9. A Snow Day
Chapter nine
A Snow Day
Eoghan
“ Y our hobbies are starting to be concerning,” Shiny said, as she sharpened the blade in her hand. “The amount of glee you take at the prospect of killing this guy is just… macabre.”
Dairo and I had carved her a pair of blades like ours, a declaration that she was like a sister to us. A pair of simple, carved iron blades with her new initials on the handle - SFL. Sinead Flanagan LeBlanc.
Luck and fates were on our side again. The familiar Bugatti, belonging to a member of Durante’s extended family, was bumping obnoxiously down the winding country road, crossing our path at the one gas station that stood between Mourningkill, New York and Hollowbrook, Massachusetts.
Hollowbrook. The place that Sinead had last seen my wife and child. A place that, according to her, was still her known residence.
“Oh, come on,” I said with a chuckle. “These mafiosos spend too much time watching movies, and not enough time learning tactics. They’re practically asking for it.”
My delight in their ineptitude knew no bounds. My heart was light and my family was near. I was doing what I should have always been… protecting them.
“Tactics you learned from Dairo,” she snipped.
Dairo had joined the British SAS. Shiny had joined the Army and her man was a Navy SEAL. All came with skills that had been foreign to Green Fields Enterprises, and I was not above exploiting their occupational detours for my own benefit.
“Don’t tell me he’s your favorite,” I said, punching her in the arm.
“Hey!” she said, rubbing it facetiously, as if I had hurt her. I hadn’t. “He’s everyone’s favorite.”
“Not Kira’s,” I said with a smile.
Never Kira’s.
Shiny and I had come out here as a pair, with Dairo holding down the fort in my stead. Our footprint was small so we could dash in and out unnoticed. Not attracting more attention than was required for my upcoming family reunion.
“Good thing we do our homework,” Shiny said. “Memorizing all the Durantes.”
It was her way of giving me a compliment without actually giving me one.
Green Fields Enterprise soldiers all had to go through academics and tactics. The academics involved the inner workings of the Durante clan, its members, and their vices.
This one was Alfredo Durante, a trust fund kid with minimal ties. His patron, Eugenio Durante, had threatened to cut him off for his useless lifestyle of parties and cars. What was he doing here? If I had to guess, trying to win favor by finding my wife and bringing her to the head honcho himself.
But getting shit faced at all the trendiest bars did not hone his situational awareness as he remained blissfully unaware that we were tailing his sorry arse.
He pulled into a hotel, parked, and placed the phone to his ear. His wing-tipped shoes and expensive t-shirt and sweats were the height of fashion. He had his phone to his ear as he strode inside, spinning his keyes on his finger, blissfully unaware of his surroundings.
“This is going to be so easy, I almost feel bad,” Shiny said, as she put her blade away, grabbed a roll of duct tape, a black bag, flex cuffs, and a gun.
She had a wicked gleam in her eye, and a smile on her lips that must have matched my own.
“You don’t have to come in if you feel bad about it,” I said, checking the pistol in my ankle holster.
“I don’t feel that bad.”
Who knew that the dear Mafia princess of yesteryear would turn into La Femme Nikita? It was tragic, the circumstances that had chased her away from the family, but now that I saw her, a woman so strong she buried the demons of her past alive - literally - I felt that overwhelming sense of fate again. That this was exactly where I was supposed to be - hunting down the likes of Alfredo Durante with my childhood friend.
“Our little Shiny had such a sadistic streak?” I was proud of her.
That might mean less than nothing to her, but to me, seeing her come into her own was what I had wanted all along - for her, and for me. For us.
“ You did, when you let me have Keith,” she said with malicious glee in her eyes.
I’ll never forget her manic euphoria as she shoveled dirt onto him as he was still breathing. She was an avenging angel, sending him to Hell where he belonged. It was a sight to behold. One that even Kira would have marveled at, in her golden heart.
“And you call me macabre?” I opened the driver side door and stepped out, feeling the wet ground splash against the soles of my boots.
She followed suit, as I made sure to lock the doors, but not the trunk.
We’d need easy access to that soon enough.
“Listen to me, Chicken Alfredo,” Shiny said, her swollen knuckles holding her blade at the Durante boy’s throat. “If you don’t start clucking, I’ll detach your balls, stuff them in your mouth, and bury you that way. Capiche?”
For a girl who used to love fairy tales and Disney, she had really caught up on her mafia movies. Too bad they were utter nonsense.
“Capiche isn’t actually an Italian word,” I chided, from my place at the wall, watching Shiny do a fantastic job of scaring the piss out of our Italian friend. “Capiche is an Americanization of capisci , which is the second-person singular present indicative form of the verb—”
I cut my response when Shiny glared at me. “Hey, boss? Do you mind not correcting my non-existent Italian in front of the hostage? It sends a mixed message.”
I raised my hands in surrender and leaned back to the wall, looking around the cramped basement with its metal tables and borderline-medicinal equipment. Acquiring the crematory had been my father’s stroke of genius. We were the silent partners of a funeral home out in these little towns as a means of disposal.
Our dismal purpose was covered by the subtle floral perfume in the air. Like sweetpea and lillies, now mixed with Alfredo’s coppery blood.
Best to let the pawns do the dirty work, after all.
That was part of leadership - stepping back and letting others take the lead. At least that was what Morelli said - only do the dirty work if it made a point.
I wondered if that had been my father’s philosophy. If so, why had he never taught it to me? Why was I handed lessons on Vlad Tepes when a course or two on Organizational Psychology would have done the trick? The simple task of stepping back and letting my captains lead changed my view of the chessboard before me. That was one of the ways I had extended my hand.
“Fucking nerd,” Shiny grumbled as she turned back to our captive guest.
“When you have kids,” I couldn’t help but say, “we’ll need to make sure they speak Italian.”
The world was getting smaller, not larger, and anyone who was multilingual had a distinct advantage. Her children, Dairo’s twins, and mine, needed to be raised to take their place among the New York City elites. After all, New York was one of the world’s great epicenters. Best the Greens get ahold of their little kingdom.
“We’re not in the ‘having kids’ part of the marriage yet,” Shiny said, sighing.
Well, that was peculiar.
“You used to want a dozen children, Shiny. I’m sure it won’t take you long.” I pulled my own blade out, and as was my habit, began picking dirt from behind my nails.
“I mean, we’ve talked about it,” she sheepishly admitted, as Alfredo Durante groaned and whispered, his head lolling about as tears streaked his cheeks. Shiny stood up straight and brought her blood-stained blade to her lip, using it to think. Then she sighed. “I thought I was going to be married at eighteen. There was a ton of time to have all those kids. I’m no spring chicken. Neither is Ajax. Two might be more than we can handle—”
“Oh, come on, Shiny. It’s not like we wouldn’t be able to hire help or, hell, Aoibhean and everyone else would be more than willing to do it for free. We have an entire village—
“Let me go…” The low, quiet voice of our hostage broke our domestic discussion.
“Don’t interrupt!” I lunged forward, and slapped Alfredo on the cheek like he was a misbehaving child.
The man was as bruised as an overripe tomato. Half his face was swollen. At least two teeth were on the floor. We broke his arm hauling him into the trunk when he unexpectedly started to put up a fight. I was fairly certain that Shiny’s well-landed blow had broken a rib or two as well.
“Listen, asshole.” Shiny almost sounded amused as she swung her blade, slicing the air. The eerie sound made my heart jump with sadistic glee. “Tell us what you know about Kira Kekoa—”
“Green!” I corrected, pushing off the wall, coming to my full height. “Her name is Kira Green!”
Shiny rolled her eyes and continued. “Tell us what you know about Kira Green and we might think about letting you go.”
Which was an absolute lie. The only way he’d get out of here was in pieces.
And not very big ones either…
“I don’t know,” the man whimpered.
Pathetic, really. Morelli didn’t cry this much when I bled him over the course of days. This one would be ready to sell his grandmother by the end of the afternoon.
“No one has looked in this direction, so if she’s still in the area… I-I thought… I thought…” He blubbered like a scolded child.
So he was here by process of elimination. It wasn’t a terrible strategy. The Italians had scoured every other place, I supposed, so coming in this direction made sense.
“Someone in the Irish said that… that… cazzo !” Alfredo let out a long, pained wail, even though we weren’t laying a hand on him. “Someone in the Green Enterprises company said that you would come out here. You or that Irish or British fuck…” He winced, finally realizing that insulting his captors was probably not the best idea.
“You’re saying that there’s a traitor among the Irish?” I straightened, as his words sank in, my skin prickling with his claim.
“Who?” Shiny said, bringing the blade to his throat, the tip lightly grazing his skin, like she was about to give him a close shave.
“I don’t know,” he said pathetically as his mouth opened in a long, pathetic cry.
The reward for Kira, my spies told me, had gone to seven figures. Not that Durante would ever pay that money. The old miser would rather slit a throat than pay out a dime.
“I don’t know,” he said, this time his words were defeated. “I just needed to show Uncle Eugenio that I could do something right…”
And that cracked my blackened heart, just a little bit. Because I understood that feeling. I could appreciate that desire.
“I feel for you,” I said, truly meaning it. “I truly do. But a bit of life advice from me to you? You’re never gonna make them happy. Not until one of you is dead.”
I left the quiet part out - the one that said he would be the one to die first. He’d die right here, and be disposed of here as well. This was the last place he would ever see.
Hours passed, as Shiny used him like a punching bag. It didn’t take long to be certain he knew nothing. Shiny was exhausted, her knuckles bruised. Still, her eyes shone with sadistic glee. I hadn’t interrupted… yet. But at some point, I’d have to, if for no other reason than we had to get rid of Alfredo before dawn, when the normal employees would come back for their work.
“Shiny, why haven’t you put him out of his misery yet?” I finally asked, as she pummeled his face like he owed her money.
“Do you know how these men treat their women?” she said, between breaths. “Do you know what this one has done?”
I did. Another loan shark like Mario Morelli - the man that had disappeared after his encounter with my beloved.
I didn’t need to read his dossier to know that, though. Any man with a Bugatti was probably a bastard.
Alfredo’s whimper was high, echoing through the crematorium.
“Sorry, mate,” I said in a faux apology to our unwanted guest. “It seems you’re falling victim to her feminine rage.”
A streak of blood marred Shiny’s face as she looked at me and scowled, missing my sarcasm completely.
She picked up a roll of duct tape and loudly unfurled it. Then she started taping his mouth shut, wrapping it around his head.
“Why Kira?” Shiny asked, casually, as she started dragging the tape over Alfredo’s ears.
I wasn’t sure who she was talking to at first, until I looked up to see her staring right at me. “What do you mean?”
“I get she’s a great woman, and blah-blah-blah,” she said, as she jerked to unspool more of the duct tape, almost covering Alfredo’s full head. “But really? Why her? Why so obsessed? You knew her for what… a week? You’ve been apart longer than you have been together. So why all of this?” She gestured to Alfredo, and our surroundings. Though I knew she meant the entirety of my purpose for the past three years.
No one had ever questioned it. Not to my face at least. Only Morelli would have the stones to do it, and he never asked because he understood me. He and I were alike.
But how could I describe the touch of her skin and the electricity of her warm gaze? How could I explain that my Muse’s face contorted in pleasure was the closest thing to peace I had ever experienced? How to explain that to the unsentimental fool like Sinead Flanagan-LeBlanc?
“She's like a snow day,” I blurted out, as Shiny pulled apart another strip of duct tape, the loud squeal of it echoing in my ears before she cut it with her teeth.
“Is that supposed to mean something to me?”
“When I first laid eyes on her, I was in a dark place. Dairo was gone. You were gone. Mum was…” I sighed, remembering that bleak time of my existence. “My father was insane and cruel. I had reconciled with the fact that my life was going to be nothing but empty blackness. I’d go from one misery to the next.”
I came over to her side when Alfredo started to struggle again and picked up my own roll of tape, as I helped her cover his head with the silver adhesive.
“I thought the world was going to be bleak forever.” I started taping Alfredo’s eyes. It wasn’t strictly necessary, but it was a mercy for him, at least. “Then there she was, looking at my painting and declaring it a masterpiece to a crowd of onlookers. When she turned around…”
I sighed, remembering the very moment I felt happiness for the first time in decades.
“Well, it felt like that day autumn turned to winter. When the dead, barren trees look like they’ll never be beautiful again, but then you wake up, and look outside, and see the snow blanketing the landscape. You realize, as ugly as everything outside was, it could be beautiful again. That’s what Kira was.”
Alfredo kicked, as the tape head-mask cut off his air. He was slowly suffocating to death, giving a last fight.
“She was the snow?” Shiny said, not seeming any less confused than before.
I placed my hand at the place where Alfredo’s nose would be, where the tape inflated and deflated with his breath. I pushed the tape against his mouth and nostrils, speeding up the process.
“Exactly!” I answered, as Alfredo flailed, the air cut off, his body gyrating as it tried to cling on to its mortal coil.
“And… that’s it? She was just pretty and liked your painting, while you were going through a hard time?”
I shrugged. “What is fate if not a confluence of events? What more do I truly need?”
The day Kira dropped into my life was the day I chose to be alive. The moment she looked at me and I laughed, realizing that the art curator wasn’t just some dilettante but was something else - someone genuine, and intelligent - I realized there was someone in the world who was just like me.
“What is love, if it is not finding the counterpoint you need to stay upright?” I asked, in a manner I imagined Morelli might, as he advised me with questions more than answers.
In one purposeful move, Shiny grabbed Alfredo’s head and jerked it to the side, breaking his neck.
“I feel satisfied,” I nodded, my hands on my hips. “I killed a man to protect my wife. My soul feels light for having done this. Surely, that counts for something.”
Shiny grabbed him below the arms, as I grabbed him by the feet, and together we lifted him up. We took him to the open, silver crematory, laying him on the slab. We collected his affects - the shoe that had fallen off of him, the wallet with his identification, and the comb he’d kept in his pocket, and tossed them onto his body. I pulled out a single penny from my pocket, and placed it on his forehead.
Shiny watched as the copper piece fell off the dead man’s face, clinking on the table, then shrugged. She understood my idiosyncrasies.
“What if she’s happier without you?” There was no joke or malice in Shiny’s voice. She was genuinely concerned for my wife, which I appreciated. But her skepticism made my skin crawl, as I swallowed the anger that threatened to ruin the rather nice bonding moment she and I had just had.
“If she truly is, then I will keep my distance. Protect, and not interfere.” I was almost sure that wasn’t a lie.
“You’ll be okay standing back and just observing?”
“Yes.”
No.
Maybe… yes.
I would have to make myself okay with it.
“If the only way I could see Kira was to become a ghost that watched over her as she slept, then I’ll cut my wrists right here and now.”