Английский язык с Крестным Отцом
Шрифт:
swear I'm innocent. I swear on the head of my children I'm innocent. Mike, don't do this
to me, please, Mike, don't do this to me."
Michael said quietly, "Barzini is dead. So is Phillip Tattaglia. I want to square all the
Family accounts tonight. So don't tell me you're innocent. It would be better for you to
admit what you did."
Hagen and Lampone stared at Michael with astonishment. They were thinking that
Michael was not yet the man his father was. Why try to get this traitor to admit guilt?
That guilt was already proven as much as such a thing could be proven. The answer
was obvious. Michael still was not that confident of his right, still feared being unjust, still
worried about that fraction of an uncertainty that only a confession by Carlo Rizzi could
erase.
There was still no answer. Michael said almost kindly, "Don't be so frightened. Do you
think I'd make my sister a widow? Do you think I'd make my nephews fatherless? After
all I'm Godfather to one of your kids. No, your punishment will be that you won't be
allowed any work with the Family. I'm putting you on a plane to Vegas to join your wife
and kids and then I want you to stay there. I'll send Connie an allowance. That's all. But
don't keep saying you're innocent, don't insult my intelligence and make me angry. Who
approached you, Tattaglia or Barzini?"
Carlo Rizzi in his anguished hope for life, in the sweet flooding relief that he was not
going to be killed, murmured, "Barzini."
"Good, good," Michael said softly. He beckoned with his right hand. "I want you to
leave now. There's a car waiting to take you to the airport."
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Carlo went out the door first, the other three men very close to him. It was night now,
but the mall as usual was bright with floodlights. A car pulled up. Carlo saw it was his
own car. He didn't recognize the driver. There was someone sitting in the back but on
the far side. Lampone opened the front door and motioned to Carlo to get in. Michael
said, "I'll call your wife and tell her you're on your way down." Carlo got into the car. His
silk shirt was soaked with sweat.
The car pulled away, moving swiftly toward the gate. Carlo started to turn his head to
see if he knew the man sitting behind him. At that moment, Clemenza, as cunningly and
daintily as a little girl slipping a ribbon over the head of a kitten, threw his garrot around
Carlo Rizzi's neck. The smooth rope cut into the skin with Clemenza's powerful yanking
throttle, Carlo Rizzi's body went leaping into the air like a fish on a line, but Clemenza
held him fast, tightening the garrot until the body went slack. Suddenly there was a foul
odor in the air of the car. Carlo's body, sphincter released by approaching death, had
voided itself. Clemenza kept the garrot tight for another few minutes to make sure, then
released the rope and put it back in his pocket. He relaxed himself against the seat
cushions as Carlo's body slumped against the door. After a few moments Clemenza
rolled the window down to let out the stink.
The victory of the Corleone Family was complete. During that same twenty-four-hour
period Clemenza and Lampone turned loose their regimes and punished the infiltrators
of the Corleone domains. Neri was sent to take command of the Tessio regime. Barzini
bookmakers were put out of business; two of the highest-ranking Barzini enforcers were
shot to death as they were peaceably picking their teeth over dinner in an Italian
restaurant on Mulberry Street. A notorious fixer of trotting races was also killed as he
returned home from a winning night at the track. Two of the biggest shylocks on the
waterfront disappeared, to be found months later in the New Jersey swamps.
With this one savage attack, Michael Corleone made his reputation and restored the
Corleone Family to its primary place in the New York Families. He was respected not
only for his tactical brillance but because some of the most important caporegimes in
both the Barzini and Tattaglia Families immediately went over to his side.
It would have been a perfect triumph for Michael Corleone except for an exhibition of
hysteria by his sister Connie.
Connie had flown home with her mother, the children left in Vegas. She had
restrained her widow's grief until the limousine pulled into the mall. Then, before she
could be restrained by her mother, she ran across the cobbled street to Michael
Corleone's house. She burst through the door and found Michael and Kay in the living
Мультиязыковой
room. Kay started to go to her, to comfort her and take her in her arms in a sisterly
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embrace but stopped short when Connie started screaming at her brother, screaming
curses and reproaches. "You lousy bastard," she shrieked. "You killed my husband. You
waited until our father died and nobody could stop you and you killed him. You killed