[TheStellarEnsemble.com] The Godfather - Mario Puzo

“Open your shirt,” the customer said.The counterman shook his head. “I got no tattoo,” he said in heavily accented English.“That’s the man who works at night.”The customer laughed. It was an unpleasant laugh, harsh, strained. “Come on, unbuttonyour shirt, let me see.”The counterman started backing toward the rear of the store, aiming to edge around thehuge oven. But the customer raised his hand above the counter. There was a gun in it. He fired.The bullet caught the counterman in the chest and hurled him against the oven. The customerfired into his body again and the counterman slumped to the floor. The customer came aroundthe serving shelf, reached down and ripped the buttons off the shirt. The chest was covered withblood, but the tattoo was visible, the intertwined lovers and the knife transfixing them. Thecounterman raised one of his arms feebly as if to protect himself. The gunman said, “Fabrizzio,Michael Corleone sends you his regards.” He extended the gun so that it was only a few inchesfrom the counterman’s skull and pulled the trigger. Then he walked out of the store. At the curb acar was waiting for him with its door open. He jumped in and the car sped off.Rocco Lampone answered the phone installed on one of the iron pillars of the gate. Heheard someone saying, “Your package is ready,” and the click as the caller hung up. Rocco gotinto his car and drove out of the mall. He crossed the Jones Beach Causeway, the same causewayon which Sonny Corleone had been killed, and drove out to the railroad station of Wantagh. Heparked his car there. Another car was waiting for him with two men in it. They drove to a motelten minutes farther out on Sunrise Highway and turned into its courtyard. Rocco Lampone,leaving his two men in the car, went to one of the little chalet-type bungalows. One kick sent itsdoor flying off its hinges and Rocco sprang into the room.Phillip Tattaglia, seventy years old and naked as a baby, stood over a bed on which lay ayoung girl. Phillip Tattaglia’s thick head of hair was jet black, but the plumage of his crotch wassteel gray. His body had the soft plumpness of a bird. Rocco pumped four bullets into him, all inthe belly. Then he turned and ran back to the car. The two men dropped him off in the Wantaghstation. He picked up his car and drove back to the mall. He went in to see Michael Corleone fora moment and then came out and took up his position at the gate.Albert Neri, alone in his apartment, finished getting his uniform ready. Slowly he put it378