American Tabloid - James Ellroy [57]
JEH: Good morning, Mr. Boyd.
KB: Sir, good morning.
JEH: We have an excellent connection. Are you nearby?
KB: I’m at a restaurant on Northeast “I” Street.
JEH: I see. The Committee offices are close by, so I imagine you’re hard at work for Little Brother.
KB: I am, Sir. At least cosmetically.
JEH: Update me, please.
KB: I convinced Little Brother to send me back to Miami. I told him that I could depose some Sun Valley land fraud witnesses, and in fact I did bring back some inconclusive depositions.
JEH: Continue.
KB: My real motive in traveling to Florida was to accrue information for you on the Gretzler and Kirpaski matters. You’ll be pleased to know that I checked in with both the Miami and Lake Weir Police Departments and learned that both cases have been moved to open file status. I consider that a tacit admission that both homicides will remain unsolved.
JEH: Excellent. Now update me on the brothers.
KB: The Committee’s labor racketeering mandate expires in ninety days. The paperwork forwarding process is now in the compilation stage, and I’ll be sending you carbons of every piece of salient memoranda sent to our target grand juries. And, again, Sir, my opinion is that Jimmy Hoffa is legally inviolate at this time.
JEH: Continue.
KB: Big Brother has been calling legitimate labor leaders allied with the Democratic Party, to assure them that the trouble that Little Brother has stirred up with Hoffa does not mean that he is anti-labor overall. My understanding is that he will announce his candidacy in early January of next year.
JEH: And you remain certain that the brothers do not suspect the Bureau of collusion in the Darleen Shoftel matter?
KB: I’m certain, Sir. Pete Bondurant’s girlfriend informed Little Brother of the Hush-Hush piece, and Ward Littell exposed both our primary bug and Bondurant’s secondary bug independent of her.
JEH: I heard the Brothers’ father made Howard Hughes eat crow.
KB: That’s true, Sir.
JEH: Hush-Hush has been lackluster lately. The advance peeks that Mr. Hughes has been sending me have been quite tame.
KB: I’ve been staying in touch with Pete Bondurant on general principles, and I think I’ve found him a Hollywood-connected man he could use as a stringer.
JEH: If my bedtime reading improves, I’ll know you’ve succeeded.
KB: Yes, Sir.
JEH: We have Ward Littell to thank for that entire Big Brother snafu.
KB: I passed through Chicago and saw Littell two days ago, Sir.
JEH: Continue.
KB: I had initially thought that his THP expulsion might push him toward taking anti-Mob actions on his own, so I decided to check up on him.
JEH: And?
KB: And my concerns were groundless. Littell seems to be suffering his Red Squad work in silence, and the only change of habit that I could detect was that he’s begun an affair with Tom Agee’s daughter Helen.
JEH: An affair of a sexual nature?
KB: Yes, Sir.
JEH: Is the girl of age?
KB: She’s twenty-one, Sir.
JEH: I want you to keep an eye on Littell.
KB: I will, Sir. And while I have you, could I bring up a tangential matter?
JEH: Certainly.
KB: It involves the Cuban political situation.
JEH: Continue.
KB: In the course of my Florida visits I’ve met several pro-Batista and pro-Castro Cuban refugees. Now, apparently Castro is going Communist. I’ve learned that undesirables of varying political stripes will be expelled from Cuba and granted asylum in the U.S., with most of them settling in Miami. Would you like information on them?
JEH: Do you have an information source?
KB: Yes, Sir.
JEH: But you’d rather not reveal it?
KB: Yes, Sir.
JEH: I hope they’re paying you.
KB: It’s an ambiguous situation, Sir.
JEH: You’re an ambiguous man. And yes, any and all Cuban emigre intelligence would be appreciated. Have you anything to add? I’m due at a meeting.
KB: One last thing, Sir. Did you know that the brothers’ father had an illegitimate daughter with