|
|
Faro’s Ring
Part One
By: Samuel Hayne
Even the
harshest critics of Nicholas Torres Black could hardly claim that he was an
unattractive man. He was graced with handsome features; a patrician nose, full
sensuous lips, a square jaw and the bluest, almond-shaped eyes. Everything
else he had worked to attain; a fit, healthy body, white straight teeth, nice
clothes. Nick Black desired to be the best, or at least to be thought of as
the best, at whatever venture he undertook. He craved the finer things that
could only be bought with the kind of money he would never earn as a factory
worker. So, he spent his adolescence in and out of detention centers and
jails, learning to become a better thief. Eventually, someone other than the
police took notice of his work. Robert Faro learned about an arrogant,
entitled upstart committing thefts in the Tenderloin. Nick went to work for
the crime boss shortly after, proving himself a skillful thief and loyal
henchman. And though he gained a reputation for remaining unruffled, even in
the most extreme circumstances, Nick was always a scared little boy pretending
to be Don Corleone.
On the corner
of Geary and Polk streets, three blocks from the grisly scene he had
miraculously escaped, the thief was hit with the realization of what he had
done and what it meant for his future. He skulked into a Geary Street bus
stop. Shaking wildly, he took a seat next to a young, Vietnamese girl who
looked totally strung out. He removed the stolen package from inside his
shabby leather coat and cautiously set it between himself and the wall of the
plastic and steel BART stop. Nick glanced at the girl as he subtly lit a joint
to calm his nerves. On this cold October night, she was dressed in black
platform shoes with only ripped net stockings covering her legs. The black and
red mini dress she wore revealed too much of her underdeveloped, pale tits,
including a strange wound over her heart. Nick Black imagined he might have a
lot in common with her. His abusive childhood pushed him into becoming a
thirty-something hoodlum with a dream to be bigger and better than just a
petty thief, whereas her experiences led her to the streets of the Tenderloin
working as an underage hooker. She didn’t seem to notice or care that he was
smoking weed, so he hit it again. Nick thought she was probably one of Faro’s
girls. The thief’s pride goaded him to tell her that he had set her free. Her
master, the pharaoh of the Tenderloin was dead and he was her savior. Nick
turned toward her and opened his mouth to speak, but instead let the words
from his favorite movie, The Godfather, echo in his
head.
‘Someday - and
that day may never come - I'll call upon you to do a service for me. But until
that day, accept this justice as a gift on my daughter's wedding day,’ Nick
thought.
Two men in
black suits strolled west on Geary, staring in Nick’s direction as they passed
in front of the bus stop. It made him uncomfortable. He dropped the half
burned joint on the ground and pulled the collar of his battered leather coat
up around his cheeks to better conceal his face. Nick told himself the two men
were old lecherous idiots gawking at the stoned hooker to his left, but after
murdering both the most powerful criminal in San Francisco and his hired man tonight, Nick
felt he could afford a little paranoia.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 |
|
