The Heart of an Assassin (19 page)

“Fuck!” Sheila said loud enough for the
attendant to hear.

Drawing her gun, Sheila ran toward the
stairs. By the time Sheila reached them, Nick had disappeared. She
ran back to the front desk and asked the attendant to ring room 302
and to hand her the phone.

Before Tyler got a chance to say anything
into the phone, Sheila told him to be quiet. “Listen, someone’s in
the hotel. Get away from the doors. Move the judge into one of the
other rooms. Wait for me to get to you,” Sheila ordered.

Tyler immediately put the phone down and
signaled them all that something was wrong. They all scrambled up
and drew their guns. Tyler pointed to the television and gave it a
thumbs up, indicating to the officer to raise the volume just a
little.

Sheila ran outside and waved hysterically to
the officers in the unmarked cars. Realizing something was wrong,
they screeched out of their positions and drove to the front of the
hotel from all sides. They quickly exited their cars and raced into
the hotel.

Sheila explained to the men what had
happened, that she suspected that the man she ran into was a
killer. Slowly and cautiously, they began to ascend the stairs. In
the meantime, Tyler, Eric, and the officers remained in their room,
vigilant of any activity outside.

Slowly, they climbed the stairs, looking
every which way, as they covered each other. When they reached the
first floor, they breathed a sigh of relief. Two more flights to
go, they all thought to themselves. Knowing quite well that any
door could hold the suspect, they were now even more cautious as
they began the next set of stairs. As they reached the second floor
and were about to once again breathe a sigh of relief, an old man
came out from one of the rooms.

“Hey, what’s going on!” he screamed. Caught
by surprise, one of the officers fired his gun, missing the man by
several inches. “Holy shit!” responded the old man.

“Get the fuck back in your room!” screamed
another officer. The old man ran back into his room. Others, who
stepped out of their rooms, seeing what was happening, quickly
retreated.

The officers and Sheila all stared at one
another. “Shit happens. Okay, let’s move, just take it easy,”
Sheila said.

The officer who took the shot, obviously
shaken, nodded at her as another officer took his place in the lead
position. They once again began their ascent. Cautiously, they came
around the stairway to the third-floor platform. The lead officer
stuck his head out and looked down the hallway. It was empty. They
all moved forward, covering each other as they made their way to
the front door of room 301.

Sheila knocked and called out to Tyler.
“Tyler, it’s me, Sheila,” she said. Inside, the officers approached
the door cautiously and opened it. There stood Sheila with at least
six officers. “Let’s get the hell out of here,” said Sheila.

Tyler led the judge into the middle of the
officers with Eric following close behind. They began to descend
the stairs slowly, looking in every direction. When they reached
the second floor, one of the officers noticed that the window at
the end of the hallway was open. “That wasn’t opened before,” he
said. They all turned their eyes toward the window as they reached
the second landing.

All of a sudden, there was a muffled sound;
Eric was hit in the back of the leg, causing him to fall to the
floor. Then another muffled sound. As the officers turned to see
where the sound was coming from Nick disappeared back into the room
he occupied.

“What the hell,” Tyler began as all of them
turned to look behind them. No one was there though Eric was on the
floor with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the back of his
leg. The judge had tripped and fallen upon Tyler when Eric bumped
into him as he fell.

“Help . . . help,” the judge said. They
looked at the judge and noticed he too had been shot. He was hit
from behind. They scrambled around him as they all pointed their
guns from where they thought the shots came from. Sheila turned the
judge over. It looked like he was grazed just above the back of the
head.

“Shit! They almost got him,” Sheila said.

“Let’s get out of here, now!” ordered
Tyler.

Helping Eric hop up on one leg and grabbing
the judge, they all scrambled down the stairs, out onto the street
and into one of the awaiting cars. Nick exited out the window and
jumped onto the fire escape of the nearest building. He knew he
didn’t finish the judge. He had missed., and that infuriated
him.

Racing down the fire escape, he ran up the
alley in time to see the cars pull out. Just then, he turned and
saw Tyler staring at him from the front entrance to the hotel just
twenty feet away. Nick immediately turned and started to walk
away.

Tyler had spotted Nick staring at the cars as
they rode away. I know this man, Tyler thought to himself. Tyler
saw as Nick turned and started to walk away. “Hey, you!” Tyler
shouted out to Nick. “Hey, you!” Tyler shouted again.

Nick turned at the corner and started to run
down 117th Street as Tyler began to pick up his pace after Nick.
When Tyler reached the corner, Nick was more than halfway down the
block. Tyler took off into the middle of the street, hoping that
Nick would not see him coming after him. Nick turned and saw no one
up the block heading in his direction so he stopped running. Then
he heard a car hit its breaks, and turned seeing Tyler less than
half a block behind him. Nick took off running into traffic,
crossing Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard, almost getting hit by
several cars. Tyler hit the intersection as Nick got to the other
side of the boulevard. Nick, now running up the boulevard toward
118th Street, was dodging between pedestrians as he kept looking
back to see if Tyler was still after him. Tyler was on the other
side of the street running in the same direction waiting for a
chance for the traffic to let up so he could bolt across the
boulevard. Nick turned left on 118th and began to quickly disappear
as Tyler saw the opportunity and bolted across the boulevard on the
corner of 118th Street. Running as fast as he could, Tyler was
closing in on Nick. Nick, realizing that Tyler was getting closer,
pulled out his revolver and knelt behind a parked car, took aim,
and fired.

Tyler had seen Nick go behind a parked car
and immediately drew his weapon. Tyler did not see Nick exit from
the other side of the car so he slowed down and moved more
cautiously in Nick’s direction. All of a sudden, Nick reappeared
with gun drawn. Tyler saw the flash of Nick’s gun as he raised his
own gun to fire back. Before Tyler could get off a shot, Nick’s
shot shattered the back window of the car nearest to Tyler, causing
Tyler to dive for cover. When Tyler got back up again, Nick was
gone.

A couple of hours later, Tyler caught up with
Sheila and Eric at the Thirteenth Precinct on Twenty-First Street.
Tyler filled Sheila in on what had happened, stating that although
he didn’t get a really good look at the shooter, he resembled the
man Tyler had seen in Massachusetts. After Sheila described the man
she saw in the lobby, she and Tyler compared notes and agreed that
it was the same man.

“This guy is determined to get the judge,”
Tyler said.

“Well, we better get our asses out of here
before that guy comes looking for him again.” Sheila said. “Why
don’t we play it off as if the judge is dead?”

“I don’t think this guy is going to fall for
it. Especially after he saw you guys take off from the hotel,”
Tyler replied.

One of the officers came up to Tyler and
Sheila to tell them the judge was ready to go. He had only suffered
a scratch and had been bandaged up. Eric on the other hand was out
of commission for a couple of weeks.

Tyler went down to see Eric before taking
off. “Looks like you are going to get the Purple Heart,” Tyler
said.

“Yeah, like that’s what I really wanted. If
that’s the case, I should have gotten it for just hanging around
with you,” chuckled Eric. He turned to Sheila and said, “It’s up to
you now to take care of him.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t let anyone get to the
judge,” she responded.

“Fuck the judge. It’s Tyler I’m worried
about,” Eric said. They started to laugh when they noticed the
judge looking at them all.

“Yeah, you guys are doing a fine job
protecting me,” he said.

“Hey, are you dead yet?” Tyler asked him.

“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Sheila
ordered.

“Fine with me,” Tyler responded.

A few minutes later, they were on their way
back to the heliport where a helicopter was waiting to take them to
an undisclosed location in Pennsylvania. By the time the Giordanos
got the word that they were airborne again, it was too late. They
simply disappeared and could not be traced.

Nick spoke to the Giordanos, advising them
that there would be only one more opportunity to take out the judge
and that would be when he returned to give his testimony. In the
meantime, they needed to get as much information on where and when
the judge was scheduled to testify.

Both Fabio and Felicia were upset with Nick.
“I thought you were supposed to be the best,” Felicia shouted into
the phone.

“Shit happens,” responded Nick.

“Yeah, well, I don’t like it,” Felicia told
him.

“Why didn’t you ask one of your boy scouts to
take the judge out?” Nick asked her. “I’ll tell you why. Because
they’re too fuckin’ stupid and couldn’t hit the side of a fuckin’
building unless it fell on them. That’s why you didn’t ask them to
do the job.” The anger of having missed the opportunity came to the
surface. Nick said, “Listen, you fuckin’ bitch. I’ve never failed
in any job I have ever taken. Never! And I don’t plan to start now.
So get off my ass and get the information I need to get the job
done.”

Felicia was in shock. She almost started to
stutter back at him but held herself in check as Fabio took the
phone from her.“Nick, Nick, calm down. My sister is just upset.
Lot’s going on,” Fabio said.

“Yeah, I understand, Mr. Giordano. Sorry I
lost my cool,” Nick responded.

“Sure, I understand,” Fabio replied.

Felicia stared at her brother as he hung up
the phone.“Did you hear what that son of a bitch called me?” she
asked her brother. “How dare he! I can’t wait to put a bullet in
his fuckin’ head. He is going to regret the day he was born, so
help me God,” she shouted.

Fabio stared at his sister as she raged on,
knowing full well that it was best to let her blow her steam before
trying to calm her down. Finally, after she calmed down, Fabio
walked up to her and gave her a hug and started laughing. “Gee,
sis, I don’t think you like this guy,” he said to her.

She stared at him for a few seconds and then
started to laugh. “You think?” she asked him, now laughing out
loud.

“I promise you we will deal with him when the
time comes,” Fabio told her. “In the meantime, let’s try to get
along, at least until the judge’s brains have paved the streets of
New York.”

June
16-July 9, 1984

After an intensive interview with Adriana, it
was determined that her testimony would not be enough to put the
Giordano family out of business. Though they could use much of the
information she provided, it was not enough to implicate them in
any crimes. The FBI’s suspicion about the Giordanos having contacts
and influence in the various government agencies was proven to be
true. However, Adriana was unable to provide any of the contacts
except for the judge and the lawyers they used.

After learning of the execution of her
parents, Adriana accused the FBI of failing to provide protection
and escape as they promised. She refused to elaborate further on
the Giordanos’ dealings. In her anger and despair she said, “You
promised! Now they are dead because of you. You bastards, you
killed my parents. You killed them!” she screamed at John.

There was nothing more anyone could do to
calm her down or to bring her to reason. “It wasn’t us who killed
your parents. It was the Giordano family and that is where you
should direct your anger. Make them pay for what they did,” John
Connolly told Adriana.

“No. No. It’s over,” Adriana said in a low
voice, staring into John Connolly’s eyes. “It’s over,” she
said.

Over the next few weeks, John and his agents
began to prepare for the judge’s testimony. They visited the
courthouse and fanned out into the neighboring buildings as they
began to lock down the immediate areas surrounding it. With the
cooperation of the New York City Police Department, they would have
officers stationed atop all of the buildings with snipers in
strategic locations. Special badges would be assigned to all of
them, which would not be given out until the day before. They
weren’t taking any chances.

An artist’s rendering of Nick’s face, in
various disguises, was distributed to everyone. It was decided they
would use their sources in the media to publish the picture a week
before the judge was going to testify.

Sam and Eric, who had recovered from their
wounds, teamed up to cover the entryway to the courthouse. Though
they could not get a hold of either Tyler or Sheila, they knew the
three of them would be coming in anytime between now and the ninth
of July, and they needed to be ready. As for Tyler, Sheila, and the
judge, they simply disappeared and were not heard from by anyone
for over three weeks.

Back at the station, John Connolly waited
impatiently by the phone and jumped every time it rang. Captain
John O’Malley was working with other police captains and assigned a
team of over fifty of his most trusted men to the courthouse in
downtown Manhattan. They would be responsible for checking and
double-checking anyone and everyone who entered the courthouse.
Every window and entryway to the courtroom would be guarded. Only
authorized individuals would be allowed onto the floor where the
judge was to testify.