Of Kings And Pawns

by Michael Oshita

  John straightened himself and began walking toward the brown entrance door. The dull red bricks and color of the door made him feel like he was back in the lobby of the hotel. The moon lost some of its brightness, and the entire rooftop became darker. The wind had subsided. He could hear every step he took. Anticipation grew as he drew closer and closer to the door.

  His breathing became heavier. The anxiety of what he would find behind that door started to become too much for him. His arms felt heavy; he couldn’t lift them up to pull the door open. “You can do it, son,” Katherine’s voice reassured him. “You don’t need to be afraid.”

  “Okay, Mommy. I won’t be.” He grabbed the door handle and pulled it open to a stairwell—a fire escape. He entered the fire escape and looked around. The concrete walls were cool to the touch. The stairs wrapped around, leading all the way down to each floor. “Okay, Mom, now what?” he thought, waiting for a response. He walked toward the railing and gazed down.

  A voice came from the lower levels of the fire escape. It was a voice he instantly recognized, Katherine’s voice. “Albert, stop it. You’ve found a safe already. Let’s go and get out of here, like we always said we would,” Katherine said to Carmine, her voice echoing off the walls in the fire escape.

  “Relax, Kat. I have everything under control. I found Daichi’s safe. It’s not filled with enough money for us to retire and leave this place. It’s enough to get us from here to Nevada. That’s where the real money is.”

  “You promised me that once we found one, we would leave and that we would leave this life behind us for good! I’ve packed up our family for you because you promised to keep us safe. That we no longer would have to run! John and I have run all over the nation with you, and when we finally found what you were looking for, now you tell me that we need to keep searching for more of these?!”

  John slowly began walking down the stairs, searching for his mom and dad. The commotion between the two became louder and louder as he drew near. Can they hear me? he thought as he peeked around the corner and saw his mother and father arguing in the corner of the fire escape platforms.

  “Kat, this is the last one, I promise. Once I find Martin’s safe, then we will have enough money to leave this country and no one will ever be able to find us. We can start a new life again,” Carmine replied in a softer, more comforting tone. He placed his hand on Katherine’s cheek. “Please, Kat, once we get to Nevada and I find that safe, we will be gone forever. No more running. No more worrying about running into anyone from the organization. We don’t even need to go into Las Vegas. You remember Francisco? He lives in Goodsprings now, and he can help me out. The last safe, Martin’s safe, is in Goodsprings.”

  Katherine put her head down in despair. It was quiet for a brief second as she tried to muster up the courage to speak back to Carmine. “No,” she finally replied, as she pushed his hand away from her face. “This has gone on too long, and it needs to stop. I’m leaving, Carmine, and I’m taking John with me. If you want to continue your wild chase for that safe, then you may. But John and I are not coming with you.”

  Carmine stared back at his wife, anger in his eyes. “The two of you are coming with me,” he said in a stern voice. He grabbed her arm and gripped it tight, not allowing her to pull free.

  “Ow! Let go!” Katherine cried as she finally freed her arm and slapped Carmine across the face. He froze in disbelief at what she had just done. He wiped the side of his mouth and turned toward his wife, malice written all over his face. “I’m sorry,” she began, raising her hands up and backing away, afraid of what thoughts ran through Carmine’s mind.

  “It’s okay, Kat. I forgive you,” he replied in a monotone, dull voice. “But, you need to learn not to act out in rage so quickly. It might be disastrous for us all.” He lunged forward and grabbed Katherine by both her arms. “Here’s your first lesson, if you ever try and do that again.” He pushed her to the edge of the stairs, leading to the next floor. “Don’t you ever do that again,” he ordered as he flung her down the stairs. She twisted and rolled as she fell, until she reached the bottom and lay on the cold concrete floor, motionless.

  “No!” John screamed as he saw Katherine falling down the stairs. He ran down the next flight of stairs to see her. He watched her limp body lay there as tears began filling up in his eyes.

  “Good grief, get up,” Carmine shouted as he began walking down the stairs toward Katherine. He reached over and pushed her body a few times. He then stood up and kicked her body. “Crap. Now what am I going to do? See, you idiot. Why did you have to piss me off and disrespect me that way?”

  “That’s how it happened,” John heard his mother behind him say. “This is how your father killed me.”

  John stared in disbelief. His watery eyes made his vision blurry. He closed his eyes to wipe them, and when he opened them he was back in the shack. “Now you see what happened, son. What your father has done.”

  “How did I see that, Mom? How were you able to make me see that?”

  “Johnny, you saw that because you were there. You saw your dad kill me that night. You hid that memory deep in your mind. I just searched for it and allowed you to see it. Now, you didn’t scream the first time you saw me die, and your dad doesn’t know you saw how I died. After your dad pushed me down the stairs, you snuck back into our room and sat there. You were in shock and eventually, to cope with what you saw, you believed what everyone said… that I slipped in the stairwell, fell, and died from the fall.

  “Dad is an evil man. He doesn’t deserve to live anymore. I should kill him.” He began to shake uncontrollably in anger.

  “Do you think that is fair, son? That doing that is just? It won’t bring me back if you kill him.”

  “I don’t care. He killed you, so I will do the same to him,” John yelled, angry with his mom’s dismissal of Carmine’s heinous crime. He began pacing back and forth in the shack, fuming with anger. “How am I going to do it?” he asked out loud.

  “John, I showed you that to answer your question. I didn’t intend for you to now want to kill your father. He had a reason for doing what he did. I just made a mistake and got in the way of his plans. I should’ve just gone with his plans; then I would be with you right now, son.”

  “But you are with me, Mommy, remember?” he replied, tapping the side of his temple. “You stood up for yourself and what you felt was right, and in return he bullied you and punished you for that. Men like him don’t deserve to walk on this planet. Men like him should pay for their crimes.” John stopped pacing and turned back to his mother. “Mom, today is a new day. I will avenge you, and I will rid the world of scum like him if it’s the last thing I do.”

  Chapter 11

  What else did he find out? Carmine thought as he searched the rest of his room frantically. He hasn’t discovered my safe or my handgun yet. He pushed the cardboard box, filled with his money and Big Betty, back under his bed. Damn it. He had to find this box though. I would’ve been happier if he found the money and the handgun. At least I could explain that. He bent down and began pulling out papers from his box of secrets.

  I should’ve gotten rid of all of this when I had the chance. I don’t know why I held onto all of this. What am I going to do now? He still doesn’t know what happened to Kat. I guess I need to confess to him on what happened and try and have him see it from my point of view. He slammed the rest of the papers and pictures back into the cardboard box in frustration.

  He closed his box and placed it back into the corner of his closet, taking deep breaths as he tried to calm his nerves. This discovery has sped up the process more than I expected. I need to call Francisco and get the ball rolling as soon as possible. Carmine walked over to his phone in the room and began dialing. “Come on. Pick up the phone,” he begged as he stood, waiting for an answer at the other end.

  “Damn it,” he said under his breath after a minute of waiting for his partner to answer. He placed the phone back down. Why isn’t he
there? He quickly changed out of his clothes. I need to go and see him. I need that safe and transport moved ahead of schedule.

  Puma moved hastily down the flight of stairs and walked out his front door unto his front porch. He froze when he saw John’s silhouette standing in the moonlight next to his car, staring at him. He regained his composure and began walking down the stairs, “Hi, John. I was just about to go and look for you. We need to talk. I want to explain to you what you found in my room.”

  “I don’t need an explanation,” John replied, malice in his voice. “You killed Mom and you lied. You kept a secret from me, and you’re an evil man.”

  John’s words knocked Carmine back as a lump formed in his throat. He didn’t know what to say. Does he know? How would he have known the truth? Unless he’s bluffing, but why would he do that? “No, son, you got it all wrong,” Carmine finally explained as he got closer to John. “There’s a lot for me to explain, and you might not be able to understand it all right now, but let me try.” He stretched his arm out to John, causing him to step back hesitantly. “Don’t be afraid, Johnny. I just want to explain.”

  “Only Mom calls me ‘Johnny’! Don’t call me that! I want to know what happened to Mom!” John yelled as he slowly backpedaled to the rear of the station wagon.

  “Okay, okay. I’m sorry, John. Your mother had an accident. Let’s go for a walk. I can explain it all then. Come, I want to show you something in the barn. I think after you see what I have to show you, all will be made clear.” Puma turned and pointed to the barn. When his attention had shifted, John reached around the rear of the station wagon and grabbed what was resting on the tailgate—a piece of broken glass from the abandoned shack. He placed it in his back pocket and began walking toward his dad.

  “Don’t worry, John. All will be made clear soon enough,” Carmine reassured. The two entered the dimly lit barn. Carmine turned on the light, exposing the hole. “See, son, down that hole is a safe that I discovered. I’ve searched the nation for this safe, and I have finally found it. Inside this safe is enough money for us to live worry free for the rest of our lives. Your mother’s accident happened when we found another one of these safes. She was climbing down the hole, slipped, and then hit her head at the bottom of the hole. To hide the entire accident, I took her body back to the hotel we were staying at and placed her body in the fire escape to make it look like an accident. That way no one would find the safe.”

  John clenched his fist in frustration and bit down hard on his teeth. His eyes began to water in anger. “It’s okay, John,” Carmine began, kneeling down to John to comfort him. “What happened to your mother was unfortunate. But now we can have a bright future, you and me. We can get away from it all and live anywhere in the world. You can do and be whatever you want now.”

  John closed his eyes, then opened them and looked up at his dad. “What if I want you dead?” he confessed as he quickly reached into his back pocket, drew the shard, and took a swipe at his father’s face. Puma’s quick reflexes allowed him to move out of the way before significant damage was dealt. A thin slice across his cheek was left from the blow.

  He pushed John away and stood up. “What the hell are you doing?!” Carmine reached up to his cheek to assess the damage. He looked down at his hand to see the blood that had run from his face.

  “You lied! You killed Mom! I saw you do it. You didn’t see me but I was there!” John recited what his father had told his mother moments before killing her: “It’s okay, Kat, I forgive you. But you need to learn not to act out in rage so quickly. It might be disastrous for us all.”

  “You were there?” Carmine asked, confusion and disbelief written on his face.

  “Yes, and now you will pay for what you did to Mom.” John rushed Carmine blindly. Rage filled in his heart as he swung the shard back and forth at his father. Carmine sidestepped and avoided each blind blow, waiting for his time to strike. John took one last swipe, over-swinging and exposing his side to Carmine. Puma acted quickly. He stepped forward and grabbed John’s right arm, which held the shard. He then flew his knee into John’s side, finding home in the lower half of his ribs.

  The blow took the wind out of his son, causing him to drop the shard and fall to his knees. He began gasping for air as he held onto his ribs in pain. Carmine kicked the shard off to the side. “You’re angry now. That’s understandable. I wasn’t expecting you to understand my intentions and I hoped you would never find out the truth about your mother. But, it seems that you have. We now have a new problem, son.” He bent down and lifted John, who was wincing in pain. “You need to learn a lesson, John. I’m the right man to teach you that lesson.” He pulled his fist back and gave John an uppercut straight into his gut that caused him to fall back to the ground.

  “I got something in here that will be perfect for you, until you start seeing things my way.” He began searching through the back of the barn, tossing things aside as he went. “Where did that blasted thing go?”

  As his father searched through the clustered barn, John finally caught his breath. His ribs weren’t broken; he was able to stand up. A sharp pain hit his lungs whenever he took a breath. I can’t take him on now, he thought as he watched his dad go through the barn. I need to recoup and come back, with more than just a shard of glass. The wounded and battered teenager slowly stood up and inched his way out of the barn in retreat.

  “Ah, here it is! John, I found it!” Carmine pulled out a large metal dog cage from deep within the barn. “This will be a perfect place for you to sit in and think about your priorities. I’m not your enemy, son. I’m your friend.”

  He turned around to where John had lay. “Damn,” he said to himself when he realized his son was no longer there. He ran to the opening of the barn and saw John entering his station wagon. “No!” he yelled as he began running toward the vehicle. “John, wait!”

  It was too late. John had already backed out of the lot. He turned the vehicle toward town and sped off. Tears of anger and shame ran down his face as he watched his father from the rearview mirror.

  Carmine watched as his son drove off into the night. He spat onto the ground and turned back to his house. “Francisco, you better answer the phone now,” he said in frustration as he began walking back.

  ***

  “Hello, welcome to Juan’s. Do you need any help this evening?” Francisco Lopez greeted the customer who walked into the shop. The round-faced gentlemen, dressed in a dark gray trench coat, looked over and gave the store owner the slightest of nods, then began walking toward the display counter. What an odd fellow, Francisco thought. But then again, at this time of night, I see all kinds of characters walking into my shop.

  Francisco kept a close eye on his store’s visitor. He could feel eyes on him as he walked over to one of the displays on the other side of the store where one of his store regulars was stationed.

  “Francisco, who is that man over there. I’ve never seen him before in these parts,” Herman, a longtime farmer asked under his breath.

  “I don’t know, Herm, but I’ll tell you this much: he don’t look like no farmer to me.” Francisco gazed up from the display case and caught the man peeking at the two of them. “You just let me know if you need help with anything, Mister,” he called out again to the gentleman.

  The man gave him a nod and looked back toward the display. “You want me to stay and help you out, if you need any?” Herman asked, concern in his eyes.

  Francisco looked back at the grizzled war veteran who had seen his fair share of battles in his time. “It’s okay, Herm. He looks harmless. Besides, I’m surrounded by guns. —What could go wrong?” He smiled and jokingly gave Herm a wink.

  “All right. Well, I’ll see you tomorrow then,” Herman replied as he tossed his bag over his shoulder and began walking toward the door. He looked over toward the gentleman one last time and then exited the store.

  Now, no one else remained in the store except Francisco Lopez and his visitor. Something’
s not right with this fellow, he thought. I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I know when my gut is telling me something. I better keep this handy, just in case it gets a little hairy in here. He grabbed a handgun he kept behind one of his display counters.

  “I haven’t seen you around these parts before, mister,” Francisco said to the man as he positioned himself in front of him, the glass display counter separating the two. “What brings you out to our neck of the woods?”

  “I’m here on a business trip,” the man replied as he looked up and smirked. He reached into his trench coat and pulled out an old photo. “I was wondering if you could help me out. I’m looking for this gentleman. Have you seen him?”

  The man turned the photo over and showed it to Francisco, causing him to freeze in disbelief at the picture his visitor was holding. He was looking at a photo of Carmine, with Toma in the background. A chill ran down his back and his breathing got heavier. The pressure built and pressed up on his chest. He regained his composure and looked back at the gentleman, trying not to show any sign that he knew the two men in the picture. “No, I haven’t seen him before in my life.”

  “You sure?” the gentleman asked again. “Here, maybe this will jog your memory.” He pulled out another photo, this one of Carmine and Francisco embracing outside his store earlier that week.

  As Francisco stared at the picture, his palms started to get sweaty. Who is this man? What does he want? What does he know? He looked back up at the man, then back down at the picture. I need to be quick; he may have a weapon also. At that moment the store phone rang. The half second it took for the phone to ring broke his concentration. The man pulled out a handgun and pointed it at his chest before he had a chance to react and draw his weapon.

  “Put the gun down, Mr. Lopez. I’m not here to kill you,” the man began, his weapon pointed right at Francisco’s chest. “My name is Agent William Grady of the FBI. I’m investigating the recent activities of Mr. Carmine Lazzero, and I need your cooperation in doing so.” Grady brought out his badge from his jacket pocket and showed it to Francisco.