Michael Moretti turned to Nick Vito and snapped, “Out the back way. Move!” He turned to Tony. “Tell them I’m in the can. I’ll be right with them.”
Michael picked up the telephone and dialed a number. One minute later he was talking to a judge of the Superior Court of New York.
“There are two Feds out here with a warrant for my arrest.”
“What are the charges, Mike?”
“I don’t know and I don’t give a shit. I’m calling you to set things up so that I’m bailed out. I can’t sit around in the slammer. I’ve got things to do.”
There was a silence and the judge’s voice said carefully, “I’m afraid I won’t be able to help you this time, Michael. The heat’s on all over and if I try to interfere—”
When Michael Moretti spoke, there was an ominous note in his voice. “Listen to me, you asshole, and listen good. If I spend one hour in jail, I’ll see to it that you’re behind bars for the rest of your life. I’ve been taking good care of you for a long time. You want me to tell the D.A. how many cases you fixed for me? Would you like me to give the IRS the number of your Swiss bank account? Would you—”
“For God’s sake, Michael!”
“Then move!”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Judge Lawrence Waldman said. “I’ll try to—”
“Try to, shit! Do it! Do you hear me, Larry? Do it!” Michael slammed down the receiver.
His mind was working swiftly and coolly. He was not concerned about being taken to jail. He knew that Judge Waldman would do as he was told, and he could trust Nick Vito to attend to Fiore and Colella. Without their testimony, the government could not prove a thing against him.
Michael looked in the small mirror on the wall, combed back his hair, straightened his tie, and went out to meet the two FBI agents.
Judge Lawrence Waldman came through, as Michael had known he would. At the preliminary hearing, an attorney selected by Judge Waldman requested bail, and it was set at five hundred thousand dollars.
Di Silva stood there, angry and frustrated, as Michael Moretti walked out of the courtroom.
58
Nick Vito was a man of limited intelligence. His value to the Organization lay in the fact that he followed orders without question and that he carried them out efficiently. Nick Vito had been up against guns and knives dozens of times, but he had never known fear. He knew it now. Something was happening that was beyond his understanding, and he had a feeling that somehow he was responsible for it.
All day he had been hearing about the raids that were taking place, the sweeping arrests that were being made. The street talk was that there was a traitor loose, someone high up in the Organization. Even with his limited intellect, Nick Vito was able to connect the fact that he had let Thomas Colfax live and that, shortly afterward, someone had started betraying the Family to the authorities. Nick Vito knew that it could not be Salvatore Fiore or Joseph Colella. The two men were like brothers to him and they were both as fanatically loyal to Michael Moretti as he was. But there was no way he could ever explain that to Michael, not without getting himself chopped into small pieces; because the only other one who could be responsible was Thomas Colfax, and Colfax was supposed to be dead.
Nick Vito was in a dilemma. He loved the Little Flower and the giant. Fiore and Colella had done him dozens of favors in the past, just as Thomas Colfax had; but he had helped Colfax out of a jam, and look what it had gotten him. So Nick Vito decided he was not going to be softhearted again. It was his own life he had to protect now. Once he killed Fiore and Colella, he would be in the clear. But because they were like brothers to him, he would see that they died quickly.
It was simple for Nick Vito to determine their whereabouts, for they always had to be available in case Michael needed them. Little Salvatore Fiore was visiting his mistress’s apartment on 83rd Street near the Museum of Natural History. Nick knew that Salvatore always left there at five o’clock to go home to his wife. It was now three. Nick debated with himself. He could either hang around the front of the apartment building or go upstairs and take Salvatore inside the apartment. He decided he was too nervous to wait. The fact that he was nervous made Nick Vito more nervous. The whole thing was beginning to get to him. When this is over, he thought, I’m gonna ask Mike for a vacation. Maybe I’ll take a couple of young girls and go down to the Bahamas. Just thinking about that made him feel better.