Calumny Capers

Chapter 1

My name is Andy Driscoll and I’m a private detective. A little over five years ago, I decided a government job, any kind of government job, wasn’t for me because I eventually realized that I suffer from what I call bureaucratic and political claustrophobia. To me, the atmosphere that pervades any government agency is extremely stifling, so after eight years of dealing with this malady I left the NYPD where I was a detective to go into a partnership with my fraternal twin sister, Abbie, who was a Lloyd’s of London investigator, to form the Driscoll Detective Agency.

Like with most fledgling enterprises, it was tough going at first, but we hung in there and are now on a reasonably sound financial footing and can be more selective when it comes to choosing the types of cases we want to handle. We no longer get involved with cheating spouses or run away kids and concentrate on uncovering the facts surrounding the troubles facing people in the corporate and political realms.

Our office is located in the South Street Seaport on Pier17 off Fulton and Front Streets in Manhattan amidst a lot of restaurants and boutique shops and has a terrific view of the harbor.

Even though we’re now making some decent money and can afford the rent, we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for a former college roommate of Abbie’s whose father has friends everywhere. He pulled some strings to move us to the top of the waiting list for a spot to open up. We’ve only been at this location for a little over a year and it sure beats the dump we were working out of in Queens.

It’s a sunny early spring morning and I’ve just arrived at the office and am heading for my first cup of java of the day so I can proceed to take on the world.

Andy, forget the coffee. You won’t have time to enjoy it.

Our office manager, Mindy Serefino, has just come out of our conference room and ruined my day before it even gets started. She grabs my arm and drags me over to her desk and away from the open doorway to the conference room.

What’s going on, Mindy?

You’ve got a visitor.

Who?

William Boyle.

The name rings a bell. Why?

‘He’s the CEO of Great Plains Energy, the new alternate energy company that’s been in the news a lot lately. He’s put together a consortium of the 29 Great Plains Indian tribes to provide electricity and alternative fuels for vehicles to the general population at greatly reduced rates using the natural resources found on their lands such as water, wind, solar, biofuels, compressed natural gas, ammonia, hydrogen and just plain air. There may be more. These are the ones I remember from an article I read the other day in the newspaper."

Yeah, now I remember where I heard the name. It was on CNN. He’s been talking about trying to get his feet wet in the political cesspool by running as an Independent candidate for state senator and he’s been making a lot of waves because of his out of the mainstream views on things. The major parties are starting to take notice of him. Why does he want to talk with me?

He wouldn’t say. He wants to talk with only you or Abbie.

Where is Abbie?

She’ll be here in a few minutes. She had to stop off on the way in at Cudahy, McPherson & Walker to meet one of their clients who might need our help.

I forgot about that. Okay, have her join us when she comes in.

When I walk into the conference room, Mr. Boyle is standing over by the window looking out onto the harbor, but he’s not enjoying the view. His chin is resting on his chest and he’s massaging his neck. He’s obviously deep in thought because he doesn’t hear me come in.

Good morning, Mr. Boyle, I’m Andy Driscoll. Please, have a seat and tell me what brings you here today. Before we start though, would you like some coffee, tea, a glass of water, maybe some juice?

Good morning, Mr. Driscoll. I apologize for dropping in like this without making an appointment, but my nerves are already near the breaking point and having to wait to meet with you would have been intolerable.

Don’t give it a second thought. Would you like something to drink?

A cup of coffee with a little sugar would be nice. Your office manager offered me some, but when I first arrived I was too wound up to take on anymore stimulant. I’ve calmed down some and it might help me get back on an even keel.

Walking back to the doorway of the conference room I call out to Mindy to bring us two cups of coffee, one black and one black with one sugar cube. It looks like I’m going to be able to face the world after all.

A couple of minutes later Mr. Boyle and I are comfortably seated at the conference room table sipping on our coffee and I’m once again feeling the world is my oyster. If there is such a thing as an elixir, coffee runs a very close second as far as I’m concerned, especially at the beginning of a work day.

Okay, Mr. Boyle, what has you so upset and why do you think we might be able to help you?

Somebody is spreading rumors about me, vicious rumors which involve kickbacks, tax evasion and overall dishonesty. These rumors haven’t hit the news media yet and I’m hoping you can find out who is behind them before my name becomes a four letter word. I’m not afraid to take anyone on to defend myself, but I can’t fight an unknown entity.

How did you find out about these rumors?

I’m a member of an exclusive private club, The Core Club over on East 55th Street here in Manhattan in case you haven’t heard of it, and last night I overheard a couple of the members talking and I was the topic of the conversation. They were discussing things they had picked up from their sources and these things were about my character and business activities, none of which were very pleasant to hear.

Who are these people that you overheard talking?

"If I can avoid revealing their names, I would prefer to do so. These are not your usual rumormongers. They’re very well-respected public figures and from what I could gather from what they said their sources were above reproach as well. Needless to say, upon hearing what was being said I became very upset and called it a night.

When I arrived home there was a message on my answering machine from the company’s business attorney asking me to call him ASAP about some things he heard at an American Bar Association meeting earlier that evening. I immediately returned his call and found out that what he had heard was what I had overheard at my club. I told him about my eavesdropping experience and he strongly suggested that I get in touch with you to try to minimize the damage if it was at all possible.

Who is the attorney?

Ray Bartlett.

I’ve done some work for Ray. He’s top rung as far as I’m concerned. He gave you good advice. I’m a firm believer in that old axiom; the best defense is a good offense. The sooner we can uncover the source of the rumors the sooner we can go into attack mode. However, if we’re going to have any chance of helping you deal with this situation, we must launch an investigation with no holds barred. There must be no one that’s off limits. We’re going to have to talk with everyone we come across who is spreading these rumors.

I was afraid you were going to say that. Going silent as he thinks about the consequences of agreeing to my demand he finally nods his head in agreement and says, If these folks don’t understand my reaction to what I overheard, then perhaps I should find another club. Do what you have to do.

We charge $100.00 an hour plus expenses. If some unusual expense pops up, we’ll get your okay prior to incurring it. Does this meet with your approval?

That’s fine.

At this moment Abbie arrives and I make with the introductions and summarize the meeting up to this point. Looking at Mr. Boyle with those deceptively trusting soft brown eyes of hers she says, Mr. Boyle, I’m only thirty-five, but I’ve become cynical enough to believe that there isn’t any living person on the planet who doesn’t have some dirty laundry that the wearer would like to keep in the hamper. Is there anything in these rumors that has a kernel of truth or is there anything lurking in your background that would put you in a tight spot if it were to be revealed?

If getting in someone’s face was an art form, my sister would be the biggest target for emulation. She has an uncanny knack for getting to the truth by shaking people up in her own unique way.

Clearly taken back by Abbie’s forwardness, Boyle studies her for a moment without a hint of what he’s thinking. Suddenly his face breaks into a big smile and he says, You don’t get taken in very often do you?

Returning his smile she answers with, Only by my brother here, but he has an inside track.

Laughing Boyle says, Well, I’ve told more than a few fibs in my fifty-three years and have openly challenged convention when it suited me over the years, but as far as I know I haven’t broken any laws. If I was caught in any of my prevarications, I suppose I would suffer some embarrassment, but I believe I would survive. Other than that, I’m pretty much an open book.

And I believe you. Now that that is out of the way, let’s get down to business. Fill us in on the rumors you’re aware of and the people you know who are spreading these rumors. This will give us a foundation to build our investigation on.

Now you have a glimpse of why I wanted to go into a partnership with my sister.

It takes a solid half hour for Mr. Boyle to tell us all he knows about the rumors and another half hour for us to ask all of the pertinent questions and get his take on things, like does anyone come to mind that might be behind his character assassination. The answer to that one was not unexpected; just about every one of his competitors who he’s bettered in the marketplace.

Wrapping things up I say, Okay, Mr. Boyle, we’ll carry the ball from here. We’ll keep in touch at least on a weekly basis and even more so when the situation warrants it.

Thank you for agreeing to help me. I sure hope we can get to the bottom of this quickly.

We’ll do out very best.

After Mr. Boyle leaves the office, Abbie and I get together in my office to lay out a plan of action. I ask Abbie, What do you think?

She says, With his head of white hair, if Boyle let his moustache grow a little wider and narrowed his beard to a goatee, he’d be the spitting image of Colonel Sanders, paunch and all.

That’s not what I meant and you know it.

You asked me what I thought and that was what I was thinking about when you asked.

Abbie!

Okay, okay. I think we’re about to step into a very big and very deep mud hole. The source of these rumors, based on what we can surmise about some of the spreaders, is definitely not a truck driver. He or she is most likely a member of the upper class and well connected in the financial and business arenas. We’re going to be dealing with some very wealthy and powerful people if we hope to shed any light on the party or parties responsible for the gossip.

I can’t disagree with your logic. I’m also wondering what part Mr. Boyle’s political aspirations are playing in this.

Taking a close look at the political competition for the office of state senator might point us at a possible culprit.

Okay, why don’t we start off by making a list of the people we know have participated in the rumor mill along with identifying potential suspects in the local political arena? Then we can try to trace back to the source of the rumors by questioning the ones we know are spreading them and vet the political competition to see if any of the players in that arena arouse our curiosity.

If we can identify those who would benefit the most from the rending of Boyle’s reputation, that might cut down the list of possible suspects considerably.

That might be easier said than done, but I agree we should take a stab at it. I’m going to clear my calendar so I can hop on this immediately. Will you be able to do the same?

You’re not going to believe this, but I’ve got some preliminary work for Cudahy, McPherson & Walker I have to attend to and it involves something similar to Mr. Boyle’s situation. They have a client, a Ms. Rachel Goldstein, who has been accused of industrial espionage in a story that appeared in this week’s New Yorker Magazine. As one would expect, the magazine won’t reveal their source or sources. These two situations may be related.

Who is Rachel Goldstein?

She is the founder and CEO of Miracle Laboratories. They are heavily involved in biopharmaceutical research and medical equipment development. Up until now, she has been highly respected and treated as some kind of guru in the medical arena.

Well, this is getting very interesting. Maybe we’ll be able to do what some Chinese guy was supposed to have said way back when, kill two birds with one stone.

How do you know that idiom originated with some Chinese person and that person wasn’t a woman? It sounds like something one of our Irish ancestral compatriots might have said.

Abbie, give me a break. I read it or heard it somewhere. I don’t remember. Now, if you have no other barbs to toss my way, how about you work the Goldstein case and I’ll work the Boyle case and we’ll compare notes as we move along?

That works for me and I wasn’t tossing barbs. I was just trying to broaden your perspective.

She says this last with a smile which always disarms me and she knows it and I say Okay, get your butt out of here and let’s get to work.

We’re now off and running and only time will tell if it’s into a wall or the truth of the matter.

Chapter 2

A lot of people when they first meet my sister and me make the mistake of thinking we’re a husband and wife team. This always surprises me because even though we are fraternal twins we do look a lot alike.

We’re both about 5’10" tall, Abbie weighs in at about 135 pounds and I tip the scales at around 175, but I do some weight lifting and love beer and pasta. Abbie does aerobics and watches her diet. She has brown eyes and thick, dark brown wavy hair and I have gray eyes and what my mother calls thick, straight, dirty blonde hair, but the features of our faces are very similar, from the prominent cleft chins, to the slightly up turned noses, to the large deep set eyes and dimpled cheeks.

We’re both single, date when time allows, and at the present time are quite content doing without the benefits of wedded bliss. However, Abbie has a suitor, Jim Ribbe, who after finding out we were siblings and not spouses began hitting on her like she was the only woman on the planet and he isn’t getting the message. He has a habit of showing up at the most inopportune times, like now while Abbie is in the process of using her wily female charm to get a member of the Core Club to reveal the name of the person who passed on the rumors about William Boyle to him.

In my quest for information on who the people are who are spreading these rumors, I learned that the man sitting at the table with us at the Gramercy Tavern on East 20th Street likes the ladies and I’m more than willing to play dirty to get what I want in an ongoing investigation. Before Ribbe can spot us, I excuse myself and walk over to say hello and tell him not to interrupt the business conversation Abbie is having with a potential client. My playing dirty also includes telling lies when the situation calls for it. This is a very important client, Jim, and she would be royally pissed if you broke the persuasive web she’s weaving around her prey.

Looking over at our table he says, I know that guy. That’s Ray Cummings. He’s a big shot over at Laurel Advertising. Our firm prepares all of his company’s financial statements. He’s not one of my clients, but I ‘ve seen him around the office more than a few times.

What can you tell me about him?

Not much other than he’s one of the creative geniuses over at Laurel and comes from old money, a lot of it. Scowling at the two of them talking he adds, And he has a reputation as a womanizer.

Well, thanks for that and Abbie will greatly appreciate you not unraveling what she’s managing to weave around the man. I’ll make sure she knows you restrained yourself.

Taking one last glance at Abbie and Ray chatting up a storm he says, Well, I wouldn’t want to do anything that could cost you guys a client. Besides, I have a luncheon meeting with one of my clients and I’m a few minutes late. Please tell Abbie I’ll give her a call. I have some tickets for that new show at Radio City Music Hall and I’d like her to be my guest.

Oh boy, wake up and smell the coffee, guy. Does she have to kick you in the family heirlooms to get you to pay attention? She’s not interested dummy.

I’ll be sure to tell her.

Thanks and take care.

When I return to our table, Abbie’s writing something in her little notebook that goes everywhere with her. Mr. Cummings has agreed to give us the names and contact info of the people he has been talking with about Mr. Boyle. He’s trusting us to use the information he has just given me discreetly and I’ve assured him we will use the utmost discretion when interviewing the people he has told me about.

We greatly appreciate your cooperation, Mr. Cummings. I’m sure you can empathize with Mr. Boyle’s situation. When we get to the bottom of this, when these rumors are proven to be false, he’ll still have to deal with the stigma that some people will continue to think he is guilty of some or all of the things that are being said about him. That’s one of the things that make gossip such a nasty weapon.

I was shocked when I first heard the rumors. I’ve known Bill for a long time and he’s always been a straight shooter with me, but I’ve been around the block a few times and have learned that just about anything is possible.

This exchange concluded our lunch and we parted company. Way to go girl. You had him eating out of your hand. I’m surprised he didn’t drown in his own drool.

Andy! I was the perfect lady. I can’t help it if he reads into things just because I’m a woman.

Uh huh. Oh, Mr. Cummings, have you ever thought about appearing in one of those menswear commercials you have running on all the local TV stations for Jenkins Sporting Goods. You have the perfect build and project the ideal masculine image to get both the men and women, especially the women, stampeding into their stores. Abbie, you were cooking on all burners and had the flames turned up as high as they would go. I’m surprised the old boy didn’t have a seizure.

Laughing she says, Do you think I overdid it a little?

No way. You got what we were after and he was tickled pink to oblige.

Good. Let’s get out of here. We have just enough time to make our two o’clock appointment with Ms. Rachel Goldstein. It’s your turn now to do the razzle dazzle.

We make it to Miracle Laboratories with a minute to spare and are greeted at the reception desk by the lady herself. After the introductions are made, we are asked to follow her to her private office which as we enter it we’re quick to note how much of a misnomer that is. It looks more like an executive suite at the Ritz Carlton.

We are directed to a seating arrangement around a rectangular beautifully carved mahogany coffee table and given the option of taking any of the plush chairs surrounding the table. The woman makes quite an impression. The word statuesque immediately comes to mind when you look at her. She’s about 5’11" tall with a model’s body and a pretty face and her elaborately coiffed jet black hair must have cost a small fortune to create. She appears to be somewhere in her mid to late forties and exudes confidence from every pore.

When we enter into a dialogue about her situation, we quickly clue in on the fact that the lady is very intelligent, extremely articulate and likes to get to the point without wasting time on social falderal. Razzle dazzle isn’t going to work on this lady. It‘s easy to see how this woman has become so prestigious and she wears it well.

Getting down to the nitty gritty Abbie asks, Ms. Goldstein, you’ve been enjoying considerable success for quite a while now. If a competitor is behind the story that appeared in the New Yorker, what do you think would prompt such an individual or individuals to make a move on you now? Why not sometime earlier?

After thinking about it for a minute she says, We are at the head of the pack when it comes to certain areas of genetic research involving such illnesses as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, autism and some cancers. This research is largely funded by various government and private grants. The significant progress we’ve made in these areas was the topic of a series of articles appearing in some of the major medical journals recently. This news might have motivated some of our competition to cast aspersions on the legitimacy of our research with the hope of upsetting our applecart sufficiently by slowing or stopping completely the flow of grant funds into our research programs. This could buy them some time to attempt to catch up with us or even surpass us in these areas. Even as I say this, I’m having a great deal of difficulty buying into it. It seems so far-fetched, but that article in the New Yorker was for real, so I guess anything is possible.

Does anybody stand out in your mind?

I don’t interact with the competition. I know the players by what I read in various medical journals, the newspapers or I see on TV. I’ve come across nothing that makes anyone stand out.

I ask, Have you had any run-ins with a disgruntled employee or former employee, someone who applied for a position with your company and didn’t make the cut, with anyone you think was upset with you enough to seek revenge by doing something like this?

No one comes to mind and believe me I’ve been thinking about that possibility a lot.

I follow up with, Has the article in the New Yorker generated any inquisitive callers; concerned customers, peers, friends, other members of the news media?

"At first, just a few people called. Although I was upset when I first read the article, I was inclined to keep my mouth shut and not add fuel to the fire by reacting to it in any way. However, the number of calls about the article increased substantially after a couple of days went by and I realized I had to do something.

I first called the magazine to find out what the article was based on and got nowhere. I then contacted my attorney to explore the feasibility of suing the magazine and he advised me to contact you before I pursued any legal action, his reasoning being based on the likelihood that once I initiated a law suit the whole affair would soon be in the news media spotlight and I would be playing right into the hands of the person who wants to put me in a bad light.

Nodding my head I say, I agree with both your attorney and you. It’s smart to try to keep this as low key as possible, but it would be foolish to stick your head in the sand and hope everything will turn out alright. Hopefully, we’ll be the something you can do to get to the bottom of this attempt to discredit you and your company.

Abbie says, As I’m sure you’re well aware, getting to the bottom of this isn’t going to be a slam dunk. No one stands out in your business or social circles that you think would warrant close scrutiny, so we’re going to have to agitate a lot of these folks to see what we can shake loose. Do you have a problem with this?

What do you mean by agitate?

‘Since we’ll be starting from scratch, we will approach every individual you can think of in your business and social circles that is impacted by your research work, either financially or personally. We will be aggressive, at times accusatory, but not totally tactless. Our aim will be to extract useful information, not to alienate these relationships."

Well, as my dad used to say when your back is to the wall you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do. Have at it.

After Abbie goes over our fees, reimbursement of expenses and our procedure for progress reports I bring the discussion to a close by saying, Ms. Goldstein, the sooner you can email us a list of people you believe we should talk with, the sooner we can get to work on this.

I’ll get on that immediately.

Abbie and I give her our business cards and we then head back to our office.

Chapter 3

A week of hard work goes by without anything to show for our efforts but sore ears, sore feet, sore knuckles and sore hands from spending countless hours on the phone, walking for what seemed like miles, climbing stairs that seemed to get steeper and steeper with every passing day, rapping on doors and shaking people’s hands.

We’re sitting in Abbie’s office on another beautiful spring morning going through all of our notes on the conversations we’ve had with folks up to this point, hoping to come across something we’ve overlooked that will point us in some new direction.

Shaking her head Abbie says, Everyone we’ve talked with about the Boyle rumors seems to me to be above board in every way. They’re just people being people, hearing an interesting rumor and getting curious about the truth of the matter which gets them talking with others about what they’ve heard.

Well, we still have about a half dozen people to interview and if nothing helpful develops with them, we’ll be dead in the water as far as Boyle goes. There is one thing I find kind of weird though. After interviewing over thirty people in that rumor channel, we have come full circle and are back to where we started. That isn’t sitting right with me.

Perhaps one of those thirty something people started the rumors. What muddies the waters even more is not everyone remembered everybody they talked to about the rumors or who passed them on to them. We have a couple of other roads to go down on the Boyle case though. We haven’t talked with Boyle’s company attorney, Ray Bartlett, yet and we haven’t prodded anyone in the local political arena yet either. Those avenues might lead to something.

We might have better luck with our game plan for Goldstein’s case. When people feel threatened, they sometimes say or do some revealing things.

And if these two cases are related, one of Goldstein’s competitors might be the link connecting the two. Okay, why don’t we focus on her situation for a while and see what we can shake loose?

I’m game.

We’re interrupted by Mindy knocking on the office door and saying, Turn on the TV. There’s some breaking news on Channel 2 you’re going to want to hear.

Abbie grabs her remote and tunes in to Channel 2.

It appears that our rumormonger has struck again and this time his target has more celebrity, much more, the Lieutenant Governor of New York, Alvina Lindauer.

She is being accused of malfeasance in office by a source or sources unknown in comments made on the internet in social media like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the like. She is being accused of peddling her influence and taking bribes to steer state business to particular companies, nepotism and also using her political influence to gain favors for her friends. When approached for her reaction to the accusations, she refused to talk with reporters. No comment was all she would say.

Abbie, that mud hole you said we’d be jumping into by taking on the Boyle case has just become a swamp with quicksand everywhere. What the hell is going on? All of these rumors appearing so close together are not the products of happenstance. There is a strategy in place here with a specific goal. Somebody wants something really bad to resort to this kind of thing.

I’m wondering if Her Honor would agree to talk with us if she knew we were working on similar attacks on other prominent people.

It certainly wouldn’t hurt our cause to try. She might know something that could shed some light on who is behind all of these rumors. Why don’t you give her a call? Even though she’s a politician and used to interacting with both sexes to implement her personal agenda, in this instance she might be more willing to talk with a stranger who is a woman than a man.

Picking up her phone she says, There will be no better time than now to find out so here it goes.

Fifteen minutes later Abbie has amazed me once again. She not only got the Lieutenant Governor to agree to talk with us, she set up an appointment for us to meet with her in our office two days hence. Ms. Lindauer will be in the Big Apple on state business and she thinks it would be an ideal place for us to meet, it not being a usual haunt of reporters.

The rest of our day and all of the next is spent working on the list of people Goldstein has provided us, doing our best to get people out of their comfort zones, to feel threatened by inference, to react without thinking so they’ll reveal something helpful to our investigation.

With some folks this is like trying to open a can of beans with a hammer. You can put a lot of dents in the container, but it remains