Chương 109: I'm not someone anyone can step on.

Chapter 109 I'm Not Someone You Can Just Step On On the morning of Hope, at the City Hall.

Francis McGuire pushed open the door to the mayor's office, and smoke rushed out.

Jimmy Walker sat behind a table with today's New York Herald and the New York Daily News spread out on it.

McGuire walked to the table and said, "Mr. Mayor, the situation is not good. As of half an hour ago, we received forty-seven letters of resignation."

Walker looked up but didn't say anything.

McGuire continued, "The Vanderbilt family, the Astor family, and those builders all said they had urgent matters to attend to. Macy's Strauss said he had a sore throat. The vice president of Chase Bank said his wife was ill."

Walker swept the ashtray off the table and onto the floor, scattering shards of glass everywhere.

"A sore throat? Is the lady sick? Who are they trying to fool?"

McGuire waited until he finished venting his anger before speaking: "Mayor, that article was far more damaging than we anticipated. It turned attending the ball into a socially reprehensible act. Now, no one dares to be the first to show up; everyone's afraid of becoming the pig in tomorrow's paper."

Walker stood up and paced around the office.

Then he asked, "What about Elizabeth of the Harrison family? Any news from them? Are they really planning to break ties with me over that Arthur Kennedy?"

McGuire shook his head.

"Lady Elizabeth's secretary called back, very politely, saying that the lady had other plans for the evening and regretfully could not attend, and wished the ball a great success in advance."

Walker stopped and remained silent for a moment.

He could certainly understand what that meant.

Walker asked coldly, "What about the others?"

"The Roosevelt family ignored us," McGuire said.

"The Rockefeller family has not responded to any invitations. It is said that John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s schedule this afternoon is to attend a board meeting of an educational foundation at Columbia University."

"Morgan's assistant called to say that Mr. Pierpont was unwell, but would send a check as a token of his appreciation."

Walker, still somewhat hopeful upon hearing about the check, asked, "How much money is on the check?"

"One hundred dollars."

Walker's expression changed.

He knew very well what one hundred dollars meant. For the Morgan family, one hundred dollars was nothing.

They are insulting themselves.

Walker remained silent for a long time, then walked to the window and pulled the curtains open a crack, looking down at the people wearing white badges on their chests in the square below.

McGuire spoke up from behind him, "Mayor, I suggest we don't touch these companies. They're not ones we can afford to mess with right now."

Walker didn't turn around, but sighed, "I know."

Of course he knew.

Last time, in that banquet hall, Elizabeth pinned him to that chair in front of all the New York celebrities and publicly announced that her legal team would be in full charge of Arthur's legal affairs.

He still gets chills when he thinks about that scene.

What's even more crucial is who's behind Elizabeth. She's the niece of Chief Justice Taft, and the two families have been friends for thirty years.

Taft didn't need to take any concrete action; he only needed to casually express concern about something on some occasion, and the entire New York legal community would immediately sense the shift in the wind.

Walker already has Dilla in there, and the Westbli Inquiry is still going on; he can't afford to have another Taft concerned about him.

As for Roosevelt, Rockefeller, and Morgan, their roots in New York were even deeper than those of the Tammany Society itself.

They don't need any approval from the city hall to survive; in fact, they can cut off the Tammany Association's funding at any time from Wall Street.

These three companies are lines he absolutely cannot cross.

But others are different.

Walker turned around and asked venomously, "Is the regional planning approval for the Vanderbilt family's land on Long Island still pending on our end?"'

McGuire said, "Yes, it's been suppressed for two months."

When does Macy's fire safety certificate expire?

McGuire flipped through the documents and said, "Early next month."

"What problems were found with the accounts of Chase Bank's Brooklyn branch last time?"

McGuire said, "A few discrepancies aren't a big problem, but if you investigate, you can find something."

Walker nodded.

"Then go investigate. This afternoon, all at once. Have the tax bureau go to Macy's offices, have the fire department check the flagship store, and have the regional planning commission call Vanderbilt's lawyer."

He paused, then continued, "And then, wait for them to come to me."

McGuire hesitated, "Mayor, if this gets out—" Walker interrupted him, saying firmly, "So what if it gets out? Kennedy wrote about a pig today, what will he write about tomorrow? It's good that it gets out. I want everyone to know where the Tammany Society's reach is in New York."

"I, Jimmy Walker, am not someone anyone can step on!"

McGuire picked up the phone.

The news spread very quickly.

At the same time that Gerald Strauss, the owner of Macy's, received the call from the fire department, he also received— A message from a middleman at the city hall: The mayor has reserved a table at the Plaza Hotel tonight.

Strauss sat in his office and listened to the message from beginning to end without saying a word.

The assistant stood beside him and asked cautiously, "Boss, shall we go tonight?"

Strauss remained silent for a long time, then called his driver and said two words.

"Prepare the car."

Similar events, in different forms, occurred in dozens of corners of Manhattan over several hours in the afternoon.

John, an heir to the Vanderbilt family estate, received a call from the regional planning commission's lawyer, informing him that the application materials for the Long Island land needed to be reviewed again, with an uncertain timeframe.

He hung up the phone, stood in the living room for ten minutes, and then asked the man to go find a suit.

The vice president of Chase Bank received a notice of tax audit, understood that this was not a routine inspection, and understood that he had no choice.

Several construction companies that rely on municipal contracts for their livelihood received a more direct message: the review period for project payments this month may be extended.

No one explicitly said these things were connected to the ball. But everyone understood.

That's Walker's language. No need for overt threats; just a few phone calls and official documents are enough to force someone into the Plaza Hotel.

But in another direction in Manhattan, several cars went to completely different addresses.

The Rockefeller family's car stopped in front of Elizabeth's villa.

A representative of the Morgan family delivered a letter in the evening and then stayed to await a reply.

There was another car with a very ordinary license plate, and the person sitting in the back seat was Congressman Fiorello LaGuardia.

The future mayor of New York City will be the most remarkable one.