Gay Place (13 page)

“Where’s the money come from?”

“I’m not supposed to say.”

“You got to say now,” Fenstemaker said. “I give you that Scotch whiskey.”

“Various sources,” Willie said, raising his glass as in a toast. “I don’t know who-all. Rinemiller helped raise the original amount. Got it from people like Earle Fielding … Some others … Hell! You probably know who they all are.”

The Governor laughed and leaned toward them. “But it’s not your circulation, Willie — it’s the
quality
of your goddam readership.”

“Suppose they can all read,” Willie said.

“Now goddam I mean it,” Fenstemaker said. “Anybody who really cares about politics subscribes to your little paper, even if they don’t necessarily subscribe to your point of view. People who shape thinkin’ — policy makers, lobbyists, lawyers, judges, smalltime politicians.”

“There’s been no one else printing a lot of this stuff,” Willie said. “I suppose something’s better than nothin’.”

Fenstemaker looked delighted. “Exactly!” he said. “Whole basis my philosophy!”

“What’s that?”

“Somethin’s better than nothin’.”

“Half a loaf?”

“Slice of goddam bread, even,” Fenstemaker said. He changed moods suddenly. “Now about these hospitals …”

“What …?”
Roy and Willie leaned forward, trying to follow the course of Fenstemaker’s conversation.

“Hospitals,” the Governor said. “You care about the hospitals?”

“Sure.”

“They’re a God-awful mess.”

“Worse than that,” Willie said.

“I got this little bill …”

“I know,” Willie said.

“I got the votes,” Fenstemaker said. “At least I
think
I got them. It’s not much of a bill — not half enough of an appropriation — but it’ll close up some of the worst places and build some new ones and bring in a few head doctors. And this little bill can
pass
is the main thing. I’ll put it through next week if I don’t get everyone all stirred up and worried about taxes and socialism and creepin’ statesmanship. You gonna help me, Willie?”

“How can I help?”

Fenstemaker slapped his desk and showed his teeth. “Oppose the goddam bill!” His face beamed. “But just a little bit, understand?” he said. “Don’t get real ugly about it.”

“I don’t understand,” Willie said.

“Those fellows in the Senate — they think this is all I want, they’ll give it to me. But if somebody’s runnin’ round whoopin’ about how good this is, settin’ precedents and havin’ a foot in the door and braggin’ on how much more we’ll get next year, then all my support’ll get skittish and vanish overnight.”

“I see.”

“Only don’t oppose it too much, either. You raise hell and
your
bunch won’t go along. They’ll introduce their own bill askin’ for the goddam aurora borealis. I need their votes, too. Just oppose it a little bit — oppose it on
principle
!”

The Governor paused a moment and considered the problem. “I want,” he said, beginning to laugh quietly, his sad eyes blinking, “I want unanimous consent and dead silence!” He roared his laughter at them.

Willie stirred and looked at Roy. Then he looked at Fenstemaker and said: “That all you wanted? We taking up too much of your time?”

“Oh,
no
!” Fenstemaker said. “Hell no. I got you two here for somethin’ else altogether. Just a minute.” He leaned across his desk and punched a button. A girl’s voice came on the speaker.

“Yes, sir?”

“Hah yew, honey?”

“Just fine …”

“Jay in there?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Tell him to get that machine of his and bring it in. Tell him I’m ready for a little transcribed soap opera.”

He leaned back in the chair, resting on his spine, looking as if he were in great pain. “How you get to be one of those goddam elder statesmen?” he said.

I
T WAS SUCH AN
improbable story it had to be true. If it were simply some hoked up yarn designed to discredit an enemy, old Fenstemaker’s inventiveness would have served him better; there would have been some style, some magic, a sense of possibilities. Fenstemaker didn’t insult a man’s intelligence — you could nearly always count on that — and this story here was so coarse and bumptious there
had
to be something to it. Otherwise, the Governor would have devised a folktale with source material for his own amusement. Fenstemaker would have invented a better story.

Willie sat listening, trying to set bits and pieces to memory, wondering if he should take notes. The Governor was sprawled in his big chair, looking out the window, beyond the granite ledge where two bizarrely plumed pigeons clucked and strutted, flapping their wings for balance in the careless wind. Roy sat like a bronze figure, cigarette ash spilled down the front of his dark jacket, and Jay McGown stood next to the machine with his hands on the switches. They played the recording all the way through, listening in silence, and then once again, stopping and backing up the tape and commenting on the undecipherable sections before proceeding.

“Once again, Jay,” the Governor said, and Jay McGown spun the reels like a scientist at the controls. There was scarcely any doubt — the voice, one of the voices, was Alfred Rinemiller’s; the other identified by Fenstemaker as a lobbyist for a group of loan companies. They sat and listened all the way through one more time …

— Who’d you say?

— Huggins. He’s chairman of the committee and a good friend.

— And you think you could change his mind …?

— I think so. I could work on him. I’ve done him favors and he knows it.

— Well listen … We got to be damn sure. There’s a lot ridin’ on this. We got to be absolutely certain about it — that’s why I’m down here. Our future’s at stake — there’s a whole pot of money we could lose with just a change of a few percentage points on the usury limitation …

— Then you understand it’s going to cost you money to save money.

— We know that. We’ve done business down here before. It’s just we want to be dead sure. We can’t afford to go throwin’ it around. We can’t afford it. We’ve been burned before.

— I’m just telling you you’ve got my word. Ask anybody. You can depend on it. I can keep the bill in committee, but — hell — you understand — you got considerations.

— How many?

— There’s a lot of sentiment this year for some kind of legislation in the field.

— How many considerations?

— I don’t know. There’s Huggins …

— He’s a rich boy. What the hell’s he need —

— Rich family. He only gets a limited amount from them, and he spends most all of it. And he likes women …

— We’ve all got our weaknesses …

— That’s his. Women. And he’s known only the inexpensive ones. I can get a couple who …

— Hell! You do, hah? Whyn’t you get ’em up here, then. We’ll have a little party.

— You pay?

— Only kidding. Listen — how much now? You got yours. I thought that would be enough. You realize how much you got there?

— Yes.

— How much? Count it.

— I believe you.

— Go ahead … count it …

— It’s all here.

— How much.

— Seven-fifty. Just like you said.

— Now you goin’ to deliver the goods just like you said?

— You’ve got my vote. I have a good deal of influence on the committee. Enough to stop the thing from being reported out. But it’s going to take some work. I expect more for that work. And it’ll cost
me
some hard cash to bring it off.

— How much, goddamit?

— Five thousand.

— You’re crazy.

— Take it or leave it.

— You’re out of your mind.

— You want your money back? Here …

— No, dammit, I want your
vote.
But you bring up this subject yourself of what you can do for us in workin’ on the others. And then you say five thousand for Chrissake. I could buy up control of the Senate for that much.

— Fat chance … All right then. What’s your offer?

— Half.

— Half? Half of what?

— Half of five … That’s twenty-five hundred. And I tell you, mister, we’ve never thrown money around like that in the history of this organization.

— It’s not enough.

— The hell it isn’t!

— All right.

— And we want to be damn sure.

— You can count on it.

— I mean
damn
sure. You’re gettin’ only a thousand of it now.

—
What?

— And the balance when we’re certain the bill’s dead for this session.

— Well now how can I be sure I’ll get the rest of it?

— You can count on it, my friend.

— There’s no assurance.

— What assurance you give us? And besides — I haven’t got that kind of money. Not that much. I’ll have to go tap our directors, and that’ll be a touchy business. They’ll think
I’m
gettin’ to
them.
Puttin’ the money in my own pocket.

— All right. But they’d better come across. Otherwise, they’re liable to find this legislation looking right at ’em again next session. And I’m the boy who can make sure it passes. Think that one over …

— Well now it seems you have a very good point there.

— Yes.

— So we’re all protected.

— That’s right.

— How ’bout a drink?

— Fine.

— Bourbon?

— Anything else?

— No. Just bourbon. Like I said, we’re a small outfit.
Five thousand!
Why godalmighty, man, that’s half my salary for a year.

— Bourbon’s fine.

— Seven-Up?

— No … Soda.

— We don’t have any …

— Jesus …

— There’s a cold-water tap in the bathroom …

The tape came to the end of the reel and continued to spin noiselessly in the big padded room. “That’s enough, Jay,” the Governor said. Jay McGown packed the recorder and left the room. For a few moments they were silent. The Governor stared at his spotted pigeons on the window ledge.

Willie said: “Why’d this fellow bring it to you?”

“I don’t know. He’s a kind of screwball — doesn’t really have much idea what’s going on down here. He said he didn’t know what to do with the evidence, as he called it, so he brought it to me.”

“Just like that?”

“Yes. And I wish to God he hadn’t.”

“Sounds like something for the grand jury,” Roy said. “What the hell’s wrong with people? Rinemiller gone out of his mind?”

“Well now this fellow’s put it on my back. Listening to what he said in that conversation, he wouldn’t look so good in the courts himself. Even if he was just stringin’ Rinemiller along …”

“He did a pretty convincing job of it,” Willie said.

“Yes. So he brings this tape in — just this morning — and puts it all on me. I almost suspect
he’s
trying to make a deal. Seemed to think Rinemiller was one of my boys and maybe if I’d just take care of that bill for him personally he wouldn’t be out any money and would be willing to forget everything.”

“He say all this?” Willie said.

“No. Just a feeling I had. He’s supposed to come back to discuss it after I’ve had time to think it over.”

“He mention calling in the law?” Roy said.

“No. He just kept saying it was a very serious matter. Very serious.”

“He has a gift for understatement,” Willie said.

“Well,” the Governor said. “What do you think?”

“For God’s sakes don’t get me in on it. You know Rinemiller’s an officer in the corporation of the newspaper?”

“I knew he was connected,” the Governor said. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have let you know about it.”

“How do you know I still won’t print it?” Willie said.

“I’d be pleased if you would, as a matter of fact. Make the decision for me.”

“I just might,” Willie said. “It would probably ruin me, but I might if I could get that lobbyist to talk. Who’s to say definitely beyond doubt it’s Rinemiller?”

“It would bitch up a great many things,” Fenstemaker said. “It would put you out of business, and probably take away all those great gains you people made this year in the elections. You know Rinemiller campaigned strictly on the issue of being a liberal? He kept calling himself that. Capital
L.
”

“Why’d you want me in here?” Roy said.

“Well, you’re a friend of Rinemiller’s …”

“Rinemiller’s a sewer.”

“All right, then. I called you because you’re about the only one of the bunch I’d put any faith in. You’ve got good sense. You’re always honest with me. I respect you. I want your advice.”

“On what?”

“I dunno. How to deal with this thing, I suppose. Tell me what you think? I don’t know whether to lay it all out in the open or call Rinemiller in and let him squirm a little or let that fellow have it back and see what he’s planning. If he’s got a plan.”

“What’s that?”

“He mentioned the possibility of paying off Rinemiller in marked bills and having some state police there to grab him when he takes it.”

“That would be interesting.”

“I really don’t think he wants any of that, though.”

“You think he’s bluffing?”

“He might be. Just to see what
I
’ll offer
him.
Goddam. He would have me opposin’ that legislation for the next four years. And I happen to believe it’s needed. Had it in my campaign platform.”

“Why you letting him pull you in?” Roy said.

Fenstemaker poured a glass of water, used it to wash down a pill. He got to his feet and paced around the room, pausing in front of a mirror to look at himself. He smiled, baring teeth and pink gums, tapping the enamel with his blunt finger. He turned round and said: “We haven’t heard Rinemiller’s side of it, you know. That recording might be faked.”

“I hope so,” Willie said.

“And whether anybody believes it or not, I care about those people downstairs. I care about your bunch, Roy. We got the same objectives — we just disagree on methods. Something like this here, it’ll set us all back, disgrace the whole bunch of us, and blow the session all to hell. I got a program to worry about.”

“Well,” Willie said, “most of our people got elected on the corruption issue, and I suppose it would be only fair to go right back out again for the same reasons …”