The Godmother (Part 15)

The Godmother


Davide Kendeloni was a big-time lawyer who defended mob bosses, crooked politicians and other assorted lowlifes. One hot summer evening he was sitting in his living room watching TV. It was a typical hot summer night in the mean streets of New York. (Chappaqua, NY, that is.)

Suddenly, Davide heard sirens coming down the street. Almost at the same time, he heard a rapping on his living room window. A blonde haired woman was banging on the window frantically. Davide opened the window and saw that it was the Godmother. As soon as the window was opened, a black bag came flying in the room.

"Hold on to this until I get back to you," said the Godmother as she ran back to the house next door.

Moments later, cars pulled up to the house next door and a dozen men in raid jackets and guns drawn ran to the door and demanded entry. The next thing Davide saw was the door being kicked in. He could read the inscriptions on the back of their raid jackets.

ARB.

That could mean only one thing: The Accountability Review Board.

Davide knew that his next door neighbor was the Godmother, but he had never met her. Now this. And what was inside that black bag? Did he dare look? After mulling it over, he opened the bag. It was full of cell phones and hard drives. But what could  those have to do with crime?

Davide didn't want to think about it anymore. Putting the bag in a closet, he went to bed not even bothering to see what would transpire at the house next door.

He had almost forgotten about the bag as he was walking to the train station a few days later. Suddenly, he felt a tug on his arm from behind. Looking around, he saw that it was the Godmother herself.

"You still got that bag I gave you?"

"Yes," Davide answered nervously. "Do you want it back?"

"No, here's what I want ya to do. Get rid of it."

"OK,"answered Davide.

"Did you look inside the bag?"

"Yes."

They walked a few more steps, and the Godmother continued, "Here's the deal. If anybody asks about it, I want you to tell them you listened to the messages and read everything on the hard-drives. I run a pizza delivery business, see? All that's on there is pizza orders. Got it?"

"OK. I got it."

"Oh yeah. There may be a couple of yoga appointments on there too," added the Godmother.

"Yes, Godmother."

"So you know who I am."

"Everybody in the neighborhood knows who you are," said Davide.

The Godmother stopped and turned to Davide.

"Hey, I wanna show my appreciation. You need a rug?"

"Uh, no thank you. I have plenty of rugs."

"What kind of work do you do?"

"I'm a lawyer," answered Davide.

At that, the Godmother got a big bug-eyed look in her eyes, and she broke out in a big smile.

"That's great. I always need new lawyers. Tell you what. Gimme a call in a couple of years.
I'm going places, and I might have a job for you." The Godmother turned and started walking back in the direction of her house.

"Uh, excuse me," Davide called out.

"What happened with those guys from the ARB the other night?"

The Godmother laughed. "I fired them."