“Leave me alone. Let go of me.”
He squeezed her arms and shook her. “Don’t play with me, young lady. You don’t know who the hell you’re dealing with.”
“You’re wrong. I know exactly who I’m dealing with. You’re the man that everyone hates.” Mimi lunged for the door, but Stanley held her wrist and flung her backward.
“Let me go! Help!” she shouted. “Help!”
Stanley laughed loudly. “I’m afraid there’s no cavalry in sight, and you’ve stuck your little nose where it doesn’t belong. Who told you to plant those listening devices? It was Bryant, wasn’t it? That snively little bastard. Always complaining. Always drunk. Never enough money for his salacious appetite or his greedy wife. Was it him? Or was it your idea? Maybe that’s it. Maybe Mimi Gold covets a front-page exclusive? Too bad no one will ever read that story.”
“Listen, I’m working with the FBI, so you better let me go.”
He laughed again, a loud, mocking laugh. “The FBI? Mimi Gold, special agent? Ha, ha! It seems to me that Mr. Hoover is going to lose one of his top agents. You made a fatal mistake today, little lady agent.”
“Are you going to kill me like you murdered Christine and Preston and then burn the house down?”
Stanley smiled. “This house? Goodness, no. I built this house and everything in it. Vittie was a clueless freshman congressman from a know-nothing immigrant district when I met him. Probably still is. I showed him how to manage this district. I opened his eyes to the opportunities available to a creative congressman. Do you think that wealth and power come easily? I worked hard to build this house. It’s a monument to me. I certainly wouldn’t burn it down. But you, little lady, have become a threat to my monument. You know too much.”
“Is that why you killed Chrissie and Preston? Did they know too much? Were they threats to your monument?”
“Well, on that account you’re mistaken. I didn’t kill anyone. Not that I’m sorry that the whiny little bitch and her boorish husband were silenced. It was well done, but not by me.”
“Listen, Stanley, the FBI knows I’m here. You’d be smart to give yourself up right now.”
Stanley laughed heartily. “Oh my God, the FBI again. I don’t see them, Mimi, where are they?”
Mimi stood tall. “They know those ledger books are in here, and when they seize them, all of you will end up in jail.”
Stanley slowly shook his head from side to side. “They’ll never find the books, and sadly they’ll never find you either.”
Suddenly Vera appeared in the doorway holding a cup of tea. “What’s going on in here?” she demanded. “I heard shouting.”
“Help me, Vera,” Mimi cried. “He’s threatening to kill me. Call the police. Hurry.”
Vera dropped the cup. “What are you doing, Michael? Are you crazy? Let her go.”
“I’m afraid not, Vera. Things have reached a critical stage in my professional career. And, I’m afraid, that of your husband’s as well. As his trusted chief of staff, you know I am charged with the responsibility of protecting him and you. Now I want you to turn around, go upstairs and close your door. Do you understand me?”
“Michael. She’s just a sweet girl, a friend of Christine’s.”
“Turn around, Vera. Go upstairs. Now!”
Vera sighed, turned and walked out of the room.
Stanley pulled Mimi over to the desk, opened a drawer, extracted a silver pistol and stuck it in his belt. “Now it’s time to dispose of this inconvenient problem. We’re going to take a ride.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
Stanley shrugged. “Dead or alive, you’re going.”
“Freeze, Stanley,” Cliff Ryan said, entering the room, followed by Eli, Vera and two other agents. “Hands up where I can see them.”
Mimi pulled her arm from Stanley’s grip and stepped to the side. “Thank God! Where did you come from?”
Ryan smiled. “We were in the truck outside, listening and recording. Mrs. Zielinski let us in.” Vera raised her eyebrows and nodded.
“You heard everything that was going on?” Mimi said.
Ryan nodded. “Every bit.”
“And you stood by and let him threaten to kill me? He could have shot me. Or I could have had a heart attack.”
“We wanted to get as much as we could.”
Stanley looked at Eli. “Well, if it isn’t Eli Rosen, I’ll be damned. I should have figured you were behind this somehow. You’ve been plaguing me for thirty years.”
“End of the road, Maximilian. Your scheming days are over.”
“It’s Michael Stanley, if you please. He’s a much more successful man and I’m quite fond of him.”
“All your schemes, all your lies—it’s all over. I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time. You’re finished.”
Stanley had a confident smile on his face as he was being cuffed and led away. “Maybe yes and maybe no.” He looked at Ryan. “I know where the grapes of wrath are buried, Special Agent. Ring me up when you want to make a deal.”
CHAPTER SEVENTY
CHICAGO
MARCH 1966
Mimi watched Stanley’s interrogation from behind the one-way mirror. In the room, Stanley sat on one side of a long metal table facing Eli and Cliff Ryan. Kenneth Berman, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, stood to the side. Several of the green ledger books lay open on the table. Stanley was drumming his fingers on the table and shrugging off questions as they were being posed. Ryan would fire questions at him, pound the table and point their fingers in his face, but Stanley remained indifferent and smugly shook his head. Finally, he said, “When you’re prepared to make me a reasonable offer, I’ll answer all your questions. In fact, I’ll give you what you need to bring the house down.”
Eli slammed his fist. “Not this time, Poleski. No end runs this time. There’ll be no white knight riding in to cut you loose. Congressman Zielinski will be arrested, as will all of the crooked military contractors. We have hours of tape, more than enough to keep all of you behind bars for the rest of your lives.”
Stanley scoffed and shook his head. “Don’t take me for a fool. Zielinski hasn’t been arrested or he’d be in this room listening to your threats instead of me. You have nothing. No evidence to take down Zielinski or anyone else.”
“Well, we certainly have you, Stanley,” Ryan said. “Caught red-handed, and it’s all on tape. ‘They’ll never find the ledger books or you either,’ wasn’t that what you said? And then there’s the hours of meetings on tape. You have a very recognizable voice.”
Stanley wasn’t fazed. “Oh, I was present at all those meetings, but when you listen to your tapes, what do you hear? We were very careful about what we said and how we said it. The possibility of eavesdropping was always on our minds. Do you think a jury will convict someone of agreeing to contribute forty-five thousand dollars to the March of Dimes? Is that evidence of corruption, or is it a selfless act of civic charity? You heard conversations of donations to worthy causes. Did you ever hear the word ‘payoff’? Did you hear the word ‘kickback’? No? I didn’t think so. You heard us speak of military contracts and the necessity for weapons and war materials desperately needed by our troops valiantly fighting the communists in Vietnam. A congressman is supposed to do his background research before recommending large military expenditures. Holding meetings with contractors is hardly a crime. That’s the business of a congressman.”