Memphis – Brothers At Arms MC, #3

“Now what?” Leon growled as he studied Click’s computer screen. He saw two vehicles rushing toward the main gates. He looked up at Zeus and asked, “Can you close the gates and lock them from here?”

Zeus nodded and looked at Click to lock down the gates.

 Click locked them just in time as the lead car slammed on his brakes and had to stop before he creamed the gate or his car. The second driver did the same and then they both got out of the vehicles, grabbed their guns and ripped off a few shots toward the clubhouse.

The men on the roof shot back at them as they ducked behind their car doors to avoid getting shot. They traded shots for a short time then finally quit. Then they dove into their cars and reversed to get out of there.

Delaney carefully rose from her crouched position and looked around the room. “What the hell was that all about?”

“That my dear, was your brother’s men testing our defenses,” Leon growled out. He glanced over at Click. “Can you find them?”

Click didn’t bother answering him as he was scouring the area for red dots. He snarled when he didn’t find them at first, so he took a deep breath then exhaled. Closing his eyes, he calmed his beating heart. When he opened his eyes again, he began a new search for the men who just rammed the gate.

A few minutes later, he found them and they had returned to the spot they’d been in before. “Bingo, got you motherfuckers.” He snarled under his breath. He switched the night vision cameras to the daylight cameras, snapping photos. He began printing them out.

When he was done, Zeus walked over to the printer and grabbed them. He studied each one and passed them off to the next man.

The third picture was a close up of one of the men. Memphis grunted in disgust when he saw it. “I know this douchebag.”

“Where have you seen him before?” Leon asked.

“He was in our bar a few weeks ago. He was real curious about our setup.” He looked up at Zeus and asked, “You don’t suppose they were the recon team for the brothers do you?”

“They used a recon team?” Leon asked.

Zeus nodded. “The brothers could have sent some of their men into town to have a look-see. Everyone in town knows we live out here, so we would have known Vincent and his boys. They just love to harass us, so they would have had to send in someone we didn’t know.”

Delaney agreed with this scenario, “That sounds like my brothers. With dad getting out soon, they would have checked things out just to see what their best option would be.”

 ”They would have seen us finish the wall last night then,” Zeus reasoned. “If they were watching carefully, they would have seen the armored trucks leaving here a short time ago. That would tell them we found something worth a lot of money. The only thing they wouldn’t know is what we found. Vincent knows we found the gold, he heard me tell the Marshals we found a store room with fifty barrels of what we think is gold dust. If he got that message to your other brothers, they might think that’s what went out of here this morning.”

Alfredo snorted. “Uomini stupidi. Your father should be here soon.” He stared at Delaney. “He might have ordered those men to test the boundaries, maybe check out the perimeters. Barrett would do such a thing. He might even be pissed that the gold is gone.”

“Would he know about the diamonds and whatever else might still be here?” Diabolus wanted to know.

Alfredo nodded. “My father told the boys plenty of stories and he had many secrets. Only they never believed them until now.”

“Cazzo. So there could be even more hidden here?” Leon asked with a scowl on his face.

“Si, there could be much more,” Alfredo admitted. “Of course, nothing as valuable as the gold but even what we found so far might not be all of that.” He looked over at Zeus and told him, “Those stones alone would bring you some serious money if you were to sell them. And if you found the right market, you could sell his recipes for even more money. His moonshine was one of the best in the land. Why do you think the Marshals were so keen to bust him, so badly during prohibition and even after that?” Shaking his head he admitted, “My old man made money hand over fist with that shine.”

“What other secrets are hidden within these walls, old man?” Memphis glared at him.

Alfredo looked over at the old lock box still sitting on the table from when he found it under the stones of the hearth. Among the papers inside the box was yet another journal. He looked up at Leon and said, “My father kept that tally book, maybe we can read his own words and find even more of his secrets.”

“Do it then, someone here needs to read it and figure out what more there might be, find me something that would interest his grandson to come in here, guns blazing. There has to be something more than just the gold.” Leon growled. “Or the diamonds, although both of those would have set him up in a fine manner, but he would need something more to continue his operations.”

Delaney wandered over to the window and stared out through the glass. All this talk about her great grandfather’s stories had been weighing on her mind. There was something nibbling at her subconscious that was pushing through the fog of her brain. Staring at nothing in particular, her mind was racing with all the stories she’d heard about this place when she was a kid. She turned and looked at her grandfather. “Something about a child’s game? But which child’s game?”

The men all looked back at her.

“A child’s game?’ Leon still looked angry. “Cazzo? The man even played those?”

Sighing, Alfredo nodded.

 Delaney went back over to Click’s spot. “Do you have an aerial view of this property?”

Click frowned and looked up at her. “Why?”

“I need to see it, if you have one,” she told him. “There was something my dad said and I thought it rhymed with something else. But I can’t remember what it was. An aerial view might help me remember.”

Click looked over at Zeus in askance.

Leon stepped over to Click’s table. “Qual è il problema con te, do what she asked.”

 Zeus studied her for a moment then nodded at Click’s unspoken question.

Click shrugged and began searching for an aerial view of the compound.

He found one and printed it out. It showed the entire property, all one hundred and forty acres.

Delaney took it off the printer but it was too small, so she couldn’t really see anything. She growled and dropped the photo back on the table.

“What are you looking for?” Alfredo asked her.

She looked up at her grandpa. “I’m trying to remember a conversation when I was a kid, Dad took us kids with him the last time we saw Great grandpa alive. I was sitting on the floor while dad and Great grandpa were talking and I heard Great grandpa telling dad something important, something he had to remember. Something about the real secret of this place. But the picture isn’t big enough to see the overlay good enough.”

“Cos’è questo mistero? What are you talking about, woman?” Leon growled.

Delaney shook her head. “That’s just it, I was only six at the time and I wasn’t really paying attention to what they were saying but he and my brothers were listening to him with a great deal of interest. I thought I heard him say ‘one then two then one again’ and I thought they were talking about playing hopscotch.”

“Campana…Hopscotch?” Leon asked.

Delaney nodded. She showed him what hopscotch was. She hopped on one foot then two feet then back to one foot. “It’s a game most kids know how to play.” Then she shook her head. “Only I wasn’t paying enough attention but there was something in that old man’s voice that excited my dad. I remember after they left Great Grandad’s room, Dad told the boys that grandpa better never sell this place and that if he did, they would get it back and the many treasures would be his when the time was right.”

Click shook his head. “The only way we could get the picture big enough with what we got here would be to grid the photo and print out each section on its own.”

“Can you do that?” Memphis asked him.

Click shrugged. “I could try.”

“Allora prova,” Leon insisted. “We need to figure this mystery out. With her father out of prison and the brothers testing your defenses, your time to do this might be running short. Il tempo stringe, amico “

Click stared at him then looked at Delaney.

She shrugged. “He said the clock is ticking.”

Click nodded and began working the grid theory.

Lunch was served, but most of them only grabbed coffee or a sandwich.

Leon sat with Alfredo and they conversed in Italian, so hardly anyone else understood them.

“Why did you turn away from the same road as all of your family?” Leon asked him.

Alfredo sipped on his coffee then set the mug down. “My father had money and as you see, he had much more than just that. But it seemed like it was never enough for him. He would have some plan in motion, another in the fire and yet more brimming in his mind. But he was never happy. Only when he put over something on someone bigger than him. Even with that it did not resemble happiness. It was fleeting, like it would never last. I figured out later it was like a drug for him. He was addicted to the life he created. So that was not happiness in any case. I saw it as a child and a teen. I saw how it all consumed his mind. He never paid any attention to his wife or his children. I decided that I wanted different. So, I never had the wealth. I even sold this property at base price. I planned to live free from prison or worse. Delaney was the only child that felt as I did.” He sighed and took his cup up again. “I will now lose almost all the family I produced and why?”

Leon slowly nodded his head. “For the same reason that made your father crazy. Greed and avarice. I understand. Just to let you know, after this if you or your granddaughter ever needs anything. I am a call away.”

Alfredo almost dropped his cup as he stared at him with wide eyes. “Even after all of this? What my father did and my sons?”

Leon nodded. “A person reaps what they sow. You never sowed, my friend. That makes you a rare man.”

Alfred sat quietly for a few minutes as the shock wore off. Then he held out his hand for Leon to shake.

Leon did so.

The two men now understood each other very well.

Delaney heard some of it and swallowed heavily as she swiped a tear from her cheek.

Memphis sat next to her and grabbed her hand. “Babe, what is it?”

She bit at her lip and wiped another tear away that escaped down along her cheek. “Sometimes, people get what they deserve. And some get what they earned. Today, it seems like both of those concepts are happening.”

Memphis blinked at her and squeezed her hand. “I’m not sure I get it, but just know one thing. …I will protect you and your Grandpa with all I got.”

Delaney stared at him as another tear fell. “Stop it! Do you want me to sit here like a sobbing child or what? Dannazione!”

He looked surprised then he chuckled. “You are gonna be a real challenge, aren’t you?”

She stared into his eyes. “Quello che vedi è quello che ottieni.” What you see is what you get.

Memphis still looked confused as he shook his head and took out his phone.

“What are you doing now?” she asked him.

“I either need a full learning course in Italian or I need a translator. I’m looking for an app.”

She chuckled.

It took all afternoon to get the grid printed and put together, so they could all see it. They ended up taping the photos on one of the walls. Then finally when they were done… they could all see the overview of the entire property.

Leon turned to Delaney and motioned to the huge outlay. “This is what you wanted, so show us this campana game.”

She shook her head. “First, we have to label where everything is located.” She found a marker and began labeling the buildings and other areas. She found the main building, then the buildings where the stills were located.

Zeus grabbed another marker and began labeling some of the other buildings.

Delaney marked the cave where one of the tunnels came out at and Memphis marked another tunnel, the one in the kitchen. Click marked the tunnel that came out in the garage while Diabolus marked the tunnel coming from the main room.

Everyone added a little bit more and soon, the map of the place was riddled with more and more marks.

When everyone was finished, Delaney stood back and studied the map carefully. After a few minutes, the hopscotch pattern began to make sense to her. She picked up a red marker and moved in to show the pattern.

 In red, she marked them. One box… then two boxes… then one box. Each box showed another tunnel ending or building where they had already found something.

Leon and Zeus watched her make the outline and they began to see the pattern as well.

Leon turned to look at Zeus then to look at Alfredo. “Bene, I’ll be damned. It is a campana pattern.”

 Alfredo silently studied the pattern his granddaughter outlined and shook his head. “My father was a devious man. Truly a crazy man as only he could come up with something like this.”

Calderone, who had been mostly silent, shook his head. Then he walked toward the map. He studied it for a moment then he pointed to the only box that wasn’t marked with either a tunnel ending or a site where they found something. “What’s in this box?”

Zeus looked perplexed by the whole damned map as he shook his head. “I have no fucking idea.”

Memphis studied it for a moment then suggested, “I think I might know what’s out there.”

Leon turned to him and asked, “Cosa c’è là fuori?”

Memphis paused then announced, “I think it’s an old well. Back when… I was going over the paperwork when we bought this place. I saw that the property at one time had needed a new well dug.”

“Si, it did.” Alfredo nodded. “We came down here one time when I was maybe ten or twelve and we had no water. My father was furious.” He shrugged. “I don’t know why, we hadn’t been here in a few years at that point. I thought maybe the water hadn’t been run in so long that the old well just dried up, but when the new well was dug, they discovered the old well was overgrown with tree roots and such. They had to seal the well and cement the water lines. My father was watching them cement the water lines but I don’t think they ever sealed the old well. I think instead, he put in some kind of new base. I do remember it was a huge tank of some kind but I was a kid back then and I didn’t really care what they were doing.” He looked over at Delaney and said, “Did you hear if he put anything down in the tank?”

Delaney sighed. “No, I really wasn’t paying attention to the talk, not until he mentioned the hopscotch thing.” She shrugged. “Like I said, I was only six.”

Leon shook his head. “I am so sick of your old man’s secrets Alfredo. God only knows what’s down there but now we have to dig it up and find out.” He swore in Italian, “È una dannata scopata a grappolo!”

Memphis instantly looked down at his phone and tapped the screen.

Delaney laid a hand on his, stopping him. “You really do not want to know this.” She shivered at the curse.