Chapter 9 – The Harwood Butcher

Tommy Vercetti, Tommy Vercetti's apartment, Las Venturas, 1971

It had been a few days or so since Tommy had helped Sonny Forelli take over 'Caligula's Palace' and he managed to buy a flat quickly in a matter of days, he thought it usually took a few weeks to buy a flat but San Andreas law was completely different from anywhere else. He was relaxing one day when his telephone started to ring. He picked it up and greeted the person on the other end.

"Hello" he said

"Hello Tommy, I have a very important job to offer you, please come over to the casino as soon as you can" Sonny said

"Yeah, the Liberty Ace is ready to strike any time, I'll be there"

Tommy stepped out the apartment and walked to his hired car, a blue Banshee, he drove a few blocks to Caligula's Palace and walked into the casino, then walked to the main room of the casino, Sonny and Mike Forelli were sitting there.

"Hello Tommy, we have a job for you"

"Yes, please explain" Tommy said

"Well, as you may know, the Forelli's are starting to gain power in different parts of America; we have Liberty City firmly in our grasp since getting rid of the Sindacco's and the Leone's don't have a proper Don, since their Don's locked underneath this casino, he only has one son, who isn't old enough to run a Mafia, we don't have to rely on guns to make money now, since we are making loads of money in this casino, so Ammunation can open a store in Liberty if they want. Vice is a place where we don't have a piece of pie just now, but I'm not worried, it's a playground for Caribbean street gangs which know none of our ambitions"

"What is this leading to?"

"Well, one Mafia that are rivalling us for us in Liberty City are the Capelli's"

"The Capelli's, enlighten me on who they are?"

"Their Don is Don Al Capelli; he has five sons Tony, Michael, Santino, Nicky and Pauly" Sonny said "their facing a court case soon so I got someone to tell them that there's a big lawyer coming to see them tonight, have a guess who that's going to be?"

"Is it me by any chance?" Tommy asked

"Yep, but I gave them a fake name, you've to go by the name of Timothy Roth, wear a grey suit and hat and glasses with thick black frames"

"So what am I supposed to do?"

"You've to meet in Capelli's Restaurant, only a few blocks from Marco's Bistro, Don Al Capelli and all five sons will be there to meet you, you relax them, then you go to the toilet and Mike Forelli comes in and blows every Capelli's brains out one by one with an AK47, you then walk out the front door with Mike"

"Wait" Tommy said "why does it have to be Mike who does it?"

"Because, he's my son and I trust him to blast every person in that room"

"But I thought I was the Liberty Ace?"

"You are that's why I chose you for this job"

"Yeah, I have to impersonate a lawyer; I don't get to blast anyone"

"You'll get your chance on another job"

"Are we ready to go then?" Mike asked

"Yes go" Sonny said "and remember to take Salvatore with you, he's going to face death by firing squad by some of my finest Mafia goons"

Tommy and Mike went down the stairs; they went past the entrance to the casino and went down to the attic. Mike walked over to one of the doors, pulled out a key and opened the door.

"Who is this" Salvatore said "what the f-k do you want you sick b-s, leaving me underneath here with no food or water"

"This is only half of it; your day is about to get ten times worse" Mike said

"What, are you going to shoot me, you coward, why not fight me now like a real man?"

"Cowardice doesn't come into this Leone" Mike said "this is the rise of the Forelli's"

"Yeah, well you know what, we made the Forelli's, if it wasn't for the Leone's idea of trying to run the streets of Liberty, Sonny would be working with me, and so would his father"

"My grandfather is dead asshole!" Mike said

"Yeah, I blasted him way back in the 50's, go to Liberty Cemetery and you'll find his name, Vincenzo Forelli, 1930-something to 1950-something"

"You f-ker," Mike brought his Colt Python out, Tommy had to stop him from pulling the trigger

"What are you doing?" Mike said to Tommy

"Hey, we're on strict orders from Sonny to not kill Salvatore just now"

"Do you not have any respect for me?" Salvatore said "talking about my demise in front of me"

"We have no respect for you, now come with us"

Salvatore had handcuffs on, but Mike still kept a Colt Python to his head just in case, Mike and Tommy lead him into the helicopter.

"To Marco's Bistro, Liberty City" Mike said to the pilot

The journey to Liberty City only took a few hours like the last journey to Las Venturas. The helicopter was soon hovering over Marco's Bistro, Tommy and Mike both got out and led Salvatore down to a room where six Mafia goons were sitting cleaning AK47's.

"So is this Salvatore Leone" one of the goons said

"Yep" Mike said "and I want this one shot dead in a stream of bullets, I just found out he killed Vincenzo Forelli"

"Keep him with us, we'll carry out any of his last wishes" the goon said

Tommy and Mike began to walk through to the restaurant before Mike stopped at the gun cupboard and pulled an AK47 out. They walked through to the restaurant, there was a grey suit lying on the chair, and some glasses with no lens.

"Right, we've got exactly an hour, I'll go just now, I'll hide in the toilets in Capelli's restaurant, you get ready, when you go in, comfort them about the case, relax them, don't take any weapons because they might search you, then say you need to go to the toilet, knock on the only locked toilet door three times, that's my cue to go into the restaurant and blow their brains out. Go back through in one minute and we'll both walk out the front door."

Mike walked out the front door and walked down to the car park where a black Mafia Sentinel was parked underneath the sign saying 'Marco's Bistro – Eat Until You Explode!' he drove off around the bend and under the bridge a few blocks where Capelli's Restaurant would be.

Tommy put on his grey suit and hat and the glasses and went to the bathroom to practise the character of Timothy Roth.

"H.h.hello" he said into the mirror

He decided to make Timothy Roth a nervous and quiet character

He tried again "H.h.hello, I'm Timothy Roth, your l.lawyer, what seems to be the trouble you want justice for?"

That was fine enough for just now, he was only going to talk to them for a few minutes. He sat back in the restaurant and watched the minutes tick by; when it was nearing the time he walked to his red Banshee he had parked a few days before, jumped in and started to drive to Capelli's Restaurant. As he drove he heard some AK's shoot probably blowing Salvatore Leone to pieces. He drove into the car park of the restaurant and he noticed that Mike hadn't parked his Sentinel there, obviously so the Capelli's didn't suspect anything. The only other car in the car park was a Stretch which was obviously the Capelli's Stretch for the Don and his five sons. He got out the car and walked up the stairs, a man in a black suit was waiting there, he looked vaguely Italian and had a curtain hairstyle. As Tommy walked towards him the man smiled and took his hand out and shook hands with him.

"Hello" the man said "you must be Timothy Roth, am I correct"

"Y..yes, Hello" Tommy said

"Hello, I'm Santino Capelli"

"H..hello Santino"

"Would you mind if I search you" Santino said "not that I don't trust you, we just like to be careful"

"F..fine"

Santino proceeded to search him for a few seconds before saying:

"It's fine your clean, please come in, I think we should be ordering by now"

Tommy walked in, there were three other men at the table.

"Hello, meet my three older brothers Michael, Nicky and Pauly" Santino said "I'm the youngest brother"

Michael and Nicky were thin, they both looked more Italian than Santino, but Pauly was considerably more pudgy.

"I..I thought I..I was also meeting Al and Tony Capelli" Tommy asked

"You were, but they had to rush away before they could get here, please take a seat Timothy"

Tommy took a seat. A waiter came over and asked them what they wanted for dinner. He asked Michael, Nicky, Pauly, Santino and then he came to him.

"I.i.i would like the soup of the day if you don't mind" Tommy said

"Okay" the waiter said

"D..do you have any spaghetti bolognaise?" Tommy asked

"Do we ever, this is an Italian restaurant my friend, what would you like for dessert"

"I..i think I'll pass on the dessert"

"Fine, order taken, enjoy your meal sir"

"S.s.so what seems to be the trouble y.you want justice for?" Tommy asked Santino

"Well there's this guy who is blaming me for smashing his window outside this restaurant when he was dining" Santino said

"A.a.and did you smash it?" Tommy asked

Santino lowered his voice to a whisper "Of course I did, but I want you to lead this court case saying I don't, if we win the Capelli's will get millions of Dollars because he'll get charged for slander"

"Yeah" Nicky said "that is mainly why we're going ahead with it and not just paying the asshole off"

"C..can I ask, if I don't seem rude, but why did you smash his window?" Tommy asked Santino

"We found out he was working for both the Capelli's and Leone's, and he was letting the Leone's know about all of our affairs, but I don't want you to tell the court that, tell them we had nothing to do with it, it was some punk who had a grudge against him"

"R..right" Tommy said

"So have you decided a court strategy yet then Timothy" Michael asked

"I.i.in fact I have, I think I..i will go with the strategy S.santino just mentioned, that is if he has any e.evidence against it, that shows you did do it, e.g. f.fingerprints"

"No" Pauly said "he was eating, looked out the window and saw a figure at his car, he ran down, saw Santino, he was supposed to run away and think about what he done, but sued us, but he has no proof apart from his word"

"W.w.well, it seems an easy case to win, so I think you should be able to win" Tommy said

"Well I hope so, just don't mention about me smashing the car, or that he worked for us"

"Okay, I.i need to go to the toilet, I'll be back in a second"

"Yeah" Santino said "when you've gotta go, you've gotta go"

Tommy stood up and walked down a short hall to the Men's toilet, he walked in. The washroom was empty, and there were three toilet cubicles, the cubicle in the middle was locked. Tommy knocked on the door three times. Mike unlocked the door and came out.

"Hi Mike, one thing to mention" Tommy said "the Don isn't here, and neither is one of the son's"

"Your kidding" Mike said AK47 in hand

"Nope, but at least it's a scare tactic" Tommy said

Mike walked out the toilet door and into the restaurant. Tommy waited in the toilet, as he waited he could hear the stream of bullets and the screams. After one minute he walked out of the toilet and walked into the restaurant. The four dead bodies of Michael, Nicky, Pauly and Santino lay at odd angles soaked in scarlet blood, but Mike was nowhere to be seen, the AK47 was lying on the floor. Suddenly five LCPS burst in and ran towards Tommy. Tommy didn't think twice and ran for it back along the short hallway, he came to a fire exit that had already been opened, and ran along the alleyway behind him, he could see one of the policemen catching up to him. Suddenly as he was about to exit the alleyway he could feel himself being caught. He was dragged down to the ground. He felt his arm being twisted around and he was handcuffed. The man who caught him held a Colt 45 to his head, and laid him on the ground, the policeman was a Negro and had an afro, he didn't wear the usual LCPD police hat.

"Ha, I caught you, don't you ever try to outrun me, you know who you just caught by?"

"Do I wanna know, asshole" Tommy said

"You just got caught by Offi-cah Tenpenny, don't you ever try to outrun Officer Tenpenny, you'll never win, I'm the best cop on the LCPD"

The man lifted his radio and talked into it "The tip-off was right, there was going to be a mass murder by the Harwood Butcher at the Capelli Restaurant, he shot them all with an AK"

"Thank-you for letting me catch you Harwood Butcher, I think you just got me a promotion to a higher police department, the LSPD, the much sunnier, less crime ridden Los Santos, and as for you, your gonna spend a long stretch inside LC prison"

Tenpenny picked up Tommy with one of the other cops and led him to the light blue LCPD car parked at the end of the alleyway. They pushed him in the back, drove him to the nearest police station in Portland beside the hospital. Tommy was led into the stone cells of the police station and made to stay there for a few days.

A few days later, he was taken out of the cells by two policemen and was pushed into a blue LCPD car. As the car was driving Tommy asked where he was going, was he going to jail.

"No" one of the policeman said "you're going to court"

Tommy was led by the policemen into a white courtroom, he was told to walk up to the judge.

"Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" the judge asked

Tommy stumbled for a second.

"I do" Tommy finally said

One of the lawyers walked up to Tommy sitting in the chair still wearing his grey suit.

"May I ask your name?" the lawyer asked

"My name is Tommy Vercetti" Tommy said

"Tommy is it true you have killed many people over the last few weeks"

Tommy thought for a minute, should he tell the court they are mistaken, should he tell him he wasn't the Harwood Butcher, should he tell them he never killed the Capelli sons.

"Yes, it is true" Tommy said

"Is it true you killed four of the five sons of Mr. Alan Capelli"

"Yes is it true"

"Judge, I think we should end this court meeting, it is obvious that this man is the Harwood Butcher and has killed twenty people in the last few weeks"

"Yes, I agree" the judge said "there is no need for a jury verdict, Tommy Vercetti, you are guilty of the murder of Santino Capelli, Michael Capelli, Nicholas Capelli and Paul Capelli by shooting them, You are also guilty of the murder of sixteen other people who can't be named, you will pay a life sentence for the rest of your life for homicide"

Tommy was led away by the policemen, he was put back in the police car and led away from the court to spend a bleak life in prison.