'No,' Hahn said. 'I repeat my offer. One hundred thousand dollars.'
That started them off again, all of them but Ackerman and Vilar, and again I won't try to sort it out. But three of them got to their feet, and soon Urquhart left the red leather chair and made it four, and I got up and crossed to the door to the hall. Again there was a clear majority, and when Vilar and Igoe joined me at the door Wolfe spoke up.
'You will hear from me. All of you. From Mr. Good-win. He will telephone and make appointments to suit your convenience-and mine. The best hours for me are eleven in the morning, six in the afternoon, and nine in the evening, but for this I would trim. I don't want to protract it, and neither do you. There will -' I missed the rest because Igoe had headed for the front and I went to help with his coat and hat.
When all five of them were out and the door shut, and I returned to the office, Ackerman was in the red leather chair, leaning back with his legs crossed. He was big and broad, and the yellow chairs were much smaller. As I crossed to my desk he was saying, '… but you don't know anything about me except that I look like John N. Mitchell.'
He not only admitted it, he even put the N in. I liked that.
'I have been told,' Wolfe said, 'that you are a reputable and respected member of the bar.'
'Certainly. I haven't been indicted or disbarred. I have had an office in Washington for twenty-four years. I'm not a criminal lawyer, so I haven't been invited to act for Dean or Haldeman or Ehrlichman or Colson or Magruder or Hunt or Segretti. Or even Nixon. Do you actually expect to put me through that catechism you dictated?'
'Probably not. Why were you included in that gathering?'
'It's complicated. Albert Judd was and is chief counsel for NATELEC. Five years ago he was acting on a tax matter for them and needed a Washington man and got me. That's how I met Harvey Bassett. Bassett thought he needed a good lobbyist, and I got Ernest Urquhart, one of the best. I have known him for years. He disappointed me here tonight. He is usually a wonderful talker, I know that, but I guess this wasn't his pitch. I had never met the other three -Hahn, the banker, or Vilar, the security man, or Igoe. I knew Igoe is a vice-president of the corporation.'
'Then you know nothing about Hahn's comment about Mrs. Bassett. And Igoe.'
I raised a brow. What did that have to do with Watergate and tapes? 'No. Yes, nothing. I -' He flipped a hand. 'Except hearsay.'
'Whom did you hear say what?'
I have tried to talk him out of that 'whom.'
Only highbrows and grandstanders and schoolteachers say 'whom,' and he knows it. It's the mule in him.
Ackerman's chin was up. 'I'm submitting to this, Wolfe, only because of them. Especially Urquhart and Judd. Judd called me last night-Igoe had talked to him-and I took a plane to New York this mom-ing and we had lunch. He told me things about Basset that I hadn't known, and one of them was his- he didn't say 'obsession,' he said 'fix' about his wife.
I don't peddle hearsay; you can ask Judd.'
'I shall. Did you know how Bassett felt about Nixon and tapes?'
'Yes. A few months ago he and Judd were in Washington about some patents- know something about patents-and we spent a whole evening on Nixon and tapes. Bassett had the wild idea that Nixon could be sued for damages-ten million dollars-for slandering and defaming manufacturers of electronic recorders by using them for criminal and corrupt purposes. We couldn't talk him out of it. He was a nut. I don't know if he was balmy about his wife, but he was about that. Of course that was a part of how he made it big in business-his drive. He had that.
'What was said-decided-about it at that meeting?'
'Nothing was decided. Bassett wanted Vilar to say that it was difficult to persuade corporation executives to contract for security appliances and personnel because they thought Nixon had given electronic equipment a bad name. He wanted Urquhart to say that if you tried to lobby for anybody connected in any way with electronics, no one on the Hill would listen to you. He wanted Igoe to say that men working in electronics-all levels, top to bottom-were quitting and you couldn't get replacements. He wanted Judd and me to say that all of that was actionable and we would act. God only knows what he wanted Hahn to do-maybe lend him a couple of million without interest to back the crusade.'
Wolfe was eying him. 'And you grown men, presumably sentient, soberly discussed that drivel? Or were you tipsy?'
'No. Judd and I hadn't even had martinis, because we knew Bassett would buy Montrachet and Chateau Latour. He always did. But you didn't know Harvey Bassett. He could sell ice cubes to an Eskimo. Also, of course, he was a source of our income – for at least two of them a major source-and you don't spit in the eye of the source of your income. You take a bite of roast pheasant and a sip of La-tour and pretend to listen hard. Most men do. I do. From what I've heard of you, maybe you don't.'
'It's a matter of style. I have mine. I have due regard for my sources of income. Is one-' 'Like me, you have different clients for different cases. Who's your client in this one?'
'I am. Myself. I have had my nose pulled. Spat upon. Pierre Ducos was murdered in a bedroom of my house. The man who did it will pay. Is one-' 'Then why are you withholding evidence from the police?'
'Because it's my job. And it may not be evidence; I'm finding out I start a question the third time: Is one of your clients connected in any way with Water-gate?'
'Everyone in Washington is connected in some way with Watergate. That's stretching it, but not much. The members of all those juries have thousands of relatives and friends. No present or former client of mine is or has been actually involved in Watergate. You're supposed to be asking the questions, but ask another one. Do you really believe one of us six men killed Harvey Bassett? Or was implicated in his murder or the other one?'
'Of course I do. I'm paying three men forty dollars an hour to inquire about you. To your knowledge, have any of them been connected in any way with Watergate?'
'To my knowledge, no. If I were Haldeman, I would say not to my recollection, but I'm not Haldeman.'
