"This court is a joke! A mockery! You'll never convict me no matter how many traitors and wiretaps you have. It's too bad, Nicky-about your friends!But whoever killed those scum, I would kiss them on the lips."
"Get him out of here," Judge Seiderman called out from the bench, trying to regain control."Mr. Cavello, you have lost your privilege to sit in on this trial. You are in contempt. You are barred from this courtroom. Jurors, you will go back into the jury room immediately. Bailiff!"
Pandemonium continued in the courtroom. The jurors looked shell-shocked. Members of the press were already running out of the gallery to call their newspapers.
"Take me out of here! Bar me!" Cavello twisted his face toward the judge."I don't want to be here any fuckin' longer!" His voice bellowed throughout the courtroom."Your court is a joke!"
Blood trickled from Cavello's mouth. His formerly neatly groomed hair was tousled and wild. The guards lifted him up and tried to drag him through the side door. They had gotten one leg through when he wildly jerked around, and I saw something I could hardly believe.
The bastard was smiling.
Chapter 39
THE JURORS WERE STILL buzzing about what had happened. Shocked. Blown away. The court officials had rushed them all into the jury room. No one could recall ever seeing anything like Cavello's blowup in the courtroom.
"The asshole just made it easy for us." Hector shook his head. Everyone seemed to agree.
Maybe it just got to him, Andie thought.His case was shot to hell. He cracked.
The jury was going to be leaving the courthouse earlier than planned, and Andie hoped Jarrod was already here waiting for her and his special birthday celebration. They were quickly herded into the elevator to go downstairs, where the blue bus would be waiting.
As the elevator hit the lobby, Andie tried to regroup. Jarrod was here! In his Stephon Marbury number 3. Rita was waiting with him in the lobby. As soon as Jarrod saw his mother, he ran up and jumped into her arms.
"Happy birthday, honey!" It was wonderful just to see his happy face and give him a big birthday hug and kiss. Cavello, what had happened in there, didn't matter anymore.
"What's going on, Mom?"
Andie squeezed him double-tight."Don't worry about it, sweetie."
The bus was waiting right there on the street. Andie and Jarrod climbed on first and made their way into one of the rear seats. Hector and Rosella, who sometimes spoke to each other in Spanish, sat in front of them. O'Flynn squeezed into the row behind them with a rolled-upSports Illustrated in his fist.
"So tell me about school," Andie said.
"Nah." He grinned broadly."It's my birthday, Mom. No school today, okay?"
"Yeah, okay."
They wanted to get them away from the courthouse as quickly as possible, and that was all right with her. A marshal jumped on, counted heads, winking because there was one more than usual. He slapped the side of the bus, sending it on its way with an"Okay!" The driver started the engine.
Andie looked back at the courthouse. Standing outside the side entrance was the FBI guy, Pellisante. He had set up the whole thing when she came to him with the idea for Jarrod's birthday party.
Thank you. Andie waved at him through the glass. An appreciative, one-finger wave.
He waved back.
Two police cars led the way as the bus pulled out from the curb onto Worth Street. It was a twenty-five-minute trip through the Holland Tunnel back to the motel. A few of the jurors looked around at Andie, wondering when they could break the surprise and sing"Happy Birthday" for this nice-looking boy.
"Hey, Jarrod." O'Flynn leaned over, staring at his Stephon Marbury jersey."You like the Knicks?"
"I like 'em. I likeHalo more."
"Halo?" It was a popular battle video game. Pretty violent and graphic. O'Flynn grinned at Andie."Your mom lets you playHalo, huh?"
"His mom does no such thing," Andie said."His aunt, though, that's another story, for another time."
A few of them laughed.
The bus pulled ahead to the corner of Church and stopped at a red light.
Andie looked out the window. She was thinking about the party and when to spring it on Jarrod that everyone knew this was his birthday. She figured they'd wait until they got close to the tunnel, build a little suspense. Rosella had made a colorful banner.HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JARROD.This was going to be so great.
She saw a gray side-paneled van pull up right next to them. APEX ELECTRICALSYSTEMS. ASTORIA, QUEENS.
Jarrod said,"So, what'ya got planned, Mom? Youalways have a plan."
She was about to give him an answer when she noticed something a little strange.
The driver of the van had jumped out. He was dressed in a navy work uniform, had a baseball cap pulled over his face, long blond hair peeking through. What made it doubly strange was when the guy in the passenger's seat jumped out too.
They both started to run.
Across the busy intersection. Away from the van. When they reached the other curb, they glanced back. Not at the van.
At them!At the bus.
"Mom? Are you listening to what I'm saying? Earth to my mother. Hel-lo."
And suddenly she knew! Stabs of terror ripped at her chest.
"Get out of here fast!" Andie screamed to the driver."Drive away. Now!"
But the light was still red. And they were locked in traffic. Besides, everyone was talking among themselves and not seeing. Jarrod looked up at her strangely and squinted."Mom?"
"Oh, Jesus." Andie shuddered, unable to take her eyes off the van. She put her arms around Jarrod. She hugged him close to her chest. Something terrible was about to happen.
"Oh my God. No!"
"Mom?"
Chapter 40
I THINK BACK sometimes to that moment-to the very heartbeat before something terrible happened. Something I couldn't stop.
What if I could just reach out my hand and turn back the hands of time? Hold on to the moment for one more second? See what I should have seen?
I would see that smile. Not Andie DeGrasse's, sitting next to her son on the bus as they drove off.
Cavello's smile. In the courtroom, just moments before.
I would know exactly what it meant.
I had followed the jury out of the courthouse and stayed there, watching the bus as it pulled away from the curb.
With Ellen gone, my life was falling apart a bit. So it made me feel good to help the two of them, DeGrasse and her little boy. It made me feel that in all this craziness, I had done something for a change that put some life back. I watched her wave at me, that happy smile. I waved back.Happy birthday, kid.
And then the world fell apart! Theirs, and mine.
The gray van pulling up next to the bus at the red light. Then two men, in work clothes, suddenly running out.
Running away.
It took a second for it all to register, even for someone trained to see the worst in any situation. Then all of a sudden it was as clear as day. The whole horrible picture.
I heard myself yelling,"Get out of there now!" I started running toward the bus through traffic."Get out of that bus!"
Then the van exploded, and the entire street just lit up in this brilliant flash. The recoil threw me back into a mailbox. Intense heat from a block away slammed into my face.
Oh, God, no! No!
All I could do was watch helplessly as the juror bus was engulfed in flames. Then it exploded.