Out of Bounds

  Romano couldn’t lose. He owned both sides. His drug cartel contributed a large part of the money behind the Swiss group. He along with several partners owned 90% of the company. The Swiss were just a front for their money laundering operation. Sven and the rest of the Board members took their orders from Romano.

  The cartel also owned a majority of Mario’s stake in the casino and nine other properties His share increased to 67% as a condition for providing Mario the $462M needed to buy out the Swiss group if Buzz won.

  Romano’s concern was the size of the drug shipment needed to finance the purchase. He had convinced his partners to pool their product into one large shipment to obtain the necessary funds by Saturday.

  Smuggling that much heroin was risky; too many things could go wrong. Romano would insist on being paid bank-to-bank, via a direct wire transfer into their West Indies account. He didn’t want to handle that much cash.

  Romano didn’t get to where he was by trusting others, even Mario. He decided to personally see that nothing went wrong. Romano, Carlos and two of his best men chartered a small Lear jet from Miami and arrived at a small, private airport in North Tampa late Saturday morning. Bob Murphy, Romano’s accountant and computer expert, met them at the airport. The five men waited for Sam’s call.

  The buyers insisted on keeping the location secret until the trucks reached Tampa, which opened up the possibility of a double-cross. Sam and Ron were armed, but would stand little chance if someone wanted to hijack the heroin. Mario had worked with the buyers for several years and vouched for them. He promised there would be no problem. Romano was there to make sure.

  The money would be wire-transferred to Mario’s account as soon as the drugs were inspected. Sam would use his laptop to verify that the funds had been transferred into their account. It was safer than dealing in cash.

  The call came at 2 PM. The exchange was scheduled to take place at the old livestock barn at the State Fairgrounds. Romano had already driven to a central location in the Westshore area of Tampa and could get there in 20 minutes; 10 minutes ahead of the trucks. Romano told Sam to meet them at the main entrance and drive in together. There would be no opportunity for surprise, by either side.

  The 220 yard par three16th was a tough hole, even on a good day. Today, the wind was in the player’s face and the tees were back. It was playing 245 yards. Bradford knew it was playing long when Buzz took out a 5-wood. Buzz never used woods on par 3s. It was his best shot of the day and the result was excellent. His ball rolled to the center of the green leaving him a 30 feet putt for birdie.

  Bradford initially considered using driver, but decided instead on 3-wood. He came within 10 feet of hitting a perfect shot, but caught the slope and rolled down to a collecting area 20 yards left of the green. It would be a difficult up and down.

  “Nice shot,” Dave said, as they walked to the green

  “Thanks, Dave. I almost needed driver. As it was, I hit that 5-wood as hard as I could. You hit a pretty good shot yourself, but caught a tough break.”

  It was almost like old times, Dave thought.

  Dave didn’t like what he saw as he approached his ball. He didn’t have a lot of green to work with and probably would need to hit lob wedge to get the ball to stop quickly. The only other option was to bump a 7-iron into the side of the hill and let it release onto the green. A lot of it would depend upon the lie.

  His ball was sitting up perfectly about four inches from a water drain. He was entitled to a free drop because the water drain affected his stance, but decided to play if from where it lay. He might not get as good a lie if he dropped. He decided to use lob wedge.

  This shot requires confidence and a little luck. Bradford opened up the clubface and took a full swing ala Phil Mickelson. These shots are spectacular when they work and make you look like a fool when they don’t. Dave misjudged the distance and his ball landed pin high and rolled 15 feet past the hole before stopping on the fringe.

  Buzz nearly made his birdie putt leaving him with a tap in par 3. “Nice par, Buzz,” Bradford said. “Three’s a good score today.”

  Dave decided to leave the pin in, mainly because it helped him see the line a little better. There is a difference of opinion among golfers, but most pros take the pin out if they think they can make the putt. They feel that more putts are kept out of the hole by the pin than drop in. It didn’t matter in this case. Dave’s putt was at least a foot left of the hole and rolled four feet past. It never had a chance.

  Bradford was one down as they headed to the 17th tee. He glanced over at Jason who just shook his head. The DEA still did not have any news about Mary.