I held my side, but I wasn't going anywhere right now. I could make out the black Bronco. The same one? It sure looked like it.
"Suspect vehicle has Jersey plates. EVX-three-six-nine," a voice announced over the radio.
For a second I was caught up like everyone else, just hoping we had managed to land on the right vehicle. Then a thought flashed through my mind. I grabbed a microphone off the table.
"This is Special Agent Pellisante. These people likely have automatic weapons andexplosives. The car could be booby-trapped. Cavello might not even be in there anymore. The SWAT teams should do their best to isolate the vehicle."
My wound was history now. I moved closer to the screen and watched the Port Authority team start circling in, surrounding the vehicle from a distance, letting others pass. It was a tricky assault. There were lots of innocent people around. Hundreds of them.
Black, helmeted figures began to creep into the wide-angled camera view. The Bronco was four rows from feeding into the tunnel entrance. I could see the police teams narrowing in, arms drawn. The Bronco's windows were tinted black. If someone in there was looking out, they had to see the assault force coming.
The Bronco inched up to the first row. A police car suddenly sped up, blocking the entrance to the tunnel.
SWAT personnel were all over the place, crouched low, closing in.
I could see exactly what was happening. The Bronco was surrounded by at least twenty heavily armed policemen.
The Bronco's front doors swung open. I stepped closer to the screen."Be him," I said, balling my fists."Be him."
People were coming out of the Bronco, hands in the air. A male dressed all in black. Then a woman, wearing a floppy hat. A small boy. The boy was crying; he grabbed the woman.
"Son of a bitch!" I heard someone say over the radio. The picture didn't need any words or captions, though.
It was the wrong car. We'd lost Dominic Cavello.
Chapter 70
I STAYED IN THE COURTHOUSE security room until the EMS people wouldn't let me be there any longer. A couple of young med techs did their best to treat me, but I wasn't going anywhere until I saw the videotape. The tape of the man in the elevator-the one who had sprung Cavello.
I watched it at least a dozen times.
He was medium height, not especially well built. I couldn't really tell if he was young or old. I looked for any distinguishing marks. He had a beard, which I figured for a fake. Short dark hair, glasses. But this guy knew precisely what he was doing. He never hesitated, not for a second. He was a pro, not just some hired gun. He caught us off guard, even with New York 's finest and two dozen FBI agents all around the courthouse.
"Can you zoom in on the face for me?" I asked the security tech manning the video machine.
"Right." A touch of a button, and the camera panned in.
I stood up, moving myself closer to the screen. The film got grainy. It narrowed in to a close-up of the steely, professional eyes as the killer himself stepped on the elevator. Steady and businesslike, efficient. I burned those eyes into my mind. The security tech slowly advanced the film, frame by frame. Suddenly there were gunshots. The two marshals went down.
"Get this over the wires to the NYPD and the crisis control room," Mike Doud directed the techie."I want this picture out to every bridge and tunnel and every cop on the street."
"It's a waste of time," I said, sagging back against the table."He doesn't look like that anymore."
Doud snapped at me, obviously frustrated."You got a better idea?"
"I might. Compare it to the film from Cavello'sfirst trial. Go day by day if you have to. Eliminate the beard and the glasses. I'll bet he was there."
The medical people were literally dragging me away now. They had a van waiting. I looked up at the face on the screen one last time. I wanted to make sure I recognized it when I saw him again.
I was sure I was looking at the man who blew up the juror bus and murdered all those people.
Chapter 71
WHEN THE CALL CAME IN I was in the back of an EMS van, rushing me to Bellevue Hospital.
I was stripped to my waist and had an IV in my arm and EKG sensors attached to my chest. The sirens were blaring as we zigzagged through traffic up the lower East Side. I asked for the cell phone in my jacket.
"I just heard," Andie said. Her voice was cracking with disbelief and sadness."Oh, God, Nick, I just saw it at a coffee shop. It's all over the news."
"I'm sorry, Andie." But I was more than sorry. How many times could I say those words to her?
"Goddamnit, Nick, every cop in New York was down there."
"I know." I sucked in a breath. One of the EMS people tried to take away the phone, but I brushed him aside. The flesh wound in my side wasn't hurting so much now. Nothing cut deeper than the anger and disappointment building inside me.
"The bastard killed my son, and now he's free."
"He's not free," I said."We'll get him. I know how that sounds, but we'll get him." The hospital was only blocks away."I'llget him."
For a second Andie didn't answer. I didn't know if she believed me, and in that moment, I didn't care.Because I meant it.
I'll get him.
I felt as if I might be passing out as I disconnected from Andie with a mumbled"Bye." The van was stopping at the emergency entrance.
I never even told her that I'd been shot.
Chapter 72
RICHARD NORDESHENKO SHIFTED the silver Voyager into the entrance lanes for the George Washington Bridge. The tie-up was massive, and Nordeshenko wasn't surprised. He scanned the radio news channels-they were already all over the story.
Flashing police lights were everywhere. Every single vehicle was being checked, trunks opened. Trucks and vans were being pulled aside, their cargoes searched. Nordeshenko looked up into the sky. Above him, he heard thewhip-whip-whip from a police helicopter circling above. This wasn't good.
They had already changed cars twice. He had removed the beard and eyeglasses he'd worn in the courthouse. There was nothing to worry over, right? Just be calm. Cavello was safely hidden in a hollowed-out compartment under the rear seat. Even if the Bronco had been located by now, what did it matter? Everything was in order. No one could connect him to the vehicle he was driving now.Unless they found Cavello.
The tall steel towers of the bridge loomed about a quarter mile ahead. Police on foot were making their way back toward their car. It was a typical code-red response. SWAT teams and bomb-sniffing dogs. Well-trained perhaps, but with no practical experience.
"What's the delay?" the gruff voice said from the back."How does it look up there? Is everything okay?"
"Relax, you should be honored. This is all for you."
"It's cramped in here. And hot. It's been over an hour already."
"Not as cramped as the isolation unit of a federal prison, yes? Now be quiet, please. There is one last checkpoint to pass through."
Two policemen wearing armored vests and carrying automatic rifles were coming up to the Voyager. One of them tapped on the window with the barrel of his gun."License and registration, please. And open the back."
Nordeshenko handed the officer his documents, which showed he was a resident of 11 Barrow Street in Bayonne -and that the van was registered to the Lucky George Maintenance Service in Jersey City.