Chapter 20: Taking a Piece Off the Board

October 4, 1994, Chicago, Illinois

“Just, no!” Jessica exclaimed in disgust.

We’d just finished watching the third episode of ER on tape and I’d thought she was going to completely blow a gasket.

“What?” I chuckled. “It’s not REALLY like that?”

“OK, some of it, yes; but some of that stuff? Just no way!”

“It’s a TV drama, Jess,” Elyse laughed. “Cut them some slack.”

“The problem is, people will see it and assume it’s real! And it’s obviously supposed to be Cook County.”

“I really should have done what I said and watched it without you, Babe!” I grinned. “I KNEW this was going to happen.”

“Don’t tell me you LIKED that?!”

“I did! It’ll be fun watching Doctor Carter in his last year of medical school. After all, I lived through it!”

“You did NOT!” Jessica protested. “You were at home!”

“Relax, Babe,” I said gently. “It’s just a TV show!”

“Is that what your Navy buddies said about A Few Good Men? Or your lawyer friends said about L.A. Law?”

“Well, no,” I allowed with a smirk. “If you don’t want to watch with us, I’ll understand.”

“I think it’s the other way around,” Kara giggled. “Do we want to watch with her?”

“One day, Tiger, they’re going to make a TV show about computer nerds and you are going to lose it!”

I laughed, “You’ve heard me complain about technology in just about every movie or TV show that uses it, except Star Trek!”

“True.”

“I don’t think these shows are intended for people who actually know anything about the subject,” Michelle said.

“It’s amusement,” I said. “And you know what that means in Greek!”

“No thinking!” Michelle laughed. “They got THAT right. Mindless entertainment.”

“Jess, in all seriousness, was it THAT bad?” I asked.

“No; actually, it could have been a LOT worse.”

October 5, 1994, Chicago, Illinois

“Steve,” Lucas announced, “I have Patrick Shaughnessy for you.”

“Put him through please.”

A few seconds later, Patrick was on the line.

“Hi, Patrick. What can I do for you?”

“Katy showed me some material she uncovered about one of the people you asked us to look into. I have some very serious concerns.”

“Scuderi,” I said. “I know.”

“You know? Steve, this isn’t a game!”

“I only found out on Monday. I was following up on a lead and was just as shocked as you are.”

“I’d strongly advise you drop this entire thing, right now. I mean that.”

“Patrick, just send me the rest of what Katya has found and we’ll call it quits. I promise.”

“I’m serious, Steve. Stay away from this guy.”

“I plan to. But here’s a question for you - what if he decides not to stay away from me?”

“A very good point. I’m going to send someone to you to beef up the security systems at your house and office. I also want you to consider purchasing an emergency locator device for each family member. It looks like a keychain, pen, or lighter, and when activated it’ll transmit a beacon we can triangulate if we’re close. Kind of like the LoJack we put in your cars.”

“Now you’re scaring me,” I said apprehensively.

“I’ll send you the file. It’s bad.”

“Shit,” I said.

“Yes. I don’t know how or why this guy is involved with all the trouble you’ve had, but whatever it is, he’s dangerous.”

“Thanks, Patrick. Send the file to the private fax number Katya has for me.”

“I’ll do that right away. And you’re welcome.”

I hung up the phone, happy that Penny was in a development meeting and not in my office. I should have gone to Elyse’s office or a conference room for the call, but had assumed he was calling about Aimee and her cruise on the Enterprise.

I got up and went to Elyse’s office and shut the door.

“Well, I’d say we’re in deep shit now,” I said.

“Mikela?”

“Oh HELL no! Agreeing to fuck her would be nothing compared to what’s going to come over your fax machine in a few minutes.”

“Uh-oh; how bad?”

“Bad enough that Patrick Shaughnessy is sending someone to beef up the security system at home and here, and wants us all to carry emergency locators.”

“What the fuck?!”

“Scuderi. He’s not just a regular mob heavy.”

“Oh, shit.”

“Yeah.”

About ten minutes later, the fax machine began spitting out page after page of background information on Scuderi.

“Oh my fucking God,” Elyse gasped as she read it. “A trained mob assassin?”

“Yes.”

Scuderi was the proverbial ‘button man’. As Willi Cici had said in The Godfather: Part II, ‘When the boss says push the button on a guy - I push the button, see, Senator?’. Scuderi had been imprisoned for lesser crimes, but they’d never managed to pin any of the EIGHT suspected murders on him.

“Jesus,” Elyse said as she read copies of police reports.

“Yeah. The one question I have is how the hell did a Chicago Outfit button man end up working for Anthony and Connie?”

“Could you find out?”

“If you think I’m talking to ANY of those contacts anytime soon, you’re crazier than I am! Patrick was pretty damned clear about letting it go. Immediately.”

“But then what?”

“My plan for Littleton will work without risk.”

“Are you SURE?”

“Yes, let me explain.”

I did and by the end, Elyse was reasonably satisfied, at least with that particular issue.

“What are you going to tell the rest of the family?”

“That now that Jess is about to finish her Fellowship and will be making well into six figures and you and I combined will make almost as much, not to mention Michelle’s income, or Jennifer’s and Josie’s, and the value of NIKA, that Patrick suggested some upgrades. There have been enough kidnappings in Europe to provide cover for a decision like that.”

“That’s a dangerous game to play.”

“And the alternative? Let me take Littleton off the table. Then we’ll see where we are.”

“You have balls of steel, Mr. Adams.”

“Maybe, but I’d rather have a time machine. If I did, I’d go back and tell my fifteen-year-old self not to be a fucking idiot. I wouldn’t listen to me, of course, but I’d have to try.”

“There’s nothing going on with your friends here?”

“No. With the Feds breathing down their necks, they pulled back and all the non-Italians were sidelined. I’m sure at some point they’ll need a service I can provide and they’ll come calling.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah. I made my bed a LONG time ago.”

“Have you thought more about the whole ‘traitor’ idea?”

“I feel that someone is feeding them information,” I said. “They know too much, too fast. And it’s not stuff we talk about outside the office, either.”

“True. You’re pretty good about keeping NIKA at NIKA, and not talking about it too much at home. Maybe it’s time for a canary trap,” Elyse said.

“Now who’s being the sneaky one?” I grinned.

“If you take out Littleton, you might never find out who it is, well, assuming it’s someone here.”

“But who knows what’s going on here besides Jamie and Bruce Grady? I can’t imagine either of THEM are the leaks. Even Jamie’s legal secretary isn’t privy to everything. And Bruce doesn’t know anything except financials.”

“One of the people you talk to regularly?”

I shook my head, “Who? Dante? I never told him most of the stuff we’re concerned with. He’s really the only non-lawyer I deal with regularly except for the Board. I got it! Maybe my dad is selling us out!”

Elyse laughed, “Of all the people on the planet to not do it, that’s the one I’m sure of.”

I chuckled, “Joyce’s grandmother! She’s doing Don Joseph’s dirty work because he found out what went on between Joyce and me back in the day, and about Connie and me!”

Elyse laughed, “That sweet old lady? She’s second after your dad!”

“That ‘sweet old lady’ was married to a mob boss for fifty years. Don’t let that exterior fool you. It’s not her, but think about it. Do you think Mama Corleone was ignorant? Or a pushover?”

“No. So, who’s the rat?”

“I have no fucking clue. And right now, boxing in Littleton is far more important than answering that question.”

That evening, on the news, we heard that a total of 53 members of a cult, ‘The Solar Temple’ had committed mass suicide in three locations - Cheiry and Salvan, two villages in Western Switzerland, and at Morin Heights, Quebec, which was just north of Montréal. Reports were unclear, but it appeared that some of the members had been shot, while others had taken poison.

October 6, 1994, Chicago, Illinois

“What am I doing here?” Dave Zimmer asked.

“I have some information for you. Something you need to know.”

I pushed a manila envelope that contained two typed pages across the table at Maxim’s.

“What’s this?”

“Proof that Brandon Littleton is an Outfit attorney,” I said.

“Bullsh... , “ he started to say, but bit off the end of the word. “You’re serious?”

“Deadly.”

“What do you want?”

I smiled, “Nothing. Or rather, I suspect I’ll want exactly what you will want when you’ve read this - your partner retires from the practice of law.”

“He’ll NEVER do that.”

“Think about the alternative,” I said. “If this were to go to the police or the press.”

“That’s blackmail!”

I shrugged, “Call it whatever you like, but I’m not demanding anything. I’m simply suggesting a course of action that works for you and for me. The information is out there for anyone to find. I just happened to have found it first.”

He extracted the sheets of paper which detailed everything Littleton had done to me, his ties to Peter Scuderi, and Peter Scuderi’s rap sheet.

“Oh, fuck,” he said when he’d scanned it.

“Yeah, I agree.”

“How did you get this?”

“Mr. Zimmer, when every single bit of legal trouble I had over the past ten years, minus the FBI being stupid about my Russian friends, involved Mr. Littleton, I became very suspicious. At every turn, I found both Mr. Littleton and Mr. Scuderi. I had a friend run a background check on Mr. Scuderi. You’ll notice he and your partner are joined at the hip. The cheating scandal, BLS, the paternity suit, Milton. There are two other things that don’t appear to involve me where they are also tied together.”

“I wondered why he had it in for you. But what does this Scuderi guy have against you?”

“I have no clue. I just want the legal trouble to stop. May I ask you a question?”

“I don’t know that I can answer.”

“I understand. Has a young woman named Mikela Kovaç retained you?”

“I can’t answer that,” he said.

I was reasonably certain that was a confirmation.

“Understood. Let’s just say that I’d say to any attorney she contacted there is no merit to the suit; I can prove thatt. And, although I can’t prove it, it’s probably also related to this Scuderi character.”

He nodded grimly, which WAS confirmation.

“So, if Brandon retires, nothing more happens?”

“That’s right. The thousand pages of research material I have stays locked in a secure location known only to one other person. And they would only have access if something were to happen to me. In that case, the material goes to the FBI, the Chicago Tribune, and the State’s Attorney’s office.”

It would be sent to Katya to hold, along with everything else I’d sent her in the past. Having made friends with an officer in the KGB was paying significant dividends long after the KGB ceased to exist.

“I’ll make it happen,” he said grimly.

“And have Mikela call me,” I said. “We’ll work something out.”

He shook his head in what I felt was disbelief, got up from the table and left the restaurant. I on the other hand, stayed sitting. My knees were weak and I didn’t know that I could stand up. It had been all I could do to keep from shaking during the meeting. I finished my coffee, and about ten minutes later, felt good enough to get up. I headed back to the office, where I went straight to Elyse’s office.

“Done.”

“And?”

“I suspect we’ll read about the surprise retirement of Mr. Brandon Littleton in a day or two. And, unless I miss my guess, I’ll get a call from Mikela very soon.”

“She went to them?”

“Or they went to her. I’m going to offer her three months’ pay.”

“In exchange for a name?”

“Bingo. But the more I think about it, the less I suspect a traitor.”

“Why?”

“Because I can explain each of the situations without a single internal person. For example, we know Jefferson was the insider for everything to do with BLS. And the cheating scandal wasn’t related to NIKA at all. Kaitlin was her own doing and there were no repercussions from it, and we don’t know for sure that it was related. The paternity suit didn’t need anything other than Carla needing an attorney and Scuderi directing her to Littleton. The Milton thing didn’t show any signs of anything internal.”

“Then why offer her money for the name?”

“To make sure I’m right. If she doesn’t have one, she doesn’t have one. We’ll work it out.”

Elyse smirked, “You could save a lot of money by just fucking her, you know?”

“I know you’re kidding, but even if you weren’t, I’d rather give her money. I wasn’t interested BEFORE she started spreading rumors.”

“What happens when Scuderi finds out?”

“Finds out what? Do you really think Littleton will tell him what happened? I don’t. If you think about it, that actually puts Littleton at risk. They’d be worried he’d turn state’s evidence. He’ll come up with some good reason to retire and sell it, hard, to Scuderi.”

“And then what?”

“I’m not sure yet. Let’s see what happens with Littleton and Mikela, and we’ll take it from there.”

“What are you going to tell Jamie about Mikela?”

“That she made us a counter-offer and I agreed to settle. He’ll accept that. Especially when you agree the amount is OK, which I’m sure you will.”

“True. Did you hear from the security consultant?”

“No, but I’m sure I will today.”

I went to my office and saw a note from Kimmy that Frank Walker, the security consultant, had called while I was out. I returned the call and we arranged for him to come to the NIKA offices on Friday and the house on Saturday afternoon. That meant I needed to reschedule my appointment with Anala’s yogi, but I decided to cancel that meeting, as well as the one with the monk in Boscobel. I didn’t feel I needed to talk to them at this point, and would schedule the visits when and if I did.

After lunch I received a call from Al Barton confirming my visit to the Mayo clinic on the 17th and 18th. I called Barney and had him book me a flight for the 16th as well as two nights in a hotel, and then a return flight late on the 18th. That settled, I got back to work.

October 8, 1994, Chicago, Illinois

On Saturday morning I was cuddling with Birgit, drinking tea, and reading the Trib. An article on page three of the second section caught my eye: Top Chicago Litigator Retires. I smirked as I read that Brandon Littleton had announced his retirement from his law practice for family reasons, and that Dave Zimmer was taking over the firm, now renamed ‘Zimmer and Levinson’. Mr. Littleton was reported to be moving his family to his hometown of San Antonio, Texas, where he intended to begin teaching undergraduate law classes, and caring for his elderly parents.

“Pumpkin, Daddy needs to talk to Aunt Elyse. OK?”

“It’s my cuddle time!” she protested.

“I know. I promise to cuddle you after karate. Is that OK?”

“Yes,” she replied reluctantly.

We got up and I went upstairs and knocked on Elyse’s door. When she called out, I went in and showed her the newspaper.

“Nice!” she said. “Now, what about Mikela?”

“Monday, I’d guess. I suspect Mr. Zimmer had bigger fish to fry.”

“You have him over a barrel, don’t you?”

“Do I? I mean sure, I could cause him trouble, but he could deny knowing anything and point the finger at Littleton. Nothing I have shows that Zimmer or Levinson knew anything at all.”

“So now what?”

“Littleton was simple, really. There was no real risk from him. His choice was basically between what he did and being ruined and possibly going to prison. And risking the wrath of the Outfit. Beyond that, we beef up the security. You heard what Frank Walker said yesterday. We install some extra cameras, replace our current doors with security doors, and beef up the alarm system. It’s all pretty simple stuff, and we can get Gerald Brown’s company to do the doors at the same time they do the rest of the work. The house will probably be about the same.