chapter fifty four

Chapter 54

word count 475

Uncle Frank pulled his fedora down over his face and got out of the car, peering up and down the street. All looked quiet. Yellow tape draped around a nearby house, indicating the place was a crime scene. Regardless, he rushed up the sidewalk and tried the front door. Locked. Pulling a tool from his pocket, he jimmied it and popped the door to Bud Kramer's house wide open, then slipped in. Not a sound. With short, hurried steps he pushed his huge frame around the room to search the premises, gun cupped in his hands, ready for action. He was a big man, and the activity instigated deep wheezes in his chest. Apparently his people did a good job on that bastard, Ren. Now he just needed to get rid of Kramer, and he could move on and look for that jail guard and the whore.

The bathroom was a disaster of blood smears, like a whacked-out Rorschach Test on the walls. Whacked--ha--no pun intended...he smiled at his own brilliant humor. The body had been removed, of course. Frank nodded in satisfaction. Now where was that son of a bitch Kramer? Perhaps a clue lay around the place somewhere. The sooner he took him out the better.

Bud Kramer stepped into the hallway clutching a police revolver in his hands. His eyes were black marble, glinting with their own light. Without hesitation he lifted the gun and pulled the trigger. Uncle Frank never knew what hit him.

A new morning's sun peeked through the café window as Vic and Jessa drank their morning coffee. They didn't talk. He held the newspaper up in front of his face reading. She, wearing her usual dower expression, stared into space. Now and then she took a compact out to study her face. Pushing brown shell glasses up with one finger, she struck a pose and pursed her lips, now colored in simple pale pink rather than blazing red.

"Oh my Gawd!" Vic flipped the paper down and stared her way.

"What is it?" She asked wearily, studying her plain nails with disdain. This incognito thing of theirs was making her crazy. She felt ugly.

"Uncle Frank is dead!"

"WHAT?" Her mind churned like a clunky machine. "Does this mean we can go home?"

"I dunno. Wait a minute." He read further, his eyes darting down the page. "Holy Hell! They found him murdered at Bud Kramer's house. And Kramer has dropped out of sight." He sat back, stunned. "This is incredible...they're all gone. Maybe we can go back."

Jessa leaned forward, grabbing Vic's hand. "Yeah. I want to go back. I want to go back and break Jason out of jail. You were a guard; you know how. We can do it. We can break him out. It's about time we did something I want."

chapter fifty three

word count: 591

"this whole thing has become a god damn cluster fuck..." uncle frank said out loud,, to no one... he had sequestered himself in his office... decisions had to be made..

"how in the fucking hell had this become so complicated?" it wasn't even his war... he had been drawn into it,, lured as it were, with the ever so long in coming death of that no account, crotch dropping, ruben,, the bane of his and his sainted brothers existence... may he rest in peace...

the body count was on the rise,, so far in franks favor, as just the pawns were going down.. ren, worthless piece of two faced shit that he was, check... bud kramers wife,, now that was out of his hands,, how the hell was he supposed to know the invalid woman was gonna croak on him??? and that fucking crooked doc guard,, what was his name?? white? black? gray? understandable,,, the world is a better place for his leaving....

it was time... frank concluded.. time to get the job done,, and he knew that if he wanted the job done,, and done right,, it was time to strap one on and hit the street..

frank hit the intercom to the boys that stood watch over his door... " tell manny to come in here." he barked into his speaker phone...

as if by magic,, there was an instantaneous knock at the door. "come on." frank called out,, and manny his driver, his body guard, his second,, whatever you wanted to call him, thundered into the room... he took a silent stance on the opposing side of franks desk. locked his arms behind his thickly muscled back and waited...

"i am going to tell you something. something that you will never repeat. i trust you. you know that. but i want to make it clear to you, the importance of the situation. do you understand?"

"yes." simple. silent. deadly. manny was a man among men.

"i am not a violent man. i never have been. i am however a man of action. i have been backed into a corner in this present situation... in this corner,, violence has become unavoidable.. the time has come for me to take action. i have decided that if this whole fucking mess is ever going to be put to bed, i will have to tuck it in personally. do you understand, then, why i have called you in here today?"

manny looked intently at uncle frank. he did not speak.

"it has become necessary for me to take a certain matter into my own hands.. that part i am sure you understand. in doing so,, i accept the distinct possibility that i will have to,, shall i say,, disappear.. for a lengthy amount of time.. very possibly forever.. no one, and i repeat, no one will know my status or my whereabouts... no one but you.. i am in essence entrusting my life to you, manny.. my fucking life... you understand now the importance of the agreement you and i are about to enter into?"

"i do." sticcado. emotionless.

frank pulled a ring of keys from his pocket.. he pulled off a rather non-descript looking key, and tossed it to manny.. "hold onto this. protect it with your life.. it opens the file cabinet you see by the window, should anything unmentionable go down,, use it. everything you need to know is in there."

he stared into mannys emotionless eyes. the sound of his own heart beating loudly in his ears over taking the dead silence in the room.

"get the car."

chapter fifty-two

Chapter 52
word count: 552

Two divers detached the cement bricks, then tied the bundle with strong ropes. More rugged men on the bridge waited, then tugging, hoisted up the package, their burly arms glistening with sweat even in the early morning sun. It was going to be a hot day. Bud wiped his brow while he rushed closer

"Well, let's see what we got" he yelled. "I'm curious to see who got on Frank's shit list this time. Poor schmuck!"

"It's not all that heavy," one of the strong men said. "Must be a skinny guy."

"Who ever heard of a skinny gangster?" Bud joked as his eyes watched the bundle being lifted over the railing and lowered to the deck. A strange pang shot through him, painful and sad. He shook it off. His line of work demanded objectivity...no room for emotional outbursts. Funny this one should bother him. He inspected gory crime scenes all the time. His cell rang just as he was going to have a look at the victim.

"Hello."

"Bud, you'd better get over here to your place. Ren's here, he's dead." It was his partner, Red.

"What?"

"Yeah, your cleaning lady found him. In the shower. Bullet through his heart."

"What the fuck? We were together. When I left him, he was sleeping on the couch. I gave him something to help him sleep."

"Well, he's sleeping permanently now. We're checking for prints."

"I'll be right there." Bud closed his eyes in disbelief.

"Mr. Kramer, we're ready." One of the strong men stood next to him.

"Okay," Bud replied, pulling gloves from his pocket. He bent over the bundle, pealing back folds of black plastic until a hand was revealed. Waterlogged and wrinkled, it wasn't pretty. A red polyester sleeve covered a delicate wrist.

"Good God! It's a woman," he muttered, gingerly pulling back more shards of plastic. A petite female form began to emerge. Small, but familiar, all too familiar. Bud's heart knew before his eyes confirmed it. Jane. It was his beloved Janie. As he pulled away the last of the black material, tears rolled down his cheeks. Could this be happening?

Jane's eyes were still wide open, frozen in time with fear. Choking, he pulled the lids down to put her at peace. Who had done this? He searched her body in a frantic rush, looking for bullet wounds or knife stabs, some indication of what and who had killed her. But her body was in perfect form, no violations, no bullets, no stab wounds.Then the magnitude of it hit him!

"It's my wife! It's my wife! Whoever did this is going to pay!" He cried. He jumped up and paced, waving his arms in the air. The others led him to his car, sat him in the front seat, hung around to make sure he was okay, waiting for the sobs to stop. Finally, rational thought returned. Whoever did this probably killed Ren, too, and others. And they probably intended to kill him, too. So what? He had nothing to live for.

Later, when he viewed Ren's body in his shower, blasted away with blood splattered everywhere, he was numb. He didn't care about Ren. He cared only about Janie. He'd find her murderers. He'd find them before they had a chance to locate him first.

chapter fifty one

word count: 621

ren rolled over and stuck his hand down the front of his pants... comforted,, he attempted to snuggle deeper into the thick warm mattress,, he reached for the soft down comforter,, but it was no where to be found.. in fact,, he was beginning to doubt he was in his bed at all,, as he seemed to be unable to roll over.. puzzled he opened his eyes and peered out at a totally unfamiliar surrounding...

"what the fuck?" was going thru his brain as he tried like hell to sit up,, only to me held by a set of inviable hands in the wide soft recliner he didn't even remember sitting down in... what the hell was going on,, where was he???

he scanned the room only to realize that he was at the kramers.. thats right,, bud had stopped in to clean up.. he must have fallen asleep here in front of the tv waiting for him... he glanced at his watch... holy shit!!! four hours had passed,, he struggled to find and then grabbed hard on the lever he finally located on the side of the chair and threw it into the upright position...

something was wrong... something was definitely wrong... the thought that he might have been duped,, more than likely drugged somehow too, crossed his mind. knowing full well the consequences if uncle frank found out about it,, he pushed it to the back of his mind and made his way,, staggering through the house room to room,, looking for bud,, but knowing all the while he was not going to be there...

he stopped off in the kitchen and noticed the coffee pot the warmer light was still on.. that was it. that had to be it. he had accepted a cup of coffee from bud,, somehow some way,, that sneaky son of a bitch, bud had succeeded in spiking the coffee... this was bad,, this was really bad....

he was beginning to come around and realize that he had to do something... but what?? he had no idea where to look for bud,, and he sure as hell didn't want to run into any of uncle frankies guys out there on the street,, with no bud kramer in tow... fuck... he couldn't think.. his head was so clouded.. a shower,, a nice hot shower,, that would wake him up and maybe then he could decide in what direction he should take this thing...

ren stripped down and hopped under the pulsating stream of hot water and steam.. he let the water pour over him,, he massaged the top of his head as the invigorating hot water and steam enveloped him,, struggling all the while to get a handle on his situation.. he grabbed the bar soap and lathered his short cropped hair,, he rubbed the soap gruffly over his face and throat... , and then leaned his thick arms against the wall surrounding the shower head for support as he stuck his head under the hot spray..

as he leaned there trying to decide between the better of the few evils that awaited him,, he felt the hint of cold air on his back,, it rose to his neck,, causing the hairs to stand on end.. he peeked out under his arm,, looking in back of him for the source of the brisk air,, and was surprised to see the slider door behind him ajar a few inches... ..

if he noticed the muzzle of the 38 as it let off a single silenced shot that connected almost immediately with his heart... no one will ever know....

"stupid fat fuck." tony grumbled as he exited the bathroom,, hot steam from the shower still rising....