Chapter
3 – Criminals on the Side of Cops
To start our investigation, Cesare
and I are actually being helped by some of the Great War veterans who are now
cops. They don’t mind helping the family since they helped change the city for
the better and keep the other lesser criminals in check. Plus, they don’t think
any of the family’s illegal dealings are sinful and view us as honest men who
do dishonest work that needs to be done. They’re just as jaded by the
corruption in the government and know that something outside of it is needed to
ensure true fairness and peace. All of our allies in Casa Della Luce in the
government think this way, and won’t bother or arrest us since they agree with
what we’re doing.
Still, we have to be careful not to
make our actions known, especially our legally dubious ones, so they aren’t
forced to come after us, and after we catch the cop and official killers, then
they lay off us. With the information that our friends in the police have given
us, Cesare and I follow the most likely lead that those who are allies with the
previous corrupt administration are behind this. They’ve heard rumors that they
put a hit out on those who put them in prison before they entered it, and the
bounty is pretty high. It’s also rumored that those who help them will gain
political power, especially if they help them expedite their prison sentence. For
this reason, Cesare and I go door to door for the known allies of those who
benefited from the previous administration to see if they know anything.
“Why would I help you out?” one of
the suspects asks.
“If you know anything and tell us,
then you won’t be bothered if you had a hand in what’s happening,” I say.
“Really? A boy like you can
guarantee it?”
“Yes, I can.”
“Hmm. That’s impressive if true.
They’ll give anyone power these days, and they say they’re different than us.”
“We are because we tell the truth,
and if you do, then you’ll have nothing to fear from us.”
“But if you don’t, you'd better be
afraid,” Cesare says as he draws his pistol and points it at the suspect.
“Ha! You think I’m afraid of a
couple of boys with overly expensive suits with guns-”
Cesare shoots the suspect in the
arm. I can’t really reprimand him now, especially since I know the kind of
person I’m talking to.
“The next one goes in your head if
you don’t actually say something smart. Tell us what you know,” Cesare demands.
“Alright, alright! I’ll tell you
what I know.”
Much of our questioning goes much
the same way with the other suspects. I play good cop, while Cesare plays bad,
using either his pistol or brass knuckles to coerce the suspects into talking
and telling the truth. In one instance, the suspect tries running away, so
we’re forced to beat them down so they stop running. As this is happening and
after, the neighbors around us act as if nothing is happening, a benefit of the
things we’ve done for them. A few of the neighbors even stop another fleeing
suspect and help us beat them down and drag them down an alley for private
questioning.
What we learn brings us from one
suspect to another, not really learning anything, and making us feel like all
these people are pointing fingers at their previous allies and friends to get
out of trouble. The most we learn is that the conspirators are going to act
again and are gathering weapons and hiring thugs to do so, but are going to do
more damage next time. They’re also planning on finishing off Frank and John
Ministro, who thankfully survived the assassination attempt on their lives.
Cesare and I redouble our efforts, continue our investigation, and try to get
more information out of the suspects. They must be catching on to what is
happening because the group of suspects we go after next gives us the most
trouble out of all of them.
Before we can even knock on the door, gunfire
erupts, nearly hitting us. Cesare and I back off and exchange gunfire through
the door that becomes swish cheese by the end. I call in reinforcements from
the cops with the radio they gave us, and we proceed into the building, seeing
that we’ve killed a few of the thugs, and wanting to ensure there aren’t any
more. Going into the building, more come out of hidden compartments in the
walls and floors to fire at us with not only pistols, but shotguns and rifles
as well.
Taking cover in rooms they aren’t
in, I say to Cesare, “I think we should back off until we get backup!”
“Nah, we got this! There can’t be
many of them left,” Cesare says as he runs from cover, firing his pistol and
taking out a few of the thugs.
Not wanting Cesare’s headstrongness
to be the death of him, I follow him, gunning down a couple more. Cesare picks
up a shotgun on the floor, takes the shells off the dead thug, and loads them
into his gun.
His eyes light up at the sight of
the gun, and he says, “Now it’s an even fight!”
I pick up a rifle with clips off a
nearby thug, check its ammo, and support Cesare from behind as he charges down
a hallway, popping one thug after another as I shoot the other thugs coming at
us from the other end of a weirdly long hallway. With the ground floor
seemingly clear, we go back to the entrance where the stairs to the upstairs
and downstairs are. The cops arrive and tell us that they’ll take it from here,
only for more thugs to come out of the floors and hidden doors and shoot at
them. We return fire and cover the now-injured cops as they’re taken outside by
their friends.
“We’re supposed to be the ones
helping you! We’ll help you clear the building,” Cesare says.
More cops come in, now armed with
shotguns and rifles from their cop car. One group goes upstairs, while the other
goes downstairs. Cesare and I split up to make sure both of them are covered,
and thankfully, there are only a few more armed thugs left; however, it seems
like the rest escaped. From upstairs, there’s a hidden door that leads into the
neighboring building, and in the basement, there’s a dark tunnel that leads to who
knows where. All the thugs we shot are either dead or have killed themselves
rather than be taken in alive. In the house’s many secret rooms are stockpiles
of rifles, grenades, dynamite, pistols, shotguns, and ammo for each type of
gun.
“Oh, look at this beauty,” Cesare
says as he picks up a revolver. “Whew! It’s a six-shot revolver that uses
shotgun shells.”
I take a look through the guns and
find a golden forty-five pistol. Picking it up and checking its ammo, I see it
has twelve rifle bullets in it.
“You should take that. It’s a sharp
gun for a sharp man,” Cesare says.
Asking the cops about it, one says
that, “Most of the guns here appear to have been illegally and custom-made. As
far as we know, they don’t exist, so you can take them. Bring some to your
family, too.”
“Are you sure?” I ask.
“Yeah. It’ll be less paperwork for
us to do, anyway.”
Cesare and I thank the cops, put
the guns into an unmarked van that’s parked in the back of this house, bring
them to one of the family’s safehouses, and call the heads of the family to let
them know about what we found and brought to them. Soon after, I receive a call
from the don of the Puramente family, Amoroso Puramente, that Angelo has told him
that he knew of another safehouse for us to go to and raid for its weapons. We’re supposed to
meet two of his men at night so that we can be there when it’s less likely to have
guards in it, or to at least catch them by surprise while they’re tired.
“Why did Angelo tell you to tell us
rather than him telling us himself like he usually does?” I ask.
“He’s busy, alright? He’s onto a lead
that may end this whole mess, and doesn’t want to be bothered. My boys will see
you tonight,” Amoroso says before hanging up.
I explain to Cesare what I was told
and how off this feels.
“Yeah. Something is awfully fishy
about this. Russell did tell us to be wary of our own family members,” Cesare
says.
“Yeah. Let’s bring some backup alongside
us for protection,” I say, to which Cesare agrees.
I call the veterans who are cops
about what is happening, and they agree to back us up. Nighttime arrives, and
we show up with them at the docks where we were told to be.
“What are those cops doing with
you?” one of the family members asks.
“They’re here as backup. I thought we
needed it,” I say.
“Also, we’re veterans and fellow
citizens first,” one of the veterans adds.
“Right. Right. I’m not arguing you shouldn’t
be here. I just didn’t know you would be. Anyways, let’s head in there.”
While walking with the veterans and
family members, the veterans are fired at and killed by shooters in the dark.
As Cesare and I draw our new pistols, our own family members draw and point
their pistols at us.
“We knew something was up. What’s
the meaning of this?!” I ask as two more shooters with rifles surround us.
“Because you’re our friend, we’ll
tell you. Amoroso Puramente is tired of the family working with the feds. They
killed his son for his money and had them do terrible things during the Great
War before they died for their leaders,” the family member explains.
“Why work with the allies of the previous
corrupt administration then? Where’s the logic in that?” Cesare asks.
“Amoroso agreed with them that they
can freely be at each other’s throats like in the days of the old mobsters if
they got rid of their mutual enemies, and they agreed. The new mobsters like
Russell, Angelo, Frank, and the rest of them are all pathetic. They don’t make as
much money, aren’t as feared, and are always walking on eggshells to not get in
trouble with those who run the country. We shouldn’t chain ourselves to people
who will stab us in the back to suit their own interests. We should be the ones
stabbing them in the back and taking advantage of the easily corruptible to do
what we want, liable to no one but ourselves. That’s what it means to be a mobster.”
“Heh, what you’re talking about is
being a thug, scum, the lowest of the low,” Cesare says with a grin. “You may
be a mobster, but you’re no man of honor. None of you is. You’re all men of
yourselves, amounting to nothing, serving only yourselves, and you’ll destroy
yourselves if you reinstitute the old mob.”
“I only explained to you the
situation because we worked together in the mechanic shop with Russell, not so
that you can preach to us about what a real mobster is. We’re both criminals to
the law. Nothing more.”
“We may be criminals, but we’re the
good kind,” I say as I raise my thumb.
Two shots ring out and kill two
members of the family. Seeing which ones they shot, Cesare and I shoot the other
two, just as the shock of seeing their friends die wears off, the other two
family members. The Ministro brothers step out of the darkness with rifles in
their hands and tell us what we learned.
“Good work, boys. Your plan worked
out exactly as you said, Vincenzo, and thanks to it, we know who the mastermind
is behind these recent attacks on the authorities,” Frank says.
“You took a big gamble, young man,”
John adds. “What made you think they’d spill what they knew?”
“It’s like you said. It was a gamble.
I knew these people weren’t real mobsters, so they’d talk about what they knew,
thinking it wouldn’t matter if they told us,” I say. “Even if they didn’t, and Cesare
and I had to fight our way out of a close gunfight, we’d still know that
members of the Puramente family were traitors and investigate the family from
there.”
“It was still a reckless gamble,
kind of like something I would do. I’m proud of you, brother,” Cesare says with
an arm over my shoulder.
“You two remind us of us when we
were your age,” John says.
“Maybe you’ll end up just the same
way,” Frank adds. “Now, let’s confront Amoroso and get him and his allies to
answer for his crimes.”
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