pushed to the end of his long, aquiline nose. He whistled quietly as he meticulously slid the cover over his shiny putter.
The pudgy Joe, his arms covered with thick black hair and the obligatory cigar sticking out from between his slightly stained teeth, grunted an insult at his opponents as he jammed the pin in the hole.
Finally, he glimpsed at his fast approaching friend, Jake. Tall and nattily dressed, his bright white Ben Hogan hat accentuated his forest green outfit. Jake glanced toward his friend and smiled warmly.
A feeling of melancholy swept over Alex, he knew that he would see these old friends only occasionally if he and Nicky moved to the lake. Their relationships meant a lot to him. He knew that no matter what his score would be this day, that it would be a good day with his friends. “Nice putt, my friend,” he said to Joe.
“Well…uh thanks Alex,” a surprised Joe replied. “Back at ya, I thought yours was in too.” Alex felt two affectionate pats to his shoulder from the usually combative Joe.
“All square!” Doc chanted. The carts groaned up the steep hill toward the second tee.
“Not for long!” Jake challenged.
Chapter 4
“Good morning!”
Startled, Alex wheeled around from a rear file cabinet to find the squatty Barnes O’Brien hovering over the front of the desk. As he had done so many times in the past, the brash man had taken the liberty of entering Alex’s office without announcing himself to Erica.
“Oh…uh good morning, Barnes, good to see you.” Alex quickly stood, the two men shook hands.
“Hope I didn’t alarm you. The door was open so I just came in.”
“Certainly not, Barnes, I was expecting you. And how are things at O’Brien and Son?”
“We’re makin’ money.” A tight grin broke out on Barnes’s round face. Originally from the Boston area, Barnes O’Brien had moved to Indianapolis some twenty years earlier at the urging of his wife, Dora, an Indiana native. He immediately opened a law firm, hanging his shingle on a fourth story office in the Market Tower Building. A gifted trial lawyer and brilliant before a jury, he soon acquired a reputation as a gritty, and sometimes ruthless, adversary in the courtroom. Aggressive and smart, he eventually acquired offices in several major cities in the Midwest, including Chicago, St. Louis and Detroit. And like most attorneys, he donated generously to the Democratic Party. Rumor had it that he was in line for an Ambassadorship to Ireland. Barnes’s son, Shawn, joined the firm two years ago after graduating from Indiana University School of Law. A dedicated family man, Barnes was thrilled when his only son took a position in his firm. Plus, the addition of Shawn gave him more freedom to pursue his political ambitions.
“How’s Shawn?” Alex liked Shawn, a congenial and friendly young man—he was nothing like his opportunistic father.
“That kid of mine really knows his stuff.” Some-what sensitive to the lackluster reputation his son was garnering in legal circles around town, Barnes never missed an opportunity to sing his son’s praises. Alex understood and appreciated his commitment to his son.
“He seems like a bright young man.”
“He kicked Bob Brown’s ass the other day—got a huge settlement for our client in that asbestos case.”
Alex smiled broadly, “Hmmm, that’s good. Brown’s a good lawyer. It’s no easy task to win one from him.”
Actually, Bob Brown had been a wonderful liability attorney at one time, but after years of hard drinking and a couple of debilitating strokes, he was a sad case—often treating the jury to lengthy nonsensical diatribes in the courtroom, while using his wadded, yellowish hand-kerchief to swipe away streams of drool falling from the corner of mouth. The well-known litigator had become, more or less, a joke around town.
“The kid’s getting there, sure enough is,” Barnes lifted his chin proudly.
Alex nodded.
After savoring his somewhat over zealous comments about his son for a moment, a sober look fell over Barnes face. “That’s enough about the boy. We have much more serious matters on our plate.”
“Yes, and….”
Barnes interrupted, “Alex, we’ve beat this TARP issue to death, so there’s no need for us to rehash all of the tedious details. Why don’t we just get to the bottom line?” He paused briefly and looked directly at Alex.
“Yes…yes I agree Barnes, I….”
Not wanting Alex to set the agenda, Barnes interrupted again. “This bond market is not going to rebound completely for some years. The traders are still cautious and yields on mortgage-backed bonds are still failing at an alarming rate. And when our commercial paper starts going bad, as we all know it will, we could be in serious trouble. I can….”
Slightly agitated, Alex took his turn at interrupting. “Our commercial portfolio is doing fine Barnes. Except for a few small ma and pa deals, we have no major problems with any of our commercial loans. We have underwritten these loans very conservatively over the years, only working with the best managed and most solvent businesses. I’m not saying we’ll never take a loss, but overall, our commercial paper is some of the best in the business—no doubt about it.”
The aggressive Barnes shot up from the desk. “That’s bullshit, Alex! The way this market is heading we could experience tens of millions in commercial losses. This market is going to continue to deteriorate and local businesses will start to fail. Combine that with our bond problem and we’re headed for a disaster. And whether you like it or not, we’re going to need the deep pockets of the Federal Government to stay afloat. If you don’t see that, you’re fooling yourself!”
Red crept up Alex’s face, “Not so, Barnes! We are in trouble today because we got too deep into the Freddie and Fannie stuff, and you led the charge, my friend. That’s why we’re in this mess!”
The hardened trial lawyer, used to emotional confrontations, smiled coolly at the fuming Alex. “The board proposed to get more aggressive in the secondary market last year and you said yes.”
“Yes, I did, Barnes, but only after the board agreed not to do subprime mortgages. I was adamant about it, but somehow those requirements were changed while Nicky and I were vacationing in Europe.”
He paused, his eyes fastened on Barnes. “I just discovered from our auditors that we have been doing subprime mortgages for over a year. I feel like I have been duped. Somehow, the motion to loosen our guidelines was never mentioned in the minutes of that emergency meeting.”
“Are you accusing me of purposely omitting something from the minutes? That’s a very serious accusation, Alex.”
“You were Secretary of the Board at the time. Show me in those minutes where subprime mortgages are mentioned.” Alex was now staring bullets at the hardened lawyer.
Undaunted, Barnes gritted his teeth and continued, “While you were off vacationing, First Financial Securities informed me that we were having problems delivering the required number of Freddie securities to our institutional investors. Our investors were screaming, so I asked Strom, Chairman at the time,
