The Twentieth Day of January

CHAPTER 13

When Nolan got back to the house at Hartford there was a message from Harper, instructing him to avoid any direct contact with Dempsey. As President-Elect’s putative Chief-of-Staff, Harper felt that Dempsey was too important to risk any reaction from the White House at this stage. Kleppe also should not be contacted directly until further information was available from the FBI and IRS records.

Nolan telephoned police chief Henney at his headquarters but, apart from more detailed descriptions of the two suspects, there was little further information. They were checking Siwecki’s tax returns for the past five years and there were several sets of fingerprints but none identifiable. Local fingerprint records and New York records had already proved negative. It looked like Oakes and Haig were Nolan’s only hope for a fishing expedition.

He phoned Haig, who was obviously reluctant to see him again but when he insisted Haig agreed to see him at seven that evening, at his office.

The security guard at the factory gate phoned through to Haig’s office and then he was escorted across the yard past the stores to the main office block. There was frost sparkling in the lights from the big workshop windows, and a general air of busyness. Haig Electronics were obviously doing well.

Haig called out for him to come in when the security man knocked at the door, and Nolan noticed that Haig’s desk was clear of all papers as he lifted himself grudgingly from his chair to take Nolan’s outstretched hand.

“What can I do for you this time, Mr. Nolan?”

“Well, much the same as before, Mr. Haig. I want to talk about that strike.”

Haig looked across at Nolan.

“Are you some stooge from the Democrats?”

“Why should I be that, Mr. Haig?”

“You obviously want to find out something to the President’s disadvantage.”

“The President-Elect, Mr. Haig.”

“OK. The President-Elect.”

“I’m not a Democrat, Mr. Haig. I’m not political. And all I want are the facts. And maybe we should widen this chat a little.”

“By all means.”

“Mr. Haig. I know that the strike was phoney. I know that it was contrived to help Powell’s bid for nomination as Governor of this State. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you were part of this set-up.”

“You say you know. D’you mean you guess?”

“Not at all. One of the principal parties to the affair has told me. Told me also what he was paid to go along with it. And told me also who paid him. We are checking on bank records and tax returns right now.”

“Why don’t you go ahead with whatever you intend on that evidence, Mr. Nolan?”

“I think you know why I can’t do that, Mr. Haig. Or you can have a damn good guess.”

“Siwecki being killed, you mean?”

“Yes.”

Haig pushed his chair back so that he was parallel to his desk, still looking at Nolan.

“I swear I didn’t know at the time, Nolan. It was two weeks before I knew.”

“How did you find out?”

“I got a confidential phone call from the vice-president of production at one of our car customers. They were one of the complainants about our sub-assemblies and Powell had called down one of their inspectors. He had reported back to his management.”

“What did he tell them?”

“That the circuit boards had been deliberately damaged before they left here by scoring them with a sharp instrument.”

“What did you do?”

“I got Siwecki in and talked to him about it.”

“What did he say?”

“He denied it, and when I pursued it he threatened another strike.”

“And you concluded that Powell had contrived the strike?”

“No, I didn’t. I don’t think Powell knew any more about it than I did. He may have uncovered it when he was arbitrating, but even then he may have decided it was better to get the strike over. And he may have been right at that.”

“Who do you think could have contrived it?”

“It beats me, Nolan. I’ve thought about it a hundred times but it doesn’t make sense. Take Siwecki. He’s a Commie so he’d have no interest in helping Powell—a Republican. It couldn’t possibly be Powell, he couldn’t have influenced our work force in a thousand years. But let’s say he did. He couldn’t possibly have known we and the union would ask him to arbitrate. It was just chance that he was chosen.”

“How did he get chosen?”

“The board and I were thinking of going to a New York consultancy and we also considered using somebody from the Department of Labour. Then on the same day two people suggested Powell. The first was Siwecki and the second was Jim Oakes, who was the company’s legal adviser. He’s the new Senator.”

“And that’s how Powell was chosen?”

“Yes. Pure coincidence.”

“Which of your customers tipped you off ?”

“General Motors.”

“That’s where the inspector came from who was called in by Powell?”

“Yep.”

“As I understand it your people went on strike because they lost substantial bonuses because of sub-assemblies manufactured here that were rejected by your Detroit customers.”

“That’s it.”

“And in fact, the sub-assemblies had been deliberately damaged before they left these premises.”

“Correct.”

“And Powell was made aware of this during his investigation and arbitration because one of your customers showed him a sabotaged sub-assembly.”

“Yes.”

“So Powell knew, and so did Siwecki.”

“I don’t know that Siwecki knew.”

“I’m telling you, Mr. Haig. He told me he knew. The sabotage was deliberate. The strike was contrived so that Powell could be made into the local hero by settling it.”

“Why should Siwecki, a union man, help a Republican?”

“Money, orders, who knows, Haig.”

Haig looked uneasy.

“Are you suggesting that I gave such orders?”

“I’m suggesting that at some stage you knew what was going on or had gone on. The very least you did was to cover up a criminal conspiracy.”

“Why should I go along with something that damaged my company?”

“You sold a substantial holding of your shares the week before the strike, Mr. Haig. And more after the strike was over. Why was that?”

“I needed the money for other purposes.”

Haig’s eyes looked down at his desk to avoid Nolan’s stare.

“Your bank account shows a pretty healthy balance over that period, Mr. Haig.”

The older man’s head came up quickly and for the first time since they had talked Haig looked scared.

“You must have had a Federal warrant to get that information, Mr. Nolan.”

“I have.”

Haig shifted in his chair to face Nolan.

“What the hell are you after? What is it you want to know?”

“Everything.”

“Are you charging me with some offence?”

“Not yet.”

“Right. So get the hell out of my plant.”

Nolan stood up. Haig was frightened now and one more small pressure would be enough to make him crack. But there was no point in giving any clue as to what they were investigating. The first arrests would have to be the top people.

Back at the house Nolan read through the radio reports from New York. Kleppe had only left his apartment for local shopping but they had noted two public phone boxes that he seemed to use regularly. Arrangements had been made to bug them during the night.

There were reports of three men who also could be watching the apartment. Photographs had been taken and sent to Central Records for possible identification. If they were watching it was considered that they might be professionals, as they were doing it so well.

Attempts were being made to use a window bug on Kleppe’s apartment but so far they had been unsuccessful. Was Nolan prepared to authorize an application for a full-scale tapping at the telephone exchange? He initialled the sheet with a negative.

MacKay came in as he signed the last sheet. Nolan spoke while he manoeuvred a refill into his ball-point.

“Get out a pad, James, and let’s have a look at what we’ve got.”

They took a break for a meal but it was three hours later when the list was complete.

Nolan looked unhappy as he read down the final list.

“You know what’s wrong with this, James?”

“Tell me.”

“We could arrest Kleppe right now. And have him deported. We could prove that Dempsey fixed the strike at the Haig plant and that that helped Powell. And we could prove that he is an associate of Kleppe. But that’s all. And throwing out Kleppe wouldn’t do a damn thing. They would have been warned and Kleppe’s replacement would have to be more careful. That’s all we could do.”

“All we need is to link Dempsey with Kleppe. His link with Powell is public.”

“That wouldn’t prove that Powell knew what they were doing.”

“But it could invalidate the election if it was proved that the result was achieved by criminal conspiracy.”

“Maybe. I’m not sure what the ground rules are. But that would be a last resort.”

“Let’s try and establish what the ideal solution would be.”

“You mean assuming that Powell is part of some conspiracy?”

“Yes. Let us assume that we can prove Dempsey and Kleppe were working under Soviet orders to get Powell in the White House. What would we want to happen?”

“It depends on whether Powell was part of the conspiracy. Did he know, or was he in total ignorance of what was going on?”

“Let us assume that it is neither extreme. He wasn’t in total ignorance but Dempsey and his backers had never told him what was going on.”

“He’d have to be out of his mind not to notice that something was odd.”

“Or maybe just blinded by ambition?”

Nolan looked towards the window as he absorbed the facts. Finally he looked back at MacKay.

“We’ll have to assume that he wasn’t fully in the picture but he was aware that something was going on. And that’s too indefinite a condition for us to prove. A court or a committee could easily come to that conclusion after hearing all the evidence, but that’s all.”

“So they hit Kleppe and Dempsey, but Powell carries on.”

“Congress would turn their backs on him. He would be a cypher, and the whole country would be in turmoil for four years. God knows what the rest of the world would think. It would be an impossible situation.”

“So we’ve got to do two separate things. We’ve got to prove that there’s a Soviet plot that got Powell into the White House and that it was organized by Kleppe and Dempsey. And when we’ve proved that, Powell has to be pressured out on fear of exposure.”

Nolan groaned. “That’s it, friend. It sounds so short and simple, but it ain’t.”

“May I make a suggestion?”

Nolan grinned. “Sure.”

“How about I look into Powell’s background while you’re dealing with Dempsey.”

“OK, but just desk research, no personal contacts.”