“The old lady did it,” Teddysaid. “Molly.”
“Oh, Mr. Sinatra, give me abreak! Are you implying that that dearwoman killed her own husband and children?”
“And herself,” Teddy said. “Yes, she did.”
“That’s not what you told us inDeposition, sir,” Cunningham said.
“Yes, it is,” Teddy said.
Cunningham quickly pulled out Teddy’sdeposition file. “You said, and Iquote,” he said, reading from the paper, “that ‘my father stood up from thattable and watched them gunned down like rats in the sewer.’” Cunningham looked at Teddy. “Did you not say that, Mr. Sinatra?” he askedhim.
“I said it, yes,” said Teddy. “And it’s true. They were gunned down like rats in asewer. But not by my father. They were gunned down by Mrs. DiGenova!”
The audience laughed at the prosecution,although it was hardly a humorous subject. And Nikki, Joey, and Gloria relaxed. They should have known Teddy would have it under control. He was smart like that.
Cunningham went over to the table andsearched through a stack of papers with the other two governmentattorneys. They were all flustered. They were all watching their airtight casecrumble before their very eyes. AndCunningham made an executive decision. He went back to the podium.
“Your Honor?” he said to the judge.
“Mr. Cunningham is recognized,” thejudge said.
“Because of the change in testimony,”Cunningham said, “the government is now asking the Court to declare Mr.Theodore Sinatra as no longer a witness for the prosecution, but as a hostilewitness, so that we may question him as such.”
The judge, however, looked atTeddy. “What do you have to say aboutthat, Mr. Sinatra? Have your testimonychanged from what you originally proffered to the prosecution?”
“No, sir,” Teddy said sincerely. “They want me to lie, Judge. They want me to get up here, under oath, andlie about my father. But he didn’t killthat family. I didn’t kill themeither. The old lady killed them. Molly. Because she said Frankie was cheating with my half-sister’s mother,Bella Caine. And Mrs. Caine took videoof those encounters and sent the video to Mrs. DiGenova. That’s why she killed her family. Because she was enraged. That’s why we went there in the first place.”
The judge didn’t understand. “Why did you go there in the first place?” heasked Teddy.
“Because of those tapes Bella Cainehad given to Molly. Because when Frankiefound out that Bella had gone to his wife, he had some of his goons work herover pretty badly. Bruises like youwouldn’t believe, Judge! So Pop and Ifigured we needed to let him know that he didn’t touch our family likethat. You don’t hit a woman like thatperiod. We wanted to have a civilconversation with Frankie. But his wifewouldn’t cooperate. Just bringing hischeating ways back up again caused her to go nuts on us, Judge. You should have seen her. It was awful.”
The Sinatra family sat as mesmerizedas everybody else in that courtroom. Mick knew it was a lie overall. Frankie had never laid a hand on Bella Caine, mainly because Bella wouldnot have let him. And they didn’t go seeDiGenova to discuss any affair. But themain point, that Frankie had had an affair was Bella, was true. And that was all they needed to muddy-up theprosecution waters. Mick was pleased.
Roz thought of Sir Lawrence Olivier. Or Spencer Tracy. Or Denzel Washington. Or any other great actor as she watchedTeddy’s performance. He was a natural,she thought. A gotdamn natural.
And she loved him for it!
But the judge still hadquestions. “Why didn’t you go toauthorities,” 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,” Teddycorrected himself, to laughter from the gallery. “He’s been accused of more things than theyaccused Bin Laden of! Things Pop neverdid. If we went to the cops, they wouldhave 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 theDiGenovas. They want a conviction! That’s why we hauled-tail out of there, andnever looked back. That wasn’t ourbusiness 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 inedgewise. “Your Honor, this isoutrageous!” he said. “He’s making it upas he goes along!”
“Request denied,” the judge said toCunningham. “Continue your direct examination, sir. He will not be ruled hostile, and will remaina witness for the prosecution.”
And when Cunningham tried to objectagain, the judge simply said, “noted.” And then he said, “you picked him,” as if to remind the prosecution oftheir blunder, and the gallery laughed.
Cunningham went back to the prosecutiontable. He went back to shuffling papersand conferring with his co-counsels and trying to put a brave face on adisaster. But they all agreed all hecould do was try to rehabilitate his case as best he could.
First, he went back to the podium andasked for a recess until tomorrow.
“Denied,” the judge said.
Then he asked for a thirty-minutebreak.
“Denied.”
“Ten minutes, sir?”
“Mr. Cunningham,” the judge said,“question your witness or excuse him from the stand.”
Cunningham started shuffling papersagain. Then he settled on a line ofquestioning. “You said you were yourfather’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 theSinatra Crime Family,” Cunningham said.
Teddy frowned. “What Sinatra Crime Family? I’ve never heard of any such thing in mylife!”
Sal Gabrini inwardly smiled. “That’s how you do that shit,” he inwardlysaid.
But Cunningham was puzzled. “Then in what organization were you hissecond-in-command?” he asked Teddy.
“At the docks for his import/exportbusiness,” Teddy said. “Then I left hisemployment 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 disasterthat 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 dismissedtheir complaints as the normal happenings in trials. “Witnesses refuse to show up and disappearall the time,” the judge said. “Why onearth would you have expected
