The slow knocking at the front door ended as abruptly as it had begun. There was a pause, twenty seconds maybe, and then it resumed with the exact cadence as before.

  The rapping sound penetrated through the door with persistence, who ever it was not going anywhere until someone answered the door.

  Alessia shuddered and started to walk down the steps, there was no need to call out, they would hear her steps and they would wait. After what had happened to Giorgio she had been living in fear, it could happen to her, any time, any day now and there was nothing she could do about.

  As she opened the door her stomach lurched.

  There he was, small and patient, unsmiling and staring at her with cold, appraising eyes. Fausto, Don Luca’s Consiglier, the trusted advisor, maybe the real boss, no one knew for sure, but what was the difference? No one ever refused Fausto either.

  Who would dare to do such a thing? Certainly not her, Alessia knew how dangerous that could be.

  “Buongiorno Signore…I’m so sorry ...my son Silvio...he was attacked yesterday and I was checking on him …” Alessia stammered on until the small man held up his hand.

  “It’s no bother, we need to speak and we should not do so in full view of the street, May I come in?” Fausto asked the question as just a formality. If he’d been of a younger generation, he would have just pushed in without asking but despite his occupation, he firmly believed in always maintaining a sense of decorum.

  He felt it suited his occupation and made his job easier. Never lose your temper, it will only cost you time and money, probably both. Fausto liked to give the younger men beneath him this advice from time to time.

  He wanted them to see that if you couldn’t read a person then that person was inherently far more dangerous, far more intimidating than someone who shouted and yelled at the slightest provocation. Fausto always knew how to handle the hotheads; they were the easy ones.

  He stared at Alessia after she had let him into the hallway and closed the door. Such a pretty woman, if only he had been younger, he could have dealt with old Nonna Conti. She wasn’t the only one who could intimidate with whispers, threats and other wicked tricks.

  “Where is your mother? She needs to come speak with Don Luca as do you Alessia.”

  “It was a bad night Fausto, you saw what they did to the house. She stayed in her room and wouldn’t come out. I never got any sleep after that. I just stayed with Silvio….”

  “Wake her please, we need to go now.”

  Alessia turned and started up the stairs. She wanted to shower, change, do her makeup. She always had more success with men when she looked put together but there was no time.

  She would go looking haggard and wretched to find out her fate.

  “Mama, Fausto is here, we need to go with him to speak to Don Luca”.

  There was no answer from inside her mother’s room so after a pause Alessia pushed open the door and peered inside.

  She knew at once that her mother had gone, the room was empty and the broken glass was still spread across the floor.

  “Fausto, she’s not here, she’s gone….” Alessia waited as the older man carefully made his way up the slanted, creaking steps.

  “Where did she go Alessia, did you see her this morning?”

  Alessia looked away and wiped her eyes, there was no denying Fausto, she would tell him.

  “I managed to get some sleep finally, just for just a few hours; I am sure she went out the back. There were people standing in the street with torches, so she had to go out the back.”

  “Come, I will show you how.”

  Alessia went over to the top of the stairs. There was a tall narrow bookcase at the end of the hall. It was poorly placed and took up too much space in the narrow home especially since it barely held anything on its dusty shelves.

  She pulled on the left side of the bookcase, and it slowly swung silently open on the only set of hinges in the home that were permitted to be oiled. Alessia stepped back and let Fausto peer down the small, cramped staircase that led to the backyard.

  “When she was younger, she would come and go this way at all times. We could never hear her or see her so we never had any idea when she was gonna appear.”

  Fausto looked at Alessia with genuine pity, he knew what living in this house must have been like for her and he did not blame her for the mess she was in now.

  “You need to tell me, where did she go now?”

  It had been a long time since Jim had been in his waders. The cool waters of the Ipswich River swirled and eddied around his legs. No leaks yet, at least all of his equipment was still in good shape. He was with Amos in a small pool of water just above the Peabody Dam. He had chosen this spot as it was one of his favorites from long ago.

  He had also sent Amos’ father here years ago when he had come in to buy tackle and gear for him and his son. Jim now hoped that by bringing Amos back to a familiar fly-fishing spot it might possibly stir some long ago memories in the boy.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “It’s getting a bit warm and there’s nobody addin’ any stockers anymore so we will be lucky to get any stream born trout today but let’s keep tryin’ anyway.” Jim was casting his own hand tied dry dropper rig with a sub-surface nymph fly on a second hook. The pool he was finishing was one he had always had luck with but daytime in June was a poor time to fish for trout.

  “There’s a big fish in there. He’s getting agitated and he keeps flicking his tail.”

  Jim turned to look at Amos. The boy rarely spoke, even less so on his own accord so the advice took Jim by surprise.

  “How’d you mean now Amos?”

  Amos pointed into the middle of the pool. “There, three feet below the surface is a large trout. Every time you cast you get his attention. You might get him to rise soon and take the lure.”

  “Hmmmn.. let’s see then”. Jim cast with more confidence in a wide arc allowing his flies to hit the water surface without getting tangled together. On his third cast a large, brook trout took the nymph below the water surface and moments later broke out as he tried to fight his way free from the hook.

  “Yes….fish on…that is a big one…yes….yes….yes!”

  Jim lost himself in the battle with the trout. He kept his rod low and at an angle and let the fish tire itself out by letting it run for a bit and then slowly reeling it in.

  The large trout fought the steady pressure of the line on the hook for the next ten minutes but Jim managed to guide the fish closer and closer to where he was standing in the pond.

  “Get the net Amos, keep it still and submerged, I will guide em’ right over the net and then you bring em’ out in one smooth motion”.

  A little while later Jim had taken enough photos with his big trout, he bled the fish and put it on the bagged ice in the cooler and then it was Amos’ turn with the rod.

  It did not take the boy long to land a couple of nice, medium sized Brook trout. Jim couldn’t tell if Amos was just a gifted fisherman or if it was mainly due to his abilities but there was no question, he knew where the fish were in the various pools along the river.

  For the first time that day the boy seemed to visibly relax a little, he still did not talk or make any eye contact but Jim felt certain that he was enjoying the fishing in his own way.

  “Why’d we come here, what do you need from your neighbor?” Alanah was looking curiously at the small blue bungalow at the end of the driveway. Paul had said that they were not going back to the North End but she had not expected to drive to the next block either.

  Paul sighed as he got out of the truck. “All in good time Alanah, all will be clear soon enough”.

  After years of living alone the number of questions and pushback he was getting from Alanah was becoming surprisingly tiring for Paul. Does she need to comment on absolutely everything? Paul wondered if this is what parenting would have been like for him and his wife and then he quickly pushed those emotions away.

  This was the biggest problem with having Alanah around he realized, she made him wonder far too much about what could have been.

  Minutes later Paul has walking back to the car with a small beige dog held under his arm. Alanah looked at him with astonishment as he opened the rear door to the Jeep and put the small dog and it’s leash onto the rear seat.

  “Oh my god, it’s one of those little pig dogs. It’s so cute. Please tell me we aren’t going to light it on fire or blow it up somewhere?”

  Paul shook his head and managed a smile as he started the car. “Nope, this is my friend’s dog and she thinks we just wanted its company. It’s actually a Pug, his name is Oreo and he’s going to be the prop we need for our next visit.” He paused for a moment as he looked out the window and then pulled back onto the road. “He probably wont’ end up getting shot either, this should be an easy errand.”

  Twenty minutes later the Jeep pulled off next to a small strip mall located along the road. “It’s pretty quiet, I hope she’s here. Let’s go then, pull down your hat a bit and keep your sunglasses on.”

  He had explained the target to Alanah during the drive over to the doggy daycare in Chelsea. Initially it had sounded ridiculous, but Alanah had to concede, it was a great, low risk way to really cause a big headache for the head of the family.

  The door chimed as Alanah pushed into the foyer followed by Paul. She was holding Oreo under her arm and the fat little dog seemed to be delighted that it wasn’t being made to walk anywhere. It’s tongue protruded slightly as the dog panted in a slow, wheezing fashion.

  A younger woman looked up from her phone and smiled at the silly little dog under Alanah’s arm. “Ohh…another Pug, we just love those little guys here, they’re never any trouble….”

  Paul smiled at her and reached out to give the little dog a scratch while he looked over the woman’s shoulder into the room beyond.

  There was a small wooden partition with a gate and behind that there were at least fifteen small dogs running and barking at each other in various stages of play.

  “Is it all smaller dogs here then?” he asked the woman while pointing at the dogs he could see with his free hand.

  “Yep, no dog bigger than forty pounds, we don’t like the big ones here, it makes the other dogs too excited all the time.” She smiled again at Oero “this one’ll fit in just fine.”

  “Is it expensive then, some of these dogs look pretty fancy like that white on over there with the blue collar.”

  The woman turned to look and then gave a short laugh “oh, that’s just Pearl, she gets groomed at least every week so she stands out ….oh what the hell?”

  She stepped back from the counter after glimpsing Paul who had pulled out his handgun and had it pointing right at her.

  “Relax, we don’t want trouble. Just stand there and say nothing and no one gets hurt. You understand?”

  “There’s no money here, it’s all on account.. they pay monthly..”

  Paul raised his voice slightly “just stand there and don’t say another word.” He turned to Alanah and removed her handgun from his pocket and handed it to her. “Keep her still and quiet, I’m going to grab a few things.”

  A minute later after a load crashing noise from the office Paul returned holding a slim rectangular black box under his arm. Under his other arm he held the small white Maltese dog called Pearl who was now barking excitedly at Oreo.

  “Put your phone on the counter so she can take it.” As the woman did so Paul put down the black box long enough to reach over onto the countertop and grab the older phone and dash it onto the floor. A few hard stomps later he was satisfied that it would no longer make any calls.

  “Ok, time to go, have a seat and don’t move. I’ll be watching through the window. If I see you get up before we're gone I’m gonna’ come back. Do you want me to come back?”

  “No…no…I won’t move…I promise”. The woman stepped back feeling for her chair and then slumped into it after grabbing the armrest with her hand.

  “Good girl….as a thankyou I’m gonna’ toss your phone on the roof. Someone will probably get it for ya later if you ask nicely, now stay still and listen good, I need you to remember somethin”.

  Once back in the Jeep Paul pulled way from the side of the strip mall and headed down the street.

  “No cameras on this side of the building, we just take it easy and thread our away through this neighborhood and no one will see thing to worry about”.

  “What’s in the box then?”

  “That’s their digital video recorder. Alla’ their cameras record on that. What a shit system…no cloud backup and then if the drive fails then you’re totally screwed but hey…easy for us right.”

  Alanah looked over her should at the two dogs who were still busy barking at each other.

  “So we are dog thieves now… how exactly does this help Amos again? Is he supposed to bond with the dog and become more human again?”

  “He can if he wants to but this dog already belongs to Don Luca’s wife. Little Pearl here is her pride and joy and she’s gonna absolutely lose her shit when she finds out her dog has been stolen. Once she loses her mind Don Luca’s going to really get upset. If you had ever been around his wife then you would know why.”

  Paul laughed to himself. “That poor bastard won’t get a moment of peace now. I hope this doesn’t push him too far, he may be likely to shoot the old woman after this.”