Free (1982) The Almighty by Irving Wallace

pocked cheeks. He was indeed street-smart, and book-smart, as well as a fast and glib talker.
    Setting eyes on Victoria, he removed his snap-brim felt hat, carefully placed it on the round conference table and offered her a small bow. ‘I’m Gus Pagano,’ he said. ‘You’re the first looker I’ve seen on this paper.’
    ‘Thank you, Mr. Pagano.’ She settled into a wooden chair. Although there were eight chairs around the table, Pagano took the one next to Victoria.
    ‘So you’re writing about Sam Yinger,’ he said, ‘and what it’s like to get ready to die.’
    ‘What it feels like, waiting for the electric chair, and what a cell on Death Row is like.’
    ‘They can’t get to Yinger, so they want to know what I know.’
    ‘That’s right.’
    ‘They told you I was on Death Row right up to the wire, before I was sprung? You know about that?’ ‘Mr. McAllister told me.’
    ‘And Yinger’s in the cell I used to have. Okay, I can’t tell you from my feelings what Yinger feels like today. I was a special case. I was in there on a bum rap, and all I could think was that I was going to roast for something I didn’t do. I was bitter, just plain bitter. Yinger’s another case. He finally admitted he did it. You know what he did, don’t you?’
    Victoria tapped the folder on the table. T read the coverage of the trial by the Record.’
    Pagano shook his head. ‘A real crazy, and sick as hell. He goes out with this woman - what was her name -?’ ‘Caroline.’
    ‘Yeah, Caroline, a schoolteacher. Yinger goes out with her twice, and she finds him too weird to go out with him anymore. She doesn’t answer his calls. One night he spots her with another guy on a date, and he goes berserk. Next day he goes to her school, in the classroom where she’s teaching English to six young ethnics - six young kids eight to ten years old, one little boy and five girls - and he shoots Caroline dead, and then he goes around the classroom and murders all six kids.’ ‘I know all that,’ Victoria said.
    Ignoring her, Pagano went on. ‘He almost gets away, until someone spots him a few days later.’ Pagano shook his head again. ‘He went into Green Haven after I got out. It’s loons like him who give all of us a bad name. I can’t help you about Yinger.’
    ‘What about his living conditions? How does he live? How does he spend his time?’
    Pagano waited for Victoria to find her notepad and take out her pen, and then he began talking. ‘Death Row is on the third floor of the Hospital-Segregation Building. It’s actually the wing called K gallery. The cell I was in, the one Yinger is in -well, what’s to say about it? A cell’s a cell. You’ve seen plenty of them in prison movies.’
    ‘Yes, but I’d like you to describe it.’ ‘It’s a small, gloomy room. There’s a cot. There’s a toilet with no seat. There’s a sink on one wall. Also a water fountain. There’s a peephole in the ceiling so the guard on the walkway above can check you out from time to time. You don’t get what the other cons get.’ ‘Meaning what?’
    ‘Meaning you don’t get to eat in the mess hall with the rest. You get your rations in your room. You can have cigarettes, but no matches. You want a light, a guard lights you up. Your pants better fit, because you can’t have a belt. Same with your shoes. No shoelaces. You can borrow a safety-lock razor, but you’ve got to give it back after shaving.’ ‘Do the guards ever let you out of the cell?’ ‘One hour a day, for supervised exercise. And when you have visitors.’
    ‘You can have visitors?’ Victoria asked.
    ‘My old lady used to visit me, and my older sister. Also my
    lawyer. Also a doctor, and my old lady’s priest. Anybody else has to have a court order.’
    ‘How did you spend your time, Mr. Pagano? I mean in the days before your proposed execution date.’
    ‘Me, I was different. I read books, mostly legal books. I kept writing up briefs, appeals, letters to