Act of Fear (25 page)

‘When we all have that,’ Marty said, ‘we’ll even finish Andy Pappas.’

We were in the dark of her bedroom. It was near Christmas, and there were bright coloured lights all along the street outside; the Christmas lights and crowds all through the holiday city.

‘We don’t want to finish Andy Pappas,’ I said.

It was a cold night. There was snow on the streets. Marty was warm and close to me.

‘We don’t care about Pappas as long as he doesn’t touch us,’ I said. ‘Each of us alone. To hell with what Pappas does to the other guy.’

‘Think about Jo-Jo.’ Marty said.

She said it into my ear, her lips close, soft.

‘I’m thinking about Pete Vitanza and Jake Roth and those two hoods and that manager Walsh and Pappas,’ I said. ‘I’m thinking that in the same boat as Roth how many of us would have acted any different? I’m thinking about all of them, and only one Jo-Jo.’

‘If there’s one, there can be more,’ Marty said. ‘Maybe everyone.’

‘I’d like to believe it,’ I said.

And I would like to believe that. I would really like to believe that Jake Roth and Pete Vitanza were really only freaks. But my judgment is against me.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

copyright © 1996, 1967 by Dennis Lynds

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