The Godfather

 “The Godfather” By Mario Puzo
 
97
though that Sollozzo gave him a little surprise. That fits in with what the Consigliere 
says. We should expect the worst.” 
Sonny said to all of them, “Sollozzo should get the word soon about Paulie Gatto. How 
will that affect him?” 
Clemenza said grimly, “It will make him think. He will know the Corleone Family are not 
fools. He will realize that he was very lucky yesterday.” 
Sonny said sharply, “That wasn’t luck. Sollozzo was planning that for weeks. They must 
have tailed the old man to his office every day and watched his routine. Then they 
bought Paulie off and maybe Luca. They snatched Tom right on the button. They did 
everything they wanted to do. They were unlucky, not lucky. Those button men they 
hired weren’t good enough and the old man moved too quick. If they had killed him, I 
would have had to make a deal and Sollozzo would have won. For now. I would have 
waited maybe and got him five, ten years from now. But don’t call him lucky, Pete, that’s 
underrating him. And we’ve done that too much lately.” 
One of the button men brought a bowl of spaghetti in from the kitchen and then some 
plates, forks and wine. They ate as they talked. Michael watched in amazement. He 
didn’t eat and neither did Tom, but Sonny, Clemenza and Tessio dug in, mopping up 
sauce with crusts of bread. It was almost comical. They continued their discussion. 
Tessio didn’t think that the loss of Paulie Gatto would upset Sollozzo, in fact he thought 
that the Turk might have anticipated it, indeed might have welcomed it. A useless mouth 
off the payroll. And he would not be frightened by it; after all, would they be in such a 
situation? 
Michael spoke up diffidently. “I know I’m an amateur in this, but from everything you 
guys have said about Sollozzo, plus the fact that all of a sudden he’s out of touch with 
Tom, I’d guess he has an ace up his sleeve. He might be ready to pull off something 
real tricky that would put him back on top. If we could figure out what that would be, 
we’d be in the driver’s seat.” 
Sonny said reluctantly, “Yeah, I thought of that and the only thing I can figure is Luca. 
The word is already out that he’s to be brought here before he’s allowed any of his old 
rights in the Family. The only other thing I can think of is that Sollozzo has made his 
deal with the Families in New York and we’ll get the word tomorrow that they will be 
against us in a war. That we’ll have to give the Turk his deal. Right, Tom?” 
Hagen nodded. “That’s what it looks like to me. And we can’t move against that kind of 

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