The Consigliere
By: Edward Anderson
Tags: Action, Flash Fiction, Violence, Fiction, Mafia

The Consigliere

The job is almost done.

Photo by mahdi rezaei on Unsplash

“Are you a fucking idiot?” I screamed at Louis. He looked at me as if I had lost my mind, his finger played with the trigger of the gun in his lap. We both knew there was no way that he was going to do anything. It was the tango that we danced all the time, this was no different. “Billy, Al, and Kathleen are all part of an undercover FBI sting, looking to bring you down.”

“Are you sure about Billy and Al? I just hired them in, they passed all the background checks that I put them through.” Louis set his gun on the table and moved over to the window, next to his dead houseplant. “Tell me Sharp, how could the FBI have fooled me? I should kill the lot of them, send a strong message to the damn government that I will not be bullied or harassed.”

My temples throbbed. I punched the bridge of my nose as I tried to find a way to explain to my boss why his plan was the dumbest thing he had ever come up with. “Louis, if you kill any of them then you will be charged with at least Felony Murder. Who knows what the feds will cook up to prosecute you with.”

“What the hell do you suggest I do then?” His eyes narrowed, which gave him a menacing look. “Please tell me what you think I should do. Sit on my hands and let the other families think that I’m a pussy, that I’m about to be taken down? I don’t think so.”

“Send Billy and Al to the coffee plant, that’s what you told them they would be doing anyway. And dump Kathleen.” It was the same thing I had been pleading with him to do since Kathleen had cozied up to him at a charity dinner. But Louis thought with a different part of his body when it came to women.

“I have a better idea. I’ll blow up the coffee plant, get rid of them and frame the DeLucci family for it.” He punched the air in victory as if this was the best plan ever. After he was back at his desk, he lifted the receiver. “Send Kathleen in.”

“You have 15 million dollars invested in the plant, is it wise to just blow it up? Why are you hell-bent on killing these people?”

“I don’t take well to betrayal.”

Before more could be said, Kathleen entered the room. Today she was draped in a white Calvin Klein wrap dress. Accented with diamond earrings and a chunky diamond necklace. “Hello, Darling.”

Her voice was like that of a 1950’s movie star. Louis said nothing, he only lifted the gun and pulled the trigger. The bullet blasted through her head and into the doorframe. Everything started moving as if it were in slow motion. Louis left his desk and went over to the corpse. He methodically took the jewelry off and went back to his desk. “We’ll give her some obscure name and dump the body in the woods.

“You realize that she has some sort of tracking device on her body or something. No matter what we do, this is not going to end up well. You might as well put the body in the factory, at least then you would have plausible deniability.”

He only nodded his head. That was my sign to leave. Something about the scene bothered me, it wasn’t the violence. That trauma had ended long ago after I witnessed the murder of a young father and a young child.

Once in my office, a little room in the mansion, I inhaled. The scent of fresh pencil shavings filled my nostrils. Before I could sit in my chair, Louis was pounding on my door. “Come on, Sharp. We need to get down to the coffee factory.”

Shit, he had already put the plan in motion. Everything hit me at once, Louis had already known about them being FBI agents. The background checks had turned up something that tipped him off, but he hadn’t told me.

The ride was silent until It was broken when the driver pulled over, about three blocks from the factory. Louis and I both got out and started to walk over to the building. We crossed the street and inched closer to it. “Duck your head.”

As if by his command, the building exploded. The sound of glass crunching and the smell of sulfur filled the air. A fire truck and police car sirens took the place of the broken glass.

The flying debris had cut Louis. I wrapped my hand around him and walked him back to the limo. There was no way I could take him to the hospital, there would be too many questions. Like any good mob boss, Louis had a doctor on hand to take care of things.

“It smells like rotting meat.” There was no weakness in his voice.

“Well human flesh is burning, what do you expect.”

“Traitors have to learn their lessons. Maybe I made a mistake in killing them, but I had to do it. You were right though; I should have moved Kathleen’s body.”

“No use in worrying about that now. We have to get you taken care of.”

“One more thing?”

“Of course, Louis. What is it?”

“How long have you been working with The Feds? Don’t tell me you aren’t and don’t tell me that you were double-crossing them. I know the truth, I know everything.”

“They approached me and showed me evidence, enough to get us both sent away for a long time. They cut me a deal, so I gave them everything I had on you.”

“You son of a — “

Just as he gave Kathleen no chance to finish or fight for her life, I gave him no chance. With a gloved hand, I took his gun and shot him in the temple.

My time as a mob consigliere had come to an end.