January 13, 1964
“It’s good to have you both back,” Delafield said with satisfaction to J.T. and Marty. “Is that Bedardo situation all finished now?”
“Not exactly finished, sir,” said J.T.
“What does that mean?” Delafield said with a tinge of concern. “I thought you had returned to the firm all ready to go to work full time.”
“We have,” said Marty. “There’s technically still a writ of certiori for the United States Supreme Court to hear the case. But there’s virtually no hope of that being granted.”
“Oh,” said Delafield, relieved. “Well, we certainly missed your shock power around here, J.T., and your way of keeping things out of the newspapers.”
J.T. grinned. His return to the firm was bittersweet. His stab at being independent had not been overwhelmingly successful, not by his own standards. True, he had handled a couple of matrimonials while on leave of absence, but the number of clients, the flow of excitement, was not sufficient to satisfy J.T. He didn’t seem to have the patience for slowly building success. The instant he walked into Delafield’s office, he was sure Stevenson & Stetinius wasn’t the answer either.
“In fact,” said Delafield, not aware of J.T.’s distracted thoughts, “we have a situation right now with Worldwide Films. We represent the company against some dissident stockholders who have brought a stockholders’ suit for mismanagement and misfeasance against the officers and directors. They say they have proof the board made investments outside the regular business purposes of the company. They claim that Worldwide has been brought to the brink of financial disaster as a result of diversification into some hotels in Hawaii, which have turned out to be bad investments.”
“Are the hotels bad investments?” asked J.T.
“I don’t know if I would classify them as lemons,” said Delafield, amusement glowing in his eyes. “However, the hotels are not filled to capacity. There were supposed to be new roads built, but the federal funds have been held up. When the roads are finished—if ever—the hotels should boom. But right now they’re getting deeper in the red every day. There’s a little spice to this stew. Several of the members of the Worldwide board owned the land on which the hotels were built. They sold it, through a dummy corporation, to Worldwide.”
“Other than that, is there any merit to the stockholders’ suit?” J.T. chided.
“I told you we needed some help on this one,” Delafield smiled.
“What’s the status of the suit?” asked J.T.
“They’ve served the board with a summons and complaint. Now the most desirable thing we can do for our client is to keep the suit buttoned up until after Worldwide’s merger with CRA. CRA owns a lot of the film and TV stars and their contracts, and it also has a substantial amount of liquid capital. If the merger goes through, it will put the company in a financial position to be able to make some decent pictures.”
“What’s the status of the merger?” asked J.T.
“It’s in the serious negotiation stage. I needn’t tell you that if CRA gets wind of some lawsuit that alleges misappropriation of funds by Worldwide’s directors, it wouldn’t be the soundest position from which to negotiate. We have to keep this lawsuit under wraps. Which is where you come in, J.T.”
“You want me to handle the suit?”
“Some of our men are already on it. But I suggest that you be the attorney out in front, the one who deals exclusively with the opposition. We just got their summons and complaint about a week ago, and we haven’t put in an answer yet. What we intend to do is to make some motions, based on legal technicalities, to dismiss their suit. I think it would be advantageous if your name appeared on the affidavits in support of the motion. Let the other side know, right at the outset, what we have in store for them. And no adjournments, no time delays of any sort, no professional courtesy. We really have to play hardball on this one.”
“Who’s handling the papers now?”
“It’s with one of the young fellows downstairs for research at the moment. But the case is really being handled by Prentiss.”
“Marty,” said J.T., “why don’t you talk to Prentiss, see if you can get copies of all the papers.”
“Already been taken care of, J.T.,” said Delafield. “Copies of all the papers are on both your desks right now.”
“That’s organization for you,” said J.T.
“Marty, will you excuse us for a couple of minutes? I want to talk to J.T. privately.”
“I’ll start looking over the Worldwide papers. Buzz me when you’re finished, J.T. You want this door closed, Mr. Delafield?”
“Please.”
Delafield selected a cigar from a humidor on the credenza behind his desk. He delicately sliced off the end of the cigar with a gold cutter.
“J.T.,” he began tentatively, lighting the cigar, blowing smoke to the ceiling, “forgive me for butting into your personal life, but this matter does have just a little something to do with me, and I just wanted to have a chat with you about it.”
“About what?”
“You and Dana.”
J.T. nodded, studying Delafield, whose head disappeared momentarily behind a cloud of smoke.
“You two young folks have known each other a substantial period now … oh, hell, that’s not exactly the right way to put it. You two have seen each other for, oh, say a year and a half, two years?”
“A little more than that, sir. About two and a half years. I was still in Washington at the time.”
Delafield nodded. “You’ve always had an excellent power of retention, J.T. Recently I understand you’ve not been seeing each other very much. And I understand she’s rather upset about that. Fact is, she’s started to cause her parents some concern.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, sir.”
“Hell, man, I’m really sorry I even have to have this conversation with you, but the family—well, Archie, anyway, you know how he is with Dana—he asked me to talk with you.”
“I understand, sir.”
“I hope so. Hell, I think people ought to be able to do what they feel like, without anyone else interfering. I’d be as annoyed as all get-out if I were you sitting there. By the way, would you like a drink, J.T.?”
“No, thanks, sir.”
Delafield swiveled in his chair and opened his credenza. He poured some straight vodka into a glass and filled the glass with ice he took from a little refrigerator.
“You don’t mind if I do, do you?”
“No, sir.”
“J.T., if you don’t want to see Dana any longer, I can understand that. I know these things happen. But if you do want to stop seeing her, then do just that. Stop seeing her.” Delafield sipped his drink, which was by now sufficiently chilled.
“On the other hand,” he continued, “if you want to continue seeing her, then do so. But please try and get yourself out of this middle ground, where you’re still seeing her but not very often and then not very … what’s the word?”
“Attentively.”
“Exactement.” Delafield raised his glass to J.T. and then sipped.
“You’ve just made me curious about my position with this firm, sir,” said J.T. “Does it depend upon my amorous entanglements with your niece?”
“Now you’ve hit a nerve.”
“I’m trying to.”
“That’s what I like most about you, J.T. You’re right out in the open, no fuzzing around the bush. Not fuzzing …”
“Beating, sir.”
“Beating it is. I should like to think that your amorous entanglements have nothing whatever to do with anything here. However, Archie is a powerful client of this firm. And I’m not able to control him all the time. If it came to any showdown around here, Archie’s the one who would prevail.”
“I understand, sir.”
Delafield just nodded and sipped his drink. “That’s the way it is, J.T. As a person who admires you, who thinks you have a lot on the ball, even if you are hump as a drinking companion, let me suggest that you get this thing with Dana straightened out one way or another. For my sake as well as yours.”
“Yes, sir, I will.”
“Good.” Delafield sat back and puffed on his cigar. He attempted to blow a smoke ring toward the ceiling, but it spiraled out of shape the moment it left his mouth. “Never could blow the damn things. I’d like to mention another thing, J.T.”
“Yes, sir?”
“The firm, as you know, was rather perturbed by your representing Mr. Benzadrino—”
“Bedardo.”
“Whatever. And while we’re having this heart-to-heart, let me just suggest that I’m only one of a lot of people around here. By the way, they also know about the fact you’ve been handling other cases, matrimonials and all.”
“They don’t object to that too, do they?”
“If I were you and I wanted to stay around here, I would not upset too many more applecarts.” Delafield sipped from his glass.