Detective Nastasi nodded, then looked at Susan, and said to me, “Off the record, I wasn’t too happy about that. But, okay, it’s done, and we need to talk about what’s happening now because of what happened then.”

I glanced at Susan, who had withdrawn into a place I call Susan-Land, and she didn’t seem annoyed or upset about Detective Nastasi’s off-the-record statement, nor did she seem contrite about the murder, or sheepish about beating the rap.

To get this back on track, I said again to Detective Nastasi, “I’m prepared to give you a statement now.”

He said to me, “Usually, we hear from the complainant first, but… I’ll take your statement first.” He swiveled his chair back to the keyboard and said, “I type fast, but take a breather now and then.”

I reminded him, “I’m an attorney.”

“Okay, Counselor. Ready when you are.”

After the preliminaries of who I was, where I lived, and so forth, I began my statement by mentioning the murder of Frank Bellarosa ten years ago, then I stated that I had been living in London for the past seven years, but that I was still admitted to the New York State Bar. Detective A. J. Nastasi typed as I spoke.

I then recounted the night that Mr. Anthony Bellarosa paid me an unannounced visit at the gatehouse where I was temporarily living, and without getting into everything that was said that night, I got to the crux of the matter and recounted my conversation with Mr. Bellarosa regarding my former wife, Susan Sutter.

Detective Nastasi continued to type, appreciating, I hope, my clear, factual narrative as well as my good grammar and diction.

Susan, who was hearing some of this for the first time, didn’t react, but just sat there staring into space.

I then told of my dinner with Mr. Bellarosa at Wong Lee’s restaurant, and I mentioned his offer to hire me as one of his attorneys.

Detective Nastasi glanced at me for the first time, then continued to type.

I’m obviously good at sworn testimony, despite what two of my incarcerated tax clients may think, and I stuck to the pertinent facts of the complaint – omitting any facts that might be misconstrued as me and Anthony negotiating a job offer.

I then went on to the chance meeting I had with Bellarosa when I had been jogging on Grace Lane, and my car ride with him and his driver to Oyster Bay, and our visit to the building that Mr. Bellarosa was thinking of buying, and his further attempts to convince me to work for him.

Some of this wasn’t relevant to the issue of the threats, but I could tell that Detective Nastasi was intrigued by all of this. Susan, however, seemed to be getting a bit annoyed, perhaps about my flirting with her dead lover’s son. I could almost hear her say, “Are you insane?”

I explained, for the record, that I had negative feelings about Mr. Bellarosa’s interest in me, but I was concerned about Susan’s safety, so I thought it might be a good idea to continue to engage in these conversations with Mr. Bellarosa so that I could better determine the threat level, and also determine my next course of action.

Detective Nastasi interrupted me for the first time. “You and Mrs. Sutter had at this time decided to remarry.”

I replied, “No.”

“Okay. But you were speaking about it?”

I replied, “We were not speaking at all.” I added, “We hadn’t spoken in about three years.”

Susan said, “Four.”

“Right, four.” I was glad she’d been listening.

Detective Nastasi nodded, then asked me, “So why were you bothering to go through this trouble?”

I glanced at Susan and replied to Detective Nastasi, “I… I still had positive feelings toward her, and she is the mother of our children.” Plus, I wasn’t paying alimony, so there was no good reason for me to want her dead.

There was a silence in the room, so I continued, “Because we weren’t romantically involved, my growing concern about Bellarosa’s intentions toward Mrs. Sutter was not colored by emotion.” I added, “Now the situation between Mrs. Sutter and me has changed, so I was able to discuss this with her, and we decided to come here as a precaution.”

Nastasi nodded, probably wondering how much spin I was putting on this for him and for Susan. He said to me, “I think I understand why you were speaking to Bellarosa, Mr. Sutter.” He then editorialized, “But it’s not a good idea to talk about business opportunities with a man who may be involved in organized crime.”

“Thank you for the advice, Detective. But as you say, his rap sheet is as clean as I assume yours is.”

Detective Nastasi smiled for the first time, then turned back to his keyboard and said, “Please continue.”

I concluded with my visit to the Bellarosa home for Sunday dinner, mentioning that by this time, Mrs. Sutter and I had reunited, and that she had advised against this. I also mentioned that Mr. Salvatore D’Alessio, a.k.a. Sally Da-da, had been there briefly.

Detective Nastasi asked me, “And you’d met him before?”

“Yes. Ten years ago when I was doing some legal work for Frank Bellarosa.”

“Right.” He commented, “These are very bad guys you were having Sunday dinner with, Mr. Sutter.”

“I didn’t actually stay for dinner.”

“Good.” He stopped typing, and I could tell he was thinking about something, and he said to me, “Hey, you were at that failed hit in Little Italy.”

Apparently, he’d made a word association between Salvatore D’Alessio, Frank Bellarosa, and the attempted whack. I replied, “That’s correct.”

“You saved Bellarosa’s life.”

“I stopped the bleeding.” I added, “Good Samaritan.”

He glanced at Susan, probably thinking about the irony of me saving the life of my wife’s lover, and the further irony of her later killing the man whose life I’d saved. But if Detective Nastasi had anything to say about that, or about us, he kept it to himself and continued, “Okay, so on this occasion – at Anthony Bellarosa’s house yesterday, did Anthony Bellarosa make any threats against Mrs. Sutter?”

“He did.” I related some of our conversation out on the front lawn and quoted Anthony directly. “He said, apropos of something I said, ‘None of that changes what your wife did. Just so you know.’”

Detective Nastasi asked me, “And that was a direct quote?”

“Word for word.”

“Okay. And you said?”

“I asked him if that was a threat, and he replied, quote, ‘Take it any way you want.’” I added, “The last thing he said to me was, ‘You think guys like you don’t have to worry about guys like me. Well, Counselor, you’re wrong about that.’”

Detective Nastasi finished typing that, then asked me, “Did you take that as a personal threat?”

“I did.”

“Okay. Anything else to add?”

I replied, “Just that I take these threats against Mrs. Sutter – and me – seriously, based on what I heard and based on the fact that Mrs. Sutter killed Anthony Bellarosa’s father.”

Detective Nastasi duly recorded that on his keyboard, and looked at Susan and asked, “Do you want to add anything to Mr. Sutter’s statement?”

“No.”

“Do you want to say something about how you feel about this possible threat on your life?”

Susan thought a moment, then replied, “Well… having heard all of this – some of it for the first time – I believe the threat may exist.”

Detective Nastasi typed that without comment, then swiveled around and said to us, “Usually, these guys never threaten. They just do. So maybe this is all talk.”

I responded, “I know that. But this guy is young. He’s not his father.” I added, “I think he’s a hothead.” I didn’t tell him that I’d said a few things that made Anthony very angry, hoping he’d make an actual, quotable threat. And neither did I tell Detective Nastasi that I’d had a minor meltdown and slashed a painting in Anthony Bellarosa’s office – that was irrelevant except to Anthony, who would have a shit fit when he discovered it. I did tell Nastasi, however, “The threat may or may not be real, but it was made, so that in itself could be considered harassment and threatening under the law.”