When they were called, the indictment hearing lasted only a few minutes and was a strange anti - climax. The clerk read the charges, H. Trafford Jilks answered 'Not Guilty' to each one on behalf of his client and requested bail. The government, as agreed, made no objection. Jilks asked judge Prescott for at least three months to prepare his defence. The judge set a trial date of 17 May and, seemingly uninterested, moved on to the next case.
Abel was free again, free to face the press and more flashing bulbs of their cameras. George had the car waiting for him at the bottom of the steps with the door open. The engine was already running and Abel's chauffeur had to do some very skilful driving to free himself from the determined reporters who were still pursuing their story. He did not head back to the flat on East Fif ty~seventh Street until he was certain he had shaken them all off. Abel said nothing during the entire chase. When they reached their destination, he turned to George and put his arm on his shoulder.
'Now listen, George, you're going to have to run the group for at least three months while I get my defence sorted out with Mr. Jilks. Lees hope you dori~t have to run it alone af ter that,'said Abel, trying to laugh.
'Of course I won't have to, Abel. Mr. Jilks will get you off, you'll see! George picked up his briefcase and touched Abel on the arm.
'Keep smiling,' he said and left.
'I don't know what I'd do without George,' Abel told his lawyer as they settled down in the front room. 'We came aver on the boat together nearly forty years ago, and we've been through a hell of a lot since then. Now it looks as if there's a whole lot more ahead of us, so let's get on with it, Mr. Jilks. Any sign of Henry Osborne yet?'
'No, but I have six men working on it, and I understand the justice Department have at least another six so we can be pretty sure he'll turn up, not that we want them to find him first.'
'What about the man Osborne sold the file to?' asked Abel.
'I have some people I trust in Chicago detailed to run that down.'
'Good,' said Abel. 'Now the time has come to go over that file of naines you left with me last night!
Trafford Jilks began by reading the indictment and then he went over each of the charges in detail with Abel.
After nearly three weeks of constant meetings, when Jilks was finally convinced there was nothing else Abel could tell him, he left his client to rest. The three weeks had failed to turn up any leads as to the whereabouts of Henry Osborne, either from Trafford Jilks' men or the justice Department. Jilks' men had also had no breakthrough on finding the person to whom Henry had sold his information and were beginning to wonder if Abel had guessed right.
As the trial date drew nearer, Abel started to face the possibility of actually~ going to jail. He was now fifty - five and afraid and ashamed at the prospect of spending the last few years of his life the same way as he had spent the first few. As H. Trafford Jilks had pointed out, if the government could prove they had a case, there was enough in Osborne's file to send him to the pen for a very long time. The injustice - as it seemed to him - of his predicament angered Abel. The nialfeasances that Henry Osborne had committed in his name had been substantial but not exceptional; Abel doubted that any new business could have grown or any new money made without the sort of handouts and bribes documented with sickening accuracy in Trafford Jilks' file. He thought bitterly of the smooth, impassive face of the young William Kane, sitting in his Boston office all those years ago on a pil~, of inherited money whose probably disreputable origins wert~ safely buried under generations of respectability. Then Florentyna wrote, a touching letter enclosing some photographs of her son, saying that she still loved and respected Abel, and believed in his innocence.
Three days before the trial was due to open, the justice Department found Henry Osborne in New Orleans. They undoubtedly would have missed him completely if he hadnt ended up in a local hospital with two broken legs.
A zealous policeman discovered Henry had received his injuries for welching on gambling debts. They Don't like that in New Orleans. The policeman put two and two together and later that night, after the hospital had put plaster casts on both Osborne's legs, the justice Department wheeled him on an Eastern Airlines flight to New York.
Henry Osborne was charged the next day with conspiracy to defraud, and he was denied bail. H. Trafford Jilks asked the court's permission to be allowed to question him., The court granted his request, but Jilks gained very little satisfaction from the interview. It became obvious that Osborne had already made his deal with the government, promising to turn state's evidence against Abel in return for lesser charges against him.