Vito sat by the motel window with a pencil in his hand. He was using the pencil to make tally marks on a piece of paper. Every time he saw someone, he made one or two marks on his paper. Marcus, bored from watching TV and being holed up in the motel room, looked up at him. "What're you doing?" Marcus asked.
"Keeping track of something," Vito replied, his eyes not moving from this window. "There's something off about this town."
"What do you mean?" Marcus asked, his attention now on Vito.
"I know you haven't been paying attention, but there's something really strange." Held up a piece of paper. "I've been keeping track of the people that have been passing by on the streets. The vast majority of them all look like they could either be linebackers or beauty models. And those people are all young."
"So?" Marcus replied, "This is a college town. Most of the people here would be young."
"True," Vito answered, "but not most of them would look like they play for the New York Jets, or be cheerleaders." Vito paused as he made a couple more marks on his paper. "This town...there's something about this town that doesn't sit right."
Marcus rolled his eyes and asked, "So what? Why don't we get to the Charlestons, rub them out, get Karen, and get outta here?"
"Because," Vito replied, his eyes narrowing at Marcus, "we're going to do things carefully. We're not going in blind. We're going to be careful and not follow Al into jail. Whatever's up with this town, it could hurt our ability to get to the Charlestons or get out of town."
Marcus sighed and said, "If you're gonna be like that, I'll just walk over and rub them out myself."
"Do that," Vito responded with a cold stare to Marcus, "And you'll be on your own. That's the trouble with you Marcus. You act before you think. You're too hot-headed."
Marcus sat back down on the bed, "Yeah, and you're too careful."
"At least I can keep myself out of trouble." The two of them went silent while Vito continued his observations.
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Unknown to either Vito and Marcus, the FBI had the room bugged and could hear the two of them talk. Three people were listening. Two of them were the FBI agents while the third was a member of the MLPD.
"What is Vito so worried about?" one of the FBI agents asked.
"I don't know," said the second agent. "Vito seems to be paranoid again. This isn't unusual for him, though, but there's something spooking him."
While the two FBI agents were talking with themselves, the MLPD officer stepped out to report to Daniel about the mobsters.