Swimming to Catalina

convicted, you’re off the hook.
    “You certainly have the right to remain silent, but if you do, I promise you, from the bottom of my heart, that you will have spent your last day on this earth as a free man. You know there won’t be any bail. In addition to that, I promise you the roughest ride in the joint that I can muster, and that’s pretty rough. I’ll personally see to it that you do the hardest possible time in the worst prison this state has to offer, and that’s pretty bad; I’ll see that you’re put on the same cell block with some of the people you sent up when you were a cop.” He paused for effect. “That’s my offer, and time is running out. What’s it going to be?”
    Stone tensed as O’Hara’s hand went inside his jacket, but he came back with a handkerchief and mopped his face. “You saidcomplete immunity?”
    “I did.”

    “Fromeverything ? I’ll walk?”
    “That’s right. I don’t give a shit what you did.”
    “Can I have it in writing?”
    “I’m the only friend you’ve got, Billy; don’t abuse my friendship.”
    O’Hara opened his desk drawer, causing Stone concern again, but he came up with a bottle of pills. He poured himself a glass of water and took one, then he sat back in his chair, a beaten man. “Okay, Rick: I’ll play it your way. Ippolito can go fuck himself.”

59
    Rick placed a handheld tape recorder on the desk between himself and Billy O’Hara and switched it on. He counted to ten aloud, played back the sound to be sure he had a level, then rewound it and pressed the RECORD button.
    “My name is Richard Grant,” he said. “I am a lieutenant of detectives of the Los Angeles Police Department attached to the chief of detectives. I am interviewing William O’Hara, a former police officer and, until recently, chief of security at Centurion Studios. Mr. O’Hara has agreed to give me a full statement of his activities without counsel present and to testify against others, in return for guaranteed immunity from all prosecution. Also present, as a witness, is Mr. Stone Barrington, a retired New York City police officer.” He stated the date and time, then looked up at his interviewee. “Are you William O’Hara?”
    “Yes, I am,” O’Hara replied.

    “Have you been informed of your constitutional rights?”
    “I have.”
    “Do you understand them?”
    “Yes, I do.”
    “Do you wish to have legal counsel present during this interview?”
    “No, I do not.”
    “Are the statements which you are about to make given freely and without duress?”
    “Yes, they are.”
    “Have you been promised anything by me or any other law enforcement official, except immunity from prosecution, in return for making these statements?”
    “No, I have not been.”
    “Tell me, as fully as possible, how you became involved in the crimes presently under investigation by the LAPD and the federal authorities.”
    O’Hara took a deep breath and began. His presentation was that of a police officer testifying in court, as he had been trained to do. “I retired from the Los Angeles Police Department five years ago, on the offer of a job from Mr. Louis Regenstein, chairman of the board, as director of security for Centurion Studios. After I had been employed by Centurion for a year I was offered the opportunity to purchase stock in the company. I bought one hundred shares at a price of five hundred dollars a share. The studio loaned me the money to make the purchase.
    “Approximately three months prior to the present date I was approached by Mr. David Sturmack, a member of the board of Centurion Studios, with an offer to trade my shares in Centurion for an equal number of shares of Albacore Fisheries, which is acompany controlled by Mr. Sturmack and Mr. Onofrio Ippolito, who is also chairman of the board of the Safe Harbor Bank.”
    “Was this an advantageous offer?”
    “It represented an increase in the value of my investment by a factor of ten.”
    “What did Mr. Sturmack tell you he wanted in return for this windfall?”
    “He asked me to assist him in doing intelligence work at the studio directed at causing other stockholders to sell Albacore their shares.”
    “Did you agree to help him?”
    “Yes.”
    “Did he ask you to do anything else?”
    “Not at that time.”
    “Later?”
    “A few weeks later, Mr. Sturmack came back to see me. He said that he had learned that Louis Regenstein was planning to fire me as head of security. He said that he would