Fearless Chapter 8 – Such a clever crew

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Fearless – A web novel

Chapter 8 – Such a clever crew

“Which one of you idiots want to tell me why some little broad walked away with four million of my fucking money? You?” Jake Ponzi stabbed the air in the general direction of Matt Knight. He moved the finger sideways, pointed it at Benny, then Guy. The idiot three kept silent. Matt squirmed in his chair. “Is there something chewing your arse hole or do you have something to say Knight? Well, do you?” Jake glared at Knight for another second before he barked. “Stop moving!”

Matt jerked back and made an effort to sit still. He opened his mouth, closed it, and stared wildly at the floor between his feet. Guy cleared his throat and Jakes head whipped around to face the offender. “What?”

Guy straightened up, looked at Jake. Still dazed and with a splitting headache, Zaffino glanced at Matt before talking. “The cops were coming and…”

“No, they were not, you ignorant piece of shit!” Jake interrupted. “And how the hell would you know. You had a tumble and were snoozing it up good when these imaginary cops showed up. You.” He pointed at Matt again. “You chicken shit stupid waste of air, hearing things in your old age?” Ponzi cupped a hand behind an ear and squinted at Matt. “Oy Sonny, I tink I hear somphing over there. Is dat a meow? Is that a rat farting? Oh noooo, Sonny, dat the poooooolice I reckon. Let’s just drop all the evidence why don’t we? Eh? Let some bitch stroll by and pick up Ponzi’s stuff why don’t we. Eh? Eh?” Jake pulled back, threw his hands out in exasperation, let his glare travel from Guy to Matt until it landed on the third stooge. Benny stood at the short end of Jakes desk, shuffling his feet.

“I told them to move.” Benny said quietly, shoving his hands deeper into his pockets.

“Actually, I …” Zaffino said and fingered the huge bandage at the back of the head and grimaced. The grimace made the cut lip crack open, and wincing made the beautiful new shiner throb. Taking a steadying breath, Guy said. “I heard something. We would have been fine if…”

“If big and ugly here hadn’t dropped four million fucking dollars on the ground and forgot about it?” Jake screamed, spraying saliva over his perfect desk. He turned back to Benny.
“You told them to move?” Jake shot out of his chair, sputtering in fury. “You told them to move?” Suddenly he sank back down in his chair, dropped his head on the desk and covered it with his arms. What he said next could have been anything as he had his mouth pressed to the polished surface. The idiot three were not stupid enough to ask him to repeat it. Only Benny dared to press on.

“I heard em too.” Benny muttered. “And buddy hurt bad and we had to go.”

Jake just shook his head and groaned. “And why, if I may ask,” He said to the mahogany. “Was I not told yesterday?” The tone was mild and deceptively patient.

“Buddy had to go to…”

“We didn’t know until this morning that the load wasn’t all there.” Guy intercepted. “I wasn’t aware that anything had gone wrong with the money until then.”

Matt piped up. “Yeah, we had to go back, Sir. Jake.” He said placatingly. “I surely would have…”

The pipe turned into an off key flute when a fist slammed into the desk, rattling the phone. Jake shook his head. “Shut up.” He tilted his head up and fixed a weary eye on Guy. “And you came straight to me.”

Guy hesitated. “Yeah, sure. When we realized we missed one we went back to see if we had left one downstairs, and then…”

Ponzi held up a hand and sighed deeply. “Ok, so you went back to take a look, and then you came to me.”

Guy coughed. “Well, we kind of figured someone might have… I mean, there were those chicks inside, so we needed to take a look at the video. But he wasn’t there. So we had to come back later. And then when we got it, we called you.”

Ponzi stared blankly at Zaffino. “So you went back, you got the tech to dig out the video for you, and then you came to me.”

It was Guy’s turn to squirm and look away. “Yeah, sure. I just had to stitch my head, that’s all.”

Jake stared at Guy’s shiner for a long moment. “Stitched…” He said. “And what was your colleagues doing as you got your head sown up then?”

“We waited.” Benny blurted out. “Couldn’t leave Buddy, no way.” He shook his head and glanced at Guy.

“You waited.” Jake said quietly. “And while you two pussys held that cunts hand and admired his booboo… Where was the rest of the money?”

Guy looked down, Benny frowned and tried to remember, and Matt opened his mouth but couldn’t think of anything that he could say that wouldn’t make things worse. The silence was interrupted by Jakes forced breathing, the barely audible wheezing from the ventilation, and three very still bodies trying not to breathe at all. “I’ve had about enough of you idiots. I’ll talk turkey with you so clear out the wax right now. I already know you left the van on the hospital parking-lot. Dumb fucking luck you didn’t fucking lose the whole lot before you got it here. Dumb! And in case you morons have a hard time with the language; dumb means stupid, brain dead, slow in the head.“ He sketched a circle in the air at his temple. “I also know…” He pulled open a desk drawer and fished out a photograph. He slammed it down on the desk and turned it the right way for his reluctant audience to see. Then he thumped it with a stiff finger. “Nobody knows this chick. Nobody knows the skank she was with. Isn’t that right Knight?” He glared at Matt, raising his eyebrows.

Matt shook his head. “Never seen them before. I don’t know.”

“Well, I’ll tell you something, that lady there has my money. And you!” He pointed at Guy. “And you!” He pointed at Matt. He let the glance slide past Benny without acknowledging the giant with more than a twitch of his upper lip. He sat back in his chair and looked up; searching for something he knew wasn’t there. Then suddenly his face split into a wide grin and he looked down at the picture of a half drenched figure carrying his money away from his restaurant through the rain and dark. “You will give me one reason not to get ugly. I can be nice.” He nodded and smiled. “You gentlemen will set up a date for me. Find her. Then I want to meet the good lady face to face. Do you piss buckets understand me?” The smile vanished. “Talk to the dwarf. If anyone can locate anyone, it’s that little basterd. Now off you go boys. Don’t come back now you hear.” He slammed his fist down again, this time on top of the picture. “Not without her. Not without my money.”

To be continued…

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