7

“Some people around here have the misguided notion that stealing power is something new,” Harry London declared. “Well, it isn’t. Would you be surprised if I told you there was a recorded case in California over a century ago?” He spoke in the manner of a schoolmaster addressing a class, even though he had an audience of one—Nim Goldman.

“Most things don’t surprise me; that does,” Nim said.

London nodded. “Then get a load of this one.”

He was a short, craggy man with crisp speech which bordered on the pedantic when he set out to explain any subject, as he was doing now. A former master sergeant of Marines, with a Silver Star for gallantry in action, he had later been a Los Angeles police detective, then joined Golden State Power & Light five years ago as assistant chief of security. For the past six months Harry London had headed a new department—Property Protection—specifically set up to deal with thefts of power, and during that time he and Nim had become good friends. The two men were in the department’s makeshift quarters now—in London’s office, one of a series of cramped glass cubicles.

“It happened in 1867 in Vallejo,” London said. “The San Francisco Gas Company set up a plant there and the man in charge was an M. P. Young. One of Vallejo’s hotels was owned by a guy named John Lee. Well, this Lee was caught cheating on his gas bills. What he’d done was put a bypass around his meter.”

“I’ll be damned! That long ago?”

“Wait! That isn’t the half of it. The gas company man, Young, tried to collect money from John Lee to pay for the gas which had been stolen. That made Lee so mad he shot Young and was later charged with assault and attempted murder.”

Nim said skeptically, “Is all that true?”

“It’s in California history books,” London insisted. “You can look it up the way I did.”

“Never mind. Let’s stick to here and now.”

“You read my report?”

“Yes. So did the chairman.” Nim repeated J. Eric Humphrey’s decision about intensified action and his demand for results.

London nodded. “You’ll get results. Maybe as early as this week.”

“You mean Brookside?”

“Exactly.”

Brookside, a bedroom community some twenty miles from the city center, had been mentioned in the Property Protection Department report. A pattern of power theft cases had been discovered there and now a more thorough investigation was planned.

“D-day in Brookside,” Harry London added, “is the day after tomorrow.”

“That’s Thursday. I hadn’t expected you could set things up so fast.”

The report had indicated, without specifying when, that a “raid” on Brookside was planned. It would be spearheaded by the Property Protection staff, comprising London, his immediate deputy Art Romeo, and three assistants. They were to be supported by a contingent of other GSP & L employees—thirty specially trained meter readers, borrowed from Customer Service, plus a half-dozen service engineers and two photographers who would record any evidence on film.

The entire force would assemble downtown and be conveyed to Brookside by chartered bus. Accompanying them would be a radio van, to be used as the communications center. Walkie-talkies would be issued to key people. A fleet of small vehicles would provide local shuttle service.

During the preceding day—“D-day minus one”—the meter readers and engineers would be briefed on what was expected of them, though their actual destination would be kept secret.

On arrival at Brookside on D-day, the meter readers would begin house-to-house and business-to-business checks of electric and gas meters, searching for signs of tampering. They would also go to specific buildings, selected because of known theft patterns. Supermarkets, for example, were always prime suspects because electricity was their second largest operating cost (labor was the first) and many such businesses had cheated in the past. Thus all supermarkets in the area would be checked. As and when anything suspicious was located, the service engineers, backed up by Harry London’s Property Protection men, would move in.

“The quicker you put something like this together, the less danger there is of leaks.” London grinned. “In the Marines there were bigger jobs we did a whole lot faster.”

“Okay, gyrene,” Nim said, “I was just a dogface. But I’d like to be in on this operation.”

Although Nim’s own military service had been brief, it gave him something of a common bond with Harry London. Immediately after college Nim was drafted and sent to Korea. There, a month after arrival and while his platoon was probing the enemy from an advanced position, they were strafed and bombed by American planes. (Afterward the ghastly error was described in military double-talk as “friendly fire.”) Four U.S. infantrymen were killed, others injured, including Nim, who sustained a perforated eardrum which became infected, leaving him permanently deaf on the left side. Soon after, he was sent home and quietly given a medical discharge, the Korean incident hushed up. Nowadays, most of Nim’s colleagues and friends were aware they should sit on his right during conversations—the side of his good ear. But only a few knew exactly why. Harry London was one of the few.

“Be my guest on Thursday,” London said.

They arranged a rendezvous.

Afterward they talked about the sabotage at La Mission which had killed Walter Talbot and the others. Although Harry London was not involved directly in the investigation, he and the utility’s chief security officer were after-hours drinking cronies and exchanged confidences; also London’s background as a police detective had given him contacts with law enforcement agencies which he kept operative. “The county sheriff is working with the FBI and our own city police,” he informed Nim. “So far all leads have run up against a brick wall. The FBI, which does most processing of evidence in this kind of case, believe they’re looking for a new batch of kooks without police records, which makes everything harder.”

“How about the man in Salvation Army uniform?”

“That’s being worked on, but there’s a hundred ways they could have got the uniform, most not traceable. Of course, if they pull the same dodge again, that’s something else. A lot of people will be alert and waiting.”

“You think they might?”

London shrugged. “They’re fanatics. Which makes them crazy-smart, brilliant in some ways, stupid in others. You never can tell. Often it just takes time. If I hear any rumbles I’ll let you know.”

“Thanks.”

What he had just heard, Nim realized, was in essence what he had told Ardythe last Wednesday night. It reminded him that he should call Ardythe, and perhaps go to her, soon. Nim had seen her once since Wednesday—briefly at Walter’s funeral on Saturday morning, which many from GSP & L had attended. It had been, to Nim, a depressingly ritualistic occasion, supervised by an unctuous undertaker whom Walter Talbot would have detested. Nim and Ardythe had exchanged a few stilted words, but that was all.

Now he wondered: Ought he to allow a “decent” interval before telephoning Ardythe? Or was it hypocritical, at this stage, for him to consider decency at all?

He told Harry London, “I’ll see you on D-day.”