The Tenth Justice - Brad Meltzer [124]
“But why couldn’t Rick get that information from Eric?” Ober asked, sitting in Ben’s desk chair. “Why pay two friends?”
“Because at that point, I wasn’t speaking to Eric anymore,” Ben explained. “And Nathan was the person I was spending the most time with.”
“We still don’t know Nathan’s innocent,” Lisa pointed out.
“Oh, man,” Ober said to Ben. “He is going to be pissed at you for not telling him. And when you combine that with what you said to him last week—you’ll be lucky if he ever forgives you.”
Ben stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Thanks for the reminder.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Eric said, waving his hand. “You can deal with Nathan later. We should be celebrating right now. This was a tremendous victory.”
“I’m telling you,” Ober said, pulling open Ben’s desk drawers, “I’ve got to get a job here. This is the most exciting day of my life. Where can I pick up an application?”
“The brass polishers have their own union,” Lisa said. “My guess is you’ll have to go through them.”
Ignoring the comment, Ober asked Eric, “So what was it like being the inside man? Risking your life, seeing danger around every corner, but forging ahead because you knew that…wait a minute.” He stopped. “What happened to all the money you got?”
“It’s in some bank in Switzerland. It was supposed to be released to me after the decision came down. I called a minute after the decision was announced, and I still couldn’t get access. My guess is we’ll never see that money.”
“Do you know what we could’ve done with a million bucks?” Ober groaned. “We could’ve bought a small nation. We could’ve owned Guam. We could’ve built the world’s biggest hoagie as a monument to the sandwich gods.”
“Darn,” Eric said sarcastically. “I never thought about the hoagie monument. Maybe I can get it back.” Turning toward Ben, he added, “Meanwhile, I’m surprised you haven’t heard from Rick yet. I thought for sure—”
“He already called,” Ben said.
“He did? When?”
“About a minute after we got back here. He was completely dumbfounded.”
“You should’ve heard it,” Ober said. “Ben tore him apart! I just wish we had a videophone so we could’ve seen his expression.”
“I don’t know if you should’ve told him off like that,” Lisa said, taking a seat in her own chair.
“To be honest,” Ben said, “I really don’t give a shit right now. I’m just happy to have my life back.”
“Whatever you say,” Lisa said. “But I suggest that you watch your back. He’s not going to just go away.”
Eric looked at his watch. “I want to hear exactly what you said to him, but I really have to get back to work. We’ll talk about it later?”
“Definitely,” Ben said with a smile. “But don’t think that just because you saved my ass, I’m not still pissed at you for writing that story.”
“Yeah, yeah, you’ll never forgive me,” Eric said as he walked to the door. “I’ve heard it all before.”
“Hold on,” Ober said to Eric. “Did you drive here?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Because you have to drop me off at work,” Ober said, grabbing his jacket and following Eric to the door. “By the way, Ben, thanks for bringing me in today. It wasn’t as exciting as you said, but it was okay.”
“I’ll see you guys later,” Ben said.
When the door closed behind Eric and Ober, Lisa looked at Ben. “So how do you feel? Top o’ the world, Ma?”
“I feel unbelievable,” Ben said, banging his desk. “You should’ve heard Rick on the phone. He was so pissed.”
“I still think you shouldn’t have—”
“Lisa, I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to lose this mood. I feel mighty. I feel authoritative. I feel like I can command a small army of rebel soldiers on a quest for the perfect tetherball court.”
“I have to admit, the ego boost suits you. I haven’t seen you this happy since I let you drag me into bed.”
“That’s funny,” Ben said. “Because the way I remember it, you were the one doing the dragging. Or was it begging?”
“That’s right, I forgot your major in college was revisionist history.