out beyond the bars separating him from freedom, wondering if he would ever get to the other side. Suddenly, a guard approached his cell. "Escalla!" he shouted out.
"Yeah," Joey responded.
The guard opened the cell and led Joey out. "Come with me," the guard told him as he handed him a couple of papers. This came easy for Joey after twenty plus years of being told what to do and what not to do.
The two men walked along a narrow corridor which ended at a closed solid gate. The guard motioned to a camera staring down at them from the upper right corner of the wall. The gate cranked open with a clanking noise. Both men walked through the opening. A man at a desk reached for the papers Joey was carrying.
"Joey Escalla?" he asked.
"Yeah," Joey replied.
"Sign here," the man said pointing to where Joey was to put his signature. Joey signed and stepped back.
The guard turned to Joey and grabbed the handcuffs that bound him and unlocked them. "Looks like you are a free man," the guard said nodding toward the outside. Joey stared at him and then approached the front door where another guard stood. As Joey embraced the freedom awaiting him, the guard opened the door and Joey stepped through.
"Hey, Escalla," Joey heard someone yell.
Joey turned and saw another guard approaching him with a bag. "Don’t you want your stuff?" he asked Joey.
"Yeah, sure," Joey responded as he grabbed the bag. He looked in the bag and all he found was some old clothes and a wallet. The wallet contained a driver’s license and a social security card with the name Joey Escalla on it. There was nothing else in the bag. Joey turned and continued his trek toward the door that was now being held opened by the other guard.
"Good luck, Joey," he heard someone say. Joey did not turn and simply kept walking.
Once past the doors he looked around and found himself on the other side of the fence that surrounded the penitentiary. He didn't remember coming in this way, so it was a surprise to him.
"Guess things change after twenty two years," Joey thought to himself. A short distance away, he saw a bus stop and headed toward it.
Joey Escalla was finally a free man. When he first made his deal with the feds he figured he would be out in just a few years, never thinking they were going to slap him with homicide, resulting in his spending over twenty two years in the slammer.
"Wonder what Theo has been up to?" he wondered.
Joey faked his death because he knew Theo would be watching, and once Theo thought he was dead he would move on and get out of town. Theo had saved his life on several occasions and he owed him that much.
"Just didn't know it was going to last twenty plus years. But hell, such is life and now I am free once again. Twenty two years older, but free nonetheless," Joey thought to himself while all the time smiling.
So as this life ended for Joey Escalla, a new life began for the man known by his few friends as Nick Costello.
OCTF Alert
New York/October 25, 1984
The FBI, working with the local police and several other government agencies had started inputting the data from their paper records into computers. During that process, they discovered that a Joey Escalla, listed as dead, was also in the witness protection database. This same Joey Escalla entered the witness protection program because he provided the FBI with information that could have easily led to his mob style execution; at least that was what the FBI believed. He claimed that Nick Costello was the man responsible for the execution of the Sabrisio brothers and he feared for his life. As a result, he asked that they fake his death and put him under witness protection, and in exchange he would provide them with valuable information about the Sabrisio and Giovanna families. Instead of life in prison, he got 22 years at a Wisconsin Federal penitentiary for his involvement with these crime families. Joey asked that they keep his identity secret and that he serve his time away from the general prison population. As a protective measure, and in cooperation with the FBI and the staff of the Florida hospital where he had been admitted with gunshot wounds, Joey faked his death. It was the FBI's understanding that he received the wounds at the Sabrisio home when it came under attack by Nick Costello and other members of his gang.
This information, sent to Captain John Connolly in the form of an internal alert notice, was sitting on his desk; buried among all of his other papers.
On October 25, a week after his meeting with his two agents, Captain John Connolly almost jumped out of his chair when he discovered the notice. He immediately ordered Agents Sam Williams and Sheila Connors to Wisconsin to interview Joey Escalla. Unfortunately, it was two weeks after Joey Escalla left the Wisconsin penitentiary, having completed his twenty-two year sentence.
Awaken
New York City/October 1984
Nurses P. Church and C. Parry had been making the rounds on the ICU floor of Belleview Hospital for over ten years. They would start at the east wing and work their way to the west wing, checking the patients’ vitals, the intravenous connections, and monitor for any changes.
Though for the most part, those staffing the nurse's station would immediately notice any change, it was mandatory that they physically made their rounds every hour. On this particular day, they had about eighteen patients to check; most in different stages of recovery, and one listed in a coma with little chance of improvement.
Around 2:00 a.m. they made their way to this particular patient's room. Nurse Church went around to the right side of the patient's bed and checked on the IV, while the other nurse went to the left side of the bed to check on the forty-seven year old patient.
"She looks like an angel," commented Nurse Church as she looked upon the woman lying there. The patient’s eyes were closed, and she was covered with a white sheet from her feet to just under her neck. Her head was wrapped in a white bandage making her look like a nun.
"Honey, that ain’t no angel in this bed," responded Nurse Parry. "She was once head of a ruthless crime family. She made her own bed. Serves her right if you ask me," Nurse Parry said with venom in her voice.
It had been three months since an assassin's bullet had a collision with her forehead. An operation she had when she was a child had resulted in a plate being placed on her front lobe, which had saved her life. The bullet ricocheted upward and to the right, resulting in a lot of bleeding. From the initial appearance, with blood all over the floor and nearby cabinet, it looked as if her brain had been splattered. However, it was only the outer skin that ripped as the bullet hit the plate and took flight upwards, missing the brain altogether.
As both nurses performed their duties, Nurse Church let out a short gasp when she looked up and saw the patient staring back at her.
"Wh... where... is my brother?" the woman asked in a frail, but commanding voice.
Without responding, Nurse Parry immediately reached for the call button and nervously began to push, while Nurse Church backed away fearing that the patient might have heard her.
Felicia Giordano had once again cheated death.
***
Within the hour, the room filled with doctors, nurses and the curious hospital staff. Though no one was permitted
