Jimmy didn’t go far. He pulled into a fast food hamburger place, parked, and went inside.
We followed.
I went to order for ourselves and Betsy and Ari followed Jimmy to a nearby seat.
Jimmy got his food. I was still waiting for mine, and I watched him walk over and sit down. Betsy sat right across from him. Ari was standing off to one side.
Betsy is good-looking even though she has a hard edge, so Jimmy smiled at her. She smiled back. Ari didn’t smile at all.
I came over and stood next to Ari.
“This is mine, Danny. Please.”
“All right, Ari. But I’m telling you no violence. There are some witnesses here. You understand me?”
“Sure.”
Ari sat next to Betsy and across from Jimmy. I pulled over a chair and sat next to both of them. Betsy got up and stood in a way that blocked other people in the place from seeing Jimmy.
“What’s going on?” Jimmy asked. “I don’t want any trouble.”
“Too late,” Ari said.
“I didn’t do anything to you.”
Then Jimmy looked at me.
“You look familiar. Were you ever a customer of mine?”
“I look like a lot of people,” I said. I didn’t want to say I knew him very briefly in high school. I knew him more by reputation than by hanging out with him. I thought we both had changed enough so that he wouldn’t recognize me.
Ari leaned forward.
“Don’t worry about him. Worry about me. Do you know how easy it is to make a car not work?”
“So?”
“Imagine if a lot of your cars didn’t work. Imagine the reputation you’d have. You’d be out of business in a week.”
“Wait. You’re making some kind of mistake. I don’t know any of you.”
“And yet here we are.”
“Okay. What do we need to do to get things right between us?”
“Spoken like a true salesman,” Ari said. “It’s too late, Jimmy.”
“How do you know my name?”
“We know all about you. We have been watching you.”
“Why? I didn’t do anything.”
“You hit your wife, Jimmy. Too many times. You sent her to the hospital. I bet if I knew her she’d tell me that you scare her.”
“What’s that to you? She’s my wife. If she doesn’t listen to her husband she deserves to get hit.”
Ari took Jimmy’s hand and twisted it.
“Oh! That really hurts.”
I spoke. “We work for someone who cares about Mary Jo, Jimmy. Who cares a lot about her. Who doesn’t want her to get hit. Not even once. Not even softly.”
Ari reached out and put his hand around Jimmy’s throat. Betsy looked around to make sure she was blocking other customers from seeing Ari. Jimmy couldn’t talk. Ari didn’t squeeze, but his hand was strong. Then he let go.
“It was difficult for me to stop myself, Jimmy. I wanted to snap your neck. I like the sound of a snapping neck.”
“What are you? Crazy?”
“Yes, I am,” Ari said. “I’m very crazy. Ask the people I’ve killed. I guess you can’t do that, but if you could you’d know just how crazy I am. And you know what drives me the most crazy? A man who hurts a woman. I can’t accept that. So I’m watching you. The next time you hurt your wife, Jimmy, I promise you that you are going to end up being sorry you were born. You think you know pain. You don’t. I’m going to introduce you to real pain, the kind of pain you can’t take a pill for or put some ointment on. It’s the kind of pain that keeps you screaming through the night, that gives you nightmares. You want that kind of pain, you’ll hit your wife.”
“You’d better get out of here before I call the cops.”
“I’m shaking, Jimmy. We are three. They will believe us. We’re going. But before we go, I want you to understand us. You hit your wife again, your cars will be destroyed and you will have trouble walking for six months or seeing through your eyes for six months or breathing right for nine months. Trust me. You want to punch, get a bag. Don’t do it to your wife. My advice. Don’t drink and go home. Don’t drink at home.”
“Did she send you?”
“She doesn’t know who we are or that we’re here, Jimmy.”
Ari stood up.
He even looked frightening to me.
“I’m angry that I’m not allowed to hurt you right now, Jimmy. I really wanted to. I don’t think you deserve one last chance. But you’ve got it. If you have one ounce of sense you won’t mess up. You understand?”
Jimmy just nodded.
Ari patted him on top of the head three times and then the three of us left.
When we got in the car, Betsy nodded toward Ari and said, “I don’t know about Jimmy, but I was shaking.”
Ari ignored her.
“How can we check on his wife, Danny?”
“I’ll have Marlene call her regularly and get back to us. We’ll know.”
“Good,” Ari said. “Very good.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
After Marlene arranged for an end to her debt and a deposit of the rest and after we hoped the question of Jimmy Marvin and his wife had been settled, I thought it was time to drop in to the Congressional office.
I didn’t spend a lot of time there. When I showed up, I never stayed behind a desk answering phones. Congressman Lucey must have been shocked on his first day at the furious pace of calls that he got. The invitations poured in. Every organization with a political interest wanted him. I told him for the first month to go to some but focus on staying in the trailer around the block from the office and calling for donations. He wasn’t allowed to call from the office.
He had rented our old office in Port Jefferson on Main Street not far from where the ferry and boats were docked. He didn’t want to keep the trailer which we had used as a campaign office for re-election, but I had convinced him to do so.
I wasn’t happy that he had hired Earl Ennis as Chief of Staff. He had been my boss once, and let’s say that relationship did not go well. At least, Lucey hired Janet D’Amaro for Constituent Services—helping people with Social Security or the indecipherable maze of the Federal Government.
I sat on a bench staring at the street. The return of Spring to Long Island was a happy event. Heavy coats went into hibernation. Smiles on peoples’ faces returned. Birds sat on telephone wires and sang choruses of praise to the weather gods.
I felt good again as well. Waves of warmth crossed my face and caressed me. I sat there for as long as I dared. Then I went into the office.
There were people I didn’t recognize, but then I saw Janet and went over to her.
“Danny Ryle, back from the dead. We missed you.”
She waved her ring finger at me. I had missed her wedding and she was teasing me about it.
“Oh, Janet. Pray tell, it’s not too late to make you mine.”
She giggled out of kindness.
“Let the men of Long Island mourn, Danny. I’m a happily married woman.”
“That’s great, Janet. I...”
“Mr. Ryle.”
I turned, although I didn’t have to do so. I knew the voice.
“Mr. Ennis. So nice to see you again.”
“Don’t you ever stop being a wise guy, Mr. Ryle? This is a Congressional office, not a detention hall.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, Mr. Ennis.”
“You do that. Congressman Lucey needs you. Yesterday. When you’re done I want you to spend a few minutes thinking of how you’re going to conduct yourself in this office from now on. I will be watching your every move. Congressman Lucey has given me total control of the staff. Pay attention to that, Mr. Ryle. Total control.”
“Yes, Mr. Ennis. I’ve got it. I think you’ve got total control.”
His face turned red as he pivoted around and walked away.
I went into the Congressional Office. Lucey had gotten onto the Armed Services Committee and already had some model p
lanes and photographs of fighter jets.
He was sitting with a man I didn’t know. The man had on a gray suit that matched his perfectly-combed hair. I don’t like handkerchiefs worn in a suit jacket, and this guy had a purple handkerchief. He was tall as he stood up, turned, and shook my hand after the Congressman introduced us.
“Danny, this is Davis Ballantine. He’s representing Kerrigan Consolidated Industries.”
Great. A lobbyist. Kerrigan was interested in making sure that every man, woman, and child in America never stopped using their products and that the U.S. government would turn first to Kerrigan when it needed the most expensive materials possible.
I shook his hand.
He smiled at me and said, “The Congressman tells me you are the one with the brains in the office.”
“I love undeserved compliments. Don’t you, Mr. Ballantine?”
He stumbled over an appropriate answer and finally came up with, “Oh, I never get any, Mr. Ryle. I’ve brought two boxes of doughnuts as a welcoming gift. They’re on the secretary’s desk in front.”
He was here for two minutes and he had already located a major weakness of mine. Not bad.
“Beyond eating the doughnuts, which I will surely do, how can I help the Congressman help you?”
“Oh, that’s the wrong way round, Mr...Do you mind if I call you Danny?”
“Not if you give me a doughnut every time you call me.”
I confused him, but he was a lobbyist so he had learned to keep his composure.
“I’ll remember that. Anyway, it’s not how the Congressman can help me. It’s how I, or more particularly the Congressman’s friends at Kerrigan, can help the
Congressman.”
He was smart. If a gift came from Kerrigan Industries itself it would be limited by Federal laws. But if gifts came from individuals in the company and, say, their spouses, the amount of money we could collect, though still subject to limits by individual, would be much larger. I had to show him I understood.
“I’m sure there are many friendly folks at Kerrigans who can recognize a future superstar in the political heavens.”
I wanted him not only to give now, but to see himself as investing in the future. He’d give more if he thought Lucey was interested in running for the Senate or Governor or who knows what?
“I’m glad we understand each other, Danny. I’ve bought checks from ten of our friends. Early money is the best money, is it not?”
“It most certainly is, Mr. Ballantine, and is all the more appreciated for its timeliness.”
It was time to show I wasn’t an idiot.
“And I’m sure the Congressman would like to know what bills you’re interested in.”
A satisfied smile. He knew we really did understand each other. He was bribing the Congressman to vote for or against bills that would affect his company.
Ballantine reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out two envelopes. Perhaps he feared I would turn out to be dense and would need to see a visual connection between the two envelopes.
“Here are the checks from some friends. More are interested. They just want the Congressman to prove himself.”
“Of course,” I said.
“And here are the issues as we understand them.” He turned to the Congressman. “Ken, we especially want you to understand the terrible lies some of the newspapers and networks put forth about the dangers of corporate contributions. Our products are as American as apple pie, which itself contains some of our products. I’ve provided this information and a list of some bills and our positions. I urge you to study this material and make up your own mind.”
A clever move. He could now explicitly say there was no quid pro quo. He was just being a good lobbyist and providing the sweet facts of what Kerrigan produced and hoped the Congressman would see the light and vote the way Kerrigan Consolidated Industries wished him to.
Congressman Lucey took the material. “I confess to having an inclination to liking your products, Davis. So this material will find friendly eyes as I read it.”
“I’m very pleased to hear that, Ken. There are people who don’t know you and asked me to call them about how our meeting went.”
The two men chatted about golf for a few minutes and then Ballantine left.
Congressman Lucey stared at me.
“Why do I feel I need a shower?”
“You’ll feel that way a lot, Congressman. Get ready for it.”
“If I go against them I’m turning away their money. If I go for them I’m turning away my conscience. Some of what they produce is inferior.”
“A delicate balance is needed, Congressman. Draw your red lines and don’t go past them. Support the products you can. The head of the party in Washington will call you often and tell you what he would like. You should listen carefully to him. Consider the compromises you are willing to make to stay in office. That’s just simple political reality.”
“You don’t like this, do you, Danny?”
I shrugged. “If only the world arranged itself so that the moral side went over to this corner and the amoral side went to that corner and the immoral side went to that corner. All would be simple. But that’s not the world, is it, Congressman?”
He shook his head.
“Listen, Danny. I have someone on the staff I want you to meet. In fact, I want you to do more than meet her. I want you to train her. Right now she goes to water hearings or Eagle Scout ceremonies to give away flags for me. Plus of course she does work around the office, answer the phones and so on.”
I held up my hand.
“Can I make a suggestion, Congressman?”
“Of course. You’re my fixer.”
“Then let me fix this. I know it’s sometimes difficult to go to the Eagle ceremonies. But the scouts love it. Their parents love it. If anyone on your staff goes, that’s nice. But if you go, it’s a vote for you in the next election from every person who was there. I realize I’ve told you to raise money all the time and meet constituents all the time and now go to Eagle Scout ceremonies all the time. You have to do it all during the first term. You can sleep after your re-election. The next time you run will be the time in office that you’re most vulnerable.”
“I would prefer not hearing the truth, Danny.”
“Then you’ll need someone else as your advisor.”
He nodded.
I sighed. “This woman. Who is she?”
“Her name is Natalie Robbins. She’s very smart. She’s not ambitious enough, Danny. She’s not cynical enough.”
“And I’m the perfect teacher for that?”
“I meant it in a good way.”
“What other vices am I to teach her?”
“Teach her the politics that isn’t taught in school.”
“All right.”
“There’s a small problem. In fact, this stays between us, but it almost stopped me from hiring her.”
“And what is this weakness?”
“She’s too attractive. Men will come in here just to flirt with her. Men in important offices won’t pay attention to what she says. They will be staring at her blue eyes. Very big, very bright, and very blue eyes. Or at the rest of her.”
“What am I supposed to do about that? Make her uglier?”
“You have to solve the problem somehow. You have to teach her how to project a warning not to come close to her. Maybe get her to wear a wedding ring. Make her sound cold or mean. That’s up to you. I know her father, Danny. It’s not money. We’re good friends. He asked me to give his daughter a job. My mother knows the family and said I had to. I already find her a distraction.”
“There are worse problems to have. I’ll do what I can.”
He picked up the phone and told her to come into his office.
She walked inside, stared at me for a second, didn’t look very impressed, and turned to the Congressman. She was too well-dressed, too conscious of trying to look perfect. It must have been difficult for her. All her m
ature life, boys and men had buzzed around her and now she was in the adult world and had to figure out how to live in it. She looked like a little girl wearing too much make-up and playing where she didn’t know the rules.
“Miss Robbins, this is Danny Ryle. He’s officially my speechwriter, but we use him to fix problems. For the office. For friends of the office. I’ve asked him to work with you, to provide some guidance.”
She turned to me and nodded.
“Mr. Ryle.”
I nodded back and said, “You don’t have to do this, Miss Robbins. If you’d prefer a different teacher or none at all, you should say so. I may not be able to help.”
Congressman Lucey said, “He’s being modest Miss Robbins. Everyone will tell you he has the best political mind in Suffolk County. It’s true that some people don’t like that. Some people resent it. But I like it. I want you to learn from that mind. Danny, why don’t you and Miss Robbins go to her desk and talk over how you’ll work together?”
I stood up. She looked scared. One more annoying man to put his arm around her shoulder and casually ask her to dinner. She crossed her arms in front of her. Don’t go near me, she yelled with her body language.
I walked out with her, stopped to get two doughnuts, sat down at her desk, and handed her one of the doughnuts.
“I meant it. If you want, you can tell the Congressman you’re working with me and you’ll never see me until I walk into this office again, which won’t be very soon.”
“I’ve heard about you. You’d be better off if I didn’t believe what I heard. You have an interesting collection of enemies.”
“Don’t I though? I’ve worked hard to collect them.”
She smiled and nibbled at the doughnut.
“When does class begin?”
“I’ll call in a few days. I have some other stuff to straighten out.”
“Is there anything I can do in the meantime to prepare for my education?”
“Sure. Get used to calling me Danny. Get used to doughnuts. And make a list of what you don’t want me to do, stuff that really annoys you.”
“I like that. But I’m afraid it could turn out to be a really long list. Though, to be positive, I already like that you didn’t tell me how pretty I look or how nice my hair smells. I could make a list of stupid lines men have said to me. Seriously, I was standing in line at the register to get food and this guy behind me taps me on the shoulder and says, ‘Hi. I’m writing a phone book. Can I have your name and number?’ I swear I could publish a book of pathetic pick-up lines.”
The Starry Night of Death Page 4
