t mind cleaning; a bit of vacuuming could be quite therapeutic, although this was more like a house clearance.

‘
Wolfy, thank god you’re here. Look what someone has done.’ Muzzi dragged me out into the garden.

Muzzi’s house was a disaster. What furniture wasn't upside down was in the garden, except for one leather three-piece which was on the roof, which is what he wanted to show me.

‘
How the hell am I supposed to get that down?’ Muzzi fumed.

‘
Don't look at me,’ Curtis shot in quickly, before Muzzi called for volunteers.

‘
Well, what am I supposed to do?’ Muzzi said.

‘
Laugh?’

‘
Please, Wolfy …’ he implored.

‘
Alright, Muzzi, don’t worry. I’m only playing.’ I was feeling a tad guilty. Although I’d agreed to help, I really just wanted to run off with Tabatha and do something else; anything else. ‘Here, Muzzi. Call these guys they do scaffolding. They'll get it down.’

‘
Cheers, Wolfy.’

‘
No worries. Okay, hand me some gloves.’

He got me some gloves and the scrubbing began, we worked hard all morning, working our way from room to room. We reached the downstairs lounge. We’d left the worst till last.

‘
Look at that. What’s wrong with people?’ One of Muzzi’s fancy armchairs was wedged solidly in the fireplace. And I do mean
in
the fireplace.

Boom-Boom and Curtis grabbed it and started to pull it out, with me supervising. As they wrenched it from the enclosure, from behind the chair a screeching ball of soot and hell fury came flying towards me, raging through the air like some hellish banshee.

Reaching into my pocket, and with uncharacteristic coolness, I pulled out the tranq gun and shot the beast
clean out of the air. Seriously, no bollocks. Pop! One of those moments of sheer ice-cool calmness, which you had no idea you could do.

Everyone was impressed. Even Curtis knew right then and there I was the coolest man in the room.

Muzzi was the only one who wasn’t impressed which, frankly, was rather unfair. All I needed to do was spin the gun and I was Wyatt Earp. He had figured out what it was that I had pop-shot straight out the air. A cat. I would have been happy to leave it as some kind of demonic hell spawn. The shot was worthy of it being some minion of Satan, not some mangy cat covered in soot.

Muzzi instantly recognised the crumpled fur as Cholera, the beloved cat of his — let’s not beat around the bush — nutty-as-a-fruit cake neighbour, Mrs Milkie.

Cholera was her cat and named ‘Cholera’ as
he
, the cat, was the reincarnation of Marigold Milkie’s dead husband, and
cholera
was the disease that killed him.

So far so clear. Now Muzzi was quite annoyed with the state of Cholera.

‘
Wolfy, what have you done? You've killed Cholera.’

‘
I think you mean cured,’ Curtis butted in.

‘
Did I? I'm a hero!’ I said, playing along.

‘
Nobel Prize for you, babes,’ Tabatha jumped in quickly.

‘
This is no laughing matter.’ Muzzi had his serious hat on.

‘
It's a tranq gun, Muzzi. It's just asleep. It’ll be fine when it wakes up.’

‘
I don't know, Wolfy. He fell from quite high.’

‘
I know. Did you see?’ I mimicked my classic moves once more.

‘
Enough, Wolfy. It was only good once,’ Tabatha said, giving me a dirty look.

‘
Sorry, babe,’ I replied.

This whole married couple thing had really started. She was giving me orders, true wifey style. It didn't announce itself with a klaxon or anything but it had definitely arrived. We hadn't gone for curtains, but it was coming. And to be honest I was looking forward to it.

‘
C’est la vie.’
Yes, French. I was on a roll.

‘
I better clean him up and take him back.’ Muzzi said apologetically.

‘
It's a girl by the way.’ Tabatha flung out indiscriminately.

‘
How do you know? Are you sure?’ Muzzi responded, more worried than I think he should have been, if you ask me.

‘
Takes one to know one,’ Tabatha replied haughtily.

We carried on with our cleaning, with me feeling happy I’d shot the bugger, until I saw the soot she'd left over my newly cleaned carpet.

Not as enjoyably as before, I re-vacuumed the carpet. During which time Muzzi had washed Cholera, who had recovered consciousness enough to recognise me and start hissing hysterically.

‘
I’m going to take him ...
her
next door,’ Muzzi fumbled.

‘
Woof!’ I replied unhelpfully at the cat. ‘I hate cats.’ I said to no one in particular once Muzzi and Cholera had left the house.

‘
That's ‘cos you’re a wolf,’ Curtis quipped.

‘
Oh yeah. I never thought of that ... it would explain the odd bit if I'm a wolf.’

‘
Like what?’ Tabatha challenged mockingly.

‘
I don't know. The fact I like hot women in red dresses off to see grandma,’ I said giving her the eye.