Prince of the City by Robert Daley

Author:Robert Daley [Daley, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography and autobiography/Law Enforcement
ISBN: 9781612307893
Publisher: New Word City, Inc.
Published: 2014-05-28T00:00:00+00:00

CERTAIN TAPES AMONG THE hundred Leuci had made with more than forty individuals were more than four hours in length. Voices were sometimes unidentified or obliterated by background noises, but these tapes would stand as the principal physical evidence in the trials to come, and a task force of nine police stenographers was brought in. Wearing earphones, they sat in banks day after day, roughing out first drafts.

A second task force of assistant federal attorneys had been assembled under Scoppetta and Shaw to sift through the individual cases. These men were faced with an embarrassment of riches - too many defendants, too much evidence - and therefore with a bewildering assortment of decisions. There were going to be, potentially, thirty or forty trials. Where to start? Whom to indict? In what order? Under which statutes?

Each morning, surrounded by bodyguards, the chief government witness was brought in from Governors Island to the Federal Courthouse, and each night he was brought back again. He was more a prisoner than any defendant. Though each now waited to learn his fate, at least all were still free. Leuci was not free. He was not allowed to leave the building.

Once inside the courthouse, the prisoner became king and held court. He was crucial to every case, and every day prosecutors and stenographers vied for his favors.

Leuci had never been busier. His ego swelled. The trials could not take place without him. All these men needed him. They were nice to him every day. No one else had ever done what he had done, they told him. This was true, and it was also what he wanted to hear. They worked hard. He worked harder. He would work as late as anyone wanted to work, or come in as early.

Indictments began to come down.

He was almost happy. The future - when some or all of his new friends might turn on him - was still some months off. He had survived this far, he told himself. Whatever happened, he would be able to think of something. He was smarter than these prosecutors, smarter than any defense lawyer. He would find a way to save himself, no matter what.

In the meantime he was worried about Wolff, Mandato, and Cody, and about Vinny Russo, who was still another former partner. He was worried about Sheridan and Glazer too, knowing how they must be agonizing. Well, there was nothing he could do about Sheridan and Glazer, but he wanted to contact the others, who might be agonizing too - in their case, needlessly.

Unable to leave the courthouse, he telephoned Mandato. The conversation was very short.

“Do I have anything to worry about?” asked Mandato.

“No, you don’t, Frank.”

Silence.

Mandato had been a cop thirteen years. He had proven himself shrewd, calculating, and physically brave. He was also, like most detectives of his age and experience, worldly, cynical, fatalistic. If Leuci had truly gone over to the other side - far enough over to testify against him - then there was nothing he could do about it.

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