5 Bad Moon Read Online Free PDF Page B

of the court. Problem was, you had to act like a nut all the time because if a doctor or a guard or anyone ever saw you not acting like a nut, they’d boot your ass the hell outta here and haul you back into court to face your charges. That’s why Sal had to act like one of them. But what if one of the Thorazine Boys was faking it too? What if one of them wasn’t nuts and Juicy and Bartolo had gotten to him, given him the contract to kill their old buddy Sal? Wouldn’t have to worry about sneaking the hitter into the hospital that way. It would be perfect. Sal tried to remember if any of these guys had visitors recently, a messenger who might’ve brought the deal in from Juicy and Bartolo. Sal scanned their blank, pale faces. You can’t be too paranoid when you know there’s a contract out on you.
    Up on the TV, Phil Donahue was talking to a bunch of old bags about something or other. If Donahue was on, that meant it was after four. Charles should be here by now. Sal suppressed a grin. He couldn’t wait for Charles to give him the details.
    Sal glanced back at his soldier. “So whatta they saying about Mistretta’s hit?”
    Loopy Lou’s eyebrows shot up and his bad eye rolled. “They’re going nuts. The cops still got the old man’s body, you know, and they’re saying they won’t be finished doing the autopsy for at least two weeks. Mrs. Mistretta’s having conniption fits. Can you imagine? Poor woman’s gonna hafta wait all that time to bury her husband. That’s a shame.”
    “My name been mentioned?”
    “Not that I heard, but I wouldn’t be surprised. I mean, like it wasn’t no secret how you felt about Mistretta.”
    Sal squinted at his thumb. “Well, at least one of my problems is gone.” He raised his index finger and squinted at that one. “One down, three to go.”
    Loopy Lou mumbled out of the side of his mouth. “Juicy, Frank Bartolo—who’s the third one?”
    Sal raised his middle finger. “That FBI guy, Tozzi. Dudley fucking Do-right.”
    Sal caught his own angry expression in the glass wall’s reflection, and immediately he let his face go slack before the guard saw him. He saw red whenever he thought about Tozzi. Fucking Tozzi. Life was sweet before Tozzi came along. Back when he was out on the street, Sal used to play dumb all the time whenever people were looking, act like a punch-drunk retard and get away with murder. It had kept him out of jail for twenty years. But then Tozzi came along and caught him with his guard down in Atlantic City, saw him act normal. And that’s how he ended up here in the bin. He had no choice but to take the insanity plea or face charges. But the charges were murder this time, so that friggin’ old bastard of a judge said he had to put Sal in the nuthouse with the real nuts.
    Loopy Lou looked all around before he spoke. “You really gonna do Tozzi, too, Sal?”
    Sal let half a grin sneak out. “He may already be done.”
    Loopy Lou smiled on one side of his face. “And so that means you can check yourself outta here?”
    “Yup.”
    “Tremendous.”
    Sal looked Loopy Lou in his good eye and bit the insides of his cheeks to suppress his joy. The only thing the state had on Sal was Tozzi’s testimony that he witnessed Sal acting normal. With Tozzi gone, there was no testimony and the state had no case. He could check himself out into his sister’s custody and he’d be as free as a bird. He could be outta here as soon as the day after tomorrow, the way he figured. All he needed was for Charles to get here and give him the word that the deed was done. He scanned the ward again. Where the hell was he?
    There were commercials on the TV now. Sal let his jaw go slack and looked blank just in case someone was watching him through that one-way mirror on the other side of the ward. Sal couldn’t hear the sound, but he could see that they were playing that commercial for that health club in New York, the one with the blonde with the long corkscrew curls