“Okay,” Daniel said. “Let’s shag ass outta here and get me to my office.”
George spun the wheels of the car getting out of the alley as Daniel returned the gun to its holster. “Jesus!” George said.
“Do you have any other assignments after you drop me off?” Daniel said.
“I was told to stay with you all day.”
“No. Drop me off and then go back to your garage. As soon as you get there, call and let me know if they’re still following you.”
George glanced in the mirror. “They’re behind us again.”
“I expected them,” Daniel said. “I just wanted to make sure of what they were doing.” He caught a glimpse of George’s worried face in the mirror. “Nothing to be afraid of,” he said reassuringly. “They know we’re on to them now. They won’t make any trouble.”
The car stopped in front of the two-story taxpayer building that housed the offices. Without looking around, Daniel walked into the building and went directly to his office. He was in the midst of his morning mail when the call came.
“This is George, Mr. Huggins. I’m at the garage. They didn’t follow me.”
“Okay, George. Thanks.”
“Is there anything else you want me to do?”
“No, George. I’ll call you if there’s anything. Thanks again.” He pressed a button on his phone. A moment later, Moses and Jack were in his office. “There’s a blue Dodge sedan parked somewhere on the street outside with two men in it. They’ve been tailing me since I left the house this morning.”
“Do you know who they are?” Moses asked, concern in his voice.
“I haven’t the faintest idea. Have someone get the license-plate number for us, then see if we can find out who the car belongs to through our friends in the police department.”
“I’ll do it myself,” Moses said quickly.
“No. If they know me, they know you. Send one of the office boys or a stenographer. Tell them not to be obvious. Just walk by and get the number. That’s all.”
“Okay,” Moses said. He left the office.
Daniel turned to Jack. “What’s our position if we’re questioned on any of our clients’ affairs?”
Jack looked at him. “If they have exercised proper legal procedures and you’re required to testify under oath, you have no choice but to answer the questions.”
Daniel was silent.
“You don’t enjoy the protection of a lawyer-client or even a doctor-patient relationship, if that’s what you’re thinking,” he added.
“What about files that have been entrusted to us by our subscribers?”
“If they’re subpoenaed, you have to turn them over.”
Daniel nodded and stared thoughtfully down at his desk. “Better get everything we have in the place that comes from outside and make arrangements to get them back to whichever unions are concerned. I want nothing in our files by tonight except our own papers.”
“You’re making it tough on us,” Jack said. “We need a lot of those papers so that we can do our job.”
“I don’t give a damn,” Daniel said. “I’m not going to be the back door for any son of a bitch that wants to get to one of our subscribers. You get those files out of here. Tomorrow we’ll start planning small task forces to work in the subscribers’ own offices. It may be a little inconvenient, but we’ll get the work done.”
“It’s also going to cost money,” Jack said.
Daniel looked at him. “Can you tell me what doesn’t?”
Moses came back into the office. “We know who the car belongs to. We didn’t have to call the police. It’s stamped right on the plates. U.S. Gov’t. GSA.”
Daniel looked up at him. “Know anybody over at General Services who will tell us what department the car is assigned to?”
“I think so,” Moses said. He picked up the phone and dialed rapidly. He spoke into the telephone in a quiet voice, then covered the mouthpiece with his hand. “He’s checking for us.” A moment later, he said, “Thank you” and put down the telephone. “It’s signed out to the McClellan committee,” he announced.
The Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field was the full name. “Okay,” Daniel said. “At least we know now what we’re dealing with. There’s only two unions they’re targeting. The United Auto Workers and the Teamsters. And since we’re not signed with the U.A.W., we have to assume they’re tying us into the Teamsters.” He looked up at Jack. “You make sure that the Teamsters’ files are the first you get out of here.”
Chapter 10
“We’re fools,” Daniel said, pushing the elaborate report on the table away from him.
“What’s wrong?” Moses asked anxiously.
“Nothing,” Daniel said. “We’ve just been sitting on a gold mine and we never knew it. Here we are recommending investments for the Teamsters’ pension fund and we’re doing nothing about it ourselves.”
“What can we do about it?” Jack asked.
“We can start our own fund,” Daniel said.
“We haven’t got that kind of money,” Moses said.
“We can get it.” Daniel lit a fresh cigar and blew a gust of smoke toward the ceiling. “Union Mutual Funds. We open it up so that individual union members as well as locals can subscribe. There are hundreds of small independent locals who haven’t enough money to go into a plan on their own who will jump at an opportunity to join in.”
“We’ll still need a lot of money to get it off the ground,” Jack said. “Maybe as much as ten or fifteen million dollars, for openers.”
“I can get it,” Daniel said confidently. “Between the Teamsters and the UMW it will be easy. And what’s more, it will be a good public relations move for them. Some of their investments, while they may be profitable, are beginning to smell a little bit. This could freshen the air for them.”
“It’s very interesting,” Jack said cautiously.
“I don’t know,” Moses said cautiously. “It could change the whole nature of our operation. We move from the position of adviser to manager.”
“I can’t see anything wrong in that,” Daniel said. “It’s consistent with our purpose. To provide better security for the union man.”
“It could be tricky,” Moses said. “We don’t know anything about running a fund like that.”
“We hire experts. There isn’t a stockbroker in the world who wouldn’t jump at a chance to come in on a deal like this. Right now we have over three million union members in unions affiliated with us. Just one hundred dollars from each member gives us three hundred million dollars to invest. You don’t have to be an expert to know that if you invest only in blue-chip stocks, you’ll average an eight-percent return on the money. That’s twenty-four million dollars a year, and if our service fees for management are only half the commercial rate, we’ll be earning three million dollars a year.”
“That’s almost twice what we’re collecting in affiliation dues right now,” Moses said. “And we don’t have to go around hat in hand.”
“You’re beginning to get the idea,” Daniel said. He picked up the report on the desk. “Jack, you get started on this right away. I want to know everything we need to set up shop.”
“Right.”
He turned to Moses. “Get the statistical department to make up a list of members of each affiliated local. Names and home addresses.”
“We’ll have to get that from the unions,” Moses said. “Right now we collect on the per capita reports sent us by the unions.”
“Get it, then.”
“What will I tell them?” Moses asked. “You know how touchy they are about giving out members’ names.”
“Tell them we’re doing a study on members’ living conditions. Anything. Just figure out something, but get the information.”
“Okay.”
The two men got to their feet. Jack gestured at the report. “Do you want me to send that on to Hoffa?”
“No,” Daniel
said. “I think I’ll deliver this one myself.”
***
“Something’s on your mind,” Hoffa said shrewdly. “Otherwise you wouldn’t have come down here yourself just to bring these.”
“That’s right,” Daniel said. “In addition to our recommendations in that folder, I want you to invest fifteen million dollars in a mutual fund that we’re starting.”
Hoffa looked at him. “What makes you think I’m gonna give you money to start up a mutual fund when we can start our own?”
“Good public relations.” He smiled. “It will show that your concern for labor transcends jurisdictional lines. That you’re concerned not only with the welfare of the Teamsters but with all union members equally.”
“What kind of crap is that?” Hoffa asked.
Daniel laughed. “Want the bottom line?”
Hoffa nodded. “You bet your ass I do.”
“For the last two weeks I’ve been under surveillance by agents of the McClellan committee. Our friends up on the Hill tell me the reason they’re watching me is that they’re after you and they figure our association will lead them to something they can use against you. Any day now they’re going to come marching in here to look over your records.”
“What the hell are they looking for?”
“I don’t know. And I have a hunch they don’t know either. They just figure with the kind of money pouring in, there has to be something illegal going on.”
“They ain’t gonna find nothin’ in my files.”
“They won’t in mine either,” Daniel said. “I had every piece of paper I received from the Teamsters sent back to you two weeks ago.”
“How come nobody told me about it?”
“I don’t know. I had everything sent back to Gibbons.”
Hoffa reached for the telephone. “I’ll get Gibbons in here.”
“That can wait,” Daniel said. “It’s not important now. You better do what I did. Get hold of your legal department and find out exactly what rights you have if they do come in.”
Hoffa stared at him. Then he nodded. “Yeah.”
Daniel was silent.
“Who else is putting money into this mutual fund you’re starting?” Hoffa asked.
“The UMW is coming in for five million.”
“Then why should I kick in fifteen?”
“Because you’re three times as rich as they are.”
Hoffa laughed. “You lay it right on the line, Big Dan.” He opened the report and glanced through the pages. “What makes you think that will be a better investment than any of these you recommend?”
“I don’t know whether it will be better. I only know it will be safer. Every deal in there involves a degree of speculation. You might make a lot of money, or you might blow it. We’re staying in blue-chips. Nothing fancy—just straight-line steady growth. You might not make as much money, but you won’t get hurt.”
“Do we get any special consideration for coming in early?”
“You can put a man on the investment committee.”
Hoffa laughed. “A lotta good that will do us. I got those assholes on my committee and I still have to make every decision myself.” He leaned back in his chair. “For fifteen million bucks we ought to get some extra points.”
Daniel shook his head. “That’s exactly what I want to stay away from. This is going to be a public fund. I don’t want politicians to be able to turn this into another political football. We’re going to play this one by the rule book.”
“Okay, Big Dan,” Hoffa said. “We go by the book.”
***
“Five million dollars,” Lewis said thoughtfully. He glanced across the desk at his associates. “What do you think, Tom?”
Kennedy nodded his head. “It has good possibilities.”
“Tony?” Lewis asked.
“I think it could do what Big Dan says. It opens the door for all union members to get in on the American market for peanuts, and it makes good P.R. for us to associate with it.”
“Five million dollars is a lot of money,” Lewis said.
Daniel was silent. Considering that Lewis had bought a Washington, D.C., bank for the UMW which now had assets of over two hundred million dollars and that the UMW’s cash deposits in that bank were in excess of fifty million dollars at this very moment, the old man was doing a good job of poor-mouthing it.
Lewis leaned across the desk. “How much capital have you already got committed to this project, Mr. Huggins?”
Daniel smiled. “If you give me the five, I’ll have twenty million dollars to start up.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Nothing,” Daniel said flatly.
“Where are you getting the other fifteen?”
“From the Teamsters.”
Lewis’s voice held disbelief. “Dave Beck?”
“No, sir. Central States. Jimmy Hoffa.”
“So if I don’t give you the money, Jimmy Hoffa won’t?”
“No, sir. He attached no strings to his investment. It’s just that if you don’t come in, I won’t take his money.”
“Why not?”
“I need a broader base in the labor movement than just one union. I want to begin something that transcends all union lines. Something that could be of benefit and opportunity to every union member, no matter what union he happens to be part of.”
John L. Lewis looked at him. “That sounds idealistic.”
“It might be, sir. But there’s nothing wrong with ideals. If you hadn’t had them, the mine workers would still be where they were when I first went down into the mines as a boy forty-five years ago.”
Lewis nodded slowly. “That’s true. We sometimes forget the struggle that made all this possible. A struggle that will never end, one that will forever demand our vigilance.” He turned to Tom Kennedy. “Tom, work out the arrangements with Mr. Huggins. In my opinion, he’s embarking on a very constructive step for the labor movement in America.”
Chapter 11
“The key to the success or failure of the fund will be the individual investors. Otherwise we leave ourselves open to the charge that we’re just another branch of the big unions’ drive to monopolize their treasuries’ money.” Jack Haney’s voice was clinical. “It will also make a difference in the way Wall Street looks on us. Right now, they’re not too happy about our plan.”
“Screw ’em,” Daniel said. “Who gives a damn what they think?”
“You can’t say that,” Jack replied. “Without their help we go nowhere in a hurry. They have to invite you into the club; just money won’t buy your way in.”
Daniel was silent for a moment. “We need the funding of the Teamsters and the UMW or we can’t get started.”
“They recognize that,” Jack said. “And they’re not against it. It’s just that they feel the fund should have a broader base at the beginning. They’d be satisfied if we had as little as fifty thousand shareholders with minimal investments.”
“It’s going to take time to get them,” Daniel said. “By the time we get the mailings out, the prospectuses, process the replies and finally sell shares, at least six to ten months will go by. I don’t want to wait that long.”
“I don’t know any way to speed it up,” Jack said.
Moses, who had been silent until now, spoke up. “I know how it can be done.” He turned to Jack. “You weren’t around here when Big Dan traveled the country picking up memberships for CALL when we were starting out. He’s the greatest salesman in the world. They love him out there. He’s one of them.”
Daniel looked at him. “I don’t know. This is something else.”
“It’s the same thing, Big Dan,” Moses said. “You got to go out there where your strength lies. You let them see you, they’ll follow you.”
“It will still take time,” Daniel said.
“I can set things up. You can cover the whole country in two months,” Moses said. “We still have a lot of friends out there. And if we sweeten the deal by
offering officers and stewards a ten-percent commission payable in shares based on the subscriptions by their locals, we can’t miss.”
Daniel thought for a moment. “How long would it take for you to get that program in motion?”
“I can have you on the road as early as next week,” Moses said. “In two months you’d be back here with all the shareholders we need to make everybody happy.”
“I have to be here by the middle of next month at the latest,” Daniel said. “Margaret’s expecting the baby about then.”
“We can work our schedule around it,” Moses said. “It’s up to you.”
Daniel looked at Jack. “Do we have any druthers?”
Jack shook his head. “I don’t know any other way.”
Daniel thought for a moment, then finally agreed. “Okay,” he said. “Start working on it. But remember, keep the middle week of next month open.” He looked at his watch. It was after seven o’clock. “I’d better be getting home. I promised Margaret I wouldn’t be late for dinner.”
There were two men waiting for him as he came down the steps into the lobby of the office building. He recognized one of them as Lansky’s bodyguard, the tall blond man he had first met at the Miami Airport.
“Mr. Huggins,” the blond man said politely. “The boss would like to see you.”
“Fine,” Daniel said. “Ask him to give me a call at home. We’ll set up an appointment.”
“He wants to see you now,” the blond man insisted.
“I’m already late for dinner,” Daniel said. “My wife is expecting me.”
“So is the boss,” came the noncommittal answer.
Daniel looked at him. “He’ll have to wait.”
“No, he won’t.”
Daniel looked down and saw the outline of a gun in the man’s pocket. It was aimed at him. Daniel laughed. “I guess he won’t.”
“We have a car outside.” The other man led the way to the black limousine parked in front of the building, the blond man staying at Daniel’s side. A driver was behind the wheel. The two men climbed into the back seat with Daniel. The car pulled out into traffic.
Daniel looked back out the rear window and saw the blue Dodge sedan move out after them. He turned to the blond man. “Mr. L. is not going to be too happy about this,” he said. “You’re taking the Feds right to his door.”
Memories of Another Day Page 42
