The Lucky Doberman

Chapter 30: When Asthma Attacks

After an hour and a half drive, we arrived at some old office building. Apparently there was a basement that we needed to go into.

I followed behind Mr. De Luca because he refused to let me sit in the car.

We made it downstairs and I looked at the men who stood around. And the woman who I remembered Mr. De Luca backhanded after finding out she yelled at me.

"How'd you find it?" Mr. De Luca asked.
She responded first. "Broke a few bones."
"That ain't do nothin'. You know how many of them have been threatened with a broken finger?" Mr. De Luca replied.
"Ain't break theirs." she argued.
"Mattia's chairmen ain't gonna be happy. They're still around and they're gonna get a lotta complaints outta their henchmen for the destruction of their families. Which means you boys better stay on your toes." Ricky told the rest of the men.

Mr. De Luca walked up to the safe that looked like it had been chipped out of the wall with a pickaxe.

"You know the code?" Elmo wondered.
"It was written in the notebook. I left it where it's safe. I just came to see for myself if you were fuckin' with me and if I'd have to kill you." Mr. De Luca responded.

I could almost hear the nervous gulps that everyone did.

"Lucky." I was called.
"Yes?" I replied.
"Come here."

I walked over to him.

"Do you remember-..."
"25 11 14." I responded.
He looked at me.

"It's not one with a button code. It had to be the three numbers. I couldn't help but memorize it." I explained.
"Elmo." Mr. De Luca called with eyes on me.
"Yes, sir?"
"Open the safe."

Elmo came and began turning the knob to the numbers I said.

It clicked. Then it opened.

He stood out of the way and Mr. De Luca grabbed the large black sack that was inside.

He set it on the table and opened it before pouring all of its contents out.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars laid there.

He rummaged through it like that wasn't what he was looking for.

His hand stopped. He picked something up.

Another notebook. This time with a brown leather cover instead of a black one. It was also small.
He took it then began walking towards the stairs.

"The money, sir?" The woman asked.
"Share it amongst yourselves." he instructed. "Let's go, Lucky."
I began following behind them but listened to the aggression made by the men (and woman) that fought over the money on the table. It was a loud ruckus.

"Why do you keep collecting these coded notebooks?" I asked.
"Because in the midst of all of the random coded bullshit, there's information that I need in these books. And I'm gonna collect all of them until I get what I'm lookin' for." he stated.
"Oh..."

We made it back to the car.

"Home." Mr. De Luca commanded.
Mike drove off.

Mr. De Luca opened the notebook.
"Fuck!" he shouted and threw it into the dashboard at the front of the car.

"What happened?" I asked.
He didn't answer.

I sat up and stretched into the front seat to grab the notebook. Once I did, I sat back down and flipped through it.
Oh...

All of the contents was written in numbers. There wasn't a single word in this book. It was just numbers.

But I saw periods and question marks. The numbers had to be a code too. I just didn't know what kind.