The Tenth Justice - Brad Meltzer [135]
“All it says here is that they want it by the end of the month,” Scott explained. “And if I can give you a piece of advice, I’d make it as soon as possible. If the owner doesn’t get her payments, she’ll confiscate the mail that comes in for you. It’s not my policy, but that’s the way it works.”
“You know that’s against the law,” Ben said matter-of-factly.
“It doesn’t matter what it is—that’s her policy. In fact, she wanted me to tell you that you’re not getting your package until you pay your bill.”
“What package?”
“Oh, I’m sorry—I thought you knew. We have a package here for you. That’s probably why she had me call.”
“Can you see what the postmark says?” Ben asked nervously. “I want to know if it’s anything important.”
“Sure. Hold on a second.”
Ben turned to Lisa. “You won’t believe this one.”
“Alvy, are you there?” Scott asked.
“I’m here,” Ben said.
“It’s postmarked a few days ago, but it probably came in yesterday.”
“Thanks for the help,” Ben said. “I’ll be in to pay the balance by the afternoon.”
“You got it. We’ll have your package waiting behind the counter.”
Ben hung up the phone and headed straight for the door.
“What’s wrong?” Lisa asked. “Where are you going?”
“There’s a package waiting in my P.O. box.”
“So what? That doesn’t mean anything.”
“Of course it does,” Ben said. “Rick’s the only one who communicates that way.”
“Big deal. The marshals have it covered.”
“I don’t know about that,” Ben said, his hand on the doorknob. “The package has a postmark from a few days ago. The marshals may not’ve put everything in motion until today.”
“I’m sure they—”
“I wouldn’t be sure of anything,” Ben shot back as he opened the door. “If Rick started before we did, we’re in serious trouble.”
Twenty minutes later, Ben returned to the office holding a small manila envelope. Before he could say a word, he noticed the disturbed look on Lisa’s face. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Dennis Fisk from the Marshals Office was just up here. He said he wanted to speak to you as soon as you got back.”
“Did he say anything else?” Ben asked, throwing the envelope on his desk.
“He asked me why Eric was in our office the day Grinnell was announced.”
“I don’t believe this,” Ben said as he picked up his phone. “Could more things go wrong today?” Furiously dialing their number, he waited for the receptionist to answer. “Hi, this is Ben Addison. I want to speak to Carl Lungen.”
Moments later, Lungen picked up. “Hi, Ben. Long time no speak. How was your New Year?”
“Let me tell you something,” Ben said, enraged. “If you suspect me of something, I expect you to have the decency to tell it to my face. Don’t send Fisk up here to scare me. I passed your damn lie detector test and answered every one of your questions.”
“First, why don’t you take a deep breath and calm down,” Lungen said.
“I don’t want to calm down. I want to know what this is all about.”
“Fisk wasn’t trying to scare you. He was just passing along a message.”
“I have voice mail. I assume you’ve grasped the function of a phone.”
“Listen, Ben, I think we’ve been more than fair with you since this whole thing started.”
“What thing?” Ben interrupted. “You’re always talking about some thing, but you can never exactly say what this mysterious thing is.”
“Let me put it to you this way,” Lungen said. “Three weeks ago, you swore to us that you and Eric weren’t speaking. A couple days after that, Eric was in the Court and in your office. Not only that, but he also used Nathan’s name to get in here. Now, do you want me to tell you what I think, or do you want to finally tell me the truth?”
“You got me,” Ben said. “You figured it all out. Eric and I are friends again. Alert the local militia.”
“This isn’t a joke.”
“You’re damn right it’s not a joke,” Ben interrupted. “It’s my life you’re playing with. For the past two weeks you’ve obviously been racking your brains trying to come up with my crime. But let me tell you,