Eighteen
Rinaldo stuck his head inside the door and announced, "Boss, there's a guy here who says he has some legal papers to deliver. What do you want me to do?"
Sonny gave Jason a quick nod. "Let him in, Rinaldo."
Jason took up position beside the door of the penthouse and waited until the courier stepped fully into the room before taking action. He did not bother to pat the man down. Sonny's men would have performed that particular task several times along the trip from the ground floor up to the penthouse.
"Stay real still," Jason cautioned the courier in a flat monotone. He reached around the frozen man and tugged the leather pouch from his unresisting fingers.
Placing the pouch on a table away from the place where Sonny stood, Jason pulled a switchblade from his back pocket and sliced the leather container along the seam. Carefully he lifted one corner and spilled the bag's contents slowly onto the table.
Three slim white envelopes slid onto the wooden surface. Jason picked up each one individually and examined it thoroughly against the sunlight flooding into the window. Satisfied with the missives' harmlessness, the silent enforcer arranged them on the table for Sonny's inspection.
Michael… Tammy… Courtney...
Sonny read the names scrawled so crookedly in Mike's handwriting across the envelopes. "Who is Courtney?" he asked.
The courier, still frozen in place as Jason had demanded, did not realize that the mob boss' query was addressed to him. "Sonny's talking to you," Jason roughly informed the frightened man.
"I asked you who Courtney was."
The courier opened his mouth to reply but his voice would not cooperate. Quickly he swallowed to wet his throat and try again. "I don't know, M-Mister Corinthos," the man stammered. "I was just hired to deliver these envelopes. T-two are for you and the other one goes across town."
Sonny picked up his envelope, as well as the one intended for whoever Courtney was. The letter addressed to 'Tammy', he knew, would go to the former call girl with whom Mike had established a somewhat committed relationship. So he slid her envelope back into the ruined bag.
He handed it to the frightened courier. Grateful to depart the penthouse in one piece and alive, the man all but bolted for the door.
"Hey!" Sonny directed the man's attention to where Jason stood, money in hand. "Go somewhere and get yourself another bag," he said. "Keep the rest for yourself."
The courier's eyes widened at the six one hundred dollar bills Jason dropped into his hand. He could easily replace the bag with just one of those bills! The rest he'd have for himself.
"Thank you, Mister Corinthos," he exclaimed. "Thank you."
