[TheStellarEnsemble.com] The Godfather - Mario Puzo

then go out and up to the bedroom. He took peppers from the pan and bread from the basket onthe table and made a sloppy sandwich with hot olive oil dripping from his fingers. He went intothe huge corner room that was his father’s office and took the special phone from a lockedcabinet box. The phone had been especially installed and was listed under a phony name and aphony address. The first person he called was Luca Brasi. There was no answer. Then he calledthe safety-valve caporegime in Brooklyn, a man of unquestioned loyalty to the Don. This man’sname was Tessio. Sonny told him what had happened and what he wanted. Tessio was to recruitfifty absolutely reliable men. He was to send guards to the hospital, he was to send men out toLong Beach to work here. Tessio asked, “Did they get Clemenza too?” Sonny said, “I don’t wantto use Clemenza’s people right now.” Tessio understood immediately, there was a pause, andthen he said, “Excuse me, Sonny, I say this as your father would say it. Don’t move too fast. Ican’t believe Clemenza would betray us.”“Thanks,” Sonny said. “I don’t think so but I have to be careful. Right?”“Right,” Tessio said.”Another thing,” Sonny said. “My kid brother Mike goes to college in Hanover, NewHampshire. Get some people we know in Boston to go up and get him and bring him down hereto the house until this blows over. I’ll call him up so he’ll expect them. Again I’m just playingthe percentages, just to make sure.”“OK,” Tessio said, “I’ll be over your father’s house as soon as I get things rolling. OK?You know my boys, right?”“Yeah,” Sonny said. He hung up. He went over to a small wall safe and unlocked it.From it he took an indexed book bound in blue leather. He opened it to the T’s until he found theentry he was looking for. It read, “Ray Farrell $5,000 Christmas Eve.” This was followed by atelephone number. Sonny dialed the number and said, “Farrell?” The man on the other endanswered, “Yes.” Sonny said, “This is Santino Corleone. I want you to do me a favor and I wantyou to do it right away. I want you to check two phone numbers and give me all the calls theygot and all the calls they made for the last three months.” He gave Farrell the number of PaulieGatto ‘s home and Clemenza’s home. Then he said, “This is important. Get it to me beforemidnight and you’ll have an extra very Merry Christmas.”Before he settled back to think things out he gave Luca Brasi’s number one more call.Again there was no answer. This worried him but he put it out of his mind. Luca would come to75