America's King of Poetry

Chapter 19 Blood Tide

Ten minutes later, Montolo and Russell refilled the dug hole, and Tony was buried next to the creek in Oyster Bay.Surrounded by mountains and rivers, this place is surrounded by streams. According to the eyes of the Chinese, it is a treasure land of geomantic omen, and it is not a loss to bury it here.

Montolo patted the soil layer with a shovel, and then covered it with some dead branches and leaves, and moved two stones to press it down. It is basically impossible to see that a hole has been dug here.Montolo was out of breath. He sat on the rock and took out a cigarette from his pocket to smoke, but Arthur stopped him.

"Don't smoke, there will be your saliva on the cigarette butt."

Arthur thought that in many criminal investigation dramas, the cigarette butts obtained at the crime scene will be stained with the suspect's saliva, so that the police can obtain DNA.Although it is estimated that no one will find that Tony is buried here, Arthur thinks it is better to be careful.

Montolo put away his cigarette resentfully, and asked, "Where are we going next? Back to Manhattan?"

According to the original plan, the three left here and went straight back to Manhattan to rest as if nothing happened.The people below will soon find out that Tony and Casey are missing, and when the group is leaderless, Montolo and Russell will come out to stabilize the situation and redistribute power and interests within the family.Arthur is not ready to make his debut, but hides behind the scenes, being his cook with peace of mind.

But when he heard Tony's dying whisper, Arthur changed his mind. He decided to go to the villa and see the cellar.This is Tony's last words. It is said that when a person is close to death, he will quickly review his life in his mind, from birth to growth, from happiness to sadness.Don't know what kind of life came to Tony's mind, and he would end up in that cellar.

Arthur had a strong presentiment that something awaited him there.

"Let's go back to Tony's villa, I have something to get."

Montolo was a little puzzled when he heard Arthur's decision. He spread his hands and said, "Tony went out with us, but it was Arthur who came back. This will arouse suspicion. We don't need to go back!"

Russell said: "Those two bodyguards are my people, there will be no problem. Only old Larry, he is a problem."

Old Larry was Tony's housekeeper. He used to follow Arthur's grandfather Luciano Old. After his death, Old Luciano served Tony and took care of his life.He does not participate in the family business and is a clean man.It is also because he is clean that it will be more troublesome.

Arthur looked at Russell and said in a very firm tone: "But your job is to solve troubles. Get in the car and let's go to the villa."

With that said, Arthur opened the door and got into the car. Montolo shook his head helplessly. He didn't know what Arthur was thinking.And Russell, of course, obeyed Arthur's instructions. After putting away the shovel, he got in the car, drove the car away from the bushes and returned to the road, and drove south towards the villa.

Along the way, Russell tried his best to choose some remote paths, avoiding those avenues that may have cameras, and returned to the pink Luciano mansion after detours.Russell rang the doorbell, opened the door and drove the car into the courtyard.

It was late at night, and the landscape lights in the courtyard were still on.There were two beams of lights illuminating the Sizhao flower tree beside the swimming pool, and the night breeze gently caressed, a few petals fell gently, fell into the swimming pool, and floated on the blue water waves.Arthur got out of the car and walked by the pool, the petals suddenly rippling out with the waves without warning, as if something was swimming under the water.

But if you look carefully, the pool is empty, there is nothing, and there will be nothing.

Russell informed the two bodyguards that they were fired and that subsequent payments would be made to them.You can get the money without working. The two bodyguards didn't have any complaints. They packed their things, returned the keys and drove away.

Arthur looked at the house. After his mother passed away, he never came back here. It has not changed much from many years ago.

He entered the living room, and the decoration inside was different from the past. He remembered that when he was a child, the living room was covered with a wine-red velvet carpet, and he could run around with bare feet.Now it has been replaced with a dark maple floor, and there is only a camel-colored plush blanket in front of the sofa in the reception room.The deer heads and shotguns decorated on the walls were replaced by landscape oil paintings.Gone is the dining table near the floor-to-ceiling windows, replaced by rocking chairs and bookcases.

"Hmph, arty, this old guy can still read?" Arthur mocked Tony in his heart.Next to the bookcase, there is a hidden door that is the same color as the wall. This is the door that leads directly to the cellar.

Arthur approached the secret door and touched it. He remembered that there was a hidden keyhole... But he didn't touch the keyhole, but opened a small hidden compartment with a combination disk inside.It turned out that the door had been transformed into a combination lock.

Russell said: "Only Tony and Larry know the password."

With that said, Russell went upstairs to Larry's room to wake him up and ask him to come down and open the lock.And Montolo went to the wine cabinet in the reception room to pour himself a glass of wine. He was a little upset and didn't know what Arthur was going to do.

Old Larry was over 70 years old. People of his age are usually ready to go to bed as soon as it gets dark.

When he was awakened by a knock on the door, he thought it was dawn, and woke up from his sleep in a daze. When he opened the door, he saw Russell.

"Oh...Russell, it's you, what are you..." Larry muttered, but saw Russell pull out his gun, pointing the black muzzle at himself, "Oh, what happened, Russell."

Larry was very calm, without the slightest panic in his eyes.Russell didn't want to talk nonsense, and said directly: "Go downstairs and open the door of the cellar."

"Tony..."

"Go downstairs!"

"Let me get dressed."

"Go."

Larry went back to the bed and put on his clothes. He moved slowly and meticulously, carefully buttoning every button.

Coming downstairs, Larry saw Arthur, and said in a friendly tone, "It's little Arthur, is that you, little Arthur? Tony's nephew, Luther's son, I haven't seen you for a long time, and you used to come for Christmas. Your poor mother...poor child."

Seeing that old Larry was so close to him, Arthur felt disgusted. When he and his mother came back here for Christmas, this old guy gave mother and son a lot of embarrassment.Now that he saw Russell and Arthur coming over, he knew in his heart that something bad might happen to Tony, and his face changed very quickly.

Arthur didn't want to talk nonsense with him, pointed to the secret door, and said, "Open the door, Larry."

Larry showed hesitation on his face, and said, "Only Tony knows the password here. I knew it before, but after he changed the password, I don't know."

Will Arthur believe his lies?The old guy is about to see the person in the coffin, but he still doesn't know how to shed tears.Arthur winked at Russell, and Russell pointed the muzzle of the gun at the ground and pulled the trigger. With a bang, the bullet shattered the maple floor near Larry's feet, and the splinters splashed onto Larry's legs, making Larry jump up.

"The next shot will shatter your knee." Arthur said coldly, because Larry was not considered a good person, so he was already polite enough to Larry.

Larry waved his hands in fright. He knew that these two people were not easy to fool, so he tremblingly came to the secret door, pressed the number on the code disk, and after entering the correct code, the secret door opened.A dark downward corridor staircase appeared in front of Arthur, as if he couldn't see the bottom.

Arthur remembered this cellar. He had sneaked into it when he was very young. In addition to wine, there were guns, cash, and even... dead bodies.

Bad memories flashed through Arthur's mind, the horrific scene behind the oak barrel.

"Crack~"

Larry turned on the light switch next to the stairs, and the yellow incandescent light dispelled the darkness. In fact, the stairs were not very high, with more than a dozen steps.Below is a corridor. The walls on both sides of the corridor have been hollowed out, and seven or eight oak barrels are placed, which store aged wine.There are many high-quality vineyards on Long Island, so every family will have a wine cellar to store some wine for entertaining guests.

At the end of the corridor, there is a large iron gate on the left, which is of war protection level. It was designed and built during the Cold War and can withstand the bombardment of high-energy explosives.Of course, after the end of the Cold War after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, such an iron gate became meaningless, and it was already stained with rust.

Arthur went down to the cellar alone, and the sound of pattering footsteps echoed. He walked through the oak barrel corridor and turned to the iron gate. Suddenly, he felt a strong sense of suffocation, as if a big stone was pressed against his chest.Arthur couldn't help clenching his fists, propping one hand on the iron door, and scratching his burning chest with the other hand to slow himself down.

Slowly, Arthur regained his breath. There should be no problem with the air in the cellar. The ventilation here is very good.Because the wine is stored, it has a fresh oak smell and wine aroma.But gradually, after the suffocation passed, Arthur faintly smelled a stench in his nose... corpse smell... the corpse hidden behind the oak barrel...

Arthur tightly grasped the handle of the iron door, and with a "crash", he pulled open the big iron door forcefully. The moment the iron door was pulled open, a wave of red blood rushed out from behind the door!The blood instantly drowned Arthur!The salty smell of blood filled his mouth and nose, suffocating, he felt completely suffocated!

Memories flooded out from the dark corner. On that weekend afternoon, Arthur took the key behind his father's back and ran into the cellar secretly. He knew that there were guns and other new gadgets hidden in the cellar.He turned on the light, and the barrels were huge for a child, and he rummaged through the barrels with interest until he saw the carcass of a deer.It stared wide, empty eyes, and was abandoned behind oak barrels, exuding a rotten smell.It was the prey shot by Luther, and it was thrown in the cellar before it could be disposed of.

Little Arthur was terrified, he shuddered, sat down on the ground, crawled and ran out of the cellar, and had nightmares for several nights.The empty eyes of the dead deer always appeared in the dream.Later, the deer head was treated as an ornament and placed on the wall, so that little Arthur was reluctant to eat in the living room for a while.

"Are you all right, Arthur?" Russell shouted outside the cellar when he heard no movement inside.

The memories stopped abruptly, Arthur woke up, the blood tide disappeared, the suffocation disappeared, everything was an illusion.

He replied: "It's okay, I'm fine!"

Old Larry, who stood aside and was pointed at by Russell, muttered, "It's a bad thing, it's a bad thing..."

The iron door was opened, and behind the iron door was a short corridor, and at the other end of the corridor was a wooden door, which was the shelter in the cellar.It can store food, water, and has a diesel generator. Luther used it as a small treasury in the past, hiding some illegal proceeds in it.

Arthur walked in, turned the knob, and the door locked.Arthur took out the key he had taken from Tony, found the brass one, and snapped the door open.A faint light leaked from the crack of the door.Arthur hesitated for two seconds, then pushed the door open with a "squeak" and saw the situation in the room.

A pink room.

a little girl.

She was smiling at Arthur.

(End of this chapter)