Inside Out

51

Atlanta, Georgia

Sam Manelli had an hour before the guard came to pick up the cell phone he smuggled into Sam each night after midnight. Sam slipped it from under his pillow and dialed Johnny Russo, who would be waiting for the call. If the numbers on the bill were traced someday, who could prove who was at the pay phone, who had made the call? Sam smiled at the thought of Johnny standing by a pay phone outside a rural grocery store in Fantee, Louisiana, in his fancy suit, fighting off hungry mosquitoes.

“It's me,” Sam grunted. “What did the dentist say?”

“He pulled the tooth,” Russo answered, promptly. “X-ray pictures be at your guy's office in the morning so he can check them. You want the guy to bring the X-rays so you can see, too?”

“Of course not.”

“You be leaving there soon, I believe,” Johnny said.

“So, if I'm still here, I'll call same time tomorrow.”

Sam ended the call and pondered the information.

He was delighted that Devlin was dead and that the proof, by way of pictures of the corpses, was going to put his mind at ease. It had been expensive, but money well spent. He just couldn't believe that Johnny would even suggest that Bertran bring the pictures of a corpse to him in jail-he knew that Bertran would have refused. As much as he would have loved to see them, it was a stupid suggestion.

Sometimes he wondered about Johnny. In order for him to make it, he was going to have to think clearer and let his emotional side take a backseat to his business mind.

The simple fact was that times had changed, making crime on the scale Sam had known it almost impossible.

Sam had done his best to pass his understanding of business on to Johnny, he couldn't help but wonder sometimes if he had put his money on the wrong horse. Perhaps his fondness for Johnny's father, and now Johnny, had clouded his own judgment.

He was resolved to the fact that he had done his best and ultimately couldn't control what Johnny did or didn't do. All he had wanted to do was finish this one bit of business with Devlin and live the rest of his days running his legitimate businesses.

Sam lay back on the cot, closed his eyes, and thought about better times.