Man from Alcatraz , livre ebook

T he M an from A lcatraz
Virginia Mae Brown
Austin Macauley Publishers
2022-11-30
The Man from Alcatraz About the Author Copyright Information © Acknowledgment Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five: New York Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Epilogue
About the Author
Elise and Andraya Wall, together known as Virginia Mae Brown, are identical twins who share the same passion: a love of telling stories. Together they combine their ideas to create original stories they hope will enthrall and inspire readers. They live in Virginia with their three crazy dogs and two cantankerous but lovable horses.
Copyright Information ©
Virginia Mae Brown 2022
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.
Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Ordering Information
Quantity sales: Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.
Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data
Brown, Virginia Mae
The Man from Alcatraz
ISBN 9781649795366 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781649795373 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781649795380 (ePub e-book)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022919666
www.austinmacauley.com/us
First Published 2022
Austin Macauley Publishers LLC
40 Wall Street, 33rd Floor, Suite 3302
New York, NY 10005
USA
mail-usa@austinmacauley.com
+1 (646) 5125767
Acknowledgment
To Autumn, thank you for everything. Without you, this book would not have been possible. And to family, thank you for your support.
Prologue
May 7th, 1949
San Francisco, California
Alexander “Rex” Armati watched his friend Vincent weave the needle in and out of the fabric of the stolen raincoats, his fingers deft and experienced. All was going according to plan, he thought with a smug smile. Soon, they would be free from this hellhole called Alcatraz. They would make it to the mainland and go their separate ways, seek new lives, and remain anonymous from the law.
For months, Rex and his pals had planned this escape. They had stolen supplies, widened the ventilation ducts in their cells to holes big enough to crawl through, and set up a little shop in the utility corridor. There, they worked to make a raft big enough to hold all four of them—Rex, Vincent, Hadley, and Anderson—out of raincoats. They were almost ready.
To disguise their absence, Hadley and Anderson had fashioned dummy heads out of a homemade mixture of concrete dust, toothpaste, soap, and toilet paper. Hair from the barber shop served to add a realistic appearance to these dummies, and once nestled on the pillows on their beds, blankets tucked to the paper chins, the guise could fool even the most careful eye.
Rex was the leader of this escape committee. He dictated and planned, helped out a little on the raft, too. Vincent, Hadley, and Anderson were okay with having him as their leader. This whole thing had been his idea to begin with, anyhow, and Rex felt he had a right to boss them around. After all, he was the son of a man respected throughout New York City as the boss of all bosses. Salvatore Armati was Father to those who were loyal to him, but no more.
Rex was proud of his Sicilian blood. But he was no longer welcome in his Family. He had broken the code of honor by going to the police and providing them with information. Why he had done it was due to broken traditions; all honor had been lost, and that was not the Sicilian way. He had had no choice but to do it—the new Father of the Armati Family was corrupt and deserved Rex’s betrayal.
Because of his actions, his Family had fallen, and Rex had wound up here, in this God-forsaken place. He suspected his imprisonment in this particular hell had something to do with his twin brother Stefano.
But Rex didn’t give a damn. He didn’t crave revenge. He didn’t want to start a war. He just wanted a fresh start.
After the Second World War, he had become addicted to morphine, but since his sentence to Alcatraz, he had become clean. Although the wounds he sustained while fighting many-a-battle still ached and throbbed, he refused to numb the pain by resorting to his old ways. Once he’d escaped Alcatraz, he would be baptized by the ocean a new man, and he vowed to never touch a drop of that poison for as long as he lived. Realizing full-well he would be tempted, he decided the best way to completely kick the habit was by finding a place so secluded and peaceful, morphine became an afterthought.
But first, he and friends must succeed in escaping. It wasn’t wise to plan ahead and map out one’s future when the present was all that mattered. Rex fully understood this. Those were words of wisdom from his father.
“Tomorrow we make our escape,” Rex told his squad in his thick New York brogue. “Be ready, men. Our attempt will be at midnight. If you fall behind, then you will be left. Do I make myself clear?”
“’Course, you’re the boss,” Anderson said respectfully.
“These waters are dangerous. I hope you’re all good swimmers, because if our raft fails, that’s precisely what we’ll be doing.”
“And shark infested,” Hadley added with a violent shutter. “Remember the sharks.”
“Is that raft almost ready?” Rex asked Vincent.
“Yes. By tomorrow, it will be finished.”
“That’s good.”
Rex heaved a sigh. How far he had fallen! He had been Dad’s second in the Family, but no more. Now, he was just a man without a purpose. His Family had abandoned him after he’d betrayed them all. Mama was the only one left who understood. Rex loved her dearly, but never again would he ever feel her comforting arms around him. Once he was out of this place, he would forge a new identity, and that meant ceasing all contact with his mother. Perhaps he would send her an occasional letter under an alter ego.
It was time.
Rex’s heart hammered wildly in his chest as he crawled out the hole beneath the sink in his cell and into the small corridor leading to the utility room. Anderson and Vincent joined him, but Hadley was nowhere to be found. Rex allowed one minute to pass by, but when Hadley still hadn’t joined them, he decided it was for the best to leave him behind. Time was a luxury they could not afford, and Hadley knew that. Rex was sorry to abandon him, but he had no other choice.
The three men gathered the raft and the homemade paddles they’d made and started off, moving quickly. Adrenaline surged hot and welcoming through Rex’s veins as he took point and led his team. They climbed up the ventilation shaft to the roof and quickly slid down the kitchen vent pipe. Many obstacles lay in their way, but they cleared them without delay and soon arrived at the shoreline without being spotted by the searchlights. The raft was promptly inflated and placed in the choppy waters; Rex hopped in, took the ore Anderson tossed him, and prepared to paddle with all his might. Vincent was the last one in and pushed them off from the shore. All three men began to paddle, making for the distant mainland.
The going was tough, the waters churning violently. As they reached the halfway point, a current swept them towards the Golden Gate Bridge and they quickly lost sight of the mainland. Working desperately, the men paddled hard. Their strength began to ebb away.
“We’ll never make it,” Anderson cried. “We’re getting swept out into the open sea! We’ll be eaten alive by sharks!”
“Ah, shut up, Anderson!” Rex snapped. He was beginning to regret taking the pessimistic fool along. “Keep paddlin’, men!”
Vincent began to waver, but he continued to paddle. He was a good soldier, and never complained. Rex would be sorry to part ways with him if—no, when —they reached the shore.
“Shark!” Anderson suddenly screamed.
“Shit!” Rex cursed when he saw the fin. He paddled harder.
Anderson stopped paddling, his eyes wild with fear. He took one look at Vincent, made a decision, and grabbed the man by the lapels of his shirt. Before Rex could stop him, Anderson tossed Vincent into the ocean; the shark immediately took the bait and abandoned its circling of their raft in favor of having Vincent for a meal.
There was no time to berate Anderson concerning the vile act he had just committed. It was either live or die, and Rex was very much opposed to the latter. He was only thirty-one. He had a life to live.
The shore was within their reach, but the raft was useless now. It had carried them this far, but now, Rex realized they would have to abandon it and swim the rest of the way. He informed Anderson of what he was about to do, then dove into the water. Honing the skills his father had taught him, he swam with all his might towards the beach, which was near enough to see in the pitch black of night. Whether Anderson followed or not, Rex didn’t know. All he truly knew was a deep desire to survive . The will to live fueled him. When his feet struck a sandy, welcoming bottom, he wanted to rejoice. Once on shore however, he collapsed, cold and exhausted. But there was no time to stop now, not when freedom was within his grasp. He got to his feet, looked around for Anderson, and realized with a sinking feeling that he was t