I kissed Toby on the forehead, turned out the light, and then closed the door behind me.
I then went downstairs and cleaned up the kitchen. I’d made my famous pasta with garlic bread for dinner (always a hit with Toby) and as usual I’d made way too much. It was great as leftovers, so I packed it up and quickly put it in the fridge.
After wiping down the table and the counters, I strolled into my office and fired up the desktop hoping to get some work done. I was sure there were voicemails to listen to and emails that were urgent waiting on my eyes to view them, but between the hours of two and eight were pretty much dad time for me. Those hours belonged to Toby, no matter what. And I never budged on this.
As the computer booted up, I grabbed the remote control and turned the television on for some much needed background noise. I found silence to be distracting sometimes. If things were too quiet, there was just something not right about it. There would be an increase in volume within the silence and I typically found this would drive me nuts.
I grabbed a bottle of whiskey from the mini bar and poured myself a much deserved drink. Then I sat back down with my work.
I let the television drone on for a few minutes as I delved into the work that awaited me. As usual I had about twenty emails I desperately needed to reply to. Many of these questions had probably already been answered by someone else and handled (incorrectly no doubt), but I felt obligated to answer things the way they were supposed to be so at least they would know the proper procedure for next time.
“On a darker note today,” the news anchor began in the background. “Arnold Caplinger, local businessman and philanthropist, has died at the age of seventy-three of sudden cardiac arrest. Sources say he had just finished dinner when he suddenly collapsed in his home. He was pronounced dead at the scene.”
I couldn’t believe it!
I grabbed the remote and turned the television up louder. Turning away from my work I focused on the screen intensely. My body was beginning to get goosebumps all over and I felt a little faint. I took a sip of whiskey to help settle my nerves. This had to be a mistake. It just had to be…
Not Arnold… please… no…
“Many may be familiar with Arnold Caplinger’s name by the rumors which surfaced last year that he is a high ranking member of the Zeffari crime family. None of this has been confirmed of course, but rumors have been circulating for years that he was the man behind the murder of Nanos Crime family boss Tito Sanzer in June of last year. There are many who blame his death on a retaliation, but our closest sources confirm that Arnold Caplinger’s cause of death is being entered as cardiac arrest. We will keep you up to date on the details if anything else changes.”
I turned off the news and finished my drink. Then I poured another. It couldn’t be… Arnold…
Arnold Caplinger was the highest ranking member of the Zeffari crime family. I knew this to be a fact. The reason I knew this was because when I was sixteen I became an unofficial member of the family. I grew up in a poor part of town, never knowing my father, and my mother had to work several jobs just to keep the lights on. My grandfather was there for me when I was little, but he passed when I was twelve. I was a rambunctious, mischievous kid and eventually I found my way on the wrong side of the tracks getting involved in things I had no business being involved in.
Hell, I would have been dead if it hadn’t been for Arnold. He stopped one of his nephews and his gang of friends from beating me senseless one day when I decided that I would take them all on. I couldn’t even remember all those years later what in the hell we were even fighting about. It didn’t matter. For some reason Arnold took pity on me. He saw something in me and took me under his wing.
I learned a lot from him. He may have been in the mob, but he beautifully ran several legitimate businesses. Most of this was in the interest of laundering the money his family obtained through illegal means, but legitimate businesses all the same.
I knew that I would never be one of those guys to get involved in any of the shady stuff that was going down. Even as a rebellious kid, it left a bad taste in my mouth. At least at first. When I saw the kind of money these guys were raking in, to me it looked like more money than what was in the whole world. I wanted just a piece of it and at seventeen I decided I would do whatever it took to get it, just like they did.