Monsters - Chapter 6 – Death and Retribution

Monsters

By Karen Singer

Chapter 6 – Death and Retribution

Carol opened her eyes.  There was too much light pouring into the room from the big windows that looked out over the city.  She didn’t care.  Her whole body felt relaxed and amazingly satisfied.  Brandy was lying on her stomach right next to her.  Brandy’s arm was over top of one of Carol’s.  The two of them were still naked and the room smelled heavily of sex.  What a night.

Carol shifted her arm a little and the movement woke Brandy.  She rolled over enough so that her head was facing her.  “Is it morning already?  I’m not sure we ever went to bed.”

Carol laughed.  “Oh, we went to bed alright.  We just forgot to go to sleep.”

Brandy shifted her body over on top of Carol’s and the two locked their mouths together in a hungry kiss.  When they separated for a moment, Carol said, “If we keep this up, we won’t get anything done.”

“Screw ‘em,” Brandy replied.  “They waited this long, what’s another few minutes.”

They kissed again, and the kiss led to other kisses, and other things, and a few minutes became another hour.  They each were ready to go back to sleep when the maid knocking on the door disturbed them.  Like it or not, they got out of bed.  Carol stuck her head out the door and told the maid to go away and not bother, while Brandy got herself dressed enough to walk to her room at the other side of the long hallway.

“See you in half an hour?” Carol asked just before Brandy left the room.

Brandy nodded.  Half an hour.

Forty-five minutes later, they met at the elevator and rode it downstairs.  They had each dressed in decent looking pants outfits that would be comfortable for the day.  They both wore flat shoes that tied onto their feet.  They both had bags that were slung across their bodies.  To a normal person they wouldn’t look it, but they were both ready for trouble.

They took a cab to the building where Romo Geovelli had his offices.  Geovelli was generally considered the biggest of the six criminal bosses in the city.  The city was too big, too busy, for only one criminal boss.  Those days of Vegas had passed a long time ago.  Brandy was expected and the two women were escorted on the elevator up to the top floor.  They didn’t have to wait to get in to see Geovelli.

Romo Geovelli took one look at who walked in with Brandy Salvatori, and his face turned white.  “Fuuuck!” he said, unable to take his eyes off of Carol.  His frightened eyes went from Carol to Brandy.  Back and forth.  “Fuuuck!” he said again.

“I’m guessing he recognized me,” Carol said to Brandy.

“I’m guessing you’re right.  You must have made quite an impression on him before.”

“I shouldn’t have.  I never did any jobs for him.  He was just there that one time when I stopped in to say hi to my mother.  Maybe it had something to do with what she did.  Mom always makes an impact.”

“Someday, you’re really going to have to let me meet her.”

“Sure!”

“Fuuuck!” Geovelli breathed again.

“Romo!” Brandy said sternly.  “If you don’t stop swearing, I’m going to stick my fist down your throat and rip out your vocal cords.”

“Fu…”  He stopped himself and tried to get mind back to business.  “You were supposed to be here earlier.”

“Sorry, it was a busy morning.”

“Busy night last night too,” Carol mentioned.

“Very!” Brandy agreed with a smile.  “But we’re here now,” she told Geovelli.

“Fuuuck!” Geovelli said again as he watched the two of them together.

“Romo!  Trust me, I will rip out your vocal cords if you don’t stop that!”

“Well what am I supposed to think when…”  He nodded towards Carol.  “Death.”  He nodded his head toward Brandy.  “And Retribution…come walking in my door…together.  At the same time!”

Carol looked to Brandy.  “Retribution?”

Brandy shrugged.  “It’s a nickname.  Death?”

It was Carol’s turn to shrug.  “It’s a nickname.”

“Cool!”

“You two are…” Geovelli started to say.

“Yes, we’re working together,” Brandy told him.

“Fuu…”

“Romo!” Brandy shouted.

He shut up fast and closed his mouth.

“This is getting us a lot of nowhere,” Carol said.

Brandy walked over to stand right in front of his desk.  “We’re trying to find out exactly what’s been happening, and we decided to start with you.”

Romo looked between the two women.  “You two walk in here together?  You’re both here in town at the same time?  I know now what’s been going on.  You two have been killing everyone.  You took out two of my men just last night!  And I’m betting it was her that did it,” he said as he nodded toward Carol.

Brandy shook her head.  “I can guarantee she didn’t kill anyone last night.”

“And I can guarantee that she didn’t kill anyone either,” Carol told him.  “Last night, we were…busy.”  The two women looked at each other and smiled again.

“Fuuuck!” Romo breathed as he realized what had to have happened between the two women.  “You two…together?”

“We’re working together,” Carol told him.

“F…”  He stopped himself quickly.  “I don’t know if you two being here is a good thing or not,” he said to Brandy.  “After the last job you did for me, I swore I’d never hire you again.”

“You didn’t hire me this time.  Someone else did.”

“Yeah, I know.  Johnny stinkin’ Morrow!  And I warned him it would be a bad idea.”

“I got you the results you needed,” Brandy told him.  “I solved your problem.”

“Yeah, but at what cost?  Did you have to hurt all my men?  They were there to help you!”

“They were in my way, and I didn’t actually kill any of them.”

“But did you have to brand all of them…with a branding iron from my rival’s ranch?”

“You branded all his men?” Carol asked.

Brandy shrugged.  “It was the first chance I ever had to use a branding iron.  I was curious.  And there were only about ten of them.”

“Fourteen!” Geovelli complained.

“The more I hang out with you,” Carol told her, “the more I like you.”

“Fuuu…”

“Romo!  Stop that!  Now what the hell has happened in your organization.  All of it, from the beginning.  I’m tired of you sitting there with your mouth open and getting us nowhere.”

Romo stared at Brandy, then over at Carl.  “Death and Retribution, working together.  Just one of you being around would be bad enough.”  He shook his head.  “As long as you’re not here for me.”

“If you keep delaying things,” Brandy told him, “we might be here for you.”

He finally nodded.  “Let’s sit where it’s more comfortable.  This might take a while.”  He got up from behind his desk and headed to the leather seats near the window. “Want a drink?” he asked.

“Wine might be nice,” Brandy told him.

“Me too,” Carol agreed.

While the two women sat, Romo poured them each a glass of wine from the bar near the seats.  He started to close the bottle before pouring himself something different.  “We’ll all have the wine.  Same bottle!” Carol told him.

Romo looked back, then poured himself a glass from the same bottle. 

When the three were seated, Brandy asked, “So what happened?  When did it start for you?”

“For me?  For us here?” Romo replied.  “I guess about a month ago now, Tony Bolero got murdered.  Someone slit his throat.”

“Tony Bolero?  Who was he?”

“Kind of an up and coming enforcer.  He wasn’t the best, but he was learning.  Him getting wacked ticked me off, but that same night, one of my better pimps got hit as well.  Same M.O.  Throat slit.”

“Somebody likes knives,” Carol noted.

Brandy agreed.

“Someone getting murdered happens in our business,” Romo continued.  “You know that.  It just…happens.  We get mad, sometimes we get even, and we move on.  After that, while we were still trying to figure out who was responsible, I heard about two other guys winding up dead the next night.  Both from different organizations.”

“Someone was busy.”

“You’re telling me.  But it’s been like that every night ever since, all over the city.  Someone from each of our organizations gets killed.  Not always me, not always some of the others, but every night, someone from at least one organization gets murdered.  And now it’s getting worse because whoever is doing it is starting to move up the ladder to the men who have more influence.  So far, none of the higher people yet, but the direction seems to be clear.  Last night I lost two more managers.”

“Have you met with any of the other organizations to discuss it?” Brandy asked.

“Three times.  Nobody has a clue.  Mostly, we meet and blame everybody else.  After the last meeting, I talked to Johnny Morrow, that was when he told me he was going to try to get hold of you.  Like I said, I told him not to.  When he insisted, I warned him that he better watch his back, and in the end, he might be sorry.”

“It sounds to me like someone is slowly trying to whittle away everyone else out there,” Carol noted.

Brandy said nothing for a moment.  She was thinking.  “Romo, what would happen, if all the low-level managers were removed, then the ones above them, then finally the big bosses like you?”

Romo’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head.  “There would be no organizations.  Anybody who tried to take over the organization wouldn’t know enough about the business for it to continue.”

“That’s what I thought.”

“Do you have any reason to believe one of the organizations might be more responsible than another?” Carol asked.

“Nothing solid.  But if I were to make bets, I’d look at Vince the Beast.”

“Beast?” Carol asked.

“Don’t ask.  His moniker, not mine.  Actually, his name is Vince Beastman, but he just likes being called Vince the Beast.  But he’s black, and so is everyone else who works for him.  And he’s mean as a snake.  Of course, he claims it’s not him.  At the last meeting, he also claimed that he lost three men.  But as of last week, it was only three.”

“I’ve never heard of him,” Brandy noted.  “But then I’m not out here that much.”

“He’s only been around a few years, but he takes chances like you wouldn’t believe.  We’ve shot it out with his men more than once.  He seems to have gotten his foot in this city, and ever since, he’s been trying to get a lot more of it.  Reasonable and him don’t go together.  And he has no respect at all for the way things work here.”

“Sounds like he needs a good talking to,” Carol noted.

“Huh!  Good luck getting in to talk to him.  He don’t talk to nobody!  Except at the last meeting we had.  He was there, in person!  To be honest, I’m betting even he was scared.”

“We’ll talk to him,” Brandy replied.

“Huh!”  Romo got up and went to his desk.  He opened a drawer and pulled out a stack of money and held it up.  “If you do talk to him, I got ten-grand here if you can take him down a few notches and make it stick.  And by take him down, I mean either kill him and make sure none of his guys take over for him, or at least do something so that he starts playing ball with the rest of us.”

“Ten grand isn’t much,” Brandy told him.

“Yeah, but I know you.  You do it because you like it.”  He looked over at Carol.  “And her…she just scares me to death.  And that’s not even counting what her mother does.”

Brandy looked at Carol.  “One of these days we’re going to have to talk about your mother.  I really want to meet her now.”

“I’m hoping she’ll be out here soon.  I’ll let you know when she arrives.”

“Great!”

Romo’s eyes were nearly bulging out of his head.  “Your mother, is coming here?”

“You know she’s been here a few times before.  You hired her once.”

“Yeah, I did.  I couldn’t believe she could do what they claimed.  I’m a believer now.  And it’s something I never want to see again.”

Carol stood up.  “Then you better pray you never have to.”  She looked to Brandy.  “Are we done here?”

Brandy stood as well.  “I think so.”  She looked to Romo.  “We’ll be in touch.”

“Do you like Chinese food?” Carol asked Brandy once they had gotten outside.

“Sure.  Why not?”

“Good.  I asked for a report from my people.  I want to see if it’s ready yet.  It’s a list of all the crime bosses in the city and where to find them.”

“Great idea!  But what does that have to do with Chinese food?”

Carol smiled.  “You can learn a lot from Chinese food…if you know the right things to order.”

They took another taxi, this time Carol gave the driver the address.  Once inside, both women looked over the menu.

“You wanted to come here?” Brandy asked, looking around.  “We passed at least six other Chinese restaurants on the way.”

“This one is better,” Carol told her.

A Chinese woman came to their table to take their order.

“I’ll have the…” Brandy started.

“Wait!” Carol stopped her.  She looked at the waitress.  “I’ll have 5 egg-drop soups.  Nine egg rolls.  Four orders of the Kung Pao chicken.  Three orders of the teriyaki chicken.  Six orders of the broccoli beef.  Four Cokes.  And one fortune cookie.”

Brandy couldn’t believe it.  She watched as the waitress wrote it all down then left.  “Gee.  You must be hungry.  All that?”

Carol smiled.  “All that won’t get me what you think.”

A minute later, a man wearing a nice suit walked out to the table.  He bowed to Carol.  “It’s nice to see you again,” he said.  “Welcome back.”

“Did you get the report I asked for?” Carol asked.

“We are finishing it up right now,” the man replied.  “Some locations have changed recently due to…we think what’s been happening.  We were able to get the updates a little while ago.”

“Perfect.  Thanks,” Carol told him.

“In the meantime, while you are waiting, would you like something to eat?”

“Sure,” Carol told him.  “Whatever your mother recommends.  For both of us.”

“The man bowed and walked away.”

“All that was just so you could see him?”

“Yes.  That’s the way it works.  That’s how it will work for you too.”

“So I have to start going to Chinese restaurants?”

“No.  You’ll get a phone number to call instead.  Probably to a Chinese food distributor.  I have no idea which one or what number they’ll give you.”

It was perhaps the best service Brandy had ever had in any restaurant.  She had to admit that the food was pretty good too.  Halfway through their lunch, the man was back with sheets of paper that he handed to Carol.  The list.  Carol thanked him and told him she might have more for him to look into before she left.

“Can I see that when you’re done?” Brandy asked as Carol scanned the pages in front of her.

Carol kept looking through the papers.  A moment later she handed them to Brandy.

Brandy looked through the pages.  There was more information there on each of the six organizations than she thought there would be.  They had included several paragraphs of background information about each of the bosses, as well as where most of their business addresses were located.  The biggest surprise was the information about where each of them were currently located.  “Your people are thorough, if nothing else,” she noted.

“They specialize in it,” Carol replied as she ate her lunch.

Brandy considered what she had read while she ate.  “I wonder,” she finally said.

“What?”

“What would be the possibility of your people putting together a list like that, but order it so that we know which organizations are the biggest, which ones are the most influential, and maybe, how many people each one has lost so far?”

Carol signaled for the waitress.  She whispered something in Chinese to her.  The waitress left, and a few minutes later the man in the suit was back.  “Is there something we can help you with?”

Carol asked Brandy to explain what she wanted.  The man nodded.  “It will take us a little while to put that together.  I’ll have it delivered to your hotel this evening some time.  Will that be acceptable?”

“Very,” Brandy replied.

So where to next?” Carol asked.  “Vince the Beast?”

Brandy shook her head.  “No, after this I need to check in with Johnny Morrow.  He’s the one paying for my services.”

“Might be a good idea,” Carol agreed.