Chapter 118: Seven Tunnels, One Secret

When Grave Digger entered the main room, he saw Leon standing there looking more pissed off than ever before.

“I called the Council,” he stated angrily. “And they checked the records. Your father did indeed rob one of the safes, all those years ago. The theft was never solved. That money was supposed to be there as a backup for the family it was being held for. That’s what those safes are used for. It happened before I officially took over, so I never really knew about it. My predecessor never said a word as maybe he felt it was far too late to recover it. This is outrageous. Your father was either the bravest man I have ever heard of or he was the dumbest. His actions left a deficit that had to be covered by other means. I hold your father responsible. We need to find that money.”

Alfredo nodded. “I know.”

“I had them check the books and apparently, he stole ten million dollars from that safe then closed the door behind him. No one realized the door had been left open.” Leon growled.

Alfredo nodded. “Yes, in his journal, my father brags about how easy it was to take the money. He claims he took a wrong turn and ended up in the safe room, he checked the handles on the safes and found one hadn’t been locked yet. He says he opened it and found the money just sitting there. And he wasted no time in loading the bag he took and walking out of the room. He found a back entrance and just walked through it. He boasted that it was his biggest job yet and that it had been so easy.” Alfredo sighed in exasperation. “The idiot thought he would never be caught because he knew those safes were emergency use only. He said they weren’t to be opened unless the family who owned them was going under and he knew that would never happen, so he felt he got away with robbing the Family. The fool.”

Delaney shook her head. “And now my father thinks he can just walk through the door and claim what great grandpa stole.”

Alfredo snorted. “Your father is just like my dad. He’s too fucking lazy to do an honest day’s work and take pride in earning his own way. My father always had a saying that most people don’t know what they had under their own roof, sometimes it’s a shitload of money and sometimes it’s nothing but dust and lost dreams. My Barrett always repeated those words and every time he did, he laughed like he was crazy.”

Delaney paused at his words then she looked up at the ceiling and thought about the roof overhead. That was a flat roof. She remembered looking at it as they often made their way to the still room before they were found by Memphis.

She remembered her dad doing exactly as grandpa said and now she had to wonder why her dad always laughed when he repeated his grandfather’s words. When she swung her gaze back down, she looked over at her grandpa. The poor man just received shock after shock. It wasn’t good for him at his age. She walked over to him and knelt beside him, “I thought these surprises were over. I’m so sorry, Grandpa.”

Alfredo patted her arm. “I know child, so am I. My dad was a thief and an idiot. How he thought for one moment he could do what he did to the Family still astounds me. Plus, the fact he got away with his deeds for years must have tickled his funny bone for a long time. But he died before his dirtiest deeds could come to light and now he’s safe in his grave while leaving the blame to be taken by others. He lived a good long life because he kept most of his secrets to himself.”

Delaney shook her head, “But not this one, he told my dad about it. And all he had to do was wait until he could come in and get what your dad told him was waiting for him.” She hung her head in shame. “We can’t let him get it. We have to stop him. We have to.”

“And we will.” Leon snarled. “Ho chiuso con questo gioco. I’ve about had it with Barrett’s greed and I’ve about had it with Alfonzo’s games as he taunts us even from his fucking grave. He has thumbed his nose at us for the last time. He may be safe in that grave but the man who’s still living while he thinks he can rob from the Family is gonna be placed right beside him soon.”

Alfredo looked over at him. “What do you plan to do?”

“La punizione è a portata di mano.” Retribution is at hand. “Your son wants a war?” Leon growled. “I will give him one, one he cannot win, one where the hunter becomes the hunted. Barrett had better have a damned good plan, because there isn’t a rock big enough for his sorry ass to hide behind.”

Everyone waited and watched as Leon made a series of calls. Everything had been quiet since they found Romano in the tunnel area.

They had already boarded up the tunnel from this end but due to the structure being all fucked up by the explosion Barrett had caused, they couldn’t exactly block the other end. No one on the inside had known the tunnel was even there before now.

Click looked down at his screens and went from one camera angle to another. He then flipped a switch and found the tunnel system. He carefully checked all of them and shook his head. There had been three tunnels that had some kind of explosion recently and their cameras weren’t working properly but the other three didn’t show any signs of anyone in there or being disturbed. Then he remembered something Alfredo told them when he first arrived. Click looked up and asked Alfredo, “Old man, how many tunnels did you say this place had at one time?”

Alfredo looked over at him and said, “My dad said there were seven.”

Click looked over at Zeus and tolf him, “We only found six, even with the new tunnel Romano found to get inside, we still only found six.”

Zeus shook his head, “No, we found all seven. There's two in the kitchen, one in the office, one in Angel's room and one in my room, then we had one that came out in the still room and another that’s under our feet. That should be all of them.”

Alfredo paused, then reached for his dad’s book again. “Let’s find out if we found all of them or not. I saw something toward the back of the book, a map of some kind, maybe that would show the tunnel system.” He flipped through the back pages of the diary.

The room got quiet.

Calderone broke the silence, “Old man Ragetti was some piece of work. Like he planned all this over the years, keeping riches in secret places and all for what?”