Page 233 of Mafia Kings: Valentino

“For right now, stay here. I’ll come back if I need you.”

“Okay,” Isabella said quietly. “By the way, do you have him on his back or his front?”

I frowned. “What difference does thatmake?”

“Lividity. Gravity’s going to pull all the blood in his body to the lowest point. If you have him facedown, his face is going to turn purple.”

“…oh,” I said uneasily.

Paolo’s face being purple could potentially fuck up my plans.

“How long ago did you – uh, did all this happen?” Isabella asked.

“About half an hour. Why?”

“Because rigor mortis starts to set in one to two hours after death. After eight hours, he’ll be stiff as a board.”

“Shit,” I snarled.

That woulddefinitelyfuck up my plans.

I wished I was back home in Tuscany, where nobody cared about lividity and rigor mortis and shit like that. You just dug a hole in the olive groves and threw the asshole in.

“How do you know all this stuff?” I asked.

I figured she’d learned it from her father –

But I was wrong.

“I read a lot of murder mysteries. How were you planning on moving him?”

“I don’t think this is a good – ”

“You didn’t know about lividity or rigor mortis,” she interrupted. “You might be overlooking something else.”

She had a point.

“Well?” she prodded.

“Ever seenWeekend At Bernie’s?”

Her face twisted in confusion. “…what?”

“It’s a movie – never mind. I was going to grab a bottle of wine, pretend we were drunk, take him out to the water, go for a swim, and then weigh him down with rocks.”

“Eh – that’s risky,” Isabella said, like she was weighing the pros and cons of how to patch a tire. “If anybody sees you up close, it’s over.”

“That’s why I was going to wait until dark.”

“People could still see you, though.”

“Which is why I was going to have Cat provide a distraction.”

“Not bad… but I think it’d be better if you find a luggage shop, buy the biggest suitcase you can, cram him inside before rigor mortis sets in, and take it down to the water with you.”

“People aren’t going to think it’s weird I’m taking a suitcase down to the water?”

“Take a look around you,” she said. “Seriously – take a look.”

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