Flowers From Berlin (22 page)

TWENTY-ONE

The powwow was scheduled for 8 A.M., Monday. In actuality, it was a war party.

Cochrane arrived at twenty to eight. The building was quiet. The door to Hoover's office was closed. But Cochrane had seen both Hoover's and Clyde Tolson's cars outside in the lot. The Director was lurking somewhere.

Cochrane entered the conference room and found Dick Wheeler already seated. "J.E.H. is furious this morning," Wheeler said. "Keep your wits about you."

Wheeler removed his pipe from his breast pocket, skewered the stem with a green pipe cleaner, and set it down on the table near an ashtray. "Just give me enough room to talk when I need to," Wheeler warned. "J.E.H. listens to me, don't forget."

Cochrane settled into a chair. "What's going on?" he asked.

"We have company. From the executive branch."

Wheeler grimaced and they both heard the door from Hoover's office open across the corridor. There were voices, including Hoover's.

A pulse beat later the door opened fully. Wheeler and Cochrane were on their feet as Hoover entered in a brisk, energetic shuffle. The Director wore a fiercer scowl than usual, and his cheeks and brow were florid. He looked angry, particularly when he spotted Cochrane. But then again, he always looked angry from a distance of fifty feet or less.

Frank Lerrick was with him and handled the introduction of a third man: tall and thin, with a squat, pug nose and big ears that almost seemed to flop. His name was Russell Middlebrook and he was an undersecretary of state. Cordell Hull's office was to be kept informed of progress in the case, Lerrick announced. Middlebrook took a place between Lerrick and Wheeler. At the table he gave no more than a nod in Cochrane's direction and settled in with a pad of paper and a pencil.

"He's a creep," Wheeler would announce with a contemptuous grin to Cochrane in a later, lighter moment. "Over at State they refer to him as 'Rabbit.' Went to Penn State University and took the right exams. What can you expect? He's second-string. If there's such a thing as simultaneously honest and untrustworthy, he's it. Big ears, get it? Mouth to match."

"Okay, okay," said Hoover waspishly after the introductions. "Let's get started." It was ten of eight. Hoover nodded toward Cochrane, who was expected to summarize activity since the previous meeting.

"A great deal of positive progress," Cochrane began.

"Have we made an arrest yet?" Hoover demanded.

A pause, then Cochrane answered, "We have a portrait emerging of a key suspect." For several minutes, he provided details.

There followed a long glacial silence with which no one seemed inclined to tamper.

"We cannot arrest a profile, young Agent Cochrane," Hoover scolded. "How many more targets do we allow this man? How many ships do we lose?" Without stopping, the director shifted his own gears. "How long have you been on this case?"

"Six weeks, sir."

"Six weeks," Hoover repeated flatly. "And in six weeks you've managed to draw a profile." Cochrane held his own indignation in check as Hoover bore ahead. "You were taken off a relatively easy assignment in Baltimore. You should have been well rested. Do you know that I have a meeting with the President early this very afternoon? Mr. Roosevelt is going to ask me for a progress report. Apparently there isn't one."

Hoover glared, set down a pencil across the table with a loud clack, and let go with his characteristic low, whining curses. His eyes bulged, his cheeks rouged and his lips tightened. Ruddy-faced and angry, he looked like a deranged Mr. Toad of Toad Hall. His puffy eyes darted to each of the other men at the table for help or sympathy.

Dick Wheeler, who knew better than ever to interrupt, had been waiting for just such a silence to rescue Cochrane.

"I think, Mr. Director," Wheeler suggested mildly, "that the President will be very impressed with the Bureau's progress over the last few days. I've reviewed it myself," emphasized Wheeler, who hadn't reviewed it at all. "I think a written summation of Bureau progress should be represented to the President. I think we can also safely state that we're extremely close to the key arrest."

Cochrane shot Wheeler a beseeching glance but Wheeler's eyes were upon Hoover.

"Are we? Are we?" asked Hoover in his rushed, clipped voice. He looked at Cochrane without allowing him to answer. "Well, all right. Much better." He looked back to Wheeler.

"I think we have enough to please the President," Wheeler said.

"Who'll make the report?" Hoover asked. "I want this agent"—he indicated Cochrane with a sharp nod of the skull—"still out in the field. No point to take a field man to the White House."

"I'd be happy to make the presentation," Wheeler offered. Frank Lerrick looked at Wheeler with vexation.

"All right," Hoover agreed. "A report. Something in writing that we can both present verbally and submit." Lerrick's small intense eyes still glowed like simmering charcoal in Wheeler's direction as Hoover spoke. Hoover turned to Lerrick and the red glow vanished.

"That sounds good to you, Frank? One o'clock."

"Very good, Mr. Director," Lerrick said with enthusiasm.

"I think this field agent, Mr. Cochrane, has done excellent work," Wheeler continued, soothingly. "I'd stake the reputation of my own office upon Mr. Cochrane's work."

Hoover seemed pleased by, or at least content with, the endorsement. His mood now mellowed considerably. Undersecretary Middlebrook was taking short, precise notes—much to Cochrane's unease—and Frank Lerrick watched and listened with his arms folded. J. Edgar Hoover looked absently to Lerrick and then across to Wheeler. Everyone in the room knew the director had something on his mind. J. Edgar Hoover had, as Dick Wheeler had once termed it privately, "his own cute ways of doing things."

"I think some arrests should be made," Hoover announced portentously.

A silence held the room. Hoover spoke from the throne:

"Yes. I think maybe a dozen or so arrests should be made. German-Americans. Hit the Bunds in New York and Chicago. Let them know we're alive." He turned back to Lerrick. "Can CAR Division come up with a dozen to twenty names by noon?" he asked. "I want the President to know that we're making a sweep."

"It can be done," Frank Lerrick answered, making note of it.

"Sir?" Cochrane interrupted. Hoover looked his way. "With all due respect, I think any arrests at this time would be a particularly bad idea."

"You think that, do you?" Hoover retorted, his eyes tightening. "I've been through Central Alien Registry myself," Cochrane explained. "No names stand out. I'd even guess that the man we want is not in CAR Division's files. Random arrests will only alert the other side."

Hoover's fingers were drumming the table. Persistent tapping in the same spot. The Director’s little eyes darted around the room. "Other opinions?" Hoover challenged.

"The arrests can be made by, uh, this evening," Frank Lerrick chimed in solidly.

Hoover looked to Dick Wheeler, whose eyes narrowed dreamily as he worked his pipe between clenched teeth. A slight sucking noise emanated from the briar. "I think some arrests might be in order," Wheeler agreed. "Flex a little muscle. Show Old Glory to the swastika set. Read them the riot act."

Cochrane felt the conversation exclude him. "Wasn't there a Portuguese or Spanish operation out of Yorkville?" Hoover asked. "Did not I see a report on that recently?"

"That's correct, sir," Wheeler answered.

"Well, that's one that we can roll up for starters," Hoover commanded. "Then see what else is around."

"Done, Chief," Lerrick said.

"Now," the Director concluded, "if there isn't anything else. . . I have another meeting this morning."

The seat of Hoover's suit had just taken leave from his chair when Cochrane again interrupted.

"Yes, there is one thing, sir," Cochrane said.

Half-up, Hoover eased back down. "What?" Hoover inquired tartly.

"I need permission from the Director to use a source currently unavailable to me."

Hoover frowned. Cochrane forged on.

"This Bureau apparently repatriated a German defector. A man named Otto Mauer, whom I used as a source in Germany."

"A German?" Hoover asked with an odd blend of xenophobia and surprise.
"A German?"
he repeated. There was a stark, telling silence after Hoover's second exclamation.

"We have Mauer in the relocation program, Mr. Director," Wheeler said flatly. "There's a red tag on his file, meaning it's inaccessible to field agents."

"Inaccessible without specific permission of the director of the F.B.I.," Cochrane added. "Which is what I'm requesting."

"You're requesting permission to break the rules?" Hoover asked with the intonation of a statement. "Permission denied."

"Sir," Cochrane tried again, "the infor—"

Hoover's eyes shot upward from the desk. "Permission denied!" Hoover blurted again.

"Did you fail to hear me the first time? Rules are rules!"

"It is absolutely vital," Cochrane answered, "that I find out everything possible on Abwehr or Gestapo structure within the United States. We have no other trustworthy defectors. Mauer will talk. He's been a solid, unimpeachable source since the first day I—"

Hoover looked like a hammer in search of an anvil. "Agent Cochrane," Hoover interrupted. "I run the cleanest, most honest police agency in the world. I'll not have it rely on a. . . a"—Hoover sputtered slightly and searched for just the right word—"a German," he concluded. Then, nodding toward Cochrane, he issued his instructions to Dick Wheeler. "Special Agent Cochrane may leave now," J. Edgar Hoover said.

Cochrane went through the door first. Wheeler hulked after him.

The latter caught Cochrane on the marble steps outside on Constitution Avenue.

"Well, I warned you," Wheeler said, falling into stride beside Cochrane. "I tried to take the heat off you."

Cochrane cast him a sidelong glance and continued to walk. "You put the heat on me, Dick," he said.

"On? How?"

Cochrane stopped and turned to face Wheeler. Wheeler, an inch or two taller, looked downward and peered through his pipe smoke. "This fiction of being near an arrest. How can you put me on the spot like that?"

"Had to, old man."

"Had to, how?"

"I've been in Bureau headquarters more than a few years now, Bill," Wheeler answered. "I know how to deal with the Chief. Look, Hoover always has to think a resolution is close. Otherwise he brings in a new team. That means you go back to Baltimore."

"Not a chance. That means I'd retire. Become a banker again."

To Cochrane's surprise, Wheeler only shrugged. "That would be your own choice. The only indispensable man in Washington these days is Roosevelt."

"I'll be sure to tell Hoover you said so," Cochrane retorted.

"Bill, don't be an ass."

"Further, I need Mauer. Where is he? Do you know?"

"You don't need him," Wheeler insisted. "Are you forgetting? The man was a Nazi. Worse, he's a defector. Last time you dealt with him you were lucky to get away alive. Take some free advice, Bill. On something as vital as this, how can you believe a man who already betrayed his own country?"

"He joined the party because he had to. Any fool can see that. And he never betrayed me," Cochrane countered.

"Rules are rules," Wheeler crooned.

"That never bothered you in Kansas City."

"That was Kansas City and that's all over with. I now know better."

"Then I'll find Mauer on my own."

Cochrane drew away from Wheeler on the sidewalk but Wheeler reached to him and held his arm, not in confrontation, but as a friend might. "Bill, look," he offered. "Please understand." Cochrane stopped and turning back, albeit with mounting irritation. "You have to understand about J. Edgar Hoover. When he came into this agency in 1924, it was a corrupt little federal cop outfit operating out of a converted warehouse, the type of thing you'd get in some small hot banana republic in Central America. Say anything you want about the man, but he built this Bureau. He wants it spic and span. His greatest fear is that his F.B.I. will have a moral relapse. If it did, a lifetime of his work would go down the tubes."

Cochrane tried to find the rationale. But he wanted Mauer.

"Those are great excuses and a masterful apology for the man,” Cochrane answered. “Dick, you must be fabulous raising funds over on Capitol Hill."

"I'll take that as a compliment, Bill, because I'm not giving you Otto Mauer's new name or location. Hoover is intelligent and honest. He has reasons for his rules. You have to work around them."

"So we have a spy out there, a killer. He can do anything he wishes. But I have to deal with rules?"

Wheeler shrugged his shoulders. "Fascist methods versus democratic methods, Bill," Wheeler reminded him. "In the long run, which do you really prefer? Honestly now?"

Wheeler kept a hand on Cochrane's elbow until he felt it safe to release it. He looked at the younger man half as a chiding uncle, half as an older brother.

Cochrane seethed quietly. "Do you think Hoover is pro-Fascist?" Cochrane asked at length, cooling slightly.

"What the devil makes you ask that?"

"Answer me."

"No, I don't think he's pro-Fascist. He's just a Washington Republican."

"What about Lerrick?"

Wheeler laughed. "A card-carrying New Dealer from Illinois. Same as me, except I'm from Missouri. You want pro-Fascists, I'll find you some in the Senate, lurking like a nest of copperheads. Or in the House, where there's about a hundred. Or do you want the more visible ones—Colonel Lindbergh. Ambassador Kennedy. Huey Long. The Silver Shirts. What the hell are you getting at, Bill?"

Several thoughts came together at once: thoughts about Hoover, security, fascism and socialism, communism and democracies, loyalties and betrayals. But Bill Cochrane gave voice to none of them. Instead he sighed.

"Know what I think?" Wheeler confided. "I think you should take a day off. Collect your thoughts. Get your mind back on the right course. God knows, Bill, no man can eat and sleep this stuff with no respite. Do us all a favor. Take the day. Please. I'll cover for you."