Fleishman and Gallagher knew their usefulness was over. Within minutes every member of the gang on the pier would know they were officers. Fleishman said to Gallagher, “You walk down the pier and walk down the middle of it—don’t get to the side where there is any cargo or anything else. Walk right down the middle in clear sight. I’m going after a taxi.”
Fleishman luckily was able to hail a cab, and he and Gallagher jumped in. As the cab wheeled from the pier a black sedan roared from the shadows to give chase. The frightened taxi driver finally shook off their pursuers and Fleishman and Gallagher returned to their rooming house.
The information they had gathered was turned over to the Department of Justice and prosecutions were begun. The crackdown didn’t halt the smuggling by any means, but it was a jolt to the underworld.
Then, on August 30, 1928, Lawrence Fleishman sat at his desk fingering a letter which the mailman had left at his office a few minutes earlier. The letter was postmarked Washington, D. C., and across the front was written the word “Confidential.”
Slowly he tore open the letter and began reading:
Sir:
You will report at the earliest date possible to Detroit, Michigan. As soon as you arrive in Detroit, you will register at the Barlum Hotel.... You are to work strictly undercover and you are to report to me daily by mail as to your findings.
You will report any dishonesty or irregularity on the part of any Customs employee, securing wherever possible such evidence as is obtainable....
(Signed) Elmer J. Lewis
Fleishman tossed the letter onto his desk and felt the excitement building up inside. The order really came as no great surprise, although he knew that it would be something of a shock for his wife to learn they were leaving immediately for Detroit. Their plans for the future hadn’t included any sudden, mysterious journeys to a city neither of them had ever visited before.