Herbie walked up another flight of stairs and down the wide hallway that housed the senior partners, then walked into Eggers’s secretary’s office. “Good morning, Jane,” he said, giving her his best smile. He had cultivated her carefully since the day he arrived at Woodman amp; Weld.
“Good morning, Herbert,” she said.
“Do you think he might have a moment?”
She picked up the phone and buzzed Eggers. “Herbert Fisher would like a moment.” She hung up. “He’ll see you.”
“Thanks, sweetheart.” Herbie walked into the big corner office. “Good morning, Bill,” he said.
“Herbert,” Eggers said. “I got your message about leaving early yesterday.”
“Yes, I had a lot of work to get done for Karla, and I didn’t want her interrupting me, as she is prone to do, so I took it home and finished it there.”
“I see.”
“It was the last work I’ll be doing for Karla,” Herbie said, matter-of-factly.
Eggers looked surprised. “Are you resigning from the firm, Herbert?”
“No, Bill, just from Karla. I won’t work for her another minute.”
A flicker of a smile crossed Eggers’s face. “And how did Karla take that?” he asked.
“Oh, we parted on good terms,” Herbie said, handing Eggers the letter.
Eggers picked up the letter and read it, looking more and more amazed. “Herbert, did you forge this?”
“Certainly not, Bill.”
Eggers pressed the speaker button on his phone and dialed an extension.
“Karla Martin.”
“Karla, it’s Bill.”
“Good morning, Bill.”
“Good morning. I’ve just read the letter you sent me, recommending Herbert Fisher for senior associate. Do you stand by it?”
There was the briefest of pauses, causing Herbie to begin to sweat, then she said, sweetly for Karla, “Of course, Bill. He’s a very bright young man, and he’s done fine work for me.”
“Thank you, Karla,” Eggers said, then hung up. His gaze had never left Herbie’s face. “I’m having a little trouble digesting this,” he said. “Do you have photographs of Karla in bed with a donkey?”
Herbie laughed heartily. “Karla? I can’t imagine her in bed with man or beast.”
“Neither can I,” Eggers said, “but before you walked in here I could never have imagined her writing this letter, either.”
“Hard shell, soft heart,” Herbie said, shrugging. “Who knew?”
“Certainly not I,” Eggers said. “So you’re making a formal request to be promoted to senior associate?”
“Karla was kind enough to do that for me,” Herbie said.
“But you do want it, don’t you?”
“Of course, Bill. I think I could be more useful to the firm in that position. And not having to slave away for Karla or another partner would give me time to make some rain around here.”
“You think you could do that?” Eggers asked.
“Let’s find out. My guess is that Marshall Brennan might be disposed to giving us some new business, and I’d like to handle it.”
“What else do you want, Herbert?”
“A substantial raise, a real office with a window, my own secretary, and a full-time associate to do everything I don’t want to do myself.”
“Is that all?”
“For the time being.”
“And what will you do if I don’t give it to you?”
Herbie took a deep breath and prepared to threaten to resign, but he stopped himself. “I think this is in the firm’s best interests, Bill, and you always do what’s in the firm’s best interests.”
“Nobody’s ever made senior associate around here in under three years,” Eggers said.
Herbie observed that Eggers had not fired him yet, and he pressed his luck just a bit. “I’ve heard that,” he said, “and I think this might give a lot of the associates new hope-even make them work harder.”
Eggers pressed a button on his phone.
“Yes, Mr. Eggers?” Jane asked.
“Come in, please.”
“We moved George Howard to a bigger office yesterday, didn’t we?”
“Yessir.”
“Give his old office to Herbert, and find him a decent secretary. Herbert is our newest senior associate. Send out the memo, and send a release to the papers and the law journals.”
“Yessir.”
“And who is our newest, greenest, most forlorn associate?”
Jane squinted at the ceiling for a moment. “That would be young Bobby Bentley,” she said.
“Tell him he works for Herbert now.”
“Yessir. Anything else?”
“Yes, type up a memo to payroll for my signature, giving Herbert a fifteen percent raise.”
Herbie made a loud coughing noise.
“All right, twenty-five percent.”
“Yessir!” Jane sped back to her desk.
Eggers looked at Herbie. “Why are you still here?”
“Thank you, Bill.” Herbie tried to leave without appearing to hurry.
11
Dino woke from a sound sleep with the sudden knowledge that his penis was in someone’s mouth, and that long, red hair was tickling his belly. He stuffed an extra pillow behind his head and watched, with growing excitement that ended in a veritable explosion. “Oh, God,” he moaned.
Shelley Bach moved up the bed to share his pillow. “Well,” she said, “I do know what you like.”
“I can’t deny that,” Dino said. He took a deep breath and said what he had to say. “Shelley, you can’t be here-it’s too dangerous for both of us.”
“You’re afraid that you’ll lose your job if you’re found consorting with a fugitive, right?”
“More than that, Shelley, I’m afraid that you’ll be in prison soon and that I will be, too. Can’t you understand that that is too high a price to pay for a good blow job?”
“A sublime blow job,” she pointed out.
“I agree, but they won’t put us in the same cell, and I can’t afford the tab when the FBI finally closes in on you.”
“They won’t,” she said. “Would you like to know the steps I’ve taken to prevent that from ever happening?”
“Good God, no! I don’t want to know a thing!”
“Listen, Dino, if it’s war between the FBI and me, it’s a fair fight.”
“I don’t doubt that for a minute, but we have to end this and right now.”
“Oh, Dino,” she breathed, “you wouldn’t want to disappoint me, would you? You know how I behave when people disappoint me.”
Dino got out of bed and reached for a robe. “Shelley, I wish you luck, I really do, but you have to go now.”
“You want me to walk brazenly through your lobby and past the doorman?”
“You can take the elevator to the basement, turn right at the laundry room, and go out the service entrance.”
“Slink out, you mean, as if I’m ashamed of being with you?”
“That’s your call, Shelley, but you have to go.”
“But no one knows about us, Dino.”
“Stone Barrington knows,” Dino replied, regretting immediately having said so.
Shelley sat up in bed, exposing a magnificent pair of breasts. “You told Stone?”
Dino fumbled for a way out. “He saw you come into the building,” he said, “and he recognized you. I didn’t have to tell him.”
“Well now,” she said, looking thoughtful. “I’m going to have to see that he doesn’t drop any hints to law enforcement.”
“Shelley, don’t talk like that. Stone would never do that-he would want to protect me.”
“I suppose,” she said, getting out of bed and taking some underwear from her suitcase.
“I’ve got to get to the precinct, so I’m going to shave and shower,” Dino said, “and I’d appreciate it very much if you would be gone when I’m done. I wish you well, Shelley.”
“Yeah, sure,” Shelley said, turning her back and stepping into a pair of panties.
Dino went into his bathroom, showered and shaved, then he walked back into his bedroom, looking carefully around. Shelley’s suitcase was gone, and his bed was neatly made. He had to search the rest of the apartment before he could feel relieved.