(1976) The R Document (36 page)

Collins frowned. ‘I don’t know. I don’t like to take the risk. If Tynan found out -‘

‘Jim Shack and the other men are very discreet. They’re better than the best Tynan has today.’

Collins was still worried. ‘Let me think about it.’

‘There isn’t much time,’ Pierce reminded him. “The California Assembly votes today -‘

‘Hey!’ exclaimed Van Allen, jumping out of his chair. ‘It’s on television. We almost forgot.’

He hastened to the television set on the dresser.

‘Yes,’ said Pierce. ‘Let’s see if all our lobbying with the Assemblymen did any good. If they should vote against it, it’s all over for Tynan, and our work is done. But if they pass it-‘

‘What are the odds?’ asked Collins, finding a seat in the armchair.

‘At last count, the Assembly was leaning toward passage. It’s the State Senate that’s a flip of the coin. Yet you never can tell. Let’s see.’

The television set was on. All four in the room gave it their undivided attention.

The camera was focused on the gold-lettered motto over the framed portrait of Abraham Lincoln above the elevated speaker’s rostrum. The motto read, Legislatorum Est Justas Leges Condere.

‘What does it mean?’ Van Allen asked.

‘It means, “It is the duty of legislators to make just laws”,’ explained Collins.

‘Ha,’ said Pierce.

The camera was slowly pulling back to show the desks below the speaker’s rostrum where bills and resolutions were processed. Now the camera revealed the eighty Assemblymen at their individual desks in the chamber and the standing microphones in the five aisles.

The third and last reading of the resolution, the 35th Amendment, was taking place.

‘Section 1. Number 1. No right or liberty guaranteed by the Constitution shall be construed as license to endanger the national security. Number 2. In the event of clear and present danger, a Committee on National Safety, appointed by the President, shall meet in joint session with the National Security Council. Number 3. Upon determination that national security is at issue, the Committee on National Safety shall declare a state of emergency and assume plenipotentiary powers, supplanting Constitutional authority until the established danger has been brought under control and/or eliminated. Number 4. The chairman of the Committee shall be the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.’

‘Tynan, the Tynan clause,’ Pierce said to no one in particular.

The reading on the television set continued.

‘Number 5. The proclamation shall exist only during such time as the emergency is declared to be in effect, and shall be automatically terminated by formal declaration upon the emergency’s resolution. Section 2. Number 1. During the suspensory period, the remainder of all rights and privileges guaranteed by the Constitution shall be held inviolable. Number 2. All Committee action shall be taken by unanimous vote.’

The hushed voice of the network newsman came on.

“The critical vote is about to begin. Each Assemblyman votes by moving a toggle switch at his desk. If he votes “Yes”, a green bulb lights up alongside his name on the scoreboard in the front of the chamber. If he moves his toggle

switch to ‘No’ a red bulb lights up.

Keep your eye on the electric scoreboard, where the votes are automatically totaled. A mere majority will pass this Constitutional Amendment. That means, if the total vote in favor reaches forty-one, the 35th Amendment is passed in this chamber. A vote of forty-one opposed means it has been voted down. If it is voted down, that will spell the end, the death of the much-debated 35th Amendment. If it is passed, that would put the final decision as to its ratification or rejection into the State Senate of forty members three days from now.’ He paused. ‘The vote is beginning.’

Collins sat glued to his chair, watching.

The bulbs were lighting on the screen, as the minutes

ticked by.

Collins watched the electric scoreboard and the tallies. The green bulbs dominated the screen. The count moved to thirty-six, then to thirty-seven, then thirty-eight, thirty-nine, forty, forty-one.

A roar of delight could be heard from the visitors’ gallery, intermingled with groans, and now this was interrupted by the voice of the newsman.

‘It’s over in the California State Assembly. The 35th Amendment has gained its majority vote, forty-one votes out of eighty. It has been passed in the first of the two houses. Now its fate is entirely in the hands of the California State Senate less than seventy-two hours from now.’

Pierce left the bed and turned off the set. ‘I was afraid of that.’ He studied the others. ‘Looks like our work is cut out for us.’ He stepped toward Collins, who was sitting stiffly in the armchair. ‘Chris, we need all the help we can get from you. Let us try to help you, so that you can be free to help us.’

‘You mean Karen?’

‘Your wife. Tynan’s blackmail. Let me get Jim Shack and the other two into Fort Worth.’

The discouraging event on the television screen had already made up Collins’ mind for him. ‘Okay,’ he said, ‘go ahead. I appreciate your offer.’ He had decided that his last hope lay with these three men. ‘As a matter of fact, there’s something else you might help me with, if you can. ’

‘Anything that can do that gets my help,’ said Pierce, returning to his place on the edge of the bed.

Collins had come to his feet. ‘Have any of you ever heard about a paper, possibly a memorandum, called The R Document?’

‘The R Document?’ repeated Pierce. He shook his head. ‘It doesn’t ring a bell. No, I haven’t heard of it.’

Van Allen and Ingstrup also signified they had not heard of it.

‘Let me tell you about it, then,’ said Collins. ‘It all began the night Colonel Noah Baxter died. I first learned of it a few days later…’

Omitting no detail, Collins revived the familiar cast of characters and recapped the events of recent weeks, as the other three listened enrapt. For an hour, Collins talked -about Colonel Baxter, the Colonel’s widow, The R Document (‘danger - dangerous - must be exposed … I was -trick - go see’), Josh’s Tule Lake internment camp (Pierce had nodded knowingly), Assemblymen Keefe and Tobias and Yurkovich and the doctored crime statistics, Warden Jenkins and Lewisburg Penitentiary and Susie Radenbaugh and Donald Radenbaugh himself, Radenbaugh and Fisher’s Island, Chief Justice Maynard and Argo City, Radenbaugh and Ramon Escobar.

Everything was laid out before them, except the most important evidence of all. The R Document. That remained missing.

When he was done, his voice hoarse, Collins expected to find incredulity in their faces. Instead, they seemed unmoved, as they considered what they had heard. ‘You’re not shocked?’ Collins said. ‘No,’ replied Pierce. ‘It’s because we’ve seen too much, heard too much, know too much about Tynan.’ ‘You believe me, don’t you?’

‘Every word,’ said Pierce, rising to his feet. ‘We know Tynan is capable of - and has the capability to do - anything to satisfy his own ends. He’s utterly ruthless, and he’s going to win, unless we take advantage of our own capability. If you give us your full cooperation, Chris, we’ll set our entire

counterforce of ex-FBI agents and information into operation

within hours. I want you to stay here tonight, Chris. You can go back to Washington in the morning. I’ll send Van out for some food and drinks. Let’s hole up here until midnight and work out our plan. Then the three of us will separate, hit the pay phones, get the lines buzzing to our counterforce members. By morning they should all be on their assignments. How does that sound to you?’

‘I’m ready,’ said Collins.

‘Great. The most important contacts we’ll reserve for ourselves. Fast as possible, we’ll have to go over the ground you’ve already covered. I know you did a thorough job, but investigation is our life. We might be able to elicit information you couldn’t. Further, people you’ve already seen may remember some detail during a second telling that they’d previously overlooked. I’ll interrogate Radenbaugh again myself. Van Allen will go to Argo City to case the town once more. Ingstrup will sit down with Father Dubinski. And you, I think you should see Hannah Baxter again, Chris. I think you could do better with her than any of us. Is that okay?’

‘I’ll see her again,’ promised Collins. ‘What about Ishmael

Young?’

Pierce considered this, then shook his head. “No. I’m sure he’s on our side, but he’s too close to Tynan. He might let something slip accidentally. If that happened, all our heads would roll.’ He paused. ‘Now, is there anyone else?’

Collins had a thought. Tshmael Young mentioned, the last time I saw him, that Vernon Tynan has a mother. She’s in the Washington area. Tynan sees her once a week.’

‘No kidding? Tynan with a mother. I can’t believe it.’

‘It’s true.’

‘Well, obviously, we wouldn’t dare interview her. But still - who can tell? Let me sleep on it. Any other ideas, Chris?’

‘No.’

‘Well, we have more than enough to go on - certainly enough to keep us occupied in the seventy hours we have left. Now let’s take off our coats and ties, get Van to bring up some drinks, and settle down to some real planning.’

‘Our field force, remember? I’ll contact Jim Shack to get into Fort Worth tomorrow to tackle your wife’s case. But we have more than fifty other men and women almost Shack’s equal. They’re going to be looking at every rock Tynan ever lived under. No stone will be unturned.’

‘Do you think we have a chance?’

‘If we have good luck, Chris.’

‘What if Tynan finds out?’

‘That would be bad luck,’ said Pierce.

*

It was nine eighteen in the morning when Chris Collins returned to Washington. His limousine was waiting outside National Airport. He ordered Pagano to take him directly to his house.

Opening his front door, he let himself in quietly, assuming that Karen might still be asleep.

He went through the house and entered the bedroom, intent on changing his clothes and getting back to the office as soon as possible. He saw at once that the bed was made. Wondering where Karen was, he backtracked through the house, calling her name, expecting to find her in the kitchen. She was not in the kitchen.

Collins returned to the bedroom. The house was unnaturally still. He entered the bathroom and immediately saw the note scotch-taped to the mirror. He pulled it free, recognizing Karen’s handwriting, and from the time scrawled on it he realized that it had been written the night before. With some apprehension, he began to read it.

My darling,

I hope this doesn’t upset you. I’m really doing this for our sake. I’m leaving for Texas on a late plane.

I feel miserable about what I’ve done to you. I should never have withheld anything at all about myself from you. I should have known that as a public figure you were vulnerable, and I should have known that someone like Tynan would ferret out the information about me

and misuse it. I swear to you that I am innocent.

I’m afraid, however, I have not fully convinced you. The fact that you would not allow this to come out into the open, were afraid of a second trial {for my sake, I know), tells me you don’t know how that trial might end. I have no fear of that, but I know you have.

Anyway, since you would not defy Tynan (because of me), I’ve decided to defy him myself. I’ve decided to go to Texas, find his so-called new witness, and wring the truth out of her. I did not want to wait till you came home. I did not want you to talk me out of this. I want to prove my absolute innocence - to you, to Tynan, to everyone - no matter how long it takes, and I felt that only I myself could do this.

Don’t try to find me. I’ll be in Fort Worth staying with friends. I won’t be in touch with you until I’ve solved our problem. Don’t worry. Let me do this my way. The important thing is -I love you. I want you to love me -and trust me.

Karen

Collins dropped the note on the sink, and rocked back on his heels, dazed. Her act was the last thing on earth he had expected. She had hoped this would not upset him, she had written. She had hoped right. He wasn’t upset. He was stricken. The thought of his pregnant wife alone somewhere in Texas, somewhere in Fort Worth, out of reach and deeply troubled, was almost more than he could handle. He was tempted to take the first flight to Fort Worth and try to find her. But that would be a needle-in-the-haystack undertaking. Yet something must be done.

Before he could put his mind to it, he heard the telephone ringing in the bedroom.

With a silent prayer that it might be Karen, he hurried to the phone and picked up the receiver.

It wasn’t Karen. He recognized the male voice. It was Tony Pierce.

‘Good morning, Chris. I came in on American right after you. I’m in Washington now.’

‘Oh, hi…’ He almost addressed Pierce by his first name,

but caught himself in time, remembering the ground rules

worked out in Chicago last night. No mention of Pierce and his friends on the telephone.

‘One thing to report,’ said Pierce. ‘We just got information that Vernon Tynan is flying to New York on business tomorrow night, and then going on to Sacramento. He’s scheduled to make a personal appearance Friday before the State Senate Judiciary Committee. He’s going to give the 35th a strong pitch. He’ll be the last witness before the bill goes to the Senate floor.’

Collins was still too distraught about his wife to react to the news about Tynan or consider its implications. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, ‘but I’m afraid I won’t make much sense right now. I just came home and found a note from my wife. She’s -‘

‘Hold on,’ Pierce interrupted. ‘I can guess. But don’t discuss it on your phone. Are there any public phone booths in your neighborhood?’

‘Several. The nearest -‘

‘Don’t tell me. Just go there. Call me. I’ll be waiting. I gave you my number last night. Do you have it?’

‘Yes. Okay, get right back to you.’

Collins snatched up Karen’s note and hastened out of the house. The official limousine was waiting, and Collins signaled his driver to stand by, then called out to Pagano that he’d be right back.

A few minutes later, he had walked two short blocks and turned into the filling station. He made his way to the telephone booth, closed himself inside, deposited his coins, and dialed Tony Pierce.