Blood on My Hands

I skirted around the periphery of his kingdom looking for a way in. It was more difficult than I had imagined it to be. He distanced himself from the day to day operation of the business, he had others to do his dirty work, just as he got his heavies to rough me up.

I needed a chain of command that would lead me to the person that gave the orders, ultimately him, and that was proving difficult for me, after all I couldn't just front up to him and accuse him of being a criminal, could I?

I was beginning to give up hope of finding an entry point when I stumbled across something I could use. His son-in-law and Lucianna's husband was, it seemed, as camp as a row of tents. I saw him coming out of a gay bar, not one of father-in-law's enterprises, with a couple of friends, who just happened to appear to be that way inclined. The way that they disported themselves would suggest that they were regular participants in Sydney's famous Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. I did some digging and guess what? The club was owned by a company that was owned, a couple of levels removed, by son-in-law himself.

I now had the opportunity to gather enough ammunition to drive a wedge between Mario and Giorgio Bocelli, all that I needed was someone to get into the club and get the ammo, after all I could hardly waltz into a club owned by the husband of the woman that I once loved, an probably still loved, and start taking happy snaps. Subtlety was what was needed. I called my friend and lawyer. "Joey, do you know of someone who can sneak into an establishment and obtain some evidence for me?"

The one thing that I had discovered was, that a feud such as existed between my family and Lucianna's, tended to polarise a community, and while his side had intimidation as their major weapon against us, there was a significant part of my side that was prepared to, behind the scenes of course, provide a wide range of assistance. One such person was Joey, a lawyer with a reputation for backing the little man against the oppressor, in this case Giorgio Bocelli. Granted that he had limited success against the Bocelli machine, but it was significant enough that he was able to call on people with skills in certain areas who were prepared to operate outside the law if necessary.

Within days, hidden cameras were placed in the Pink Flamingo bar, and one of the staff was prepared to obtain copies of the surveillance tapes for us. One not totally unexpected outcome of this was that the bouncers all had been arrested on multiple occasions, all for acts of violence, but none had spent time behind bars. Leverage within the judicial community ensured that all custodial sentences were suspended on the felon entering into a 'good behaviour' bond.

We discovered that there was a tier above that level within the Bocelli machine, and that was very scary. These were the hit men, guys who had no compunction about offing people that Bocelli wanted to disappear permanently. These were the men that I wanted to bring down, but how? I would like to say that, having discovered this, gaining the proof that we needed was plain sailing, but it wasn't. I was in for a great deal of additional pain along the way.

After sifting through hours of surveillance videos we had a breakthrough that could be what we needed. There was a rift between two of the regulars, brought on by Gino dumping his 'wife' Carmine for Mario, and there were photographs of the new happy couple cementing their new 'married' status on the desk in Mario's office. Mario was bent over his desk and Gino was doing a bit of freckle punching.

Things began to take a turn for the interesting shortly after we circulated the photos around the gay community.

When you throw a cat into the pigeon loft the initial result is carnage. Rumour and innuendo ran rampant through the gay community. But then the cat got tired of pigeon meat and wandered off in search of a new food source. The surviving pigeons began looking for the person that opened the loft door to allow the cat to enter. Inevitably they found someone who had witnessed the cat insertion. I received an unwelcome visitor, Mario.

They tell us that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, let me tell you that a lady-boy can be a proper bitch. "Why are you trying to ruin my life?"

"Who are you?" This is me playing the innocent.

"You know very well who I am."

"Why should I? I don't believe that I have ever met you, and I would hazard a guess that we don't move in the same social circles, in fact I don't move in any particular social circle." In hindsight I seem to have the ability to say the wrong thing at the wrong time.

"Don't be smart with me." I was nearly going to say that, compared to him I had no option but to come over as smart in comparison, but discretion etc. "I am warning you that if you don't stop harassing me I will take action.

I couldn't resist it. "Ooh I am so scared, look I'm shaking in my boots. Go away little man, I don't know you, and I certainly haven't a clue what it is you're talking about. If you have a problem, then I suggest that you look somewhere else for answers."

"Do you know Giorgio Bocelli?"

"I know of him, I have met him years ago, but not recently."

"He is my father-in-law, and one word from me and you will regret the day that you started this."

"This what? You still haven't told me what it is that I've done to upset you."

"I know that you are responsible for certain photographs being circulated amongst my friends. They have caused me a great deal of embarrassment."

"Mate, if you haven't done anything wrong, what is the problem? If you have been caught doing something wrong, then I would suggest that this is your problem, not mine." He just didn't seem to get that I had him by the short and curlies, and that if he went to Giorgio Bocelli with his problem, he would not get any sympathy. "If you have quite finished chucking your hissy fit, would you shut the door on your way out, preferably after you've passed through it?" The hissy fit didn't leave him for some time, time enough for me to ramp up my efforts.

Word filtered to Giorgio Bocelli.

"Luigi, my friend, why do you keep this secret from me?" Giorgio was having difficulty keeping his anger under control. He was seated behind his large desk, his chair raised as high as he could get it and still get his legs under the desk.

"What secret? I keep nothing from you." Luigi sat on a hard chair, the juxtaposition not lost on him. He had heard of this strategy used to dominate the person in his position, but this was the first time in over twenty years of their friendship that he had been in this position.

"So you lie to me now. I have been dishonoured by your son, my daughter's husband, the bond that is between our families. I have been informed that he does not go with women like a good boy should. How many times have we sat around drinking vino and boasting about our success with the women? How many times did we raise a glass and say, 'aqua fresca, vino puro, figa stretta, cozzo duro, fresh water, pure wine, tight cunt, stiff cock, words to live by, how many times? I now know that Mario prefers the tight arse of a man to the tight cunt of a woman. I tell you now that I will not stand for this, I will kill him with my own bare hands, and then I will cut off his cock and stuff it down his throat. I am told that he prefers a cock in his mouth!"

"Who tell you this? How you know this is true?"

"Maria, she tell it to me. She was at the hair salon and Carmine was very emotional. He tell her that his husband, Gino, had dumped him for your son Mario. She does not believe him and she say to him, "How you know this is so?" He say to her that when Gino no call to him for two days he begin to worry, so he go to Gino's house and he see Mario at the front door. It open and Gino give to him a big hug and he kiss him on the lips. They go inside and Carmine, he go to see one of his friend who tell to him that Gino and Mario have been making love for some time. This friend, he give him photographs of the two of them in Mario's office, Mario bending over the desk and Gino fucking him." Giovanni took some photographs from his desk drawer and slid them over to Luigi. "You must know that Carmine is a lady-man, everyone who goes to him know this, and everyone know that he is the wife of Gino. I know this for a fact, but this is of no concern to me. But when Gino makes jig-a-jig with Mario, that puts great shame on me, I lose the face. My daughter cannot be married to a fairy, I will not have this!"

"I do not know this, I swear I do not know any of this."

"I go to Lucianna and I say to her, you do not make love to Mario, and he go to someone else for sex, is this so? Do you know what she say to me? She say to me that except for the wedding night when he make love to her the once, he only want to have sex with her arse, she is so humiliated by this, but she say nothing to me because she afraid that I will kill Mario."

"So, my friend, it is possible that your grand-daughter is not my grand-daughter."

"What! Are you trying to tell me that my Lucianna is making love to someone else?" Giovanni's anger towards Luigi was slowly turning towards Lucianna. "I know that she was a virgin on her wedding night, I see the blood on the sheets."

"But she was in love with another man before she marry Mario, she ask for permission to marry him, she say to you that she love him. Maybe she go with him again."

"No this cannot be, I know everything that this man do, I have him followed everywhere and, I tell you he not go anywhere near Lucianna, so she cannot have had his child."

"Then she must have gone to another man."

"No, I will not think this of her, she was a good girl, and she is now a good woman, she would do nothing to bring shame on me."

"So you will end our friendship of a lifetime without you find the truth. If this is your answer, then I no longer your friend."

Giovanni sat deep in thought. For his friend to make this threat to him had him thinking that there may be some truth to what he has said, that Lucianna was seeing this Peter Minervini. He needed to be sure before he acted. "I will ask around, if you are right then I take care of it. If you are wrong then we no longer friends."

The result of this exchange was that I now had two Italian families desperate to find if Lucianna and I had renewed our love affair.

Mario was least happy of all. Gino was not prepared to be caught up in this centuries old feud and dumped him to return to Carmine. This of course was all my fault, don't ask me how he reached that conclusion because I made sure that I could not be connected with the investigation, unless, but I don't know how he could have found out that Lucianna and I were lovers before he married her and took her virginity, after all there was blood on the sheets after the wedding night. He knew that his father-in-law had kept a close watch on her, so he was certain that she had not had any lovers, there was no evidence to back up his feeling that she had been unfaithful, and if his interests did not lie elsewhere he might have pursued the matter. He had better things to occupy his mind than his wife.

Giorgio sat in the front room of Mario's house, a terrified Lucianna by his side. "I talk with Luigi today and he tell to me that he think that Mario is not the father of Maria. Tell me this is not true."

"How can you think otherwise, did you not see the proof of my virginity?"

"Yes I see this."

"I tell you that, from the day that I married Mario I have not been with another man."

Giorgio thought about this for some time, he could not believe that Lucianna would lie t him, if she was not lying then he could see no proof that Mario was not the father of Maria.

"I go now to speak with Mario."

"Why do you want to speak with him?" Lucianna was concerned, she knew of the photographs that had been circulated, she knew of Mario's love for men, yet she had a feeling that this conversation would not end well for her husband.

Giorgio and Mario had a long association. The lack of a male heir forced Giorgio to look for a suitable husband for his daughter, one that would eventually take over the family business. Mario proved to be a suitable choice at first, but he had ambitions that would move the family business away from its core operations and take it into areas that he knew Giorgio would not approve, like the gay scene. At his time in Australia, the gay scene was open to blackmail, and the threat of outing a prominent man was enough for a considerable sum of money to change hands, after all the man could not go to the police and lodge a complaint without implicating himself in illegal activities.

Public attitude changed and the threat lost its impact, forcing Mario to move into the now legitimate side of the gay business. The Pink Flamingo was the newest bar in town, attracting the arts crowd. On the surface, it was just another bar in Kings Cross, but behind that facade things were different. Patrons prepared to pay the entry fee were admitted to another world, a world of decadence, of sexual depravity. For a price, submissive men allowed themselves to be shackled and abused, to be penetrated by other men and even women wearing strap-on penises. Dominant men were allowed, also for a fee, to participate in this activity. Relationships formed in this environment blossomed out in the real world, and Mario was a willing participant in this.

Giorgio was now certain that Mario was homosexual and this disgusted him. The men that he had looking into Mario had dug up more and more evidence to support this, and the more evidence that he had, the more angry that he got with Mario. "Bruno, you take me to this Pink Flamingo place."

"Sure boss." Bruno fired up the motor and eased into the traffic. Half an hour later the cars was parked across the road from the club. A policeman tapped on the window and Bruno wound it down. "Excuse me sir, but this is a no standing zone." He would have said more but Giorgio cleared his throat from the back seat. "I'm sorry sir, you will not be disturbed." He and his partner walked on.

Minutes later, Mario and a friend left to club. Giorgio walked across the road. "Mario, I wish to speak with you."

Mario stopped and stared at Giorgio and the gun in his hand. "I have nothing to say to you old man, leave me alone."

Being called 'old man' was, to Giorgio, the final insult. A single shot rang out, and Mario lay dead on the footpath (pavement).

Giorgio walked back to his car and climbed into the back seat. "Home, Bruno."

"Boss, you should have asked me to do that."

"No, this I had to do myself."

"When the police come I will say that it was me that killed him."

"That will not be necessary, a phone call and this matter will go away. You're a good man Bruno, I not forget this."

The investigation would normally have stalled with no charges being laid on anyone, but things had changed over the past months. As more and more evidence mounted into the illegal activities on Giorgio Bocelli, his police 'friends' had found themselves less able to intervene, to the point where several cases were now ready for prosecution. The evidence from the newly installed CCTV cameras in Kings Cross, confirmed that it was Giorgio himself that had pulled the trigger.

Before an arrest could be made, Luigi took his revenge on his long-time friend. Giorgio became the victim of a hit-run accident, the vehicle involved found later, completely destroyed by fire. There was insufficient evidence to convict anyone for this crime. The matter was soon dropped.

For a short time I thought that I was now free of Giorgio's anger, I even had thoughts of seeking out Lucianna. Joey warned me that I should lay low for a while, just to be sure that Giorgio's successors were not interested in me.

I recognised the cop as he walked up the path to my front door. This could spell trouble for me, if I let it that was. I grabbed the phone and rang my Lawyer. "Joey, it appears that I am about to be arrested, meet me at the cop shop."

"Say nothing until I get there." The thing that I liked about Joey, the thing that set him apart from other Lawyers that I knew, was that he never said any more than he needed to.

I didn't answer the door right away. The cop had banged on the door several times and was getting ready to kick it down. I opened it. "Sorry to keep you waiting, I was on the toilet. I hope that you didn't expect me to stop mid shit to answer the door."

"Peter Minervini you are under arrest." No greeting, no idle chit chat, no 'how are you?', straight into it.

"Can I ask, on what charge?" I was playing the innocent here.

"Don't worry, I'll think of something."

"It had better be good, I have spoken to my Lawyer and he is going to meet us at the station. If you have any thoughts of taking a detour along the way, he knows that you're here and he also knows your Commissioner, very well." This was all bullshit of course, but he wasn't to know that, and the emphasis on 'very well' would cause him to have second thoughts if he had intended to harm me in some way.

I had to suffer the indignity of being cuffed and shoved into the back of the patrol car. The thought struck me that there should have been two officers, not just him. He tuned his radio into a band other than the police band. "He has second guessed us, call off the attack dogs." We drove in silence and he was almost polite as he led me into the station.

We were met by Joey and a couple of very senior police officers. "What is the meaning of this outrage?" The officer with the most silver on his uniform asked.

"I was ordered to bring this man in for questioning, Sir."

"And who was it that ordered you to do this?"

"Sergeant Russo, Sir."

"Oh, you mean ex-sergeant Russo." My arresting officer appeared worried and confused. "Take him away." Two policemen emerged from behind the desk and led him off. "Mr Minervini, it appears as if you have been a very busy person. I have had a brief look at the evidence your lawyer has provided, that you have obtained about the operations of the Bocelli family, and your lawyer has filled me in on the salient points, which, as it happens, coincides with what we have already established. You have furnished us with the proof that we were somehow lacking, it appears as if there has been a certain reluctance by the investigating officers to proceed to finality, with any investigation against Mr Bocelli. Let me say that I will ensure that the allegations that you have made will be fully investigated. I have to say that you have skated very close to breaking the law on a number of occasions, and while we can't prove that you have crossed that line, we are led to believe that you are entirely responsible for the implosion that has occurred, and that has destroyed his organisation. It is highly probable that you have blood on your hands, but don't worry, that matter will not be pursued."

We proceeded to an interview room and I made a statement regarding my arrest, making sure that I mentioned the fact that it appeared that I was going to be met with malice aforethought, or whatever the words the legal blokes used to insinuate that some nasty form of action was planned.

I had only been home for half an hour when a car pulled into my driveway. My heart skipped several beats as two women and a young girl walked towards my door. They did not need to knock because I had the door open before they had reached it. "Come in." I held the door open for them. The young girl had a pleased and knowing expression on her face as the younger of the two women threw herself into my arms. We were lip-locked for some time before the older of the two women cleared her throat.

"Lucianna, don't you think that it is about time that you introduce Peter to his daughter."