مایکل ریزی، در صلح برو

Chapter 14 Michael Rizzi, Go in Peace

As Michael walked into the church with Kay, Connie, Carlo and the rest of the family, his men were all over New York, getting ready to kill his enemies. Pete Clemenza kissed his wife goodbye and left the house carrying a large flower-box under his arm Michael’s personal bodyguard, Albert Neri, was putting on a policeman’s uniform.

Clemenza’s close friend, Rocco Lampone, was sitting with his eyes closed in a large hotel, while a man gave him a shave. Two other men who worked for the family were checking their machine-guns in a small, apartment room somewhere in a cheap part of the city.

Kay stood in the church, Connie’s baby sleeping in her arms. The priest spoke Latin and touched the baby’s cheeks and mouth with water. Then he asked Michael: ‘Do you believe in God the Father, the Maker of Heaven and Earth? Do you believe in Jesus Christ?’

Michael said: ‘I do.’

♦

Albert Neri was standing on the pavement in his policeman’s uniform He was talking to the driver of a car which was parked in front of the Plaza Building, trying to make him move away The driver shook his head and refused to move.

Pete Clemenza was running up a lot of stairs in a dark hotel,the flower-box under his arm. His fat face was hot and red, and he was very short of breath.

Rocco Lampone checked his face in the mirror, paid the man in the hotel who had given him the shave, and calmly walked out of the door.

The two men with machine-guns looked at each other and, without a word, walked out of their apartment.

♦

The baby in Kay’s arms woke up and began to cry. He didn’t like the water on his face.

♦

Barzini appeared at the top of the steps of the Plaza Building with his bodyguard. Looking down, he saw his driver arguing with a policeman on the pavement, so he sent his bodyguard down to find out what the problem was.

Rocco Lampone waited near the desk in the hotel entrance, and smoked a cigarette.

Pete Clemenza reached the top of the stairs and rested against a wall outside a lift, completely out of breath.

♦

‘Michael Francis Rizzi,’ the priest spoke to the crying baby. ‘Do you refuse Satan, and everything that Satan does?’

Clemenza waited outside the lift. Suddenly, the doors opened and a small, thin man with silver hair, a red flower in the buttonhole of his expensive suit, stepped out. It was Cuneo, one of the New York Godfathers who had been at the meeting with Don Corleone three years before. He stopped when he sawClemenza, a look of confusion on his face Clemenza lifted his short, fat leg and kicked Cuneo hard in the stomach. Cuneo fell backwards into the lift. Clemenza quickly opened his flower-box and took out a large shotgun. He pointed it at Cuneo and fired.

‘I do refuse Satan,’ Michael spoke quietly to the priest, answering for the baby. ‘And everything that Satan does.’ The baby went on crying.

♦

A man in a white suit walked past the desk where Rocco Lampone was waiting. He was on his way out of the hotel This was Stracci, another New York Godfather As he was half-way through the revolving doors, Lampone ran from the desk and locked the door to stop it turning.

Stracci was caught inside. He tried to push, but the doors wouldn’t move. He hit the glass with his hands. He turned round and found himself face to face with the end of Rocco Lampone’s gun He put his hands up and pressed himself against the door behind him Rocco fired and the bullets crashed through the glass of the door straight into Stracci’s heart

♦

Philip Tattaglia had left his bodyguards outside in the street while he had a secret meeting with his girlfriend in a small room in a cheap part of New York. This was his last mistake. As he was kissing her, the door burst open and two men with machine-guns rushed in. As Tattaglia looked around for his gun, the girl jumped to her feet and screamed. The gunmen opened fire and Tattaglia and the girl fell back in a shower of bullets. Then the gunmen left as suddenly as they had appeared, leaving behind them a smoke-filled room and two dead bodies in a pile of torn and bloody bedclothesThe priest held a silver spoon above the baby’s head, and let drops of water fall on to the baby’s face. ‘In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spintus Sancti,’ the priest said . . .

. Barzini’s bodyguard ran down the steps of the Plaza Building and called to the policeman, who was writing something in his notebook.

The policeman put away his notebook, took out his handgun and shot the bodyguard dead. The driver of the car put up his hands but there was no pity in Albert Neri’s heart He killed him too. Barzini, who was halfway down the steps, turned and began to walk quickly back up towards the building.

He was a proud man. He never liked to run too fast for anything, not even when his life was in danger. This gave Neri the time that he needed to go down on one knee, point his gun carefully up at Barzini, and shoot him three times in the back. Barzini stopped. as if in surprise, then fell backwards down the steps.

Suddenly, inside the church, the baby stopped crying.

‘Michael Rizzi, go in peace,’ the priest said. ‘And God go with you always. Amen.’

‘Amen,’ Michael Corleone said softly, and lowered his eyes knowing that, by now, all his enemies were dead.