Английский язык с Крестным Отцом
Шрифт:
rifled (to rifle – обыскивать в целях грабежа) the dead man's wallet. Besides the seven
hundred dollars he had given Fanucci there were only some singles and a five-dollar
note.
Tucked (to tuck – делать складки /на платье/; подгибать; засовывать, прятать;
tuck – складка) inside the flap (клапан, заслонка, /боковое/ отделение) was an old
five-dollar gold piece, probably a luck token (знак, примета; здесь: талисман). If
Fanucci was a rich gangster, he certainly did not carry his wealth with him. This
confirmed some of Vito's suspicions.
He knew he had to get rid of the wallet and the gun (knowing enough even then that
he must leave the gold piece in the wallet). He went up on the roof again and traveled
over a few ledges (ledge –
then he emptied the gun of bullets and smashed its barrel against the roof ledge. The
barrel wouldn't break. He reversed it in his hand and smashed the butt against the side
of a chimney. The butt split into two halves. He smashed it again and the pistol broke
into barrel and handle, two separate pieces. He used a separate air shaft for each. They
made no sound when they struck the earth five stories below, but sank into the soft hill
of garbage that had accumulated there. In the morning more garbage would be thrown
out of the windows and, with luck, would cover everything. Vito returned to his
apartment.
He was trembling a little but was absolutely under control. He changed his clothes and
fearful that some blood might have splattered on them, he threw them into a metal tub
his wife used for washing. He took lye (щёлок) and heavy brown laundry soap to soak
the clothes and scrubbed them with the metal wash board beneath the sink. Then he
scoured (to scour – отчищать, оттирать) tub and sink with lye and soap. He found a
bundle of newly washed clothes in the corner of the bedroom and mingled his own
clothes with these. Then he put on a fresh shirt and trousers and went down to join his
wife and children and neighbors in front of the tenement.
All these precautions proved to be unnecessary. The police, after discovering the
dead body at dawn, never questioned Vito Corleone. Indeed he was astonished that
they never learned about Fanucci's visit to his home on the night he was shot to death.
47
He had counted on that for an alibi, Fanucci leaving the tenement alive. He only learned
later that the police had been delighted with the murder of Fanucci and not too anxious
to pursue his killers. They had assumed it was another gang execution, and had
questioned hoodlums with records in the rackets and a history of strong-arm. Since Vito
had never been in trouble he never came into the picture.
But if he had outwitted the police, his partners were another matter. Pete Clemenza
and Tessio avoided him for the next week, for the next two weeks, then they came to
call on him one evening. They came with obvious respect. Vito Corleone greeted them
with impassive courtesy and served them wine.
Clemenza spoke first. He said softly, "Nobody is collecting from the store owners on
Ninth Avenue. Nobody is collecting from the card games and gambling in the
neighborhood."
Vito Corleone gazed at both men steadily but did not reply. Tessio spoke. "We could
take over Fanucci's customers. They would pay us."
Vito Corleone shrugged. "Why come to me? I have no interest in such things."
Clemenza laughed. Even in his youth, before growing his enormous belly, he had a fat
man's laugh. He said now to Vito Corleone, "How about that gun I gave you for the truck
job? Since you won't need it any more you can give it back to me."
Very slowly and deliberately Vito Corleone took a wad of bills out of his side pocket
and peeled off five tens. "Here, I'll pay you. I threw the gun away after the truck job." He
smiled at the two men.
At that time Vito Corleone did not know the effect of this smile. It was chilling because
it attempted no menace. He smiled as if it was some private joke only he himself could
appreciate. But since he smiled in that fashion only in affairs that were lethal, and since
the joke was not really private and since his eyes did not smile, and since his outward
character was usually so reasonable and quiet, the sudden unmasking of his true self
was frightening.
Clemenza shook his head. "I don't want the money," he said. Vito pocketed the bills.
He waited. They all understood each other. They knew he had killed Fanucci and
though they never spoke about it to anyone the whole neighborhood, within a few
weeks, also knew. Vito Corleone was treated as a "man of respect" by everyone. But he
made no attempt to take over the Fanucci rackets and tributes.
What followed then was inevitable. One night Vito's wife brought a neighbor, a widow,
to the flat. The woman was Italian and of unimpeachable (безупречный,
безукоризненный; to impeach –
character. She worked hard to keep a home for her fatherless children. Her sixteen-