Mike Lawson - The Payback

He found Mahoney on the practice green, about to attempt an eight-foot putt. DeMarco watched in silence as Mahoney squared his big body over the ball, took in a breath, and stroked the ball. He hit it straight but too hard, and the ball rimmed the cup and shot off perpendicular to its original vector.

‘Son of a bitch,’ Mahoney muttered. ‘Greens’re fast today.’

Yeah right , DeMarco thought, like they waxed the grass just before you got here .

Mahoney was almost six feet tall and broad across the chest and back and butt. A substantial, hard gut gave balance to his body. He was in his sixties; his hair was white and full; his features all large and well formed; and his eyes were the watery, red-veined blue of a heavy drinker. He dropped another ball onto the grass.

‘The guy I want you to meet,’ Mahoney said, looking down at the ball, ‘will be here in a minute. He just went up to the clubhouse to get us some beer.’ Mahoney stroked the ball smoothly and this one dropped in. ‘Now that’s better,’ he said.

DeMarco knew Mahoney had been a fair athlete in high school – football, basketball, and baseball. He hadn’t competed in college because he went into the marines at seventeen, and when he was discharged, his right knee shredded by shrapnel, the only sports he played had involved beer steins and coeds. But even in his sixties he exhibited the hand-eye coordination of an athlete, and in spite of his size, moved lightly on his feet.

‘Here he comes now,’ Mahoney said, dropping a third ball onto the practice green, this one about ten feet from the cup.

Walking toward the green, carrying a small cooler designed to fit in the basket behind the seat of a golf cart, was a man about Mahoney’s age. He was five eight, stocky, and had a round head with a flat nose and short gray hair. As he got closer, DeMarco could see his eyes: bright blue and surrounded by a million crow’s feet from squinting into the sun. He had the eyes of a fighter pilot – which he’d once been. The man was the Secretary of the Navy, Frank Hathaway.

Hathaway, in turn, studied DeMarco, probably wondering what a hard-looking guy in a suit was doing standing on the practice green. DeMarco was five eleven and had broad shoulders, big arms, and a heavy chest. He was a good-looking man – full dark hair, a strong nose, a dimple in a big chin, and blue eyes – but he looked tough, tougher than he really was. A friend had once said that DeMarco looked like a guy you’d see on The Sopranos , a guy standing behind Tony while Tony hit someone with a bat. DeMarco hadn’t thought that funny.

Hathaway acknowledged DeMarco with a nod then said to Mahoney, ‘Al’s in the parking lot, talking on his cell phone. He’ll meet us on the first tee. Andy won’t be able to make it though. His secretary called and said there’s a fire drill in progress, two Saudis they caught trying to cross in from Canada, up near Buffalo.’ Hathaway put the cooler on the ground near the golf cart and added, ‘I wouldn’t have Andy’s job for all the tea in China.’

Andy, DeMarco knew, was General Andrew Banks, Secretary of Homeland Security.

Mahoney stroked the ball toward the hole. It dropped in. ‘Oh, yeah,’ Mahoney said. Gesturing with his putter at DeMarco, Mahoney said, ‘Frank, this is Joe DeMarco, the guy I was telling you about.’

Hathaway stuck out a small, hard hand and DeMarco shook it.

‘John says you do odd jobs for Congress,’ Hathaway said to DeMarco.

‘Yes, sir,’ DeMarco said.

John was John Fitzpatrick Mahoney, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and DeMarco worked for him – although no organizational chart showed this to be the case. DeMarco had a small office in the subbasement of the Capitol and he performed for Mahoney those tasks the Speaker preferred not to dole out to his legitimate staff. DeMarco liked to think of himself as Mahoney’s personal troubleshooter – but odd-jobs guy was accurate enough.

‘There’s Al,’ Mahoney said, pointing his blunt chin at a golf cart driven by a man so tall that his head almost touched the canvas roof of the cart. DeMarco recognized him too: Albert Farris, a onetime forward for the Portland Trail Blazers and currently the senior senator from Oregon.

Just four guys playing a round of golf: a United States senator, the Speaker of the House, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Secretary of the Navy. The fact that it was a weekday morning could mean that something more was going on than a game of golf – or it could mean they all just felt like playing. You never knew.

‘Joe, do you golf?’ Hathaway said.

‘Uh, well …,’ DeMarco said.

‘Yeah, he plays,’ Mahoney said as he pulled a can of beer from the cooler and popped the top.

‘Well since Andy can’t make it, why don’t you play the front nine with us?’ Hathaway said. ‘You ride with me and I’ll tell you what I need while we’re playing.’

Meaning Hathaway didn’t want to delay his game talking to DeMarco about whatever this odd job was.

‘I’m not exactly dressed for it,’ DeMarco said, gesturing at his clothes. DeMarco was wearing a freshly dry-cleaned suit, a white shirt, and his favorite tie. ‘And I don’t have any clubs,’ he added, already knowing that the only excuse that would work was polio.

‘Aw, just take off your jacket,’ Mahoney said. ‘It’s fuckin’ golf, not football. And you can share Frank’s clubs. Let’s get goin’.’

Shit. And he was wearing brand-new loafers and they’d cost him a hundred and fifty bucks on sale.

‘Yeah, sounds great,’ DeMarco said. He removed his tie, folded it carefully, and put it in the inside pocket of his suit jacket. He then took off his suit jacket and placed it neatly in the little basket on the golf cart. Immediately after he did so, Mahoney put the beer cooler in the basket, squashing down his jacket.

At the first tee he was introduced to Senator Farris. Farris was six foot seven. He had no excess fat on his body and his arms still looked strong enough to rip a rebound out of an opponent’s hands. During his playing days he’d been the team enforcer, the guy they sent into the game to cripple the opposition’s star. Farris’s best shot had been an elbow to the ribs. He had short dark hair with a small bald spot on the top of his head, big ears, a beaky nose, and an expression on his face that seemed far too serious for someone about to play a friendly game of golf.

Hathaway told Farris that Banks wouldn’t be coming and that DeMarco would be riding with him. ‘That’s good,’ Farris said, ‘because I want Mahoney with me so I can keep an eye on him.’

‘Who’s up?’ Mahoney said, ignoring Farris’s comment.

‘I mean it, Mahoney,’ Farris said. ‘We’re playing by the rules today. No mulligans, no gimme putts, and no, I repeat no , free kicks outta the rough.’

‘Aw,’ Mahoney said, ‘you’re just sore ’cause I kicked your ass last time.’

‘You didn’t kick my ass!’ Farris yelled, then immediately looked around to make sure no one had heard him. Lowering his voice he said, ‘You won by one friggin’ stroke and I still think you moved your ball on the tenth hole.’

‘Pure bullshit,’ Mahoney said. ‘Now get your skinny butt up there and tee off.’

Jesus , DeMarco was thinking. And these guys actually run the damn country .

Farris’s drive found the left side of the fairway two hundred and forty yards from the tee. Mahoney’s tee shot was slightly longer, also ending up on the left edge of the fairway. Hathaway, who didn’t have the bulk of the other two men, hit his shot a respectable two ten and it landed square in the middle of the fairway, as if the Titleist was a wire-guided missile.