9. Hokus Pokus

by Fern Michaels

  “Just like that!” Myra gasped.

  “Yes, just like that. You’re the boss, Myra. Act like it. The girls will love you for stepping up to the plate for them. Me, too.”

  Nellie looked around the restaurant. She’d been given an excellent table at the back of the dining room that afforded her a view of the bar and the other diners, something she’d requested. With the new smoking laws in effect she couldn’t smoke. She knew she couldn’t doodle on the fine linen tablecloth so what was she going to do until Pearl arrived? Drink, of course. Hopefully she wouldn’t be snookered by the time Justice Barnes arrived.

  Pictures and caricatures of past US presidents lined the burgundy walls. Nellie stared at them as she mentally calculated how many of them she’d seen come and go. Which one was her favorite? Harry Truman, of course. Good old “the buck stops here” Harry. When she’d committed the pictures and the presidents’ attire to memory, Nellie looked around. She saw Jack and Harry Wong a few tables away, perusing menus. Across the room, toward the front, Lizzie Fox and Maggie Spritzer were sipping on what looked like Bellinis. Where in the hell was the guest of honor? Five more minutes and she’d have to go outside and walk twenty-five feet from the building to have a cigarette or she’d have a nicotine fit. Five more minutes. If Pearl was a no-show five minutes after she had her cigarette, she was leaving. Let Justice Barnes get her bloomers in a knot.

  Nellie was shaken out of her reverie when she heard her name. She looked up to see Justice Barnes in the process of seating herself. “You’re late, Pearl. I was going to give you five more minutes and then I was going to leave.”

  The only sounds to be heard in the restaurant were tinkling glass and clinking silverware.

  Justice Barnes brushed at her steel-gray hair. “I couldn’t decide what to wear. I’m sorry.”

  Nellie looked at the shabby outfit the Justice was wearing. Her hair hadn’t been styled, either, and there was a clump of mascara at the corner of one of her eyes. “You should have taken more time, Pearl. You look like a bag lady instead of the impeccably dressed Pearl I’ve known all my life.”

  “Cut the crap, Nellie. I’m in no mood for levity of any kind. I’m late. The world didn’t come to an end, this restaurant is still serving food. Did you do as I asked?”

  Nellie leaned back in her chair. Suddenly she felt all powerful. Here she was, seated with a Supreme Court justice who looked like a bag lady and was scared out of her wits. A Supreme Court justice who needed her help, a Supreme Court justice who had threatened her. “I was expecting you to bring Grant for support,” she said.

  “Grant golfs on Sunday. Well?” She looked over her shoulder at the waiter and said, “Scotch, straight up. Make it a double.”

  The moment the waiter was out of earshot, Nellie said, “I’m here but that doesn’t mean you should take that as an admission that you were right about the vigilantes and me. Threats mean nothing to me. I saw how much distress you were in the other night and I want to help you. Tell me what I can do.” She gulped at her gin and tonic, aware that Jack Emery was on his way to the men’s room, which meant he had to pass their table. For one brief second their eyes locked. She was to tug on her earlobe if she wanted him to stop at the table. Not yet, she decided.

  “I don’t need your help, Nellie. I need the help of those women. Are you going to sit there and lie to my face? I know, Nellie. I swear to God, I’ll tell everyone who will listen if you don’t promise me the vigilantes’ help,” she hissed.

  “Pearl, this might be a really silly question but I’m going to ask it anyway. What do you think I’ll be doing if you even try to spread that lie?”

  Pearl Barnes drained her glass. “What do you mean?” She brushed again at the gray locks of hair that kept falling over her forehead.

  “Look alive here, Pearl. I will retaliate by telling everyone the story you told me the other night. Your son-in-law, since he seems to be at the crux of your angst, will back me up, I’m sure. Blackmailers have no backbone.”

  Pearl looked around and snapped her fingers to gain their waiter’s attention. She held up her glass to indicate she wanted a refill.

  “Well, that was certainly ladylike, Pearl. You really must be upset. Now, tell me what I can personally do to help you.”

  “You would jeopardize the lives of all those women and children I’ve been helping?” Pearl asked, anger ringing in her voice.

  “Well, hell yes, Pearl. Do you think I’m going to let you blackmail me and ruin my life? I don’t think so. Survival of the fittest is the name of the game. You know how it is in this crazy town.”

  “Oh, God! Oh, God! I’m being watched and I don’t mean by my own security detail. Grant said he thought there were people watching him also. Please, Nellie, help me. Call Myra or Annie and explain my situation. And stop lying to me. I can’t tolerate a liar.”

  “Guess what, Pearl, I can’t tolerate someone who tries to blackmail me. I think what we have here is a Mexican standoff. One more time, how can I help you?”

  “You can kill that son of a bitch Hughes who is blackmailing me, that’s what you can do. What if he goes after my daughter and granddaughter? I’m afraid that if I don’t do what he wants, they’re his next target. I’ll be in prison and won’t be able to help them. Please, Nellie. I didn’t mean to threaten you. No, no, that’s a lie, I did mean it because I was so desperate.” Suddenly Justice Barnes deflated like a pricked balloon. Her eyes filled with tears. “I wouldn’t have said a word, Nellie. I thought if I…Oh, hell, I don’t know what I thought. I’m sorry. Tell the others, Myra and Annie, I didn’t mean it. I was so sure…so sure, almost positive you…It doesn’t matter anymore. I’ll take care of that bastard myself. Did we order, Nellie?” She looked around and seemed startled that she was sitting in a restaurant.

  Nellie watched as Pearl let her gaze rake the room. When she turned back to face Nellie, her expression was set, her eyes cold and hard. “You set me up! Damn you, Nellie, how could you do that to me? Don’t tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about. There’s District Attorney Emery, and that jujitsu expert, and look over there, that’s Lizzie Fox and wonder of wonders, she’s lunching with a Post reporter. Isn’t that another Post reporter sitting at the bar? Looks like old-home week. Damn you, Nellie. I thought we were friends.” A lone tear rolled down Justice Barnes’s wrinkled cheek.

  Alarmed, Nellie leaned forward. The only thing she heard was “a Post reporter sitting at the bar.” Ted Robinson. In a frenzy, she started to tug at her ear. When Jack remained seated, she started to tug on both ears, hoping Harry Wong would notice. He did. Within minutes, Jack was making his third trip to the men’s room.

  “Judge Easter, fancy meeting you here,” he said cheerfully. “I miss your slap downs. Court isn’t the same without you. How have you been? Are you enjoying retirement?”

  “Jack! Nice to see you. Allow me to introduce Justice Pearl Barnes. We’re old friends. Pearl, this good-looking young man is District Attorney Jack Emery.”

  Justice Barnes held out her hand. Jack shook it and said something that sounded like, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Justice Barnes.”

  “Would you care to join us, Jack?”

  “Thanks for asking, Judge, but I’m lunching with someone. Wintergreen’s is a nice place, this is only the second time I’ve been here.”

  “I come here all the time. So does Justice Barnes. I think I know everyone in the room. Even the ones at the bar,” she said, emphasizing the word “bar.”

  Jack nodded, smiled, said it was a pleasure to meet Justice Barnes, and continued his trek to the men’s room.

  “Now what?” Pearl asked.

  “What is your window of time?”

  “What does that mean, Nellie, my window of time?”

  “When are you supposed to give your ex–son-in-law your answer?”

  “He said he’d be in touch with me by the end of this week.”

  “Can you stall him?”

  “God, N
ellie, I don’t know. I suppose I could say it’s taking longer than I thought to liquidate my holdings to meet his demand. He wants…so much money…On top of…changing my vote. He’s such a bastard. My…My…What I do is not like what you and the others do. I don’t know how to…I can try. How much time do you need?”

  “I don’t know, Pearl. I have to talk to some people. How do you want me to get in touch with you?”

  “I’ll get word to you somehow. Just be on the lookout. I meant it, Nellie, I wouldn’t have blown the whistle on you.”

  “I know that now, Pearl. That’s why I’m going to do my best to help you. By the way, I wouldn’t have turned you in, either. We’re on the same team, so to speak.”

  “I wonder where our food is,” Pearl said vaguely.

  “This might come as a surprise to you, dear lady, but we haven’t ordered. You need to get it together, Pearl or you’re going to blow yourself out of the water. Now, what about Grant?”

  Pearl straightened in her chair, looked around and snapped her fingers for the waiter again, who appeared almost immediately. “French toast, one sunny-side up egg on the side, more coffee and a bowl of whipped cream,” she said.

  “I’ll have the same thing,” Nellie said, even though she hated French toast.

  Pearl looked down at her glass, surprised that it was empty. She picked up her water glass and took a big gulp. “Like I said, Grant is Grant. Lately it doesn’t seem to be working as well as it has in the past. I cannot ignore the fact that the current director of the FBI is Grant’s brother-in-law. You know what they say about family and how blood is thicker than water. Grant adores his sister and Elias. Really adores them. I can’t risk telling him. If the time comes when I have to tell him…Well then, that’s when I’ll tell him but not before. I can walk away, Nellie, if I have to. I can make myself disappear, the way I make all those women and their children disappear, but I don’t want to have to do that unless there is no other way. Do you understand what I’m saying, Nellie?”

  “I do, Pearl. It might come down to that.”

  “I know. I’ve been preparing myself. If Myra and Annie can do it, then so can I. What does Emery have to do with all this? God, he’s a shill, too, right? Tell me more, Nellie.”

  “I’d rather not, Pearl.”

  Justice Barnes pursed her lips. “Emery, the jujitsu guy, the hottest reporters in town and that sex-bomb lawyer, all in the same room.” She laughed as she held up her water glass to clink it against Nellie’s. “To sex, lies and audiotapes,” she said, slapping a small mini recorder down in the middle of the table. Nellie was no slouch. She yanked at her pocket and pulled out a matching recorder.

  “Trust is such a wonderful thing,” Nellie said.

  “Isn’t it, though?” Justice Barnes responded.

  Chapter 4

  Post reporter Ted Robinson finished the last of his hashbrowns and slid his plate across the bar where he was sitting. Wintergreen’s asked all single diners to eat at the bar instead of taking up a table for two or four in the dining room. Ted was comfortable eating at the bar so he didn’t mind. He ate here only on rare occasions because he thought it a little too pricey for his wallet. He was on his third cup of coffee. If he drank any more he would have to weave his way through the huge dining room to the restrooms at the back of the restaurant, something he didn’t want to do.

  He hated Sundays. Really hated Sundays. Lately, he hated them more than usual because his live-in significant other, Maggie Spritzer, always had something to do on Sundays that didn’t include him. Maybe he needed to think about kicking good old Maggie to the curb and going it alone. But if he did that, he’d have to give up the spectacular sex they enjoyed together.

  As Ted sipped at his final cup of coffee, he stared into the huge mirror behind the mahogany bar. It always amazed him how the bartenders knew exactly where to reach for the liquor they needed. No wasted motions whatsoever. The bar mirror afforded him an excellent view of the Sunday diners. Who’s Who at Sunday brunch in the nation’s capital. Everyone in Alphabet City came to Wintergreen’s for their hashbrowns and Scotch Eggs. That’s what they said, but reporter that he was, Ted knew they came to be seen. Everyone knew Scotch Eggs and hashbrowns played hell with your arteries and cholesterol.

  Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Was that Jack Emery and that pipsqueak Harry Wong scoffing down Scotch Eggs? Yes, it was. And was that Maggie at the front of the restaurant, brunching with Lizzie Fox, jurisprudence’s answer to sex in the courtroom? Well, bless my soul, it certainly was. Ted’s gaze continued to scan the bar mirror. Well, well, well, was that Judge Easter in the far back of the restaurant? His keen reporter’s instinct said she was hiding. He did a double take when he recognized Easter’s dining partner. Justice Pearl Barnes of the United States Supreme Court. Yep, they were hiding. From the looks of things they weren’t eating Scotch Eggs. In fact they didn’t appear to be eating at all, even though there was food in front of them. Robinson’s mind raced. What were the odds of these six people dining at the same place on a Sunday morning? Somewhere over the rainbow, that’s where.

  Ted pulled out his wallet and paid his tab. What to do now? A trip to the men’s room was definitely called for. He could try to make eye contact with Judge Easter just so she would know he’d seen her. Then, on his way out, a stop at Emery’s table. Last but not least, he would creep up on Maggie and scare the shit out of her. All doable. Definitely doable.

  Ted was glad he’d worn his good creased khakis and his tweed jacket with the leather elbow patches, he thought as he made his way to the men’s room, because he was going to be seen. He dodged waiters with huge trays being carried at shoulder height. He wondered what would happen if he accidentally on purpose bumped into one of the waiters. Everyone would look at him. He would definitely be seen. Nah, it wasn’t worth the mess, and the three cups of coffee demanded he move right along.

  Judge Easter saw the reporter approaching and did her best to fix a smile on her face. She wondered if he would notice that she hadn’t eaten any of her lunch. Of course he would. Reporters were trained to pay attention to insignificant details. More important, would he recognize Pearl Barnes and observe her full plate? Without a doubt. He was almost to their table. Nellie inclined her head and offered up a sickly smile. So far so good, she thought when Ted acknowledged her presence with a nod of his own. On his way out, he’d see Pearl full face. That’s when he would start to wonder what was going on. He would also see Jack, Harry, Lizzie and his girlfriend, at which point his reporter’s nosy instincts would go into overdrive.

  Play it cool, Robinson, he told himself. Just get the hell out of here but let the others know you’ve seen them. No conversation, just keep walking. He could figure it all out later, whatever it turned out to be.

  Since Jack Emery was number one on his personal shit list, he strode past his table with a scowl on his face. By the time he reached Maggie’s table he was in rare form, the scowl still intact. He shot himself in the foot and said, “I’d appreciate it if you move your shit out of my digs this afternoon. Find your own damn apartment.” Without another word, he stalked out of the restaurant. He had to take deep breaths to calm himself down. He kept walking even though he could hear Maggie calling his name. His feet picked up speed and then at the first break in traffic, crossed the road. He knew Maggie wouldn’t follow him because she was wearing high heels.

  He was piss-ass mad now. Breathe in, breathe out. He stopped at the first deli he came to and bought the Sunday paper and a cup of coffee to go. Outside he hailed a cab and told the driver to take him to Rock Creek Park. He needed to get himself under control. His cell phone rang continuously and was still ringing when he paid the driver. Paper under his arm, coffee in hand, Ted looked for a vacant picnic table. He finally found one but had to shoo three squirrels to another nearby location.

  Ted waited for his cell phone to stop ringing before he clicked it on and called a friend and fellow reporter on the Post. “It’s Ted, Espinosa. Look, h
ow about doing me a favor? Yeah, I know it’s Sunday but I think I might be onto something. C’mon, Joe, the only thing you do on Sunday is drink beer and watch ball games. If it works out we share the byline. See what you can find out about Justice Pearl Barnes besides the obvious stuff. The first thing that’s going to jump out at you is her boyfriend of long-standing is the brother-in-law of the new director of the FBI. You might want to work on that, too. What do you mean what am I doing? I’m doing stuff. Important stuff. I’ll call you later this afternoon. Don’t drag your ass on this, Espinosa.”

  The moment he clicked off the call, Ted’s cell rang again. He looked down at the number, saw it was Maggie. He turned off his cell. “Screw you, Maggie Spritzer, and the horse you rode in on,” he mumbled to the three squirrels at the next table who were watching him with sharp-eyed interest.

  Maggie walked back to the restaurant wringing her hands. At the door she backed out when she saw Lizzie, Jack and Harry about to walk through the revolving door. She waited to see who would speak first.

  “What the hell was that all about, Maggie?” Lizzie demanded.

  “Ted’s in one of his moods. He gets like that from time to time. He wanted me to go to brunch with him today but because I’d committed to you guys, I had to say no. He’s no fool, he saw everyone in there. Right now he’s trying to figure out what’s going on. I called him fifty times but he isn’t answering his cell phone. He won’t answer it if he sees my name on the caller ID. Look, let me take on Tyler Hughes, you do the daughter. I can get stuff from the archives at the paper. Will that work for you?”

  “Sure, no problem. Was Ted serious about kicking you out?” Lizzie asked. “That would be the day I’d let some guy dictate to me. Do you have a place to stay? I have a spare bedroom if you want to bunk in with me.”

  “I might have to take you up on that. I better get going. If any of you need me, call.” The others watched as Maggie hailed a cab and stepped into it.