Reaction in the financial world had been one of incredulity and stockholder protests were already flooding in. On the New York and Pacific stock exchanges, panic selling, after a four-hour trading suspension, had depressed GSP & L stock a devastating nine dollars a share, or a third of its pre-announcement value.
Nim asked, "Which good news?"
"Remember D-day in Brookside?"
"Of course."
"We just got four court convictions."
Nim ran his mind over the meter-tampering incidents he had seen personally that day. "Which ones?"
"The guy with the gas station and car wash was one. He might have got away with it, but his lawyer made the mistake of putting him on the witness stand. When he was cross-examined he tripped himself up a half-dozen times.
Another was the tool-and-die maker. Remember that?"
"Yes." Nim recalled the small tract house where no one was at home but which London had put under surveillance. As the investigators hoped, neighbors reported the GSP & L activity and the man had been caught trying to remove the illegal wire device from his meter.
"In both those cases," London said, "and two others you didn't see, the court handed down five-hundred-dollar fines."
"What about the doctor-the one with the bridging wires and switch behind his meter?"
"And the haughty wife with the dog?"
"Right."
"We didn't prosecute. That woman said they had important friends, and so they did. Pulled every string, including some inside this company. Even then we might have gone to court, except our legal department wasn’t sure they could prove the doctor knew about the switch and meter. Or so I was told."
Nim said skeptically, "Sounds like the old story-there are two kinds of justice, depending on who you are and whom you know."
"That happens," London agreed. "Saw plenty of it when I was a cop. Just the same, that doctor paid up all the money owing, and we're collecting from a lot of others, including some more we're prosecuting where there's strong evidence." He added, "I got some other news, too."
"Such as?"
"All along I've said that in a lot of these theft cases we're dealing with professionals-people who know how to do good work, then cover it up so our own company guys have trouble finding it. Also I thought the professionals might be working in groups, even a single big group. Remember?"
Nim nodded, trying not to be impatient, letting Harry London get to the point in his own didactic way.
"Well, we got a break. My deputy, Art Romeo, had a tipoff about a 1big office building downtown where current transformers have been tampered with and the gas system, which beats the -whole building, has a massive illegal shunt. He did some checking and found it's all true. Since then I've been in there myself-Art recruited a janitor who's working with us; we're paying him to keep watch. I'm telling you, Nim, this is big-time, and the job's the slickest I've seen. Without the tipoff Art got, we might never have found it."
"Where did he get the tip?" Nim had met Art Romeo. He was a shifty little man who looked like a thief himself.
"Let me tell you something," Harry London said. "Never ask a cop that question-or a Property Protection agent either. A tipster sometimes has a grudge, mostly he wants money, but either way be has to be protected. You don't do that by telling a lot of other people his name. I didn't ask Art."
"Okay," Nim conceded. "But if you know the illegal installation is there, why aren't we moving on it right away?"
"Because then we'd seal up one rathole and close off access to a lot of others. Let me tell you some of the things we've found out."
Nim said drily, "I was hoping you would."
“The outfit that owns that office building is called Zaco Properties,"
London said. "Zaco has other buildings-apartments, offices, some stores they lease to supermarkets. And we figure what they've done in one place they'll try in others, maybe have already. Checking out those other places, without it being known, is what Art Romeo is working on now. I've pulled him off everything else."
"You said you're paying the janitor in the first building to keep watch.
What for?"
"When an operation is that big-even stealing-there has to be a checkup occasionally and adjustments."
"In other words," Nim said, "whoever bypassed those meters is likely to come back?"
"Right. And when they do, the janitor will tell us. He's an old-timer who sees most of what goes on. He's already talked a lot; doesn't like the people he works for; it seems they did him dirt somehow. He says the original work was done by four men who came well organized for it, on three occasions, in two well-equipped trucks. What I want are license numbers of one or both of those trucks, a better description of the men."
It was obvious, Nim thought, that the janitor had been the original informant, but he kept the conclusion to himself. "Assuming you get all or most of the evidence you need," he said, "what then?"
"We bring in the District Attorney's office and the city police. I know who to contact in both places, and who's reliable and will move fast. Not yet, though. The fewer people who know what we've uncovered, the better."
"All right," Nim acknowledged. "It all sounds promising, but remember two things. Number one, warn your man Romeo to be careful. If this operation is as big as you say, it can also be dangerous. The other is-keep me informed of everything that happens."
The Property Protection head gave a wide, cheerful grin. "Yessir!”
Nim had the feeling that Harry London was restraining himself from snapping off a smart salute.
5
Traditionally, the annual meeting of Golden State Power & Light shareholders was a sedate, even dull, proceeding. Only two hundred or so of the company's more than 540,000 shareholders normally attended; most ignored it. All that the absentees cared about, it seemed, were their regular quarterly dividends, until now as predictable and reliable as each year's four seasons.
But not anymore.
At 12 noon, two hours before the annual meeting was due to begin, a trickle of shareholders began presenting credentials and entering the ballroom of the St. Charles Hotel where seating-to allow for all possible contingencies-had been provided for about two thousand. By 12:15 the trickle had become a flow. At 12:30 it was a flood tide.
Among those arriving, more than half were elderly people, some walking with the aid of canes, a few on crutches, a half-dozen in wheelchairs. A majority was not well dressed. A large number had brought coffee in thermos bottles and sandwiches on which they lunched while waiting.
The mood of most arrivals was clearly evident; it varied between resentment and anger. Most were barely polite to GSP & L staff whose job was to check identifications before allowing admittance to the ball. Some shareholders, delayed in the process, became belligerent.
By 1 P.m., with an hour still to go, all two thousand seats were filled, leaving standing room only, and the influx of arrivals had become even heavier. The ballroom now presented a babel of noise as countless conversations and group discussions proceeded, some heatedly, with participants raising voices. Occasionally, words and phrases were audible above the rest.- - __
". . said it was a safe stock, so we put in our savings and . . ."
". . lousy, incompetent management..."
". . . all very well for you, I told the guy who came to read the meter, but what am I supposed to live on-air?"
". . bills are high enough, so why not pay a dividend to those who . . ."
".. . bunch of fat cats in the boardroom; what do they care?"
". . after all, if we sat here and simply refused to leave until . . ."
"String the bastards up, I say; they'd soon enough change their . . “