Chapter 6 (The Heavy - Short Change Hero)

The minutes since the call continued to tick by and slowly but surely, I was getting increasingly nervous.

Staring out of the window overlooking the street and the front door the jumbled mess, that was my mind began to settle more and more into something resembling order.

A nervous glance over my shoulder only added to the nervousness and the mountain of issues we would have to handle.

My footsteps clearly visible on the dust-covered floor were just another block in this crazy construct.

The undersized scrubs I was wearing with my blood on the pants were feeling just as incriminating as my finger on the laboratory floor along with the gallons of blood, sweat, and tears splattered around in my 'torture chamber'.

Not to mention Dr. Dekker's corpse.

Sighing at the problems ahead I perked up when I spotted a white van slowly making its way down the street.

Relief began to fill me when 'Spatafore Construction' on the side of the van was revealed, and it came to a stop in front of the steps.

Quick strides brought me to the front door, which I immediately opened wide, but refrained from actually stepping out since I had zero intention to be seen at 'the crime scene' more than necessary.

The relief that had been slowly building made a giant leap in the right direction when instead of Vito, one of Claudio's capos, Uncle Peppe, Paulie, and Bobby all stepped out in matching company overalls including caps.

Quickly stepping to the side I let them in and closed the door, only to be greeted by one of the most surreal moments of my life.

Three heavy-set mobsters disguised as a construction crew were eyeing a young man in bloody scrubs with various degrees of surprise in the dirty foyer of a dead mad scientist.

Thankfully the thought provided some much-needed levity and after an awkward cough, I quickly managed to get things back on track. Namely the reason why they were here in the first place.

"The mess is downstairs," I began only to pause when I saw them eying the blood on me. "I explain there," I continued, eyes on Uncle Peppe when I saw him open his mouth to speak. "A word of warning, there's a fancy ventilation system so the smell won't be so bad, but it really doesn't look pretty, particularly the, uh, operating room."

"Lead the way," Uncle Peppe said gruffly, giving Bobby and Paulie both a look, that I didn't recognize.


Wordlessly filling into the laboratory in the cellar I let the three men get their bearings and was about to explain when Uncle Peppe spoke up.

"Whose finger is that?" he asked, making us turn to my metal bed with the leather straps and the little digit in the puddle of blood next to it.

"Mine," I answered surprisingly unbothered, which in turn made my companions' heads whip around and stare at my hands.

To make things easier for them I held up my hand and wiggled the pink unblemished finger back and forth, the different complexion in stark difference from the rest of my hand.

"The, um, procedure was successful, I guess." I went on as a way of explanation and noticed Peppe breathe a small sigh of relief. Perhaps, he had been thinking that I had killed the doctor before things had been wrapped up.

Sensing that the subject might be above their paygrade Paulie and Bobby meanwhile went towards the desk, having spotted the corpse behind it.

"Looks like a real proper egghead," Paulie commented offhandedly, the remark managing to bring Peppe's attention to the elephant in the room.

"What happened?" he simply asked, also stepping up to the desk and leaning over it to get a better view of the prone figure behind it, while I remained in the middle of the room.

"After he had woken me this morning by cutting off my finger," I began meaningfully, trying to drive the point home, that things down here hadn't been exactly kosher. "And after weeks of torture…" I went on and sincerely hoped I didn't sound like I needed a pity party to the men in front of me. Since I had no idea how else to describe it, however, I just had to call it what I thought it was.

"I snapped and smacked him with the chair." I finished, the shrug in my voice was unmistakable, and a clear indicator of my lack of guilt or regret.

This, funnily enough, made the three men turn in unison and I watched as their gazes went from me to the metal chair next to me.

Since the corpse, while pretty incriminating, was somewhat easy to get rid of I decided to move things along and stepped towards a small door in the far corner of the room.

"Anyway," I began only to be interrupted by Peppe, whose eyes weren't on me anymore but on the door, more precisely the puddle of blood, that had slowly begun to seep through a crack in the past weeks.

"What is this?" he asked tensely, and I felt some of my levity slip as the seriously fucked up stuff began to catch up with me.

"The operating room." I simply answered and opened the door wide, inviting them to take a look for themselves. The image had already been seared into my mind some time ago.

Slowly, almost hesitantly, the men stepped away from the desk and approached the door. Their gazes followed the trail of blood which quickly led to their first glimpse inside. Their reactions were instantaneous, hit by the view and the remnants of the smell the three mobsters recoiled.

"Mother of…" while Paulie was the most vocal and Bobby had to turn away for a second, Uncle Peppe's gaze remained steadfast, his feature's however betraying the sheer anger and horror that were roiling under the surface.

"Is that…" he began to ask, hints of disbelief coloring his voice.

I stepped forward and looked past their shoulders inside.

"It's all mine." I simply answered.

The blood mixed with piss and vomit caking the floor of the sauna. Mine.

The dried bloody rivulets on the operating table. Mine.

The thin splatters on the walls and the dialysis machine. Mine.

The blood on the surgical instruments. Mine.

"It's why I called," I admitted, "I don't know how to get this cleaned up."

"We could torch the place." Paulie offered with a shrug, and I gave him a quick glance, before switching back to Uncle Peppe who still had his eyes on the room, but I could see his thoughts racing by the way he worked his jaw.

"Too much attention," he mumbled under his breath before he suddenly straightened and reached toward Bobby. "Your phone."

Apparently, this was a common occurrence, because Bobby wordlessly reached into his pocket and revealed a black brick of a mobile phone.

A quick grab later and Peppe's finger flew over the buttons.

"Claudio," Peppe said the second the other side picked up, forgoing any kind of pleasantries in favor of getting things done as he quickly went on. "I need Vito with a second van, hydrogen peroxide, a big vet vacuum, and a plastic barrel at the location. Tell him it's a big job and to be quick."

I blinked a bit put out by the oddly specific list and the notion, that my uncle wasn't as bothered by the size of the mess as I initially thought.

Catching Paulie's gaze, he winked at me and simply mouthed "Waste management", which made me smile despite everything going on around us.

Smile still in place I turned back to Peppe and caught the tail end of the phone call.

"Don't worry, the situation is under control." with that he hung up, gave the phone back, and turned to his two men.

"Get the tools and the tarp out of the van, and then get to work on the doctor."


"And you laughed at my DOS for Dummies book." I couldn't help but comment and glance at my uncle standing behind me, who simply ignored me in and read the file, that I just opened up.

In much the same way my uncle ignored the remark I tried and failed to ignore Paulie and Bobby working on the good doctor because the sound of the floppy disk drive rattling away sadly just wasn't enough to drown out the sound of a bone saw and wet chunks of meat on a plastic tarp.

"Brother," an unexpected shout from upstairs ripped me away from watching the two men working like professional butchers and towards the door.

That sounded like…

"Claudio," Uncle Peppe shouted in return. "We are in the basement."

A few moments and the sound of footsteps later Claudio, Peppe's brother and our underboss, stepped through the door closely followed by…

"Boss." the two men on the floor with their gloves covered in blood nodded their heads in greeting towards Tomasso and I quickly followed suit by dipping my head in greeting and deference.

With me in my scrubs, and Peppe and his crew in their construction outfits, Claudio and Tomasso definitely looked out of place in their immaculate suits, but given their reactions, or the lack thereof, upon seeing the remains of Dr. Dekker it gave you an obvious reminder, that there was more to those men than met the eye.

"What happened?" Tomasso asked, his voice calm and measured, his eyes on me and I instinctively held back a nervous swallow.

"Take a look." Uncle Peppe answered flatly instead and nodded towards the sauna behind him, before going back to reading the file about the start of my procedures, which detailed parts of the dialysis process.

Heeding his word both men eyed the blood in front of the door for a second before quietly stepping towards it.

"Cazzo!" (Fuck) While opening the next file for me and Peppe to read I heard Claudio swear under his breath and surreptitiously glanced over my shoulder, hoping to catch a glimpse of Tomasso's reaction.

"Is that…" with his back to me I couldn't see his expression, his posture giving nothing away either.

"Yes," Uncle Peppe answered tersely. "All of it."

"So where do we stand?" Claudio asked openly, his gaze going from Peppe to Tomasso.

"'Subject reached 110Ib, malnourishment slows down…'" Ignoring the question entirely I heard Peppe read a section out loud, his voice colored by angered disbelief.

"The experiment was successful and according to him," I nodded towards the chunks of meat getting stacked and rolled up in the tarp. "'There are no undesirable side effects.'" I quoted the doctor's last words.

"After that, I hit him with the chair." I probably shouldn't have said it so nonchalant, but frankly, it simply had felt too good to get bothered by it.

Watching Tomasso expectantly I saw him close his eyes for a second and quietly take a breath before he nodded once.

"Well, looks like we have a madman less in the city, tied up a loose end, and even got what we wanted." he pointed out the facts from a new, more optimistic, perspective. By now Peppe paused his reading and was watching Tomasso as well, seemingly waiting for orders regarding the next course of action.

"Alright, Claudio grab Vito and go through the doctor's belongings. Suitcases, clothes, toiletries, and so on, make it look like he left in a hurry. Take your time, be thorough, and use gloves, I don't want anything suggesting third-party involvement." Tomasso ordered confidently, a proper plan probably already laid out in his mind.

And yet, I felt the need to add something.

"You have to be careful with your footsteps," I said awkwardly, somewhat desperate not to sound stupid.

"The whole house as far as I could see had been filthy and covered in dust. The one and only priority in his life had seemed to be this lab and his research, so…" I couldn't help but wince internally when my hopefully helpful remark came out somewhat less than eloquent.

Thankfully, both Tomasso and Claudio nodded in understanding, perhaps having noticed this earlier as well in the foyer.

"Good catch." Tomasso's praise was little more than an offhand comment, and yet, I still got the tiniest fuzzy feeling, that made me smile internally. "Billy, you seem to know what you are doing, gather all the notes and records. When you are done Peppe will show you how to use the hydrogen peroxide for the mess." he continued, before glancing towards Paulie and Bobby, who were currently wrapping things up.

"Paulie, when you two got rid of the trash I want you to come back with some lowlife, still breathing preferably." he finished his orders by looking at everybody in the room, double-checking for any questions.

"Mad scientist is doing highly illegal experiments at home, something goes wrong with the human test subject, mad scientist gets cold feet and does a runner." Tomasso rattled off the gist of the whole scheme one last time to make absolutely certain, that we were all on the same page, which was quickly followed by a satisfied nod when he sensed our understanding.


Late evening, back where it all began. A table in Peppe's apartment above the Pizzeria.

Tomasso, Claudio, Peppe…and I were quietly sitting around the table at which we had once decided to step up our game. To simply give us a chance to compete in this city.

There was no diner, however, and apart from Vito, Paulie, and Bobby nursing a drink downstairs the pizzeria was quiet as well.

The lab was spotlessly clean, and a dead druggie was left in the sauna with his time of death more or less corresponding with the doctor's 'flight'.

The pc had been packed up and taken, partially because of all my fingerprints and also to fit with our fabricated story.

A lot of work for a single day.

But now we were here, a shiny new pc in my room, and a box full of audio tapes and floppy disks in the middle of the table… next to an empty bottle of Sambuca.

The alcohol had entered the picture by the time we had finished the second tape, which like all the others painted a very detailed picture of my changes and of Dr. Dekker's slow descent into madness the further the procedure progressed.

"Glad you killed him," Peppe said while nursing the last drops in his glass.

"Agreed," Claudio rumbled and simply raised his glass in a lazy toast in my general direction.

"What are we going to do with those?" I nodded my head in thanks but asked what had been on my mind for quite some time now. The alcohol provided me with pleasant warmth and only the slightest of buzzes.

"Keep it in the hopes to someday replicate it with someone else, bear in mind we haven't found any of the doctor's wonder stuff." I began with the first option, which I really didn't like because, "if we keep it around, there's always the risk of it falling into the wrong hands." I warned.

"I can be a dime a dozen or our ace in the hole."