Chapter Six- Buddha #2
“Yeah, I wasn’t bull-shitting when I said my grandmother raised a few pigs when I was growing up.”
“Yeah, you weren’t bull-shitting,” I responded, and then the expression on my face switched instantly. “That’s why you’re here, Matteo. You’re about to help my brother, and I feed my pigs.
“Oh, shit, I thought it was gonna be something hard. Where’s the pig food?” Matteo asked, looking around. The smile returned to my face as I looked at this dumb mothafucka.
“Before we get to all that. I wasn’t 100% honest with you,” I confessed, Matteo's eyebrows pulled together as he got confused.
“Wh-what do you mean?”
“I mean, when you asked if we knew anything about what happened to Lorenzo. We weren’t completely honest.”
“Oh.” Was the only thing he could say as he waited for me to elaborate.
“You see, my brother and I just couldn’t understand how a man like Lorenzo would just get shot the way he did.
I mean, he must have been in the company of someone he really trusted to have his guard down in order for him to be shot at close range like that.
” Matteo nodded his head in agreement. I could tell he was anxious to hear where this was going.
“So we dug and dug, we hired a couple of men to investigate further, and we finally got some answers. Do you know what answers we got?” Snow asked, reaching for Matteo’s shoulder again as he squeezed it a little.
“No, I wouldn’t know. I wanna find out just as badly as you two what happened to Lorenzo.
Who was that evil mothafucka that did him like that?
” Matteo said, turning to Snow. It was sort of impressive the way he kept lying the way that he did.
I was pretty sure he knew we'd figured him out. I decided to humor him just the same.
“Lorenzo told me that he had something to do, but he never said what or with whom. So we dug, and we dug, and we found out he had to meet you,” I said, pointing his weapon at him.
“Imagine that it was you all along. Now isn’t this a Scooby-Doo moment?” Snow said, applying more pressure on Matteo’s shoulder, which made him flinch in pain.
“Me? Nah, I never met up with Lorenzo before he died,” Matteo lied, shaking his head so hard it would have been funny under different circumstances.
“Don’t lie to me,” I threatened him, taking a step forward.
“You knew he had to accompany me to meet up with Francesco and Luca for a deal.
You called him up the night before, pretending as if you had some information about that very deal.
You asked him to meet up with you, so you could share what you found out with him.
You knew exactly what to say that would make Lorenzo come running to you.
“Instead of sharing information with him, you gave him a bullet to the head instead. You killed my friend, Matteo,” I said, looking directly in his eyes. I knew he saw the coldness in my stare; he saw the evil in my eyes. Realizing that he was caught, Matteo bent his head.
“They told me they’d kill my family. I never wanted anything to do with this. They said they’d kill my wife and twin sons,” Matteo said, lifting his head to look at me.
“Who?” Snow and I asked at the same time.
‘Francesco, Luca, and Edwardo. They broke into my house in the middle of the night. They tied up my wife in front of me and held a gun to her head. They told me what they needed me to do. Luca even attempted to rape my wife, but Francesco stopped him. I begged them; I really did. I told them I didn’t want to do what they asked.
Mr. Tomasso had been nothing but good to me.
” Matteo’s eyes filled with tears as he explained why he did what he did.
“Why didn’t you just come to us? We would have protected you and your family.
Instead, you chose to kill Lorenzo. On the day Buddha’s wife found the bodies in her trunk, you worked at the gate.
You let that fake-ass delivery driver in; you had one last chance to do the right thing, and you still chose to let that mothafucka in here,” Snow said, coming to stand next to me. We both stood glaring at Matteo.
“I was scared; they said they’d kill my family.”
“So the family you were hired to protect you chose to conspire to have killed instead?” I asked, lifting his gun and pointing it at his head. “I should shoot your dumb ass right now.”
“Please, forgive me just the way you love your family; I also love mine. Please, understand I was left no choice,” Matteo clasped his hands together in a praying motion.
“Tell me something: the uomo (man) that came and placed Lorenzo’s dead body in my wife’s trunk and then broke into my house and stabbed my dog in her chest. Where can I find him?
Then I’ll think about letting you live. You’ll just have to leave town along with your family.
But you have to tell me where he is first.” I lied, knowing Matteo’s fate was a done deal.
“His name is Ralph; he’s a friend of Luca’s from what I understand. He has a tattoo on his upper arm, I remember,” Matteo said, pointing at his arm, demonstrating where the tattoo could be found.
“What kind of tattoo?” Snow asked.
“It’s his name in red cursive writing. If you find Luca, you’ll find Ralph.
He’s like a weird puppy when it comes to Luca.
” I nodded my head, happy that I finally found out who killed Lorenzo and Lotus.
Taking a deep breath, I looked at Matteo and thought that he was such a goofy.
All he had to do was let us know what Francesco was up to, and all of this could have been avoided.
Instead, he chose to be a hitman, and he still ended up getting caught.
“Did Lorenzo suffer?” I asked because my friend didn’t deserve to die the way he did. Matteo bent his head again at my question.
“No, he didn’t. Please believe me when I say I’m sorry for the part I played in all of this.” Did Matteo’s remorse move me in any way? No, the fuck it didn’t, because Lorenzo was still dead, as was Lotus. Fuck Matteo and his weak-ass apology.
“My wife found Lorenzo’s body, and she had to see our dog with a gaping hole in her chest,” I informed Matteo as I took a step closer to him. “So what’s going to happen now is you’re about to feed my pigs,” I said, looking at the animals. Matteo did the same before looking back at me.
“Do you want me to still help? What do you need me to do? I’ll do anything, just please forgive me,” Matteo said if we were now somehow friends. I got even closer with his gun in my hand and looked him dead in the eyes.
“What do I need you to do? Nothing,” I answered his questions before placing the barrel of the gun under his chin and pulling the trigger. Matteo dropped to the floor with a loud thud. I turned to my brother as I used the back of my hand to wipe blood off my forehead.
“Should we throw him in there? Or should we put him somewhere for his family to find him and so they could give him a burial?” I asked, looking at the pigs as I rubbed my chin.
“It will look like a suicide. We’ll roll his ass up in plastic, put him in the trunk of his car, and leave him somewhere after we place him in the driver’s seat.
Let his family have his body.” Snow said, and I agreed.
Getting the plastic I kept for these special occasions, I rolled it out so Snow and I could place Matteo inside.
“You’ll need help setting up the scene to make it look like a suicide. Get Louis to help you; he’s reliable,” I said, stopping to light a cigarette once we were done. I rubbed my eyes, feeling the weight of everything I’ve been dealing with heavy on my shoulders. I was fucking tired.