Roz thought of Sir Lawrence Olivier. Or Spencer Tracy. Or Denzel Washington. Or any other great actor as she watched Teddy’s performance. He was a natural, she thought. A gotdamn natural.
And she loved him for it!
But the judge still had questions. “Why didn’t you go to authorities,” he asked, “if you witnessed such a horrific crime?”
“Ah, Judge, come on. You know why! The media has accused my father of more shit, I mean things,” Teddy corrected himself, to laughter from the gallery. “He’s been accused of more things than they accused Bin Laden of! Things Pop never did. If we went to the cops, they would have arrested us on the spot, no questions asked. Just like they arrested us a month ago. They don’t want the truth. They don’t want justice for the DiGenovas. They want a conviction! That’s why we hauled-tail out of there, and never looked back. That wasn’t our business anymore. Are we wrong for that? Maybe. But it ain’t murder!”
The gallery was amazed. They all looked to the judge. Cunningham was already looking. He was already trying to get a word in edgewise. “Your Honor, this is outrageous!” he said. “He’s making it up as he goes along!”
“Request denied,” the judge said to Cunningham. “Continue your direct examination, sir. He will not be ruled hostile, and will remain a witness for the prosecution.”
And when Cunningham tried to object again, the judge simply said, “noted.” And then he said, “you picked him,” as if to remind the prosecution of their blunder, and the gallery laughed.
Cunningham went back to the prosecution table. He went back to shuffling papers and conferring with his co-counsels and trying to put a brave face on a disaster. But they all agreed all he could do was try to rehabilitate his case as best he could.
First, he went back to the podium and asked for a recess until tomorrow.
“Denied,” the judge said.
Then he asked for a thirty-minute break.
“Denied.”
“Ten minutes, sir?”
“Mr. Cunningham,” the judge said, “question your witness or excuse him from the stand.”
Cunningham started shuffling papers again. Then he settled on a line of questioning. “You said you were your father’s underboss.”
“I didn’t say that,” Teddy said.
“You did say it!”
“No, I didn’t. I said I was his second-in-command.”
“Which makes you the underboss of the Sinatra Crime Family,” Cunningham said.
Teddy frowned. “What Sinatra Crime Family? I’ve never heard of any such thing in my life!”
Sal Gabrini inwardly smiled. “That’s how you do that shit,” he inwardly said.
But Cunningham was puzzled. “Then in what organization were you his second-in-command?” he asked Teddy.
“At the docks for his import/export business,” Teddy said. “Then I left his employment and opened up Teddy’s Imports, my own thing. That’s what I was talking about. I don’t know what you were talking about!”
And more laughter from the gallery.
That day was an unmitigated disaster that the prosecution never recovered from. Even their racketeering and money laundering evidence all fell apart, too, when their witnesses disappeared, one by one, and the judge dismissed their complaints as the normal happenings in trials. “Witnesses refuse to show up and disappear all the time,” the judge said. “Why on earth would you have expected every one of them to show up for a trial like this one?”
They had no case left.
And that was why, when the prosecution rested their case two days later, and the judge asked if the defense wished to call any witnesses, Bo Dodd stood up and was proud to state for the record that they didn’t feel it was necessary. “No, your Honor,” he said. “The Defense rests as well.”
The Defense was so confident they even requested a summary judgement. But that motion failed. But the head of The United States Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania did order the release of Teddy Sinatra, due to insufficient evidence.
All that was left was for them to wait for the verdict.
Because despite all of their confidence and the obvious fumbling by the prosecution, verdict watch was agonizing. Because that jury, in truth, could go either way.
But it didn’t take long. Just over five hours. While they were at lunch, the verdict came in. And they raced back to the courthouse.
Given the prosecution problems, it should have been anticlimactic when the verdict was about to be read. But it wasn’t. Every member of the family, and especially Roz and even Mick, held their breaths as if it could have gone either way. Because they knew it could.
But it didn’t. “We the jury,” the foreperson said, “find the defendant, Michello Sinatra, not guilty!” And they named each count.
But the family was already on their feet celebrating on count four, which was the last of the murder counts. After Mick was acquitted on those counts, everything else to the family, although major in their own right, seemed like child’s play. And they were right. The jury found the defendant not guilty on all counts.
And for the first time, Mick showed true emotion. He ran to Roz, and lifted her into his arms.
And then both of them hurried to Teddy, who was a free man in the courtroom that day to hear the verdict, and pulled him in their arms too. The entire family was so elated they did a group hug that made the papers all over the world.
Mick Sinatra walked free that day, and the world took notice. The man they all had declared too big to fail, remained that way. And Billy Lancer, in seclusion at his estate in the Hollywood Hills, took his glass and threw it at the television.
And even the television didn’t crack.
EPILOGUE
The party was jumpin’ on Roz’s yacht and the Sinatras and Gabrinis couldn’t seem to get over their good luck. Teddy was holding court, as everybody wanted to know how he had the balls to trick the government, and Nikki stood beside him, laughing and taking it all in too. But it was Oz Drakos, with his long hair and Titanic-size personality, that stole the show. With a cigar between his bright white teeth, and a big hat on his head, he was dancing with the ladies and showing up all the men. He even made the Gabrinis look tamed. Everybody, it seemed, loved Oz.
Teddy walked over to his kid sister Gloria, when he finally got a break from all of the questions, and leaned against the railing with her. She was watching Oz the entire time.
“We’re on a boat. He’s not going anywhere, you know,” Teddy said.
Gloria was startled by her brother’s voice. She didn’t even see Teddy come up on her. She smiled. “I’m that obvious?”
“Oh, yeah,” Teddy said.
Gloria exhaled. “I guess so,” she said, but continued to watch Oz.
“Talked to your mother?” Teddy asked.
“And?”
“She was in the courtroom when you used her name.”
Teddy looked at Gloria. “Are you serious? I didn’t see her!”
“She was in the back, but she was there. You know she was going to be there. Anything involving Daddy, she’s going to make sure to be there. She even cried when I told her he got arrested.”
“I’m sure she did,” Teddy said. “All that money he gives her.”
Gloria looked at him. She was offended.
“I’m sorry, Glo,” Teddy quickly said. “I was out of line. And I appreciated the fact that Bella allowed me to use her name like that.”
“Even though you didn’t ask her,” Gloria said.
“I had to come up with something. And the fact that she was, in fact, sleeping with Frankie, seemed like the best thing I could come up with.”
“But he never hit her,” Gloria said.
“I know. She’s pissed at me?”
Gloria shook her head. “Not at all. It got Dad off. She’s happy.” But Gloria seemed more interested in watching Oz.
Teddy watched him too. “That’s a lot of man to fall in love with, Glo,”
he said.
“Yeah, I know. I told Nikki the same thing when she was falling for you.”
Teddy laughed. “Yeah, but I’m not that wide open. Oz gets out of bed wired.”
Gloria laughed. “Yes, he does.”
“But you love him anyway?”
Gloria’s smile slowly faded. “Yes, I do.” But then she caught herself. “Don’t you have more stories to tell? Why are you hanging up under me?” Then she looked around. “And by the way, where’s Roz and Dad?”
Teddy looked around too. “Um. That’s a good question. Did they even get on the yacht?”
“Beats me. I was preoccupied.”
Teddy smiled. “So was I.”
And they both kept looking around and wondering where in the world were their parents?
They watched him as he came out of his secluded mansion high above the hills as if he had the world on a string. As if it wasn’t his last day on earth, but any other day. Then he walked over to his small, sleek, Porsche Macan SUV and got in on the driver’s seat.
He was about to press the Start button, but he seemed to hesitate. As if he was afraid explosives had been planted beneath his car, and it would blow as soon as the ignition caught. He even opened back up the driver side door and was about to get out. But then he hesitated again. As if he just knew he was being irrational. That fool was too happy that he beat the rap to even think about coming after him. And he would have to be a fool to even try it anyway. So he got back into his SUV.
And then he pressed the Start button.
And braced himself.
But nothing happened. Which caused him to sigh great relief. And then he smiled, put the car in Reverse, and although he had the backup camera, he didn’t trust them. He turned around to see his surroundings himself, as he was about to back out. And as soon as he turned, he found himself staring right in the face of Mick and Roz. And their magnums. They were seated on his backseat. His heart fell through his shoe.
“You see,” Mick said, “your every instinct told you something was wrong. But you didn’t listen. You should have gotten out of this SUV. You really should have.”
“Hello, Billy,” Roz said. “Remember me?”
Mick placed the gun to Billy’s head. “Turn off the ignition,” he ordered.
Billy’s heart was hammering, and he could feel the barrel of that gun pressing into his skull. He didn’t hesitate. He turned off his vehicle.
“We only have one question for you,” Mick said, “and one question only. If you fail to answer it, we will not ask a second question. Do you understand?”
Billy nodded, and tried to look at that gun.
Mick looked at Roz. Roz leaned forward, her eyes sincere. “Why, Billy?” she asked him.
Billy just sat there, unable to even put into words how many ways he could answer that loaded question.
Mick pressed the gun even harder against his skull, as a reminder.
It was enough. Billy talked. “Everybody thinks my beautiful wife died of natural causes,” he said. “Cancer was what I went with, and they believed it. But it wasn’t true.”
He leaned his head back as if he had forgotten all about Mick’s gun.
“She killed herself,” Billy said, and Roz was shocked.
“She killed herself,” Billy said again, “because it didn’t get better. I told her it would. I told her you can’t love somebody so much that you can’t go on with your own life. But she couldn’t go on. Her brother was her life. He was everything to her. And you,” he said with venom as he looked in the rearview at Mick, “took him away from us as if he was nothing but a piece of trash in the street. And she couldn’t bear it any longer.”
“Who was her brother?” Roz asked. “Who are you talking about?”
“Uri,” Billy said.
Roz frowned. “Uri? The Broadway actor? The one who tried to rape me? The one who kidnapped Teddy?”
Billy nodded. “You say he tried to harm you, and to kidnap Teddy. Natalie wouldn’t say that. He was her brother, not some thug the way you’re trying to make him out to be.”
“He was a thug alright,” Mick said. “And he got what he deserved.”
“And you killed him,” Billy said, staring at Mick. “And because she lost her dear brother, she didn’t want to live anymore.”
“What’s the matter, Lancer?” Mick asked. “You weren’t enough for her?”
But if Mick thought Billy would meet him macho for macho, he was wrong. Billy nodded his head. “I was not enough for her, you are correct,” he said. “She was, on the other hand, more than enough for me. And Uri was gone. Because of you. Because of you!” he said again with violent rage and then quickly pressed the start button.
“Don’t, Billy!” Roz cried, as Billy placed the SUV in Drive even as Mick was firing on him. But even as he was dying, he still had enough hatred within him to press his feet on that gas pedal.
The car began speeding forward, straight for a separate brick building on his property, a building with a massive pool beside it. Mick, terrified, opened Roz’s door and pushed her out just as the car was about to run head-on into that brick building. He opened his own door, and tried to jump out, just as the car hit that brick wall and burst into flames.
Roz had already gotten up after Mick’s push, but the flames were so fiery that she couldn’t get anywhere near that SUV. And she didn’t see Mick!
She looked around, searching and searching for him, but she saw no signs of him.
Until she heard water splashing.
She ran parallel with that brick building, to the pool on the side of the building. She never even thought to look there.
And that was when she saw Mick. He was swimming on the opposite end of the pool, as if he had jumped in to avoid the flames, and was swimming as far away from those flames as he could get. And then he got out, on the back side.
Roz ran along that side of the house, well out of the reach of those flames, toward Mick. Mick got out of the pool and, seeing that she was alright too, began running to her.
When they met, he lifted her into his arms and squeezed her. Then he stood her on her two feet, and they both watched the flames, and the end of Billy Lancer.
But Mick didn’t delay. Lancer got exactly what he deserved. “Let’s get out of here,” he said to Roz, his arm around her waist, as he walked with her toward their car that was parked on the outside of Billy’s property. “We’ve got a boat to catch,” he said.
And Roz, so relieved, if not saddened for a man that used to be her true friend, didn’t have to say a word. Because it was already decided. She was always going with Mick.
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Mick Sinatra: Needing Her Again Page 18
