incinerated.”
“Do you think that was the plan, and that’s why napalm was used?”
“What do you mean?” he asks.
“Well, would whoever used the napalm have been likely to know that incineration would be the result?”
He nods. “I would certainly think so.”
“Then why not leave the cans behind to be incinerated along with everything else?” I ask. “Why take one can that he burned himself on, and carry it three blocks?”
“I can’t say.”
“That’s too bad.”
“We got something, Andy. Hilda found it.”
It’s the first message on my answering machine when I get home, and as I’m listening to it, Laurie walks into the room.
“Sam found something,” I say.
“I know; I spoke to him. They’re on the way over.”
“They?”
She laughs. “Apparently they travel as a group.” When I grimace, she adds, “They’re nice people, Andy. This is an adventure for them.”
“Do you know what they found?”
“No, Sam wouldn’t say; he wants Hilda to have the honor.”
“The State of New Jersey, the prosecutor’s office, and the FBI versus Hilda Mandlebaum. It’s a steel-cage fight to the finish.”
“My money’s on Hilda.”
Before they arrive, Marcus shows up. Laurie had called him in case whatever it was that Sam’s gang came up with needed following up.
Tara practically lights up when she sees Marcus, who never fails to pet her. She follows him as he heads straight for the kitchen and the refrigerator, giving me time to ask Laurie, “How many of Sam’s five interns are going to have a coronary when they see Marcus? I would make the over-under number three.”
“I think they’re probably tougher than you think,” she says.
Sam and his gang walk in about fifteen minutes later, four hundred and twenty-seven years of hard-nosed investigators, not including Sam. Each of them carries a briefcase; they look like an army of aged accountants.
If they are intimidated by Marcus, they don’t show it, and Morris Fishman mentions that Marcus looks like somebody he knew in Korea.
“You fought in Korea?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “I bought fabric there. I was in the dress business… shmatas.”
Marcus nods knowingly, as if he’s spent the weekend shmata-shopping with Hilda. I feel like I’m on the planet Goofball.
“Let’s get started, shall we?” I ask.
Sam nods. “Sure. Hilda?”
Hilda shrugs and says, “You go ahead, Sammy. You can tell it better than I can.”
Sam opens his briefcase and takes out some pieces of paper. He hands a copy of the first one to Laurie, Marcus, and me. Each of the “gang” also takes out their own copy to refer to it. It’s a photograph of a distinguished-looking man, about forty-five years old.
“This is Walter Holland. He’s the presiding judge in the Delaware Chancery Court. Undergraduate at Princeton and then went to Virginia Law, top of his class. Clerked for a justice in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Married to the former Alice Simmons for three years; they have one adopted child, Benji, and they live a mile from the courthouse. Very well respected, and considered to be the leading jurist on business law in the country. We’ve listed the rest of his bio and some of his most important cases at the bottom of the page.”
I don’t have to ask why I should care about Judge Holland or his background, since he was on the cell phone list. Laurie had tried repeatedly to reach him, but was unable to. What I am now waiting for is what Sam has learned about Holland that has caused him to single him out.
Sam takes out more paper from his briefcase, again handing a copy to the three of us. Again, the “gang” does the same. Another man is pictured in this photo, a little younger than Holland, and a little harder. Even in this photo, it’s clear that this man does not suffer fools gladly, and is used to getting his way.
“This is Alex Bauer,” Sam says. “He is the CEO of Entech Industries, a relatively small energy company, with holdings in the South and Midwest. He’s a former marine, former amateur boxing champ, reputation for being tough.”
“I spoke with him,” Laurie says. “He gave me the party line, that he had no idea what I was talking about, and I should call him back when I had more specifics.”
“Well, you’re about to have some. For the last five and a half years, Entech Industries has been trying to acquire Milgram Oil and Gas, a publicly owned company with a market capitalization that makes it maybe thirty percent larger than Entech.”
“So Entech is borrowing the money to buy it?” I ask.
“That’s not clear,” Sam says. “Either that, or they have other investors behind them, or they’ll sell off pieces of the acquired company. One way or the other, Bauer and Entech do not seem concerned, and they’re offering a forty percent premium on the stock, up from an initial offer of a twenty percent premium.”
“Why isn’t Milgram accepting the offer?” I ask.
“Two reasons. One, it’s a mostly family-owned company, been one for generations. Between five siblings they have more than thirty percent, and just don’t want to give up the business. The second reason is that they have been pioneers in wind technology, and have invested heavily in it. There’s a school of thought that as a country we are headed in that direction, and that the government is going to make a huge investment in it. They’d be on the ground floor.”
“Is that why Entech wants it?” Laurie asks.
“Probably, but they haven’t commented on it. Milgram also has land holdings that it is drilling for oil on, and a lot that it has the rights to but hasn’t gotten started on yet.”
“Why haven’t the other seventy percent of the stockholders taken the offer?”
“Because the board is controlled by the Milgram family, and they’ve adopted a poison pill. Stanley used to be a stockbroker… Stanley?”
Stanley says, “Companies that don’t want to be taken over, but think, oy, it could happen, make a poison pill. There are different types, but this one says that if any outsider buys more than twenty percent of the shares, the current shareholders can buy more shares at a reduced price. It dilutes the value of the newcomer’s shares. The more he buys, the less they’re worth.”
“Oy,” Laurie says, and I look at Marcus. If he says “Oy,” I’m out of here.
“But how do the two tie together?” I ask.
“Bauer and Entech are suing Milgram, claiming the poison pill is illegal,” Sam says. “If they win, they get the company. Milgram’s been fighting it, and draining their assets in the process. It’s considered very unlikely that they’d have the resources to appeal and have this drag on further in the courts.”
“Let me guess. The suit is being heard in Delaware, with Judge Holland presiding.”
Hilda points at me and says to Sam, “He’s very good.”
“Hilda, if I was that good, I’d know what to do with this.”
I tell Laurie I’ll work on Judge Holland, while she deals with Bauer.
The problem is that I have no idea how to do that. It’s pretty tough to get hold of big-time judges, though the fact that Holland doesn’t know me is a plus. Judges who know me have a tendency not to be too fond of me.
It’s also not the smartest thing in the world to accuse judges of doing bad things, especially when the accuser has no evidence and doesn’t know what the bad things are.
So basically, I need to figure out a way to reach him, and then figure out what to say if I do.
“Judge Holland’s office,” is how the woman answers the phone when I call. I’m surprised anyone answered the phone, since it’s Saturday. But he’s apparently preparing an opinion, so I thought I’d take a shot.
“I’d like to speak to the judge, please,” I say. “My name is Andy Carpenter.”
“May I ask what it is in reference to?”
