“I knew it,” Lisa interrupted. “I knew he-”
“Lisa, please give me a chance to explain,” Ben pleaded. “When I spoke with Rick, he asked me for the Grinnell decision. In exchange, he was going to give me three million dollars. Obviously, I would never give him the decision, but I was hoping that when we met for the exchange, I’d be able to finally I.D. him. Our meeting was supposed to be at the airport this Saturday, probably in one of the executive lounges.”
“And now you need my help to make a plan?”
“I already had a plan,” Ben said. “I had called all the airport lounges to see which ones were reserved for this Saturday. When I got that list, I started doing background checks on any names I didn’t recognize-that’s why I was reading a week-old newspaper. I figured if I could anticipate which room Rick and I were supposed to meet in, I’d be able to wire the room, or bug it, or do something to it in advance. Anyway, just as I start feeling confident that this’ll be the time I nail Rick, I get a surprising phone call from our favorite scumbag.”
“That was Rick who called before?”
“Yep. And he told me that I can go scratch myself because our meeting is canceled. He said he didn’t need my help and then he hung up on me. Obviously, he got the Grinnell decision from someone else.”
“If you think he got it from me, you’re on crack.”
“To be honest, I did think it was you,” Ben admitted. “I figured you were the only other person who had access to the decision.”
“Ben, I swear-”
“Let me finish. After I got Rick’s call, I went to a pay phone to call Nathan. I ended up talking to one of his coworkers, who asked me how the briefcase microphone worked.”
“What briefcase mike?”
“Exactly,” Ben said.
“And now, just because Nathan withheld a piece of equipment, you think he’s the one talking to Rick?”
“What else can I think? This wasn’t just any piece of equipment-if I had the briefcase mike, I would’ve been able to get Rick on tape when we met at the restaurant. I’d have everything documented by now: Rick’s offer, his explanation of the original CMI scam-everything I needed to get me off the hook. But Nathan somehow managed to not include it in his little bag of tricks. You don’t think that’s suspicious?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’ve tried to come up with a reasonable explanation. But I can’t for the life of me explain why Nathan wouldn’t say word one about it. Especially when it’s such a cool thing to talk about.”
“But if Nathan was working with Rick, Rick would’ve known about the briefcase mike, so it wouldn’t have posed any real threat.”
“I thought about that,” Ben said as he walked toward the file cabinet. “But I keep coming back to the idea that Rick couldn’t have kept the briefcase out of the limo. If he hadn’t let me bring it in, I wouldn’t have gotten in myself. I’d have said that I couldn’t abandon the briefcase in an alley since there were vital Court documents inside. And at that point, Rick had to get me in the car.”
“That’s not a bad theory,” Lisa agreed.
“So now I have to figure out if it’s really Nathan,” Ben said, leaning on the cabinet.
“Ben, let me ask you one question. Fifteen minutes ago, you thought I was selling your soul to the devil, and now you walk in here and pour your guts out to me. Why the change of heart?”
“Lisa, the God’s honest truth is that I have absolutely nothing to lose by telling you. Rick’s cut me loose; he presumably has the Grinnell decision; I don’t have any more meetings with him, and therefore I have no hope of catching him. Even if you are working with Rick, there’s nothing to tell him. I’m lost. I have no suspect, no clues, and a lie detector test in two days. More importantly, I have no one else I can trust.”
“What about Ober?”
“Believe me, he was the first person I thought about. But I realized he really wouldn’t be able to help. Ober’s great, and I love him like a brother, but he couldn’t find his ass with a map and a pickax. I need an extra brain to figure out what to do from here.”
“So if Nathan is in on it, how’d he get the decision?”
“For all I know, he could’ve used some State Department super-computer to break into our computers here. Or he could’ve just as easily gotten it from my briefcase-all he had to do was take it out in the middle of the night, photocopy it, and return it before I got up.”
“Don’t you have a lock on your briefcase? Especially after what happened with Eric?”
“Of course I have a lock. But Nathan knows the combination-he used it for his interview at the State Department.”
“Well, no offense, but your choice of friends is worse than Julius Caesar’s.”
“Thanks for the advice,” Ben said, returning to his desk. “Now, will you help me?”
“That depends,” Lisa said. “Do you trust me?”
“At this point, I don’t trust my own mother. Last time I was home, she started looking a little shifty.”
“Are you at least sorry for your accusations?”
“More sorry than you’ll ever know,” Ben said, tearing the corners off Osterman’s Grinnell opinion. “Now will you please help me?”
“Of course I’ll help you.” Lisa pulled the Grinnell opinion out of Ben’s hands, put his hands flat on the desk, and covered them with her own. “Regardless of what you may think, I really do care about what happens to you. If you were booted out of here, I’d have double the amount of work.”
“That’s funny,” Ben said dryly. “You sure do crack me up.”
“You can hide behind all the sarcastic remarks you want, but I know you appreciate my help.”
“Of course I appreciate it. My life is falling apart, my career is approaching meltdown, and my friends are acting like the charter members of the Benedict Arnold Fan Club. At this point, I’d appreciate election tips from George McGovern. What the hell else am I supposed to do?”
“Well, I just hope you realize that you still have some real friends that care about you.”
“Thank you, Lisa Marie. I really do appreciate the help. I mean it.”
“It’s okay,” she said. “But don’t think for a second that I forgive you. You have to get raked over another twenty sets of coals before I forget about the emotional distress you’ve caused me.”
“That’s a deal. And you can pick out the coals personally.”
Taking a few steps backward, Lisa sat on the office sofa. “Now, are we going to catch this motherfucker or not?”
Smiling, Ben pulled a legal pad from the corner of his desk. “I think our only option is to make a list of people Rick might approach at Grinnell and Associates.”
“I can take care of that,” Lisa said. “I’m pretty sure the Clerk’s Office keeps a record of every party’s ownership interests. That should give us a likely list of possible sellers. If we keep an eye on those individuals, we’ll know when Rick makes his move.”
“We don’t even have to keep an eye on them,” Ben said, clearing his computer screen for a new search. “Lexis has its own public records database. All real estate transactions and deed transfers have to be reported to the county clerk’s office. If we have the names of the sellers, we should be able to track them directly from here.”
“Perfect,” Lisa said. “I’ll be back with the names.”
As Lisa left the office, Ben called out, “By the way, I do trust you!”
“I know,” she shouted back.
When the door closed, Ben pulled his chair toward his desk and dialed the number of the phone company. “Hi, I was wondering if you could help me out. By mistake, my wife threw out all of our phone bills. Since we need them for tax purposes, I was hoping we could get copies of them.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem, sir,” the operator said. “I just need your name and phone number.”
“The phone is under my wife’s name: Lisa Schulman.” Ben told the operator Lisa’s phone number and added, “I was also wondering if you could send the bills directly to my accountant, since he needs them as soon as possible.”