Chapter 5

The call to Kolinko didn’t come easily. For a time Leon sat at the kitchen table with a sick, empty feeling in the pit of his stomach and a cold sweat on his body. He topped up his undrinkable coffee with a shot of Baileys and hoped it would silent the jack hammers in his head. He puffed furiously on cigarette after cigarette and gave his coffee another dose of Baileys to gain the courage to make the call.

His mind went back to his first days with The Family. Right from the beginning it had seemed like a dream come true, especially for a shiftless punk. The Family had not only taken him off the streets and given him a purpose it had guided his criminal career. Under the tutelage of men like Kolinko he had progressed from errand boy, to muscle man, to guard for whores being escorted to parties.

Irena was in charge of one group of girls and although they didn’t act as a team a lot of the times, they did manage to nip rebellions or attempted escapes in the bud. It was an easy, good paying job and in addition, Leon was able to sample the latest recruits before they got too used up.

That was the upside. But there was a downside because you get involved with people like The Family you’re playing games with the devil. Leon tried to shrug off his fear as he crushed his cigarette out and prepared himself for the phone call. He knew Kolinko wasn’t going to be happy about the escaped bitch but he was really going to blow his stack when he learned of the missing money. And although he could blame Irena for being lax, Kolinko’s axe would also be falling on his head because it was partly his fault. Leon had no illusions because he had seen the ruthless way The Family dealt with failures that interfered with its business.

Deciding he couldn’t put it off any longer lest Kolinko start thinking he was avoiding his responsibility, Leon made the call.

As usual the call was transferred through several people before Kolinko spoke into the phone. That was because Kolinko protected himself by never answering a phone directly. Instead, he had several people asking as buffers. It was only after the call was sifted through several people did the man take the call.

“What’s up Leon? I hear you and Irena had problems last night.” The Russian spoke abruptly without the benefit on an introduction. His English was good but his voice carried a slight accent from his homeland.

Fuck, of course he’s heard about the problems already. The damn man has eyes and ears everywhere, Leon cursed. He paused before replying. Wondering if it was just the runaway Kolinko had heard about or did he already know about the missing money as well. Then he realized must know everything because the old man was dead.

“Sorry to hear about The Family patriarch’s death. Terrible news,” Leon mumbled as he gave his condolences. Not that he gave a damn. All he wanted to do was waste a little time before getting down to the inevitable.

“Cut the bull shit, Leon. He’s dead and we’re dealing with it. We’ll have big funeral with all the associates in attendance, pay our respects by dropping flowers on his coffin and then we’ll get back to the business of running the empire he created.” Kolinko announced.

Leon shivered in fear. Kolinko was always so cold and never seemed to hold any human emotions. It was so eerie. Even in the old man’s death he was all business.

“Now, let’s discuss your problems.” Kolinko added.

“Yeah, okay. One of the bitches managed to slip away. Not sure yet how she managed but no worries, the boys are looking and they expect to have her back in no time.” Leon cautiously replied, hoping to ease into the missing money.

Kolinko was having none of it.

“Don’t beat around the bush with me, Leon. “The missing girl we can deal with ‘cause no matter how vigilante Irena is, it occasionally happens so it’s nothing to worry about. We’ll find her eventually but it’s what she took with her that we’re worried about. You see we think she spent some time in the room with the old man after he keeled over from the heart attack. We also believe she not only scooped up several hundred thousand dollars in cash, which was the nightly take from our whore houses, but she left with some important things as well. We’re missing papers containing coded names, phone numbers and financial transactions that only immediate members of The Family are supposed to know about. There is also the matter of a missing cell phone and a flash drive which indicates she may have downloaded something from the old man’s computer.