law and order hitman (6/24) 22.10–23.10

The 13th season of the popular crime drama continues. In tonight’s episode, the death of a building contractor points towards an unfaithful wife, a professional hitman and the Mafia.

Briscoe and Green investigate when Tony Rosatti, a well-to-do contractor with Mob connections, is found dead in his apartment. Clues point towards a robbery gone wrong, but the detectives’ experience leads them to recognise the work of a professional hitman. The cynical Briscoe immediately suspects the deceased’s wife, but the pair head to his place of work to see if anybody else had a motive. It transpires that Rosatti owed a lot of people money and was being sued by many of his clients, but Rosatti’s assistant cannot think of anyone who would actually want her boss dead. “A New York City contractor?” reflects Briscoe. “Who wouldn’t?”

Tony’s wife, Sherri, was away all weekend. She was supposed to be at a spa in Connecticut, but one phone call reveals that she never checked in. On questioning, she tells the cops that she changed her mind at the last minute and went to Bermuda instead –alone. The detectives do some digging and, with the aid of a very helpful airline worker, conclude that Sherri wasn’t in fact alone – she was with Randy Porter, an electrician who worked for Rosatti. Also working for Rosatti, it seems, was a private detective who has been tracking and photographing Sherri’s affair with Porter. The investigator is sure that Rosatti’s wife killed him, but Briscoe suspects she had help. “Sherri’s not Miss Congeniality,” he says, “but she’s not a pro either.”

When it emerges that Rosatti had a clause in his will stating that his wife would be entitled to nothing if she was unfaithful, the evidence against Sherri begins to mount. The cops then discover $50,000 missing from one of her bank accounts, and trace it to James Astangura –a known hitman who was in prison at the time of the crime. James is currently cooperating with the FBI so when questioned by the detectives, he is happy to help. He was initially hired for the Rosatti job, but was unable to “execute the contract” because of his incarceration. Nonetheless, he received the cash via an anonymous third party who used and disposed of a cell phone. The phone in question is then found in Porter’s apartment, providing all the evidence needed to arrest Sherri and Porter.

As the case moves to court, each party points the finger at the other, with Porter’s camp claiming the involvement of Sherri’s father, a retired cop with unsavoury connections. DA Arthur Branch refers to the case as “the old unindicted co-conspirator game” –both parties have a link to the crime, but it cannot be proven that they worked together.

The deadlock is broken, however, when Southerlyn traces the phone used to call the hitman to a location in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and to Rosatti’s childhood Mafia friend, Bobby Vignerelly. Their new theory is that Vignerelly, who had lent Rosatti a large sum of money, framed Sherri and Randy and committed the murder himself. But, just as the case appears to be coming together, Vignerelly calls in Rosatti’s attorney, who arrives with a mysterious parcel that changes everything.