Law & Order (1990) s13e06 Episode Script
Hitman
NARRATOR: In the criminal justice system the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups, the police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders.
These are their stories.
Hey.
Could you sign for this? Sí.
Okay? Appreciate it.
Have a good day.
Hello? Mrs.
Rosatti? BRISCOE: What'd you find upstairs? Burglary.
Took the cash, left the credit cards, the costume jewelry.
She found him about 10:00.
The M.
E.
Says he was killed late Saturday or early Sunday.
The guy was a contractor.
And I thought the recession hurt the construction business.
Yeah, Rosatti was doing pretty well.
Speaking of which, any sign of Mrs.
Rosatti? Ah, I don't think she's back from the disco yet.
Ain't no discos no more.
So, hey, Rosatti hears something go bump in the night, he comes downstairs, boom.
Our guy goes about his business.
A pretty cool customer.
Yeah, he might as well get what he came for.
Uh, she said the alarm was off, but the door was locked with a dead bolt.
Somebody had a key.
He took one in the back of the head, at close range, small caliber, no exit wound, no brass.
Very tidy.
Very professional.
Yeah, what do you bet there's no prints, either? Well, we better find Mrs.
Rosatti, tell her her husband's dead.
If she doesn't already know.
Man, you are such a cynic when it comes to love.
Not love, marriage.
I've been with Tony for five years.
He's the best boss I ever had.
I'm very sorry.
Oh, my God.
Sherri doesn't even know yet.
Mrs.
Rosatti? She's at a spa in Connecticut.
She went up there Friday afternoon.
I think she's due home tomorrow.
ED: So you haven't talked to her yet? Oh, my God.
It's one of those "You can't call the guests unless it's an emergency" kind of places.
I think this qualifies as an emergency.
I'll give you the number.
They'll have to put you through.
I'll call David, Mr.
Rosatti's son.
From a previous marriage? Tony and Sherri have only been married a few years.
Thank you.
We're gonna need to look at papers, date books, computers Sure, sure.
Marisa, since you seem to know Tony pretty well, can you think of anybody who might wanna No! Oh, my God.
Why would anyone want him dead? A New York City contractor? Who wouldn't? Well, he did get sued a lot.
Vendors, employees, clients.
This guy owes the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker.
That's right, Rosatti.
Sherri.
Uh-huh, Friday.
Be cheaper to pay his bills than his lawyers.
Okay, are you sure? Okay, thank you.
She made a reservation at the spa, but she never showed up.
Well, until she does, maybe we should talk to some of Rosatti's less than satisfied clientele.
Nice nose, good body, too much tannin, and like everything else around here, no finish.
Sorry, I'm jammed.
We're opening up for lunch tomorrow, three months behind schedule.
Is that Tony Rosatti's fault? Well, he's like every other contractor in this city, he's way overextended.
Finally had to take him to court just to get him to show up and do the damn work.
Well, it says here you're suing him for a million two.
Yeah.
A bargaining position.
Put the fear of God in him.
Plus a little something for the aggravation.
He still has the finish work to do.
He does that, I'll drop the suit.
If I were you, I'd start shopping around for a new contractor.
What, he's gone out of business? Well, you could say that.
Tony Rosatti was murdered over the weekend.
Oh, man.
I had no idea.
BRISCOE: Where were you this weekend? You think I'd kill him over a couple of sconces? Well, if they were expensive enough.
I was in the Hamptons visiting friends.
I'll give you their name and number.
Hey, the last thing I'd want is Rosatti dead.
At least not until after the job was finished.
VAN BUREN: I thought this was a burglary? We're thinking the burglary was a cover.
It looks like a hit.
A.
22 to back of the head at close range.
Next to no forensics.
There's no shell casings, there's no blood other than the vic's, there's no fingerprints that shouldn't be there.
This was a pro.
Well, when I had my kitchen re-done, I would have cheerfully wrung my contractor's neck, I don't think I would have gone so far as to hire a hit man.
Almost all the litigation was penny ante, and all the litigants have alibis.
So, what's your other theory? Well, the wife's still M.
I.
A.
Always the nearest and dearest.
Now who's the cynic? We're thinking she may be another victim.
Right.
Well, she's the second wife, which means there's a first wife out there somewhere.
I knew Bambi would kill him eventually, although I thought it would be his heart exploding while they were doing the horizontal hula under the dining room table.
All right, all right, all right.
We get the point.
You don't seem that upset.
Why would I care? I haven't seen or thought about the man for 10 years.
By Bambi, I assume you're referring to his current wife, Sherri? Sherri, Bambi, what's the difference? ED: You sound bitter.
You think I (LAUGHS) Look.
What happened between Tony and me is I dumped him.
BRISCOE: Why? Because he was running around? Because I was running around.
You're young, you want to get away from home, you meet a guy who doesn't make you want to gag, you let him put a ring on your finger.
And that would be Tony? And just when I was starting to think my life was over, I met a man six years younger than me, full head of hair, who actually knows which fork to use for the salad.
Now there's a refreshing change.
What? A wife leaving her husband for a younger guy? No.
A wife who doesn't want her ex-husband dead.
Well, let's talk to the son.
Maybe he knows something about the current Mrs.
Rosatti.
My father was a bum from Brooklyn who got lucky for a couple of days.
Good old Dad, salt of the earth.
And now, God bless him, he's actually gonna be six feet under it.
Oh, let me guess.
You shed all your tears this morning? Do either of you guys speak French? ED: A little bit.
Good.
Then you'll understand when I say that my father was a schmuck.
So was mine, but I took a couple days off when he kicked.
We haven't spoken for three years.
I'm sorry, I'm not exactly the right guy to give the eulogy.
If you were my kid, I would have lost your number the day you learned to talk.
Do you know anything about Tony Rosatti? ED: Why don't you tell us? Can you spell RICO? Your father was being investigated by the Feds? The Grand Jury's convened as we speak.
I'm trying to make partner in a Park Avenue law firm, and dear old Dad's being indicted by the US Attorney.
Well, it looks like you finally caught a break.
About time the old man came through for me.
It's a broad-based investigation into the building trades.
Racketeering in the building trades? I'm shocked.
Tony Rosatti was mobbed up.
He bought concrete, didn't he? In his line of work, it's hard to avoid our friends with the broken noses.
Just how well-connected was he? He's a pimple on the ass of organized crime, hardly a flicker on the Richter Scale.
ED: His son seemed to think he was being indicted.
We're casting a wide net.
You think his murder has something to do with our investigation? Why not? If he started to talk.
(CELL PHONE RINGING) Excuse me.
Anybody Tony could give us, we already got.
The guys we're really interested in wouldn't have wasted the hardware.
Lennie.
Guess who just showed up? Thanks.
I changed my mind about going to the spa at the last minute.
ED: Where'd you go? Bermuda.
Uh, we're gonna need details.
Where you stayed, that sort of thing.
Am I a suspect? Wives who kill their husbands? It's been known to happen.
Actually, Mrs.
Rosatti, we are trying to cross you off the list.
I appreciate that.
I have my hotel bill, plane ticket.
ED: That'll do.
Just a minute.
Did you go to Bermuda alone? Alone, yes.
I needed to get away for a few days, think about things.
All right, plane ticket and hotel bill, um What's this? It's a list of items stolen in the robbery.
Jewelry, silver, irreplaceable heirlooms.
I know you need a police report before you file an insurance claim.
This lady makes an insurance claim before she takes care of the funeral arrangements.
Have you ever been to Bermuda? Ah, I'm not a sand and sun block kind of guy.
Well, it's close enough to go, check into a hotel, slip back into the city Saturday night, pop the old man, and get back to Bermuda by Sunday brunch.
Hey, Sherri's not Miss Congeniality, but she's not a pro either.
Let's go find out who she was sipping piña coladas with.
Here we go.
Mrs.
Rosatti traveled to Bermuda Friday the 9th, returning to New York today, Tuesday the 13th, in first class.
Did she come back to New York anytime between Friday and today? Not with us.
But let me check the other carriers.
You can do that? What? Planes aren't allowed on the information highway? Looks like Mrs.
Rosatti enjoyed four consecutive days in paradise.
Does that highway say who she sat next to? Tells me his shoe size.
Here we go, uh, Mr.
Porter.
Randy Porter.
Look at that, both coming and going.
Long weekend, small plane, could be a coincidence? I don't think so.
It's the same credit card number.
She paid for his ticket.
BRISCOE: Thank you very much.
Well, May-December romance, you know what they say.
Well, you're the matrimonial expert.
You tell me.
Cherchez le pre-nup.
Pre-nup, pre-nup.
Don't leave home without it.
I take it Tony Rosatti had one? Well, if one out of two marriages goes down in flames, you're be a horse's ass not to.
He just wanted to make sure that she couldn't take him to the cleaners.
Tell us about it.
For the most part, a sliding scale of alimony depending on the number of years they're married.
BRISCOE: And what about the other part? Well, since the first Mrs.
Rosatti screwed around on him, Tony insisted on a special clause.
Genius if you ask me.
I call it the Rosatti clause.
Now I insist that all of clients include it in their pre-nups.
And that is? She cheats, she gets squat.
Tony Rosatti have a will, too? Will.
Will.
Don't leave home Yeah, yeah.
We know.
We know.
Sherri gets it all.
Which makes for one merry widow.
Well, although a couple weeks from now, it would've been a whole other story.
Why, Tony was getting ready to divorce her? He said, and I quote, "That slut won't get a penny from me.
" Which under the Rosatti clause means that he knew that she was having an affair? Well, he must have.
He hired a private investigator to follow her.
Briscoe.
I remember you.
It was that thing with the thing and what's her name.
No, you must be thinking of somebody else.
Damn.
I could have sworn that was you.
This is my partner, Ed Green.
Pleasure.
How you doing, man? So we hear that you worked for Tony Rosatti? Yeah, a guy you wouldn't mind having a beer with.
It's a shame.
So, uh, what can I do you for? What do you know about Mrs.
Rosatti? Oh, she whacked him, no question.
You're sure of that? Twenty years on the job and another 10 years doing matrimonial private peeping, you get a sense of who the bad actors are.
And Sherri was less than faithful? Oh, you know that old song You Call It Jogging, But I Call It Running Around.
I assume by that you don't mean she was staying in shape.
Oh, she was in great shape, all right.
See for yourself.
Ooh.
(CHUCKLES) BRISCOE: This guy's name wouldn't be Porter, would it? FORSYTHE: Randy Porter, as a matter of fact.
And get this.
Not only is he banging the guy's bride, he worked for the poor bastard, too.
Talk about double dipping.
I've been with Rosatti Builders since '99.
I'm an electrician.
Did you get to know the boss well? Well, he was the boss, I was a peon, you know? Yeah, I hear you.
My lieutenant wouldn't let me anywhere near her dinner table.
They say the class system is dead.
Hey, did the wife come around a lot? Mrs.
Rosatti at a job site? I don't think so.
She's a "tea at the Helmsley Palace" type, you know? Mmm, wouldn't want to break a heel? Exactly.
I don't know.
She didn't look too genteel to me, especially this one on the sink.
I know what this looks like.
So do we, Randy.
Look, uh, I did some work at his house, and me and Sherri, we kind of hit it off.
That's all.
I'd say so.
Look, it wasn't a big deal, okay? Besides, I wasn't even in the country when Tony was killed.
You know, that is the first thing that you've said that I actually believe.
Yeah, you and Sherri had to get your alibis straight, right? Why would we do that? Because Tony made Sherri sign a pre-nup.
If she gets caught cheating, she walks away with just the clothes on her back.
Are you saying we killed Tony before he had a chance to divorce her? Hey, I saw Body Heat three times.
Not for nothing, but Sherri was planning on dumping him.
BRISCOE: For who? You? I think I want to call a lawyer.
Excuse me.
You know what they charge for a drink in this place? Why do you think I quit? Thank you for meeting me here.
The house, it gives me the willies since Well, yeah, I could say the same about this place.
Can I get you something? No, that's all right.
No, me? I'm still working off the one I finished six years ago.
Randy called me.
He said he talked to you.
Yeah.
He told us about you two.
Have you ever been lonely? Tony was always working.
Well, that's usually how the bills get paid.
Maybe your bills.
Sure, construction is up and down, but for Tony, it's been down and downer since the dot com bubble burst.
You're saying he was going broke? His company was this close to Chapter Eleven.
I hate to point it out, but that's a $12 drink you're sipping.
And it might be my last.
Two mortgages on the house, money from the second re-fi is just about gone.
Why would I kill Tony? The pre-nup was moot.
He didn't have a dime.
What about that fancy townhouse of yours? The bank's about to foreclose on it.
Look, Tony lived one month to the next.
He had some friends who helped him out.
Friends with, uh, broken noses? He grew up in Red Hook.
ED: Any of these friends friendlier than the rest? See that spot right out there in the middle? That's where they fished my old man's old man outta the river.
Look, Mr.
Vignerelli.
No, no.
Vig, Bobby Vig.
Everybody calls me "Bobby Vig.
" How appropriate for a loan shark.
Hey, if the shoe fits.
I'm not ashamed of it.
I gotta feed my family.
It's my profession, huh? Look, we need to talk to you about Tony Rosatti.
Ah, Tone What a shame.
What are you gonna do? You two go way back, do you? As far back as the womb.
His father and my father used to hijack trucks together outta Idlewild.
The ties that bind.
Mrs.
Rosatti says that you might have lent Tony some money? Yeah, I did.
He was a friend in trouble.
I mean, it's the right thing to do.
Well, how much trouble? A month's payroll.
It was no big deal.
You charge him the usual 100% interest compounded weekly? He was a friend.
One point over prime.
You and Alan Greenspan, huh? If it was a stranger, it would have been a different story.
I wouldn't have been so generous.
Tony insisted on signing a note.
He wanted to keep everything legit.
So, now you got to chase the estate for your dough, right? I don't have to chase anything.
Sherri'll take care of me.
ED: With what? Are you guys with the IRS? No, we never touch the stuff.
See, you don't know about Tony.
He always had a few bucks stashed away under the table in case of a rainy day.
But he put the account under Sherri's name, so the FBI couldn't touch it.
You wouldn't happen to know the name of the bank this rainy day account was in, would you? Looks like cash deposits were made on a regular basis.
Let me guess.
All under $10,000.
GAIL: Who needs all that pesky Federal paperwork? What about withdrawals? Hardly anything.
$100 here, $200 there.
Interesting.
About three months ago she wired $50,000 to another account.
According to the routing number, it's an off-shore bank.
The Turks and Caicos.
She wires 50Gs out of the country without leaving the comforts of home.
You could do that by fax? Hah! I need three kinds of ID just to transfer a few bucks from savings to checking.
Whoo.
And we don't know whose name is on that account? Oh, that's the beauty of off-shore banking.
And you think she used the money to hire a hit man? Fifty grand will buy a lot of professional expertise.
But Mrs.
Rosatti knew her husband's business was on the skids.
She knew she wasn't going to get anything.
Why would she have him killed? Hey, he had one rainy day fund that we know about.
Maybe he had more.
Ed's been over at his office, checking his financial records.
Where the hell are the Turks and Caicos anyway? Somewhere in the Sargasso Sea.
Which is? I know it's out past Queens.
This guy was drowning in red ink.
But he did have a safe-deposit box.
BRISCOE: Account number two, under the radar.
I'll call for a warrant.
BRISCOE: How much do you want to bet most of these sparklers were on Sherri's list for the insurance company? Well, if we can't get her for the murder, maybe we'll get her for fraud.
Deed for the townhouse, auto insurance, liability.
Life? Yeah, a whole life policy, issued 1994.
Half a mil, beneficiary Sherri Rosatti.
That sounds like motive to me.
Whoa, here's a better one.
Term policy, issued six months ago, death benefit $3 million.
I bet I can guess who the beneficiary is.
Rosatti told his insurance agent that Sherri had been nagging him to take on the new policy because his business was in trouble and she wanted to be protected in case something happened to him.
Why hasn't she filed a claim? Waiting for the dust to settle, doesn't want to raise any flags.
Then you think she hired a hit man.
$50,000 wired to an unnamed, off-shore account? What do you think? Between the war on drugs and the war on terrorism, bank secrecy isn't what it used to be.
So, if we can convince the authorities in the Turks and Caicos that this money financed a felony Come on, Raymond.
How often do I come to you? Not often enough.
A call from a U.
S.
Attorney of your stature, and we could solve a murder for hire.
I love it when you flatter me.
Let me see the account number.
This suspect transferred money to this account a few months before the murder.
First, let's see if we've done business with the account holder before.
Tell me you know who it is.
I'll do you one better.
I'll introduce you to him, up close and personal.
You are kidding.
Mr.
James Astangura.
He wouldn't by any chance be a professional hit man, would he? Recently retired.
Buried 12 guys we know of, so far.
Right now, he's eating three squares a day compliments of Uncle Sam.
How long you been footing the bill? Going on two months.
You wouldn't know it to look at him, but Jamie's got a beautiful singing voice.
Tenor, I think.
We just can't get enough.
If he's been locked up in Federal prison for two months, how did he kill my guy last week? I wonder if Mr.
Astangura's work comes with a money-back guarantee? He promised somebody that Tony Rosatti would end up dead, which he did.
So, it looks like Astangura fulfilled his end of the bargain.
From the Federal penitentiary? Who knows? Maybe he farmed the job out.
Contractor to subcontractor.
It's a business like any other business.
And a lot more exciting than making widgets, I suppose.
Talk to Mr.
Astangura.
Yeah, and why would he tell us anything? Brownie points with the U.
S.
District Attorney.
He's naming names.
What's one more? Great thing about this line of work.
People you don't know are always wiring you money.
It's nice to meet a man who enjoys his work.
Yeah, I'm blessed.
We'd like to talk to you about Tony Rosatti.
I'd love to give you your quid, missy, but I don't see no pro quo on the table.
I assume this goes in the "credit" column? As long as your client keeps telling the truth, he keeps racking up the frequent flyer miles.
I'll have to check my Palm Pilot but, yeah, Tony Rosatti was on my "to do" list.
Unfortunately, Mr.
Berman here and his friends screwed up my schedule.
Well, it seems one of your associates picked up your slack.
What's she saying? Tony Rosatti was murdered last week.
Son-of-a-bitch lied to me.
He said 50 was all he could pay.
And you know he lied how? Well, obviously he got antsy and hired somebody else to do the job when I didn't show.
You're not too quick, are you? I thought you would have hired somebody else to finish I work alone.
How do you think I lasted in the business for 15 years? You said "he.
" Were you talking about Randy Porter? How should I know? Don't you know who hires you? Maybe you should tell Ms.
Southerlyn how it works, Jamie.
You're the client.
You go to somebody you trust and say, "I got a problem.
" Your friend says, "Okay, buy a throwaway cell and give me the number.
" Then your friend calls somebody who calls somebody who calls somebody, who calls me.
And you're the guy that can take care of my problem? Right.
Then I call you back on the throwaway cell.
You give me the name and address of your problem, I give you the number of an off-shore bank account.
You wire me the money.
And then what happens? You throw the cell down a storm drain and wait.
Sooner or later, it gets done.
But you do talk to the client? Just that once.
But I don't know his name, and he definitely does not know mine.
Do you still have the cell phone number? (INAUDIBLE) Got it all up here.
So this last person in the chain, the guy that calls you and gave you the client's cell phone number? I'm gonna wanna talk to him.
Well, maybe you better call that Jamaican mama on the infomercial, the psychic? Or, uh, maybe John Edward? What are you saying? Alberto Dosso.
He was shivved in Allenwood two weeks ago.
He's dead.
Do you believe him? Well, he has no reason to lie, and he's admitted to everything else.
Mrs.
Rosatti and her boyfriend obviously got tired of waiting and went somewhere else.
How? By tiptoeing through the Yellow Pages under "H"? Mrs.
Rosatti went to Brearly and Mount Holyoke.
How would she know how to find a hit man? Porter worked in construction.
He might have the contacts to get this done.
And that's enough for a warrant? He worked in construction? These days it is.
You like guns, huh? So does our President.
I didn't vote for him.
Look, I don't know what you guys are expecting to find here.
Lennie.
The whole point of a throwaway cell phone, Randy, is you're supposed to throw it away.
No, that ain't mine.
I don't know how it got there.
I don't think the maid left it up here.
(RINGING) Of all the cell phones in all the gin joints in the world.
What's this guy talking about? Why don't you explain it to him, Lennie? Randy Porter, you're under arrest What? for the murder of Tony Rosatti.
What? You have the right to remain silent.
Oh, man! Anything you do say can and will be used against you in a court of law.
A $10 phone? That's why you're ruining my client's life? Actually, we're interested in the call that your client received on that phone from Jamie Astangura.
Never heard of him.
We know you didn't know his name.
Well, this makes sense.
Mr.
Astangura was the last link in a chain that started with your client and ended with the murder of Tony Rosatti.
That certainly clears is all up.
Mr.
Astangura is a professional hit man.
What? Whoa.
What are you saying? You think I paid to have Tony hit? What are you, out of your skull? No, actually, I think Mrs.
Rosatti was the bankroll and you made the arrangements from the phone we found in your apartment.
Look, like I told the cops, I don't know how that phone got there.
And I believe you just about as much as they do.
I can't believe she's doing this to me.
And I thought she loved me.
She's setting me up, don't you see? It had to be her.
How would Mrs.
Rosatti even begin to know where to hire a hit man? How would I? I don't know anybody like that.
Look, Ms.
Southerlyn RANDY: Her father.
What about him? Her father's a cop.
Cops know bad guys, right? Detective Jerry Malick, on the job in the 116, did his 20 and out.
His last assignment was organized crime, undercover.
I'd say that would have put him into contact with the right kind of people.
Well, he has an unblemished record.
Why would he get involved in something like this now? Either he loves his daughter, or $3 million in insurance money.
One of the two, or both.
MALICK: I did my time under Schiff.
He's a smart man, but he took the criminal's rights a little too seriously.
I could think of a dozen guys still on the street because he said our arrests weren't righteous.
Hmm.
Like Jamie Astangura? Ooh, there's a name I haven't heard in years.
Astangura's a hitter, a pro.
Did he have something to do with Tony's murder? Well, somebody hired him, or tried to.
But he couldn't have done it because he was in prison at the time of the murder.
Who hired him? He doesn't know.
He said it came through cutouts.
So you're telling me that somebody hired a hitter to take Tony out? Yeah.
You got any thoughts? On Tony? He owed money, he cut corners, he knew creeps.
Take your pick, it could have been anybody.
So, how did you feel about your son-in-law? He was older than me by six months, but love is blind, right? Sherri loved him? Sure she did.
Why? Wait a minute.
What are you getting at? Why are you here? I just want to know anything you can tell me about Jamie Astangura.
You think Sherri hired him, and I helped her.
Mr.
Malick, we have her wire transfer.
She paid him $50,000.
I'm sure there's another explanation.
There's gotta be.
Astangura said that the money was for the murder of Tony Rosatti.
We'd like to know how your daughter knew a man like Astangura, if it wasn't through you? Get out of my house.
Malick definitely knew Jamie Astangura.
Maybe Sherri did, too.
"Take your daughter to work day.
" Even if we prove they hired him, Astangura didn't kill Tony Rosatti.
Someone else pulled the trigger.
Do you think that we have enough to convict Sherri Rosatti? I think that if we slap some bracelets on her, we'll hear a whole aria about who the second hit man was.
Call Van Buren.
That's a great shot.
Can't you see I'm in the middle of a match? You play a little tennis, don't you, Lennie? Well, I'm no Serena Williams, I know one thing, it's all in the wrist.
Sherri Rosatti, you're under arrest for the murder of Tony Rosatti.
You have the right to remain silent.
Anything you say can and will be held against you in a court of law.
You have the right to an attorney "Docket number 65721.
People v.
Sherri Rosatti and Randolph Porter.
"Charges are Murder in the First Degree "and Conspiracy to Commit Murder in the First Degree.
" JUDGE: Let's have some pleas.
Mrs.
Rosatti? Not guilty.
Mr.
Porter? Not guilty.
The People request the defendants be remanded without bail.
And why should today be different than any other? Your Honor, this is a murder for hire.
Let's hope the People have something left over after the defendants have paid their tab.
Bail is $250,000 each.
Cash or bond.
Next! (BANGS GAVEL) CLERK: "Docket number 9521" Look, say it as much as you want, I never wired anything to anyone.
We have your faxed instructions.
Tony had access to that account, too.
Right.
And when he wasn't putting up sheet rock, he was a master forger.
All I know is, I never signed any bank instructions.
Of course we'll get a handwriting expert.
Of course.
Let's look at the facts, starting with where Mrs.
Rosatti would find Mr.
Astragoono in the first place.
JACK: Astangura.
Whatever.
Where would she hire a hit man? By a strange coincidence, your client's father knows Mr.
Astangura.
We think he put her in contact with him.
My father? HENDERSON: It's okay, Sherri.
Well, my father has nothing to do with this.
If your father didn't help you, who did? (SIGHS) I had no idea Randy would do something like this.
He put you in contact with Astangura? He asked me for money.
Maybe we should talk? No.
I want to tell him this.
Randy was in trouble.
He said he was in over his head in gambling debts.
He, uh He said they were gonna kill him if he didn't pay.
So, you did wire the money? No, but he knew about the account.
He must have forged my name.
I didn't know I didn't know he would kill Tony.
This is the story you're sticking with? It's true.
Somebody's lying.
I'll give you three guesses.
Hint, she's not in this room.
Why would I lie? Tony dying, what's in it for me? $3 million.
RANDY: What? Mr.
Rosatti's life insurance.
Which I'm guessing was payable to Mrs.
Rosatti.
I didn't know anything about any life insurance.
I think we're done.
SERENA: Fine.
Wait.
I never believed she'd actually go through with this.
Go through with what? She was always saying, "Wouldn't it be great if Tony were gone? "We could be together.
"We wouldn't have to sneak around.
" Yeah, and $3 million in a bank account certainly wouldn't hurt.
I don't know anything about the insurance.
Believe me.
She's smart.
Look how she set this up so that, if it went bad, I'd take the fall.
Blaming each other's a step in the right direction.
He said, she said.
It could add up to reasonable doubt.
As it stands, we can't prove murder because we don't have any evidence as to who really killed Tony Rosatti.
On the other hand, to prove conspiracy to commit murder, we have to show agreement.
And with each of them putting it all off on the other The Rosatti woman paid Astangura? JACK: That's right.
And this Porter character received the call from Astangura? The cell phone was in his apartment.
So, even if we can't prove they conspired with each other, which we know they did, we can prove that they each conspired separately with our friend in the Federal pen.
The old un-indicted co-conspirator game.
Dosso called me.
He gave me a cell phone number.
I called that number.
Whoever it was on the other end told me he wanted Tony Rosatti taken care of.
Excuse me, Mr.
Astangura, by "taken care of," you mean Eliminated.
Erased.
Killed.
ASTANGURA: Yeah, that's right.
Killed.
And what did you tell this person? I gave him my off-shore bank account number.
As soon as he wired me the Is this the number you called? It is.
Let the record show that the number matches People's Three, the cell phone found in defendant Porter's apartment.
And did he wire you the money? He did.
And did you kill Mr.
Rosatti? I was arrested before I could execute the contract.
That's all.
Just to perfectly clear, Mr.
Astangura, are you sure you spoke to a man when you dialed that number? Yeah, it was a guy.
Definitely.
White guy, New York accent.
More than that I couldn't tell you.
Do you know someone named Jerry Malick? I used to know an undercover cop by that name.
QUINN: He's retired now.
Would you be surprised to learn that Mr.
Malick is in fact Mrs.
Rosatti's, the defendant's, father? I didn't know that.
But I tell you what.
You stay in this business long enough, nothing surprises you.
Did Mr.
Malick know what line of work you were in? Did he know you were a murderer for hire? Yeah.
Sure, he knew.
Can you say, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the voice you heard on the cell phone was not Jerry Malick's? No.
I couldn't say that.
No.
That's all.
The truth is, I really loved Tony.
HENDERSON: But you cheated on him? He was always working.
When he wasn't working, he was worrying about work.
And having an affair was your way of getting his attention? I guess.
You love someone, you marry him.
The years go by, after a while you start to feel taken for granted.
I mean, yes, I wanted Tony to notice me, but I didn't want to hurt him.
I just wanted to feel Yes? Alive.
And appreciated.
And what about Randy Porter? Was he just a fling? Randy was a mistake.
Did Randy love you? I thought he did.
He kept talking about marriage.
He said, "Wouldn't it be wonderful if Tony was somehow out of the picture?" Out of the picture? What do you think Mr.
Porter meant by that? I certainly didn't think he meant killing him, if that's what you're getting at.
Did you know your husband was about to divorce you? Yes, um He knew about me and Randy.
We talked about it.
I was hoping that we might get back together.
We were trying to work things out.
And your idea of working things out was to go to Bermuda for the weekend with Mr.
Porter? The same weekend your husband was murdered? RANDY: I was serious about Sherri.
Clearly, she wasn't serious about me.
Why do you say that? Sherri's all about money.
And I don't have any.
Never have.
The funny thing is, neither did Tony.
He lived high on the hog, but it was all borrowed.
Not exactly what Sherri bargained for when she said, "I do.
" She told you this, did she? It's all she ever talked about.
QUINN: Thank you.
Did you ever hear of Jamie Astangura? Not until he testified.
So his call to your cell phone, what was that, a wrong number? It wasn't my cell phone.
I'm sure you did tests for fingerprints.
Did you find any of mine on there? I'm asking the questions, Mr.
Porter.
If he did, you'd know about it.
He'd tell you.
That's enough, Mr.
Porter.
RANDY: Just saying.
If it isn't your cell phone, how did it get into your apartment? I don't know.
But I will tell you this.
Sherri Rosatti has had a key to my place for forever.
Any chance this was their legal strategy from the get-go? Well, good liars make good actors.
(SIGHS) What the hell.
Time to look reality in the kisser.
Offer each of them man one.
In exchange for? The second hit man.
The guy who killed Tony Rosatti.
Somebody's got to know.
SERENA: Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
I just got a response to those serial numbers, Jack.
Before the trial, I asked Serena to run the cell phone found in Porter's apartment by manufacturer.
It was purchased in Brooklyn at a bodega in Red Hook.
Bobby Vignerelli.
Rosatti's loan shark boyhood friend.
We'll need to look at his bank records.
Done.
Hey, uh, maybe you can get me a cup of coffee and a Danish? I ain't used to getting up this early in the morning.
We're not here to entertain you, Mr.
Vignerelli.
Then uh, why the wake-up call? JACK: Conspiracy to commit murder.
Murder? I don't know what you're talking about.
We subpoenaed your bank records.
Ten weeks ago, you wrote a check to Tony Rosatti for $50,000.
It's like I told the cops.
Tony needed a loan to make payroll.
That's all there is.
A short time later, someone wired $50,000 from Mrs.
Rosatti's account to James Astangura, professional hit man.
So, Sherri had Tony killed.
I read the newspapers just like anybody else.
I mean, I didn't know she was gonna steal the money, then use it to have him whacked.
One month later, you withdrew another $50,000 from your accounts.
That's right.
I had a cash flow situation that I had to straighten out.
I think it was a second payment to a second hit man.
You got this all wrong.
Tony was my dear, dear friend.
He owed you a lot of money, his business was on the ropes.
He was never gonna pay you back.
I think you were in cahoots with Mrs.
Rosatti.
You conspired to murder Tony, frame Randy Porter, and claim the insurance money.
Give us the name of the second hit man and save yourself from a capital murder charge.
(PHONE RINGING) Yes? Who? Do you know an Austin Foster? Yeah, that's, uh, Tony's lawyer.
I told him to come here.
Send him in.
Why is he here? Because Tony told me if you ever got on my case about his business, I was to notify Foster.
Hello, everybody.
What's this? That is a dated and unopened parcel sent to me by Mr.
Tony Rosatti, with instructions to open it only if and when Mr.
Vignerelli so requests.
Will you do the honors, Mr.
McCoy? Hey, Bobby, Austin.
I know if you're watching this, the two of you are in a room with a couple of D.
A.
's and the whole thing's gone to hell.
Whoever it is, hi.
My name is Tony Rosatti.
I thought I'd planned this whole thing out pretty good.
Sherri and that son-of-a-bitch Porter in jail, me at peace, maybe for the first time.
So, Mr.
D.
A.
, the hit man, the wired money, the phone in Porter's apartment, it was all me.
Bobby loaned me the dough, but he didn't know what it was for.
Sorry, Bobby, for jamming you up this way.
So, that's it.
All's well, et cetera, et cetera.
You know what? Parting is not sweet sorrow.
It's just plain sweet.
Well, I'll be damned.
All right, Tone.
I don't believe he could have done this by himself.
You loaned him the money to bankroll this.
I could indict you as a co-conspirator.
For what? To commit assisted suicide? Well, I guess I'll go buy myself that cup of coffee, huh? We'll never know who the second hit man was, who really killed Tony Rosatti.
Foster's right.
It was an assisted suicide.
Well, I guess it beats dousing yourself with rum and lighting up a Cohiba.
Rosatti's second will gives Bobby Vig the jewelry in his safe-deposit box.
At least Sherri won't be getting any of that insurance money.
I'm sure she's already got a team of lawyers contesting the suicide clause.
Fighting an insurance company.
Now that's suicide.
These are their stories.
Hey.
Could you sign for this? Sí.
Okay? Appreciate it.
Have a good day.
Hello? Mrs.
Rosatti? BRISCOE: What'd you find upstairs? Burglary.
Took the cash, left the credit cards, the costume jewelry.
She found him about 10:00.
The M.
E.
Says he was killed late Saturday or early Sunday.
The guy was a contractor.
And I thought the recession hurt the construction business.
Yeah, Rosatti was doing pretty well.
Speaking of which, any sign of Mrs.
Rosatti? Ah, I don't think she's back from the disco yet.
Ain't no discos no more.
So, hey, Rosatti hears something go bump in the night, he comes downstairs, boom.
Our guy goes about his business.
A pretty cool customer.
Yeah, he might as well get what he came for.
Uh, she said the alarm was off, but the door was locked with a dead bolt.
Somebody had a key.
He took one in the back of the head, at close range, small caliber, no exit wound, no brass.
Very tidy.
Very professional.
Yeah, what do you bet there's no prints, either? Well, we better find Mrs.
Rosatti, tell her her husband's dead.
If she doesn't already know.
Man, you are such a cynic when it comes to love.
Not love, marriage.
I've been with Tony for five years.
He's the best boss I ever had.
I'm very sorry.
Oh, my God.
Sherri doesn't even know yet.
Mrs.
Rosatti? She's at a spa in Connecticut.
She went up there Friday afternoon.
I think she's due home tomorrow.
ED: So you haven't talked to her yet? Oh, my God.
It's one of those "You can't call the guests unless it's an emergency" kind of places.
I think this qualifies as an emergency.
I'll give you the number.
They'll have to put you through.
I'll call David, Mr.
Rosatti's son.
From a previous marriage? Tony and Sherri have only been married a few years.
Thank you.
We're gonna need to look at papers, date books, computers Sure, sure.
Marisa, since you seem to know Tony pretty well, can you think of anybody who might wanna No! Oh, my God.
Why would anyone want him dead? A New York City contractor? Who wouldn't? Well, he did get sued a lot.
Vendors, employees, clients.
This guy owes the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker.
That's right, Rosatti.
Sherri.
Uh-huh, Friday.
Be cheaper to pay his bills than his lawyers.
Okay, are you sure? Okay, thank you.
She made a reservation at the spa, but she never showed up.
Well, until she does, maybe we should talk to some of Rosatti's less than satisfied clientele.
Nice nose, good body, too much tannin, and like everything else around here, no finish.
Sorry, I'm jammed.
We're opening up for lunch tomorrow, three months behind schedule.
Is that Tony Rosatti's fault? Well, he's like every other contractor in this city, he's way overextended.
Finally had to take him to court just to get him to show up and do the damn work.
Well, it says here you're suing him for a million two.
Yeah.
A bargaining position.
Put the fear of God in him.
Plus a little something for the aggravation.
He still has the finish work to do.
He does that, I'll drop the suit.
If I were you, I'd start shopping around for a new contractor.
What, he's gone out of business? Well, you could say that.
Tony Rosatti was murdered over the weekend.
Oh, man.
I had no idea.
BRISCOE: Where were you this weekend? You think I'd kill him over a couple of sconces? Well, if they were expensive enough.
I was in the Hamptons visiting friends.
I'll give you their name and number.
Hey, the last thing I'd want is Rosatti dead.
At least not until after the job was finished.
VAN BUREN: I thought this was a burglary? We're thinking the burglary was a cover.
It looks like a hit.
A.
22 to back of the head at close range.
Next to no forensics.
There's no shell casings, there's no blood other than the vic's, there's no fingerprints that shouldn't be there.
This was a pro.
Well, when I had my kitchen re-done, I would have cheerfully wrung my contractor's neck, I don't think I would have gone so far as to hire a hit man.
Almost all the litigation was penny ante, and all the litigants have alibis.
So, what's your other theory? Well, the wife's still M.
I.
A.
Always the nearest and dearest.
Now who's the cynic? We're thinking she may be another victim.
Right.
Well, she's the second wife, which means there's a first wife out there somewhere.
I knew Bambi would kill him eventually, although I thought it would be his heart exploding while they were doing the horizontal hula under the dining room table.
All right, all right, all right.
We get the point.
You don't seem that upset.
Why would I care? I haven't seen or thought about the man for 10 years.
By Bambi, I assume you're referring to his current wife, Sherri? Sherri, Bambi, what's the difference? ED: You sound bitter.
You think I (LAUGHS) Look.
What happened between Tony and me is I dumped him.
BRISCOE: Why? Because he was running around? Because I was running around.
You're young, you want to get away from home, you meet a guy who doesn't make you want to gag, you let him put a ring on your finger.
And that would be Tony? And just when I was starting to think my life was over, I met a man six years younger than me, full head of hair, who actually knows which fork to use for the salad.
Now there's a refreshing change.
What? A wife leaving her husband for a younger guy? No.
A wife who doesn't want her ex-husband dead.
Well, let's talk to the son.
Maybe he knows something about the current Mrs.
Rosatti.
My father was a bum from Brooklyn who got lucky for a couple of days.
Good old Dad, salt of the earth.
And now, God bless him, he's actually gonna be six feet under it.
Oh, let me guess.
You shed all your tears this morning? Do either of you guys speak French? ED: A little bit.
Good.
Then you'll understand when I say that my father was a schmuck.
So was mine, but I took a couple days off when he kicked.
We haven't spoken for three years.
I'm sorry, I'm not exactly the right guy to give the eulogy.
If you were my kid, I would have lost your number the day you learned to talk.
Do you know anything about Tony Rosatti? ED: Why don't you tell us? Can you spell RICO? Your father was being investigated by the Feds? The Grand Jury's convened as we speak.
I'm trying to make partner in a Park Avenue law firm, and dear old Dad's being indicted by the US Attorney.
Well, it looks like you finally caught a break.
About time the old man came through for me.
It's a broad-based investigation into the building trades.
Racketeering in the building trades? I'm shocked.
Tony Rosatti was mobbed up.
He bought concrete, didn't he? In his line of work, it's hard to avoid our friends with the broken noses.
Just how well-connected was he? He's a pimple on the ass of organized crime, hardly a flicker on the Richter Scale.
ED: His son seemed to think he was being indicted.
We're casting a wide net.
You think his murder has something to do with our investigation? Why not? If he started to talk.
(CELL PHONE RINGING) Excuse me.
Anybody Tony could give us, we already got.
The guys we're really interested in wouldn't have wasted the hardware.
Lennie.
Guess who just showed up? Thanks.
I changed my mind about going to the spa at the last minute.
ED: Where'd you go? Bermuda.
Uh, we're gonna need details.
Where you stayed, that sort of thing.
Am I a suspect? Wives who kill their husbands? It's been known to happen.
Actually, Mrs.
Rosatti, we are trying to cross you off the list.
I appreciate that.
I have my hotel bill, plane ticket.
ED: That'll do.
Just a minute.
Did you go to Bermuda alone? Alone, yes.
I needed to get away for a few days, think about things.
All right, plane ticket and hotel bill, um What's this? It's a list of items stolen in the robbery.
Jewelry, silver, irreplaceable heirlooms.
I know you need a police report before you file an insurance claim.
This lady makes an insurance claim before she takes care of the funeral arrangements.
Have you ever been to Bermuda? Ah, I'm not a sand and sun block kind of guy.
Well, it's close enough to go, check into a hotel, slip back into the city Saturday night, pop the old man, and get back to Bermuda by Sunday brunch.
Hey, Sherri's not Miss Congeniality, but she's not a pro either.
Let's go find out who she was sipping piña coladas with.
Here we go.
Mrs.
Rosatti traveled to Bermuda Friday the 9th, returning to New York today, Tuesday the 13th, in first class.
Did she come back to New York anytime between Friday and today? Not with us.
But let me check the other carriers.
You can do that? What? Planes aren't allowed on the information highway? Looks like Mrs.
Rosatti enjoyed four consecutive days in paradise.
Does that highway say who she sat next to? Tells me his shoe size.
Here we go, uh, Mr.
Porter.
Randy Porter.
Look at that, both coming and going.
Long weekend, small plane, could be a coincidence? I don't think so.
It's the same credit card number.
She paid for his ticket.
BRISCOE: Thank you very much.
Well, May-December romance, you know what they say.
Well, you're the matrimonial expert.
You tell me.
Cherchez le pre-nup.
Pre-nup, pre-nup.
Don't leave home without it.
I take it Tony Rosatti had one? Well, if one out of two marriages goes down in flames, you're be a horse's ass not to.
He just wanted to make sure that she couldn't take him to the cleaners.
Tell us about it.
For the most part, a sliding scale of alimony depending on the number of years they're married.
BRISCOE: And what about the other part? Well, since the first Mrs.
Rosatti screwed around on him, Tony insisted on a special clause.
Genius if you ask me.
I call it the Rosatti clause.
Now I insist that all of clients include it in their pre-nups.
And that is? She cheats, she gets squat.
Tony Rosatti have a will, too? Will.
Will.
Don't leave home Yeah, yeah.
We know.
We know.
Sherri gets it all.
Which makes for one merry widow.
Well, although a couple weeks from now, it would've been a whole other story.
Why, Tony was getting ready to divorce her? He said, and I quote, "That slut won't get a penny from me.
" Which under the Rosatti clause means that he knew that she was having an affair? Well, he must have.
He hired a private investigator to follow her.
Briscoe.
I remember you.
It was that thing with the thing and what's her name.
No, you must be thinking of somebody else.
Damn.
I could have sworn that was you.
This is my partner, Ed Green.
Pleasure.
How you doing, man? So we hear that you worked for Tony Rosatti? Yeah, a guy you wouldn't mind having a beer with.
It's a shame.
So, uh, what can I do you for? What do you know about Mrs.
Rosatti? Oh, she whacked him, no question.
You're sure of that? Twenty years on the job and another 10 years doing matrimonial private peeping, you get a sense of who the bad actors are.
And Sherri was less than faithful? Oh, you know that old song You Call It Jogging, But I Call It Running Around.
I assume by that you don't mean she was staying in shape.
Oh, she was in great shape, all right.
See for yourself.
Ooh.
(CHUCKLES) BRISCOE: This guy's name wouldn't be Porter, would it? FORSYTHE: Randy Porter, as a matter of fact.
And get this.
Not only is he banging the guy's bride, he worked for the poor bastard, too.
Talk about double dipping.
I've been with Rosatti Builders since '99.
I'm an electrician.
Did you get to know the boss well? Well, he was the boss, I was a peon, you know? Yeah, I hear you.
My lieutenant wouldn't let me anywhere near her dinner table.
They say the class system is dead.
Hey, did the wife come around a lot? Mrs.
Rosatti at a job site? I don't think so.
She's a "tea at the Helmsley Palace" type, you know? Mmm, wouldn't want to break a heel? Exactly.
I don't know.
She didn't look too genteel to me, especially this one on the sink.
I know what this looks like.
So do we, Randy.
Look, uh, I did some work at his house, and me and Sherri, we kind of hit it off.
That's all.
I'd say so.
Look, it wasn't a big deal, okay? Besides, I wasn't even in the country when Tony was killed.
You know, that is the first thing that you've said that I actually believe.
Yeah, you and Sherri had to get your alibis straight, right? Why would we do that? Because Tony made Sherri sign a pre-nup.
If she gets caught cheating, she walks away with just the clothes on her back.
Are you saying we killed Tony before he had a chance to divorce her? Hey, I saw Body Heat three times.
Not for nothing, but Sherri was planning on dumping him.
BRISCOE: For who? You? I think I want to call a lawyer.
Excuse me.
You know what they charge for a drink in this place? Why do you think I quit? Thank you for meeting me here.
The house, it gives me the willies since Well, yeah, I could say the same about this place.
Can I get you something? No, that's all right.
No, me? I'm still working off the one I finished six years ago.
Randy called me.
He said he talked to you.
Yeah.
He told us about you two.
Have you ever been lonely? Tony was always working.
Well, that's usually how the bills get paid.
Maybe your bills.
Sure, construction is up and down, but for Tony, it's been down and downer since the dot com bubble burst.
You're saying he was going broke? His company was this close to Chapter Eleven.
I hate to point it out, but that's a $12 drink you're sipping.
And it might be my last.
Two mortgages on the house, money from the second re-fi is just about gone.
Why would I kill Tony? The pre-nup was moot.
He didn't have a dime.
What about that fancy townhouse of yours? The bank's about to foreclose on it.
Look, Tony lived one month to the next.
He had some friends who helped him out.
Friends with, uh, broken noses? He grew up in Red Hook.
ED: Any of these friends friendlier than the rest? See that spot right out there in the middle? That's where they fished my old man's old man outta the river.
Look, Mr.
Vignerelli.
No, no.
Vig, Bobby Vig.
Everybody calls me "Bobby Vig.
" How appropriate for a loan shark.
Hey, if the shoe fits.
I'm not ashamed of it.
I gotta feed my family.
It's my profession, huh? Look, we need to talk to you about Tony Rosatti.
Ah, Tone What a shame.
What are you gonna do? You two go way back, do you? As far back as the womb.
His father and my father used to hijack trucks together outta Idlewild.
The ties that bind.
Mrs.
Rosatti says that you might have lent Tony some money? Yeah, I did.
He was a friend in trouble.
I mean, it's the right thing to do.
Well, how much trouble? A month's payroll.
It was no big deal.
You charge him the usual 100% interest compounded weekly? He was a friend.
One point over prime.
You and Alan Greenspan, huh? If it was a stranger, it would have been a different story.
I wouldn't have been so generous.
Tony insisted on signing a note.
He wanted to keep everything legit.
So, now you got to chase the estate for your dough, right? I don't have to chase anything.
Sherri'll take care of me.
ED: With what? Are you guys with the IRS? No, we never touch the stuff.
See, you don't know about Tony.
He always had a few bucks stashed away under the table in case of a rainy day.
But he put the account under Sherri's name, so the FBI couldn't touch it.
You wouldn't happen to know the name of the bank this rainy day account was in, would you? Looks like cash deposits were made on a regular basis.
Let me guess.
All under $10,000.
GAIL: Who needs all that pesky Federal paperwork? What about withdrawals? Hardly anything.
$100 here, $200 there.
Interesting.
About three months ago she wired $50,000 to another account.
According to the routing number, it's an off-shore bank.
The Turks and Caicos.
She wires 50Gs out of the country without leaving the comforts of home.
You could do that by fax? Hah! I need three kinds of ID just to transfer a few bucks from savings to checking.
Whoo.
And we don't know whose name is on that account? Oh, that's the beauty of off-shore banking.
And you think she used the money to hire a hit man? Fifty grand will buy a lot of professional expertise.
But Mrs.
Rosatti knew her husband's business was on the skids.
She knew she wasn't going to get anything.
Why would she have him killed? Hey, he had one rainy day fund that we know about.
Maybe he had more.
Ed's been over at his office, checking his financial records.
Where the hell are the Turks and Caicos anyway? Somewhere in the Sargasso Sea.
Which is? I know it's out past Queens.
This guy was drowning in red ink.
But he did have a safe-deposit box.
BRISCOE: Account number two, under the radar.
I'll call for a warrant.
BRISCOE: How much do you want to bet most of these sparklers were on Sherri's list for the insurance company? Well, if we can't get her for the murder, maybe we'll get her for fraud.
Deed for the townhouse, auto insurance, liability.
Life? Yeah, a whole life policy, issued 1994.
Half a mil, beneficiary Sherri Rosatti.
That sounds like motive to me.
Whoa, here's a better one.
Term policy, issued six months ago, death benefit $3 million.
I bet I can guess who the beneficiary is.
Rosatti told his insurance agent that Sherri had been nagging him to take on the new policy because his business was in trouble and she wanted to be protected in case something happened to him.
Why hasn't she filed a claim? Waiting for the dust to settle, doesn't want to raise any flags.
Then you think she hired a hit man.
$50,000 wired to an unnamed, off-shore account? What do you think? Between the war on drugs and the war on terrorism, bank secrecy isn't what it used to be.
So, if we can convince the authorities in the Turks and Caicos that this money financed a felony Come on, Raymond.
How often do I come to you? Not often enough.
A call from a U.
S.
Attorney of your stature, and we could solve a murder for hire.
I love it when you flatter me.
Let me see the account number.
This suspect transferred money to this account a few months before the murder.
First, let's see if we've done business with the account holder before.
Tell me you know who it is.
I'll do you one better.
I'll introduce you to him, up close and personal.
You are kidding.
Mr.
James Astangura.
He wouldn't by any chance be a professional hit man, would he? Recently retired.
Buried 12 guys we know of, so far.
Right now, he's eating three squares a day compliments of Uncle Sam.
How long you been footing the bill? Going on two months.
You wouldn't know it to look at him, but Jamie's got a beautiful singing voice.
Tenor, I think.
We just can't get enough.
If he's been locked up in Federal prison for two months, how did he kill my guy last week? I wonder if Mr.
Astangura's work comes with a money-back guarantee? He promised somebody that Tony Rosatti would end up dead, which he did.
So, it looks like Astangura fulfilled his end of the bargain.
From the Federal penitentiary? Who knows? Maybe he farmed the job out.
Contractor to subcontractor.
It's a business like any other business.
And a lot more exciting than making widgets, I suppose.
Talk to Mr.
Astangura.
Yeah, and why would he tell us anything? Brownie points with the U.
S.
District Attorney.
He's naming names.
What's one more? Great thing about this line of work.
People you don't know are always wiring you money.
It's nice to meet a man who enjoys his work.
Yeah, I'm blessed.
We'd like to talk to you about Tony Rosatti.
I'd love to give you your quid, missy, but I don't see no pro quo on the table.
I assume this goes in the "credit" column? As long as your client keeps telling the truth, he keeps racking up the frequent flyer miles.
I'll have to check my Palm Pilot but, yeah, Tony Rosatti was on my "to do" list.
Unfortunately, Mr.
Berman here and his friends screwed up my schedule.
Well, it seems one of your associates picked up your slack.
What's she saying? Tony Rosatti was murdered last week.
Son-of-a-bitch lied to me.
He said 50 was all he could pay.
And you know he lied how? Well, obviously he got antsy and hired somebody else to do the job when I didn't show.
You're not too quick, are you? I thought you would have hired somebody else to finish I work alone.
How do you think I lasted in the business for 15 years? You said "he.
" Were you talking about Randy Porter? How should I know? Don't you know who hires you? Maybe you should tell Ms.
Southerlyn how it works, Jamie.
You're the client.
You go to somebody you trust and say, "I got a problem.
" Your friend says, "Okay, buy a throwaway cell and give me the number.
" Then your friend calls somebody who calls somebody who calls somebody, who calls me.
And you're the guy that can take care of my problem? Right.
Then I call you back on the throwaway cell.
You give me the name and address of your problem, I give you the number of an off-shore bank account.
You wire me the money.
And then what happens? You throw the cell down a storm drain and wait.
Sooner or later, it gets done.
But you do talk to the client? Just that once.
But I don't know his name, and he definitely does not know mine.
Do you still have the cell phone number? (INAUDIBLE) Got it all up here.
So this last person in the chain, the guy that calls you and gave you the client's cell phone number? I'm gonna wanna talk to him.
Well, maybe you better call that Jamaican mama on the infomercial, the psychic? Or, uh, maybe John Edward? What are you saying? Alberto Dosso.
He was shivved in Allenwood two weeks ago.
He's dead.
Do you believe him? Well, he has no reason to lie, and he's admitted to everything else.
Mrs.
Rosatti and her boyfriend obviously got tired of waiting and went somewhere else.
How? By tiptoeing through the Yellow Pages under "H"? Mrs.
Rosatti went to Brearly and Mount Holyoke.
How would she know how to find a hit man? Porter worked in construction.
He might have the contacts to get this done.
And that's enough for a warrant? He worked in construction? These days it is.
You like guns, huh? So does our President.
I didn't vote for him.
Look, I don't know what you guys are expecting to find here.
Lennie.
The whole point of a throwaway cell phone, Randy, is you're supposed to throw it away.
No, that ain't mine.
I don't know how it got there.
I don't think the maid left it up here.
(RINGING) Of all the cell phones in all the gin joints in the world.
What's this guy talking about? Why don't you explain it to him, Lennie? Randy Porter, you're under arrest What? for the murder of Tony Rosatti.
What? You have the right to remain silent.
Oh, man! Anything you do say can and will be used against you in a court of law.
A $10 phone? That's why you're ruining my client's life? Actually, we're interested in the call that your client received on that phone from Jamie Astangura.
Never heard of him.
We know you didn't know his name.
Well, this makes sense.
Mr.
Astangura was the last link in a chain that started with your client and ended with the murder of Tony Rosatti.
That certainly clears is all up.
Mr.
Astangura is a professional hit man.
What? Whoa.
What are you saying? You think I paid to have Tony hit? What are you, out of your skull? No, actually, I think Mrs.
Rosatti was the bankroll and you made the arrangements from the phone we found in your apartment.
Look, like I told the cops, I don't know how that phone got there.
And I believe you just about as much as they do.
I can't believe she's doing this to me.
And I thought she loved me.
She's setting me up, don't you see? It had to be her.
How would Mrs.
Rosatti even begin to know where to hire a hit man? How would I? I don't know anybody like that.
Look, Ms.
Southerlyn RANDY: Her father.
What about him? Her father's a cop.
Cops know bad guys, right? Detective Jerry Malick, on the job in the 116, did his 20 and out.
His last assignment was organized crime, undercover.
I'd say that would have put him into contact with the right kind of people.
Well, he has an unblemished record.
Why would he get involved in something like this now? Either he loves his daughter, or $3 million in insurance money.
One of the two, or both.
MALICK: I did my time under Schiff.
He's a smart man, but he took the criminal's rights a little too seriously.
I could think of a dozen guys still on the street because he said our arrests weren't righteous.
Hmm.
Like Jamie Astangura? Ooh, there's a name I haven't heard in years.
Astangura's a hitter, a pro.
Did he have something to do with Tony's murder? Well, somebody hired him, or tried to.
But he couldn't have done it because he was in prison at the time of the murder.
Who hired him? He doesn't know.
He said it came through cutouts.
So you're telling me that somebody hired a hitter to take Tony out? Yeah.
You got any thoughts? On Tony? He owed money, he cut corners, he knew creeps.
Take your pick, it could have been anybody.
So, how did you feel about your son-in-law? He was older than me by six months, but love is blind, right? Sherri loved him? Sure she did.
Why? Wait a minute.
What are you getting at? Why are you here? I just want to know anything you can tell me about Jamie Astangura.
You think Sherri hired him, and I helped her.
Mr.
Malick, we have her wire transfer.
She paid him $50,000.
I'm sure there's another explanation.
There's gotta be.
Astangura said that the money was for the murder of Tony Rosatti.
We'd like to know how your daughter knew a man like Astangura, if it wasn't through you? Get out of my house.
Malick definitely knew Jamie Astangura.
Maybe Sherri did, too.
"Take your daughter to work day.
" Even if we prove they hired him, Astangura didn't kill Tony Rosatti.
Someone else pulled the trigger.
Do you think that we have enough to convict Sherri Rosatti? I think that if we slap some bracelets on her, we'll hear a whole aria about who the second hit man was.
Call Van Buren.
That's a great shot.
Can't you see I'm in the middle of a match? You play a little tennis, don't you, Lennie? Well, I'm no Serena Williams, I know one thing, it's all in the wrist.
Sherri Rosatti, you're under arrest for the murder of Tony Rosatti.
You have the right to remain silent.
Anything you say can and will be held against you in a court of law.
You have the right to an attorney "Docket number 65721.
People v.
Sherri Rosatti and Randolph Porter.
"Charges are Murder in the First Degree "and Conspiracy to Commit Murder in the First Degree.
" JUDGE: Let's have some pleas.
Mrs.
Rosatti? Not guilty.
Mr.
Porter? Not guilty.
The People request the defendants be remanded without bail.
And why should today be different than any other? Your Honor, this is a murder for hire.
Let's hope the People have something left over after the defendants have paid their tab.
Bail is $250,000 each.
Cash or bond.
Next! (BANGS GAVEL) CLERK: "Docket number 9521" Look, say it as much as you want, I never wired anything to anyone.
We have your faxed instructions.
Tony had access to that account, too.
Right.
And when he wasn't putting up sheet rock, he was a master forger.
All I know is, I never signed any bank instructions.
Of course we'll get a handwriting expert.
Of course.
Let's look at the facts, starting with where Mrs.
Rosatti would find Mr.
Astragoono in the first place.
JACK: Astangura.
Whatever.
Where would she hire a hit man? By a strange coincidence, your client's father knows Mr.
Astangura.
We think he put her in contact with him.
My father? HENDERSON: It's okay, Sherri.
Well, my father has nothing to do with this.
If your father didn't help you, who did? (SIGHS) I had no idea Randy would do something like this.
He put you in contact with Astangura? He asked me for money.
Maybe we should talk? No.
I want to tell him this.
Randy was in trouble.
He said he was in over his head in gambling debts.
He, uh He said they were gonna kill him if he didn't pay.
So, you did wire the money? No, but he knew about the account.
He must have forged my name.
I didn't know I didn't know he would kill Tony.
This is the story you're sticking with? It's true.
Somebody's lying.
I'll give you three guesses.
Hint, she's not in this room.
Why would I lie? Tony dying, what's in it for me? $3 million.
RANDY: What? Mr.
Rosatti's life insurance.
Which I'm guessing was payable to Mrs.
Rosatti.
I didn't know anything about any life insurance.
I think we're done.
SERENA: Fine.
Wait.
I never believed she'd actually go through with this.
Go through with what? She was always saying, "Wouldn't it be great if Tony were gone? "We could be together.
"We wouldn't have to sneak around.
" Yeah, and $3 million in a bank account certainly wouldn't hurt.
I don't know anything about the insurance.
Believe me.
She's smart.
Look how she set this up so that, if it went bad, I'd take the fall.
Blaming each other's a step in the right direction.
He said, she said.
It could add up to reasonable doubt.
As it stands, we can't prove murder because we don't have any evidence as to who really killed Tony Rosatti.
On the other hand, to prove conspiracy to commit murder, we have to show agreement.
And with each of them putting it all off on the other The Rosatti woman paid Astangura? JACK: That's right.
And this Porter character received the call from Astangura? The cell phone was in his apartment.
So, even if we can't prove they conspired with each other, which we know they did, we can prove that they each conspired separately with our friend in the Federal pen.
The old un-indicted co-conspirator game.
Dosso called me.
He gave me a cell phone number.
I called that number.
Whoever it was on the other end told me he wanted Tony Rosatti taken care of.
Excuse me, Mr.
Astangura, by "taken care of," you mean Eliminated.
Erased.
Killed.
ASTANGURA: Yeah, that's right.
Killed.
And what did you tell this person? I gave him my off-shore bank account number.
As soon as he wired me the Is this the number you called? It is.
Let the record show that the number matches People's Three, the cell phone found in defendant Porter's apartment.
And did he wire you the money? He did.
And did you kill Mr.
Rosatti? I was arrested before I could execute the contract.
That's all.
Just to perfectly clear, Mr.
Astangura, are you sure you spoke to a man when you dialed that number? Yeah, it was a guy.
Definitely.
White guy, New York accent.
More than that I couldn't tell you.
Do you know someone named Jerry Malick? I used to know an undercover cop by that name.
QUINN: He's retired now.
Would you be surprised to learn that Mr.
Malick is in fact Mrs.
Rosatti's, the defendant's, father? I didn't know that.
But I tell you what.
You stay in this business long enough, nothing surprises you.
Did Mr.
Malick know what line of work you were in? Did he know you were a murderer for hire? Yeah.
Sure, he knew.
Can you say, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the voice you heard on the cell phone was not Jerry Malick's? No.
I couldn't say that.
No.
That's all.
The truth is, I really loved Tony.
HENDERSON: But you cheated on him? He was always working.
When he wasn't working, he was worrying about work.
And having an affair was your way of getting his attention? I guess.
You love someone, you marry him.
The years go by, after a while you start to feel taken for granted.
I mean, yes, I wanted Tony to notice me, but I didn't want to hurt him.
I just wanted to feel Yes? Alive.
And appreciated.
And what about Randy Porter? Was he just a fling? Randy was a mistake.
Did Randy love you? I thought he did.
He kept talking about marriage.
He said, "Wouldn't it be wonderful if Tony was somehow out of the picture?" Out of the picture? What do you think Mr.
Porter meant by that? I certainly didn't think he meant killing him, if that's what you're getting at.
Did you know your husband was about to divorce you? Yes, um He knew about me and Randy.
We talked about it.
I was hoping that we might get back together.
We were trying to work things out.
And your idea of working things out was to go to Bermuda for the weekend with Mr.
Porter? The same weekend your husband was murdered? RANDY: I was serious about Sherri.
Clearly, she wasn't serious about me.
Why do you say that? Sherri's all about money.
And I don't have any.
Never have.
The funny thing is, neither did Tony.
He lived high on the hog, but it was all borrowed.
Not exactly what Sherri bargained for when she said, "I do.
" She told you this, did she? It's all she ever talked about.
QUINN: Thank you.
Did you ever hear of Jamie Astangura? Not until he testified.
So his call to your cell phone, what was that, a wrong number? It wasn't my cell phone.
I'm sure you did tests for fingerprints.
Did you find any of mine on there? I'm asking the questions, Mr.
Porter.
If he did, you'd know about it.
He'd tell you.
That's enough, Mr.
Porter.
RANDY: Just saying.
If it isn't your cell phone, how did it get into your apartment? I don't know.
But I will tell you this.
Sherri Rosatti has had a key to my place for forever.
Any chance this was their legal strategy from the get-go? Well, good liars make good actors.
(SIGHS) What the hell.
Time to look reality in the kisser.
Offer each of them man one.
In exchange for? The second hit man.
The guy who killed Tony Rosatti.
Somebody's got to know.
SERENA: Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
I just got a response to those serial numbers, Jack.
Before the trial, I asked Serena to run the cell phone found in Porter's apartment by manufacturer.
It was purchased in Brooklyn at a bodega in Red Hook.
Bobby Vignerelli.
Rosatti's loan shark boyhood friend.
We'll need to look at his bank records.
Done.
Hey, uh, maybe you can get me a cup of coffee and a Danish? I ain't used to getting up this early in the morning.
We're not here to entertain you, Mr.
Vignerelli.
Then uh, why the wake-up call? JACK: Conspiracy to commit murder.
Murder? I don't know what you're talking about.
We subpoenaed your bank records.
Ten weeks ago, you wrote a check to Tony Rosatti for $50,000.
It's like I told the cops.
Tony needed a loan to make payroll.
That's all there is.
A short time later, someone wired $50,000 from Mrs.
Rosatti's account to James Astangura, professional hit man.
So, Sherri had Tony killed.
I read the newspapers just like anybody else.
I mean, I didn't know she was gonna steal the money, then use it to have him whacked.
One month later, you withdrew another $50,000 from your accounts.
That's right.
I had a cash flow situation that I had to straighten out.
I think it was a second payment to a second hit man.
You got this all wrong.
Tony was my dear, dear friend.
He owed you a lot of money, his business was on the ropes.
He was never gonna pay you back.
I think you were in cahoots with Mrs.
Rosatti.
You conspired to murder Tony, frame Randy Porter, and claim the insurance money.
Give us the name of the second hit man and save yourself from a capital murder charge.
(PHONE RINGING) Yes? Who? Do you know an Austin Foster? Yeah, that's, uh, Tony's lawyer.
I told him to come here.
Send him in.
Why is he here? Because Tony told me if you ever got on my case about his business, I was to notify Foster.
Hello, everybody.
What's this? That is a dated and unopened parcel sent to me by Mr.
Tony Rosatti, with instructions to open it only if and when Mr.
Vignerelli so requests.
Will you do the honors, Mr.
McCoy? Hey, Bobby, Austin.
I know if you're watching this, the two of you are in a room with a couple of D.
A.
's and the whole thing's gone to hell.
Whoever it is, hi.
My name is Tony Rosatti.
I thought I'd planned this whole thing out pretty good.
Sherri and that son-of-a-bitch Porter in jail, me at peace, maybe for the first time.
So, Mr.
D.
A.
, the hit man, the wired money, the phone in Porter's apartment, it was all me.
Bobby loaned me the dough, but he didn't know what it was for.
Sorry, Bobby, for jamming you up this way.
So, that's it.
All's well, et cetera, et cetera.
You know what? Parting is not sweet sorrow.
It's just plain sweet.
Well, I'll be damned.
All right, Tone.
I don't believe he could have done this by himself.
You loaned him the money to bankroll this.
I could indict you as a co-conspirator.
For what? To commit assisted suicide? Well, I guess I'll go buy myself that cup of coffee, huh? We'll never know who the second hit man was, who really killed Tony Rosatti.
Foster's right.
It was an assisted suicide.
Well, I guess it beats dousing yourself with rum and lighting up a Cohiba.
Rosatti's second will gives Bobby Vig the jewelry in his safe-deposit box.
At least Sherri won't be getting any of that insurance money.
I'm sure she's already got a team of lawyers contesting the suicide clause.
Fighting an insurance company.
Now that's suicide.