The Godfather

 “The Godfather” By Mario Puzo
 
72
Chapter 3
Counting the driver, there were four men in the car with Hagen. They put him in the back 
seat, in the middle of the two men who had come up behind him in the street. Sollozzo 
sat up front. The man on Hagen’s right reached over across his body and tilted Hagen’s 
hat over his eyes so that he could not see. “Don’t even move your pinkie,” he said. 
It was a short ride, not more than twenty minutes and when they got out of the car 
Hagen could not recognize the neighborhood because darkness had fallen. They led 
him into a basement apartment and made him sit on a straightbacked kitchen chair. 
Sollozzo sat across the kitchen table from him. His dark face had a peculiarly vulturine 
look. 
“I don’t want you to be afraid,” he said. “I know you’re not in the muscle end of the 
Family. I want you to help the Corleones and I want you to help me.” 
Hagen’s hands were shaking as he put a cigarette in his mouth. One of the men brought 
a bottle of rye to the table and gave him a slug of it in a china coffee cup. Hagen drank 
the fiery liquid gratefully. It steadied his hand and took the weakness out of his legs. 
“Your boss is dead,” Sollozzo said. He paused, surprised at the tears that sprang to 
Hagen’s eyes. Then he went on. “We got him outside his office, in the street. As soon as 
I got the word, I picked you up. You have to make the peace between me and Sonny.” 
Hagen didn’t answer. He was surprised at his own grief. And the feeling of desolation 
mixed with his fear of death. Sollozzo was speaking again. “Sonny was hot for my deal. 
Right? You know it’s the smart thing to do too. Narcotics is the coming thing. There’s so 
much money in it that everybody can get rich just in a couple of years. The Don was an 
old ‘Moustache Pete,’ his day was over but he didn’t know it. Now he’s dead, nothing 
can bring him back. I’m ready to make a new deal, I want you to talk Sonny into taking 
it.” 
Hagen said, “You haven’t got a chance. Sonny will come after you with everything he’s 
got.” 
Sollozzo said impatiently, “That’s gonna be his first reaction. You have to talk some 
sense to him. The Tattaglia Family stands behind me with all their people. The other 
New York families will go along with anything that will stop a full-scale war between us. 
Our war has to hurt them and their businesses. If Sonny goes along with the deal, the 
other Families in the country will consider it none of their affair, even the Don’s oldest 

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