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Believers in social justice, Steve and Amy Hallquist had quickly become big supporters of Claire’s efforts. They started attending all kinds of meetings and began bumping into her at fund-raisers. Claire invited them to attend a dinner in her honor hosted by an Italian men’s club in New London. They gladly accepted.

Amy ended up being one of the few women in the audience. Most of the men seemed to be over forty-five. None of that bothered Amy. Claire’s speech did, however. While pushing the redevelopment plan, Claire was dressed seductively and made use of sexual innuendo, Amy thought. Claire had all the men in the palm of her hand. But it made Amy feel dirty, and she wanted out.

The scene had turned Steve off too. But he had zeroed in on something else. Someone had referred to Claire as an apostle on a mission to save New London. With his religious background, Steve figured that could be either really good or really bad. Watching Claire, he quickly determined it was the latter.

“She’s really manipulating people,” Amy told Steve. He agreed. They went home that night with serious doubts about Claire and her vision for the city.

The decision to build in New London had not been popular with some of the Pfizer officials who had worked on the site-selection process. Some felt the company’s needs would have been better served at another location. Some also questioned the wisdom of a Pfizer official being on the board of the NLDC.

Meanwhile, state officials were getting impatient with the NLDC and its demands on behalf of Pfizer. The state wanted Claire to back off. But at the same time, no one wanted to offend Milne.

There was another problem too. Press reports about the prospect of the NLDC’s resorting to eminent domain were on the rise. The governor didn’t need to be dragged into a politically unpopular issue. One of his senior officials privately reached out to Jim Serbia at Pfizer. As the point person for Milne on many aspects of the development, Serbia shared some of the same concerns. Pfizer could not afford to have the public or the media thinking that the push behind taking people’s homes came from the pharmaceutical company. But Milne’s presence on the NLDC board made it almost impossible to avoid this impression.

For months Serbia had been emphasizing that the Pfizer development needed to be kept separate from the NLDC’s development plans in the nearby neighborhood. But the state made it clear that something more had to be said. Serbia agreed to intercede.

October 21, 1998

Serbia composed an e-mail to Milne: “Dr. Milne, There seems to be some confusion regarding the expectation that Pfizer (you in particular) has regarding development of the peninsula. This confusion has caused some friction between NLDC and DECD/DEP [Department of Economic and Community Development/Department of Environmental Protection].”

Serbia repeatedly referred to the NLDC as being at odds with the state. He also expressed concern about eminent domain: “The State, from a public policy perspective, has difficulty in supporting residential areas located in a flood plain, and in condemning/taking an existing residential area and replacing it with a more upscale residential district.”

Serbia closed with a question: “Would approximately 70–80 high end residential units fit with your expectation?”

Satisfied, he marked the e-mail “High Importance” and hit SEND.

His e-mail did little to change things. Eight days later, Milne and Claire presented Rowland and Ellef with a multipage plan for “Team New London,” including a diagram showing all existing houses in the Fort Trumbull area totally wiped out and new condos put up in their place, along with a hotel.

Susette frowned when she saw a moving truck parked in front of her next-door neighbor’s house. Yvonne Cappelano and her husband had bought their place shortly after Susette had moved in. Residents of Virginia, the couple used the home as a weekend getaway. At first, the couple had supported Susette’s effort