"Mr Big". "The Bank." "That motherf---er right on the top."
These were all references to property developer Ron Medich during a secretly recorded conversation between the murderers of Michael McGurk, a jury heard on Monday.
It was October 2010, and Lucky Gattellari, who organised the businessman's killing, was trying to calm one of the men who had carried it out the year before, Haissam Safetli.
Over the din of machinery in a western Sydney factory, the pair were heard discussing the fallout of Mr McGurk's execution in the driveway of his north shore Sydney home, as well as an unnamed figure behind the operation.
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Crown prosecutors allege that man was Mr Medich, 68, who had been frustrated and embarrassed by Mr McGurk, a former business partner, in a series of legal disputes.
Mr Medich has pleaded not guilty to both murder and the subsequent intimidation of Mr McGurk's widow.
Gattellari, 66, whose sentence was cut short in return for helping police, was heard on the tape guaranteeing Safetli that Mr Medich would look after all legal costs if Safetli took the fall for the murder.
What Gattellari did not know was that Safetli - now demanding the guarantee come from "Mr Big" in person - had turned police informant. He would later be sentenced to at least 6 ½ years' jail for the murder.
"That motherf---ker on the top, he has to look me in the face," he told Gattellari, who warned against the idea.
Gattellari told the NSW Supreme Court he did not want an unstable Safetli coming face-to-face with Mr Medich, also known as "The Bank".
On the tape, Safetli accused Gattellari of protecting Mr Medich.
"I'm not f---ing protecting him," Gattellari responded.
"I'm protecting us. Us. Us. Us."
Gattellari, the Crown's main witness, who is serving a 7½ year sentence for murder, has testified Mr Medich paid half a million dollars for the hit.
But he said he received none of that money and had organised the killing out of "blind loyalty for someone who I considered to be a very close friend, a business associate".
"He was in all sorts and distraught," he said of Mr Medich.
Gattellari said he met Mr Medich and his son Peter Medich at the Market City Tavern in Chinatown the next day but did not elicit the guarantee he had already made to Safetli.
Three days later, Gattellari was arrested. He said he asked his son to seek $1 million in bail money from Mr Medich. But several days passed and the money had still not arrived.
Gattellari said his son came back with a message from Mr Medich that his wife had frozen his money.
Gattellari recalled responding: "If that's the case, he can pack his bags too."
The beginning of his cross-examination on Monday afternoon could not be reported on due to an interim court order.