by Jake Needham
“A hallway?”
“No one really cares about a hallway. It’s not a significant room in any building. It’s just a way to get back and forth between the places where the important things happen. But you know, if you stand quietly in a hallway, sometimes you can hear and see extraordinary things. Sometimes you can learn more standing in the hallway than if you’re invited right into the rooms.”
I didn’t quite know how to respond to Tommy’s moving tribute to the importance of hallways, so I just sat and watched his soft, almost pink face in the glow of the lights from outside the car.
Tommy wasn’t very tall. He was slightly overweight and he wore a conservative gray suit with a white shirt and a dark tie. He could be anybody, I thought to myself. If someone told me Tommy was really a Canadian grocery store owner or a Portuguese real estate developer, I would have had no reason at all to doubt them. That was exactly what made Tommy such an effective spy.
The big Mercedes left the campus and turned north on Phayathai Road. It edged steadily through the heavy traffic between Siam Square and the imposing bulk of the Mah Boonkrong Center, an eight-story concrete bunker with a huge shopping mall inside it through which thousands of people poured every day of the year searching for cheap mobile phones, pirated software, and knock-off designer clothing.
“You going to tell me where we’re headed?” I asked Tommy, but he didn’t answer. Instead he pushed the curtain on his side open again and sat quietly examining a crowd of university girls gathered under a bus shelter.
The driver punched the accelerator to make the light and I saw we were going east toward the Sukhumvit residential district, the area where most of the foreigners in Bangkok lived in a forest of luxury high-rises that had sprouted over the last few years from what had not so long before been only rice fields. Those Thais who had the extraordinary good fortune to be the heirs of the farmers who had owned those rice fields had grown wealthy beyond most people’s understanding of the word. Those Thais whose ancestors had owned fields that were just a few hundred yards away in one direction or another had grown envious beyond most people’s understanding of the word.
“What have you been doing with yourself, Jack?” Tommy abruptly asked. “I mean recently.”
“Teaching my classes. Hanging out with Anita. The usual.”
“No adventures?”
“Not so as you’d notice.”
Tommy smiled.
“Miss the action?” he asked.
“No.”
Tommy chuckled, crossed his legs at the knee, and turned his head back toward the window. “You’re full of shit.”
“Possibly,” I allowed. “But not about that.”
Tommy chuckled again.
“Believe me or not, little man,” I said. “It is so.”
“Don’t give me that crap, Jack. You were a player. And now you’re just…well, what? You teach a little? You do some consulting? And you’re happy? Don’t try to shit a shitter, man. You miss the action. I know you do. I’ll bet sometimes you even wonder if you could still cut it in a big game, don’t you?”
That was a little close to the nerve, so I glanced away from Tommy and concentrated on the back of the driver’s head.
“Shit,” Tommy snorted. “I knew it. Once a player, always a player.”
I took a deep breath and turned toward Tommy, staring at him until he stopped fidgeting and held my eyes.
“Listen very closely, my friend, and make notes if you want to, because I’m going to tell you something you ought to remember.”
I imagine I sounded a bit testy and I didn’t particularly care.
“I have a nice life and a woman who loves me, and I will fight you or anyone who threatens to screw it up for me to the death. You hear me, Tommy? To the very fucking death.”
The Mercedes slowed and moved over to the middle lane. It edged past a handcart loaded with straw brooms that a stooped old woman was pushing along next to the curb. Tommy didn’t answer me, but I hadn’t really expected him to. Instead he tilted his head back against the seat and shut his eyes.
Since Tommy didn’t seem much inclined to continue the conversation, I pushed open the curtain on my side and looked out at the street. We were in a residential neighborhood I vaguely recognized, one somewhere between New Petchburi Road and Sukhumvit Road. I hated driving in that area since I always got turned around in the bewildering warren of tiny streets. The problem was that the street signs were all in Thai, which no westerner I knew could read, and there were no other real landmarks to navigate by. The high concrete walls that enclosed the small apartment buildings and huge, unseen estates all looked more or less alike, and the broken glass and sharpened iron spikes that lined the top of most of them gave the whole area an air of secret and no doubt illicit doings.
After a while I gave up on trying to make sense of our route. We were going where we were going and I wasn’t about to give Tommy the satisfaction of showing too much interest.
At one point the street we were traveling on made a right-angle bend between two high walls and the Mercedes came to a complete stop while a green truck with sheets of dark canvas strapped over it slipped past us in the opposite direction. The space between the walls was narrow and the truck came so close to the Mercedes that a bulge in the canvas hit the driver’s mirror. The creak of the mirror folding inward and then the thump of it snapping back into place caused me to flinch, but neither the driver nor Tommy seemed to take any notice.
As we sat there waiting for the truck to pass, my eyes drifted to a black metal gate in the wall at my side of the car. The gate was open a crack and in the gap I could see a tiny girl in a blue and white school uniform who couldn’t have been more than five or six. She was looking out at us, and her huge, deep brown eyes stared at me without expression. I wondered if the proximity of the big car and my white face looking out of it frightened the girl or just tickled her curiosity, but I could read nothing at all in those big wet eyes, not even whether she could actually see me through the dark glass of the windows. I smiled and wiggled my eyebrows stupidly at the little girl just to see what would happen, but I got no response. Then, after a moment, the truck passed by, the Mercedes began to edge forward again, and the little girl was gone.
Less than five minutes later the car stopped at a pair of gates built of close-set green metal bars with gold curlicues on the top. A guard wearing a uniform of some sort walked up to the driver’s window and bent down, and the driver opened the window a crack and said something in a low voice I didn’t quite catch. It must have been the right thing, because the guard whipped out a crisp salute then stepped around in front of the car and pushed open the gates. The Mercedes rolled forward and I saw we were in the courtyard of what appeared to be a small apartment building.
“Okay, Big Jack. We’re here.”
I glanced at Tommy. His head was still tilted back against the seat, but now his eyes were open.
“So does this mean you’re going to cut the crap and tell me what’s going on?”
“Yeah.” Tommy stretched and yawned. “Plato Karsarkis wants to talk to you about something. This place is…”
All of a sudden Tommy’s eyes began to dart around wildly. I knew he had just realized he was about to say the wrong thing, but was stuck for a quick alternative.
I let him off the hook. “One of Plato’s fuck pads?” I asked.
The corners of Tommy’s mouth flicked up and down a couple of times. “Something like that,” he said.
“So, tell me, Tommy. I don’t really figure I’m this guy’s type. Why am I here?”
“Just shut the hell up for once in your life and have a little patience, would you, Jack?” Tommy looked to me like a man who very much wished he were somewhere else right then. “Let’s go upstairs.”
We got out of the car and I followed Tommy toward the lobby of the building. A man wearing a white jacket and a black bow tie pulled open the glass door and then jumped over and pushed the elevator butt
on. The doors slid back immediately. After we were inside, he leaned in and pushed a button marked PH, which I assumed stood for penthouse, then he pulled his arm back out and bowed slightly as the doors closed again. It was a pretty snappy move, but Tommy was staring hard at the floor and didn’t appear to appreciate it as much as I did.
Neither of us spoke as the elevator hummed upward. When the doors opened I followed Tommy out into a small, marble-floored foyer. English hunting prints decorated the walls and there were two dark green upholstered chairs with a lamp table between them. It might have been the waiting room of a prosperous, but badly underemployed, dentist.
Almost immediately a door swung open. Mike O’Connell stood there smiling and holding his hand out toward me like a man with something to sell.
“Thank you for coming, Mr. Shepherd.”
“Your invitation was so gracious, I didn’t see how I could refuse.”
“Come on, Jack,” Tommy grumbled. “Cut the shit.”
Then he glared at Mike O’Connell and pointed a perfectly manicured forefinger at him. O’Connell stepped aside and I followed Tommy into the room.
TWENTY
THE EXPENSIVELY DECORATED apartment had a distinctly masculine air about it, but it was somehow impersonal. It might have been the living room of a suite at a Four Seasons hotel in almost any city anywhere in the world.
Plato Karsarkis was sitting in a red leather chair with his legs propped up on an ottoman and crossed at the ankle. He was facing away from me, looking out a large window and contemplating with apparent interest whatever it was he saw out there.
“Can I offer you coffee, Professor Shepherd?”
It was Mike O’Connell who spoke, not Karsarkis.
“Or perhaps something stronger?” O’Connell went on when I didn’t respond immediately.
“Am I going to need it?” I asked.
Karsarkis laughed at that and turned his head toward me.
“Not really, but the least I can do after dragging you all the way out here is to buy you a drink,” he said. “Scotch for me, Mike, and…”
Karsarkis raised his eyebrows at me.
“Same.” I said. “Water, no ice.”
“No ice? That surprises me, Jack. Very European. Americans always seem to want ice. Lots of ice.”
“I’m full of surprises.”
Karsarkis nodded slowly several times as if I had just told him something important. Then, in a kind of afterthought, he glanced at Tommy.
“You want anything?” he asked him in a tone that made his lack of interest unmistakable.
“Vodka,” Tommy mumbled quietly. “Neat.”
O’Connell disappeared, I assumed to get our drinks, and Karsarkis gestured at a pair of couches.
“Sit down, gentlemen. Mike is going to have to play waiter since we’ve sent the staff home. It’s just the four of us today.”
Tommy seemed uncomfortable, although I couldn’t see why. Then it occurred to me I was probably about to find out.
“So, Jack.” Karsarkis had gone back to looking out the window. “That house in Phuket you wanted. You must be pretty happy about the deal the bank offered you.”
“I rather thought that was your hand at work there.”
“Does it matter?” he asked.
“It does to me.”
“You wanted the house,” Karsarkis shrugged. “I just thought I’d help you out.”
“I didn’t want the house. Anita did.”
Karsarkis glanced at me and lifted one eyebrow as if he didn’t see why that mattered. Little did he know.
“How did you find out about it?” I asked him.
“The agent who showed you the place said something to her husband. Tommy here knows the guy from somewhere. He heard it from him. Thailand’s really a small place, Jack. At least it is for foreigners. Everybody knows everybody else’s business.”
“Then you must already know I’m not buying the house.” I thought a moment and added, “And neither is Anita.”
Karsarkis shifted his eyes to me, his interest caught. “I thought the bank offered a pretty good deal.”
“For who?” I asked.
“For you and Anita,” he said. “Who else?”
“Oh…I thought you meant it seemed like a good deal for you. Making a call or two, getting BankThai to sell me the house at a fraction of its real value, leaving me owing you a big favor. Like that.”
Karsarkis chuckled and shook his head. “You’re a real pistol, Jack. A friend tries to do something for you and you act like he’s just pissed all over you.”
“We’re not friends. I already told you that. And if I want a favor, I’ll ask you for it. But don’t hold your breath.”
“So basically the house…”
Karsarkis let the phrase hang in the air like a question, but without a question mark.
“Basically,” I said, “that’s none of your business.”
Just then O’Connell reappeared carrying a wooden tray with three drinks.
“What?” I asked as he set my whiskey and Tommy’s vodka on the low table in front of the couch. “No pretzels?”
O’Connell acted as if he hadn’t heard me. He walked over and put Karsarkis’ whiskey on a small table next to him; then he took another chair across the room, put the tray down on the floor next to it, leaned back, and folded his arms. He watched me without expression and I found myself wondering for some reason if he was armed. I examined the lines of his blue suit jacket searching for bulges. I didn’t see any, but I didn’t stop wondering.
Tommy picked up his drink and sipped tentatively at it, then put it down again. Karsarkis left his drink on the table without touching it.
“Oh, hey,” Karsarkis suddenly said. “Where are my manners? You want a cigar, Jack?”
“No, I don’t want a goddamned cigar.”
“A simple no would have covered it. You don’t have to be so antagonistic.”
“Antagonistic? Look, Karsarkis, I was about to go home to my wife when this little asshole kidnapped me and dragged me halfway across town to this apartment, and you say I’m being antagonistic?”
“Now, Jack,” Tommy said, “calm down.” He pushed himself around on the couch until he was facing me. “I don’t particularly like being called an asshole and I think claiming you were kidnapped is a bit of an exaggeration, but you should—”
“Yes, I apologize for all that, Jack,” Karsarkis cut Tommy off, looking at me, not him.
Tommy made no protest at the interruption and went back to sipping at his vodka.
“It was unseemly,” Karsarkis continued. “On the other hand, it was impossible for me to come and see you, and I was afraid if I just asked you to come here, then well…”
Karsarkis gave a rueful shrug and trailed off.
“You’re right,” I said. “I wouldn’t have come.”
“So there you are, Jack,” Karsarkis nodded. “You see my dilemma. That’s why I had to ask Tommy to prevail on you like this.”
I sighed heavily and slumped back into the couch.
“Okay,” I said. “So now I’m here. Tell me what you want and let’s get this over with so I can go home.”
Karsarkis cleared his throat unnecessarily and stood up. He walked to the window and looked out for a moment, his back to me, and then he folded his arms across his body and turned around.
“I want you to represent me, Jack.”
“We already talked about that. I told you I wasn’t interested in being involved in your hotel deal.”
A flash of genuine annoyance crossed Karsarkis’ face and he waved a hand as if brushing it away.
“Forget the goddamned hotels, Jack,” he snapped. “That was all just bullshit anyway and you know it.”
Karsarkis unfolded his arms, took a couple of steps toward me, then refolded them and sat back down in the red leather chair. He seemed to me to be a little nervous and I wondered why. I sensed we were getting close now to whatever Karsarkis had really brought me
there to say, so I folded my arms too and waited.
I didn’t have to wait long.
TWENTY ONE
“I WANT YOU to file an application for a presidential pardon for me, Jack.”
“A pardon for what? You haven’t been convicted of anything yet. You only get pardoned after you’re convicted, not before.”
“My lawyers have looked into that. The presidential power to pardon is absolute. Ford pardoned Nixon before he was even charged with anything. This president can do the same thing for me.”
Karsarkis might have been technically right, I knew, but I didn’t really feel like getting into a debate with him on the finer points of constitutional law. Instead I stuck to the obvious practical problem.
“You know there’s no way that would ever happen,” I said. “No way in hell.”
“Oh, I think there may really be a pretty good chance,” he smiled, looking like a man who knew something I didn’t. “All I need is the right person to explain some facts to the White House. Those facts are very much in my favor.”
“What facts?”
“That’s not the point right now,” Karsarkis said.
“Then what is the point?”
“You, Jack. You’re the point right now. You have both access and credibility at the White House. You can reach people there and they will listen to you. That’s why you’re the guy I need.”
Okay, so I knew someone at the White House. To tell the truth, I knew someone there pretty well; and it wasn’t just someone, it was really someone. William Henry Harrison Redwine and I had been roommates for two years when we went to law school together at Georgetown, and ever since this president had moved into the West Wing, Billy had been White House counsel. No one outside of the innermost circles of the White House ever knew for sure how the power was distributed or who really had the president’s ear, but whenever commentators speculated as to who the most powerful people in Washington were, whenever lists of the influential were made up and torn apart, inevitably Billy Redwine’s name was right at the top. In Washington, that was the ultimate definition of someone.