Английский язык с Крестным Отцом
Шрифт:
week before the limousine from New York pulled up in front of her house with Tom
Hagen.
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She had spent a long terrible afternoon with Tom Hagen, the most terrible afternoon
of her life. They had gone for a walk in the woods outside her little town and Hagen had
not been gentle.
Kay had made the mistake of trying to be cruelly flippant, a role to which she was not
suited. "Did Mike send you up here to threaten me?" she asked. "I expected to see
some of the 'boys' get out of the car with their machine guns to make me go back."
For the first time since she had known him, she saw Hagen angry. He said harshly,
"That's the worst kind of juvenile crap I've ever heard. I never expected that from a
woman like you. Come on, Kay."
"All right," she said.
They walked along the green country road. Hagen asked quietly, "Why did you run
away?"
Kay said, "Because Michael lied to me. Because he made a fool of me when he stood
Godfather to Connie's boy. He betrayed me. I can't love a man like that. I can't live with
it. I can't let him be father to my children."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Hagen said.
She turned on him with now-justified rage. "I mean that he killed his sister's husband.
Do you understand that?" She paused for a moment. "And he lied to me."
They walked on for a long time in silence. Finally Hagen said, "You have no way of
really knowing that's all true. But just for the sake of argument let's assume that it's true.
I'm not saying it is, remember. But what if I gave you what might be some justification
for what he did. Or rather some possible justifications?"
Kay looked at him scornfully. "That's the first time I've seen the lawyer side of you,
Tom. It's not your best side."
Hagen grinned. "OK. Just hear me out. What if Carlo had put Sonny on the spot,
fingered him. What if Carlo beating up Connie that time was a deliberate plot to get
Sonny out in the open, that they knew he would take the route over the Jones Beach
Causeway? What if Carlo had been paid to help get Sonny killed? Then what?"
Kay didn't answer. Hagen went on. "And what if the Don, a great man, couldn't bring
himself to do what he had to do, avenge his son's death by killing his daughter's
husband? What if that, finally, was too much for him, and he made Michael his
successor, knowing that Michael would take that load off his shoulders, would take that
guilt?"
"It was all over with," Kay said, tears springing into her eyes. "Everybody was happy.
Why couldn't Carlo be forgiven? Why couldn't everything go on and everybody forget?"
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She had led across a meadow to a tree-shaded brook. Hagen sank down on the grass
and sighed. He looked around, sighed again and said, "In this world you could do it."
Kay said, "He's not the man I married."
Hagen laughed shortly. "If he were, he'd be dead now. You'd be a widow now. You'd
have no problem."
Kay blazed out at him. "What the hell does that mean? Come on, Tom, speak out
straight once in your life. I know Michael can't, but you're not Sicilian, you can tell a
woman the truth, you can treat her like an equal, a fellow human being."
There was another long silence. Hagen shook his head. "You've got Mike wrong.
You're mad because he lied to you. Well, he warned you never to ask him about
business. You're mad because he was Godfather to Carlo's boy. But you made him do
that. Actually it was the right move for him to make if he was going to take action
against Carlo. The classical tactical move to win the victim's trust." Hagen gave her a
grim smile. "Is that straight enough talk for you?" But Kay bowed her head.
Hagen went on. "I'll give you some more straight talk. After the Don died, Mike was
set up to be killed. Do you know who set him up? Tessio. So Tessio had to be killed.
Carlo had to be killed. Because treachery can't be forgiven. Michael could have forgiven
it, but people never forgive themselves and so they would always be dangerous.
Michael really liked Tessio. He loves his sister. But he would be shirking his duty to you
and his children, to his whole family, to me and my family, if he let Tessio and Carlo go
free. They would have been a danger to us all, all our lives."
Kay had been listening to this with tears running down her face. "Is that what Michael
sent you up here to tell me?"
Hagen looked at her in genuine surprise. "No," he said.
"He told me to tell you you could have everything you want and do everything you
want as long as you take good care of the kids." Hagen smiled. "He said to tell you that
you're his Don. That's just a joke."
Kay put her hand on Hagen's arm. "He didn't order you to tell me all the other things?"