Citizen Hughes - Michael Drosnin [192]
“You must have a very low estimate of my capability if you interpret anything that I have been saying as a power play on my part,” he replied with some swagger. “I don’t need any more power than I now have, but if I had the least desire to make such a play, I can assure you that it would take place much more suddenly, and in so many areas, that it would be unbelieveable.
“I could not find it within myself to indulge in such activity,” he continued, easing off now that he had made clear his threat, “and strange as it may seem to you, I have no fear of my ability to earn a living, with or without Howard Hughes.
“I have no devious intentions, there are no hidden gimmicks, and I have told you repeatedly that no one could ever cause me to hurt you in any way whatsoever, and I would go out of my way to clobber anyone who might try to cause you any damage.
“Now, Howard,” concluded Maheu, once more positioning himself as the billionaire’s faithful if short-tempered protector, “please tell me wherein I am being unfair and also what in the hell you expect from me.”
Hughes, either mollified by Maheu’s loyalty even in extremis, or frightened by his implied threat, moved to heal the breach. He was still not ready for the painful, and quite possibly dangerous, final break.
“If I can be sure that you and I have reached the end of our unfortunate period of doubts and suspicions each about the other, then I have a couple of projects that are so staggering in their enormity and huge in over all expanse that they will absolutely leave you breathless,” wrote Hughes, dangling visions of new glory before his regent even as he secretly plotted to replace him with his rivals.
“I dont have to tell you, Bob, that I am a person who is capable of manifesting extreme suspicion if encouraged,” he added, perhaps intentionally hinting at the coup now in progress, perhaps once more doubting his Mormons’ whispers.
“How many times have I asked you to check out various telephone lines in the past to ascertain if they were secure?
“So, to summarize, Bob, I have trusted you with the very most confidential, almost sacred information as to my very innermost activities,” he went on, obviously more than a bit concerned about splitting with a man who knew so much.
“When I first sent down to pick up these files, I simply had not the faintest idea—truthfully—that it would displease you even the least bit.
“So, all I need to know, just one word of assurance that these unhappy and unfortunate days are behind us,” concluded a relieved Hughes, wanting to believe the best. “I am just as willing to assume the blame for the misunderstanding. I dont seek or even want to share that. I only want to know the episode is behind us.”
And so it was. But the really wrenching episodes were yet to come.
The Hughes-Maheu marriage was definitely on the rocks. Its special intimacy had been maintained by direct correspondence, and now that was over.
Maheu’s only direct link to Hughes now was the telephone. But while Hughes could call Maheu, Maheu could not call Hughes. He could only call the Mormons, who more and more often told him that Hughes was busy, asleep, eating, not well, or simply unavailable. And the calls from Hughes, in times past all too frequent, first dwindled sharply, then stopped.
Unable to reach Hughes, his calls not returned, his memos not answered, unwilling to sit by his silent telephone like a jilted lover, tired of dialing the penthouse at all hours of the day and night in a futile effort to break through, an angry and frustrated Maheu finally theatened to leave Las Vegas on an extended vacation.
It was the beginning of a final bitter exchange, letters of lost love they dictated to each other through the Mormons.
“I plan to leave immediately for Europe and join my wife, who is already there, for an indefinite period,” Maheu told Hughes, after weeks without word from his boss.
“Unless I hear from you to the contrary, I will assume I have your full blessing. I literally hate myself for not having left yesterday with my wife.