by Brad Meltzer
“About Eric—” Ober began.
“Ober, I know it upsets you, but I really don’t want to talk about it,” Ben said. “It’s a dead issue, so drop it already.”
“Do you think Rick believed that you were interested?” Nathan asked.
“Absolutely. He said if I’m linked to Eric, I’m screwed. So if I don’t take the money, I’d be a fool.”
Nathan paused for a moment. “You would be.”
“I know,” Ben said. Pushing himself away from the table, Ben walked toward the kitchen. “The only other thing that freaked me out was how much information he had on me. He knew everything. He knew about Eric and the Marshals Office. He even mentioned something about my meeting with my firm,” Ben said as he picked up the phone.
“Who’re you calling?” Nathan asked suspiciously.
“Lisa,” Ben said. “I want to tell her what happened.” Noticing the odd look on both Nathan’s and Ober’s faces, Ben asked, “Why? What’s wrong?”
Nathan was silent.
“He thinks Lisa might be leaking information to Rick,” Ober explained.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Ben said, hanging up the phone. Coming back into the dining room, he asked, “You don’t really believe that, do you?”
“It’s definitely possible,” Nathan said. “How else do you explain how Rick knew about everything?”
“It’s not that hard to figure out,” Ben reasoned. “He knows Eric’s name, so he probably saw his story in the paper.”
“And how did he know about our entire plan?”
“He might’ve seen you guys across the street.”
“That’s what I said,” Ober said.
“But what about the rest? What about the marshals? And your firm? And the mikes?” Nathan asked. “C’mon, Ben, don’t be blind to this.”
“I’m not being blind,” Ben insisted. “Trust me, I’ve been thinking about this since the beginning. I just don’t think it’s Lisa, though. She’d never do that to me.”
“You barely know her,” Nathan said. “You have no idea what she would and wouldn’t do.”
“She’s a good friend,” Ben said. “I guarantee she wouldn’t do that. Besides, just because Rick is unbelievably resourceful doesn’t mean that one of my close friends is responsible.”
“Eric’s been your close friend for two decades and he had no problem selling you out. How can you say Lisa wouldn’t do the same?”
“Because Lisa’s a better person than Eric is. I know she seems like a loudmouth to you guys, but she has integrity. Trust me, she’d never do it.”
“Ben, now you’re being stupid,” Nathan said, rising from his seat. “If you think she wouldn’t sell you out, you’re wrong. Everyone has their price, and she’s no exception. If you started thinking with your real head, you’d see how right I am.”
“No. No way,” Ben insisted, shaking his head. “If Lisa was leaking information, Rick would be better informed than he was. He knew about things that have gone on, but he only knew about them in a general sense. He really didn’t have any details.”
“You don’t know that for sure.”
“Yes, I do,” Ben said. “I dangled our red herring and he snapped it up.”
“He fell for the security clearance?” Nathan asked.
“Hook, line, and sinker.”
“That’s interesting,” Nathan said.
“What security clearance?” Ober asked, confused. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Last night, we were talking strategy,” Ben explained, “so Nathan and I said that I should say something happened when it really didn’t. If Rick said he knew about it, we’d know to what extent he was bluffing his way through some of this crap. So I told him that the Marshals Office knocked down my security clearance, which they didn’t. And Rick said he knew about it.”
“Great move,” Ober said, impressed.
“It definitely was,” Ben said. “But I still want to know how Rick had even the little information he had.”
“I think he has us bugged,” Ober said.
“I still think it could be Lisa,” Nathan said.
“I don’t want to hear about it,” Ben said, walking up to his room. “I have way too much to worry about, and I don’t want to have to start suspecting my closest friends.” When he got into his bedroom, Ben closed the door behind him, picked up the phone, and dialed Lisa’s home number.
“Ben?” she answered anxiously.
“Relax, I’m fine,” he said, looking under his desk for anything that resembled a microphone.
“What happened? Are you okay? Did he proposition you?”
“He definitely wants info,” Ben said. After a full explanation of the last few hours, he continued, “So all we have left are the pictures that you and Nathan snapped as we drove away. Hopefully, those’ll be enough.”
“When will they be done?”
“They’ll be ready tomorrow morning,” Ben said, searching under every piece of his memorabilia collection. “Nathan gave them to some place around the corner. But if those don’t come out, we’re back where we started.”
“They’ll come out,” Lisa said. “Once Nathan runs the photos and the license plates through the State Department, we’ll have everything we need.”
“I guess,” Ben said.
“So you’re calm? You’re not crazy?”
“I’m completely calm,” he said, crawling on the floor and searching under his bed. “Lisa, by the way, thanks for hanging in the dumpster. We would’ve been lost without you.”
“Don’t sweat it. That’s what I’m here for.”
“I know, but I just wanted to say thank you.”
“Any time,” Lisa said, hanging up the phone.
Later that evening, Nathan walked into Ben’s room. Ben was sitting at his desk, slumped in his chair and staring at the wall. “How’re you doing?” Nathan asked.
“I’m okay. Just trying to figure this whole thing out.”
“Any ideas?”
Ben slowly shook his head. “Not really.”
“You don’t really need to stay involved with this bullshit,” Nathan said as he sat on Ben’s bed. “I mean, you can just walk away. The only thing hurt is your pride.”
“It’s not about pride,” Ben said, still slumped over. “Rick will always have information that can damage my career. If I walk away, I’ll never know when he’ll be back to dangle it in front of my face. At least if we get something on him, we can counteract whatever blackmail he might think of in the future.” Ben opened the top drawer of his desk and pulled out a pencil. “Besides, I want this guy.”
“Not to be a pessimist, but have you thought about turning yourself in and explaining the situation to the police? I mean, it’s not like you leaked the information on purpose. Rick tricked you out of it.”
“I’ve definitely thought about that,” Ben said. “But it doesn’t matter how Rick got the information from me. If they found out I released a decision, they’d have to kick me off the Court.”
“Yeah, but it’s not like you’d go to jail—there was no criminal intent on your part.”
“If a clerk got fired from the Supreme Court, it’d make every paper in the country. The media eats up Court scandals faster than my family eats dessert. And if that happened, my entire career would be finished. I’d be disbarred and I’d never be able to practice law again.”
“I think you’re just worried that you’d lose your Golden Boy status.”
“You’re probably right. I’ve busted my ass to get where I am. The last thing I want to do is throw it all away by confessing. No offense, but that doesn’t sound like the optimal solution.”
“I’m just exploring all your options,” Nathan said. “You know I’ll support you no matter what you decide to do.”
Early the next morning, Ben knocked on Nathan’s door. “Do you have the receipt for the pictures? I want to go pick them up.”
“Hold on a second,” Nath
an said, bent over as he tied the laces on his sneakers. “I’ll go down with you.”
Nathan untied his laces and retied them again. “C’mon,” Ben said. “How many times have you tied them already? Four? Five? Six? You have a sickness, y’know that?”
“I just like the perfect knot,” Nathan said, still bent over. “Excuse me for being a perfectionist.”
“You’re not a perfectionist. You’re the poster boy for next year’s obsessive-compulsive calendar.”
“There. Done.”
“Now that’s a beautiful bow,” Ben said, staring at his roommate’s shoes. “Wonderful job.”
“Jealous,” Nathan said as they headed downstairs to get their coats. “By the way, my mother’s been bothering me all week. Are you coming over to dinner the night before Thanksgiving?”
“Who’s going to be there?” Ben asked, buttoning his coat.
“Well, it’ll be my family, the four of us, and Lisa, if she’s coming.”
“What do you mean, the four of us? I’m not eating with Eric.”
“C’mon,” Nathan pleaded, opening the front door. “Now you’re being immature.”
“I’m not being immature. I just want to enjoy my time at your house. If Eric’s there, I won’t. It’s as simple as that.”
“What do you want me to do?” Nathan asked. “Should I tell him he can’t come? Should I invite everyone and leave him out? Besides, if he’s not invited, our mothers’ll never leave us alone. They’ll want to know the whole story, start to finish.”
Silent until they reached the corner, Ben said, “Fine. He can come.”
“Thank you,” Nathan said, breathing a sigh of relief. “I’m glad your forgiving side won out.”
“Don’t think this has anything to do with forgiveness. I just weighed my hatred for Eric against the consequences of maternal interrogation. From there it was no contest. Moms are undefeated.”
Ben and Nathan walked three more blocks until they reached Rob’s Camera and Video. As they approached the store, Ben said, “We’ll probably have to enlarge the photo.”
“It won’t be a problem. They can do that within an hour. I’m more worried that the license won’t give us good information.”
“It definitely will. Even if it only gives us a limo company, that’s a start.” Ben opened the door for his friend and followed him inside.
Nathan pulled out the two ticket stubs and handed them to one of the two female clerks waiting behind the counter. “We have some pictures to pick up.”
As one of the clerks took the stubs to the photo bins, the other looked at Ben. “Did you go to Maryland undergrad? Because you look really familiar.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t,” Ben said. “My friend did, though. He got a degree in shoelace tying.” Pointing to Nathan’s feet, he asked, “Have you ever seen anything tied so tight in your whole life? I mean, besides him?”
The clerk leaned over the counter. “That is a nice bow.”
“I’m sorry,” the other clerk said, shuffling though the envelopes of finished photos. “When did we say your pictures would be ready?”
“You said to pick them up this morning,” Nathan said. “They were under the last name Oberman. Two rolls of film.”
The clerk shook her head. “I can’t find them here. Hold on a second.” The clerk flipped through a small looseleaf binder and stopped on a page. “Wait, I found them. They were picked up about an hour ago by your friend.”
A chill ran down Ben’s back. “What friend?”
“Oh, I remember that guy. I helped him,” the other clerk said. “He said that if you came in, we should tell you that he already picked up the photos.”
“This wouldn’t happen to be a tall guy with blond hair and droopy eyes?” Ben asked.
“That’s him,” she said. “He was so sweet.”
“Fuck!” Ben said, banging the glass counter.
“Relax,” Nathan said. Looking at the perplexed clerks, Nathan explained, “That wasn’t our friend. You gave our pictures to someone who shouldn’t have seen them.”
“I’m so sorry,” the clerk said. “I didn’t mean—”
“Don’t worry about it,” Nathan said.
“What do you mean, don’t worry about it?” Ben yelled. Turning to the clerks, he asked, “Don’t you have a policy about picking film up? Don’t you always ask for a receipt?”
“He knew the name—he said you guys were friends.”
“Do you keep any negatives on file?” Ben shot back. “Anything at all in case someone walks off with your pictures?”
“No. The negatives go right back to the customer.”
“I don’t fuckin’ believe this,” Ben said, walking to the door.
“You don’t happen to have security cameras here, do you?” Nathan asked. “Something that might’ve snapped a picture of our friend?”
“I’m sorry, we don’t,” the clerk said. “They were stolen when we were robbed last March.”
“Unbelievable,” Ben said as he left the store.
Waving to the clerks, Nathan said, “Thanks for your help,” and walked outside. Running to catch up with Ben, he said, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left the photos in there overnight.”
“It’s not your fault,” Ben said. “I should’ve seen this one a mile away. This was just dumb. I could’ve been here early this morning.”
“How do you think he knew? Do you think there was someone following us when we left you at the restaurant?” As he struggled to keep pace with his friend, Nathan asked, “Did you tell Lisa where the photos were?”
Ben was silent.
“You told her, didn’t you?”
Again, silence.
“Answer me,” Nathan demanded. “Did you tell Lisa about the photos?”
Coming to an abrupt halt, Ben threw his arms in the air and screamed, “YES! I TOLD HER! What the hell do you want me to say? I told her they were at a camera store a few blocks away!”
“Now why’d you do that? I told you—”
“I told her because I trust her. And when I speak to her, I don’t worry about guarding my thoughts—she’s my friend. So no matter what you say, until you have proof that it’s Lisa, I won’t believe a single bit of your conjecture.”
“What kind of proof are you waiting for? If she put a knife in your back, you’d say it wasn’t her because you didn’t see her with your own two eyes.”
“Lisa has nothing to gain by talking to Rick. If she was after the money, she’d leak the decisions to Rick herself.”
“Is that what you think?” Nathan asked. “What about this scenario: Rick and Lisa are conspiring, and Lisa is leaking the decisions to Rick. The only problem is that if word gets out that information is leaking, there’s no fall guy. Enter one befuddled clerk named Benjamin Addison. Get enough information on him, and if anything ever goes wrong, you have an instant scapegoat. All they need to do is keep amassing evidence of your involvement.”
Ben walked silently for almost a block. Finally, he said, “I don’t agree with you, but I understand what you’re saying. When we get back from Thanksgiving, I’ll be happy to talk about it, but until then, I want to enjoy my time at home. Lisa’ll be with me and I refuse to suspect her the entire weekend.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t take her home with you,” Nathan said.
“Get it out of your head. She’s got her ticket and she’s coming home. That’s the end of the discussion.”
“It’s your life,” Nathan said.
Chapter 10
“THEY DECIDED GRINNELL,” BEN SAID, COMING into the office carrying a stack of books.
“How do you know?” Lisa asked, looking up from the paperwork on her desk. “Conference isn’t over yet.”
“Oh, yes, it is,” Ben said, dumping the books on Lisa’s desk. “Osterman just buzzed his clerks and told them they’ll be writing the majority. Veidt finally went to the dark side.”
“Says who?”
“I just saw one
of Blake’s clerks in the elevator. He had the biggest shit-eating grin on his face. Historical-monument-destroying prick.”
“I can’t believe this.” Lisa picked up the phone. “Where’s Hollis? How come no one told us?”
“I don’t think now’s such a good time to call. He’s probably pissed about it.”
“Are we definitely doing the dissent?” Lisa asked, returning the phone to its cradle.
“That’s my guess. I’m not sure, though.”
“Why’re you so upset?” Lisa asked. “I thought you were in favor of seeing it as a taking of property.”
“I am,” Ben said. “I just don’t like seeing the vampires win. They played dirty on this one.”
“Did they say what the final vote was?”
“It was five to four. Apparently Osterman convinced Veidt that if New York’s zoning was allowed to protect the church, Grinnell and the other owners were going to bear a disproportionate burden.”
“So Osterman’s decision is based on a disproportionality argument? Are you sure it isn’t challenging the legality of zoning?”
Shaking his head, Ben said, “If they attacked the zoning directly, they couldn’t get all the votes they needed for a majority. Blake’s clerk said that was the only way they could get Veidt on board. So Osterman’s decision is going to say that the benefits of historic monuments are enjoyed by the whole city. Therefore, the preservation of such monuments is a burden that should be borne by the city, not by individuals.”
“So if New York wants to protect the church, it’s going to have to pay Grinnell and Associates the expected future value of the property?”
“You got it,” Ben said. “Grinnell just got the golden ticket, and he doesn’t even know it. He’s going to reap all the profits of a mall complex that he’s never going to have to build. That should teach the city to interfere with a private citizen.”
“How can you think that’s fair? This was so obviously planned by Grinnell. He bought that property with a constitutional lawyer at his side. He knew the city would freak if he said he was going to raze a church to open a mall. And the bigger he said his plans were, the more he knew he’d collect if the Court went his way.”