“Then it was you who gave me the counterfeit money.” First confession.
“What counterfeit money?”
“It’s a trap, Felix, can’t you see that? They’re setting it all up.”
“What are you talking about? My dad transferred money to your bank. Who in their right mind would do a cash transaction with that kind of money?” Fontane kept looking back and forth between the three of us as if trying to keep up.
“I have the information if you’d like to see it.” Pop chimed in.
“Yes, I’d love to see it since I know for sure no such thing happened.” She actually smirked as if she had me. She should’ve stuck to petty crimes in NYC because Fontane is the only jackass above a fifth-grade education that would buy her bullshit.
Pop showed them the information I’d given him with the private account I’d set up for her without her knowledge. “I don’t know what that is; I’ve never seen that before in my life.”
“That’s funny because the bank said the money was cleared less than an hour after the transfer. You calling my son a liar?” Pop said it with a straight face.
"There’s an easy way to get to the bottom of this. Why don’t you sign into the account?”
“How can I when I didn’t even know the damn thing existed?”
“Why don’t you try? Where’s your phone?” That smirk got even wider. I guess she was so distracted by the missing money from a few days ago that she hadn’t had time to suspect anything else was amiss.
Imagine her surprise when the logo for the bank was there on her screen. “How did you…?” She looked at me with murder in her eyes. “I’ve never seen this before, Felix.” He snatched the phone from her hand and tapped on the app, which opened because the password had been stored by me.
The money was in there minus a few grand. “This is an active account, Becky; how can you say you don’t know anything about it? Where did you get all this money from if you didn’t sell the car?” Victoria decided to crawl out of whatever lair she’d been hiding out in, none too pleased to see the Russo men in their parlor.
“This doesn’t make any sense, I never….”
“It says here that you’ve been withdrawing money from the account. Is this where you got the counterfeit money?” Her eyes lit up with interest at that easy out, but there was something off about Fontane. I know a man who’s holding onto his anger by a thread, and he could’ve been the poster boy at this point.
“I don’t… I.”
“Didn’t you say the bank gave you the counterfeit money?”
“Banks don’t give out counterfeit cash Felix.” I reminded the financier.
“I know that!”
“Ah!” Carry the fuck on then. Let’s see her weasel her way out of this one. “I should let you know; we’ve already been to the cops.”
“Felix, he’s lying. I didn’t….”
“How did they get the car then? Did Victoria sell it to them? Who else was here?” He was finally pissed. I guess touching his dead wife’s shit is where he draws the line.
“We can easily solve this by having Jimmy pick you out of a lineup.” And you’re done! There’s no way out of this for you, and I’ve only just gotten started.
“I’ll be contacting the bank about the fraud unless you want to send the money back on your own.” Pop gave Fontane a look that I’m sure made his useless balls shrivel up and die.
“I’ll have it taken care of first thing in the morning.”
“You do that. It’ll be one less thing for the courts to handle.” Becky damn near fell out at Pop’s not-so-subtle threat.
“Well, that’s all I came to say. Since the car is in our possession, we’ll hold on to it for the rightful owner. It’ll be hers in a matter of months anyway unless you want to traumatize her more than you already have.” I dare this fucker.
Victoria piped up with the most asinine thing I’ve ever heard. “That’s not fair. You destroyed my car; it’s only right that I get that one.” All the adults in the room gave her a ‘what the fuck’ look because she genuinely seemed to think that was a valid option.
“About that, Becky said that you were responsible for that out there.” Fontane turned to me with that stupid shit.
“Look at it this way. It could’ve been the car or two dead bodies. Pop let’s go. I hear sirens. Let's leave these people to take care of their shit.”
FELIX
The kid is moving too fast for me. It seems that when I peel back one layer, he’s already been there and moved on to the next. I stupidly didn’t put two and two together after he’d so blatantly mentioned the car the other day, but in all fairness, my mind was still dealing with all the new information I’d learned. I was finally coming to terms with the fact that she and her daughter had abused my kid right under my nose and with my help to boot.