The Tenth Justice - Brad Meltzer [137]
“I hope so,” Ben said, staring at the small tape player on his desk. He looked up at Lisa. “You have to admire the way Rick set it up, though. Before today, the only thing at risk was my job. All he could prove was that I broke the Court’s Ethics Code. But by combining the tape with the bankbook, Rick’s created a whole new reality: Now it looks like I was paid for the information. He’s created proof that I was paid. That’s more than an ethics violation. Accepting a bribe as a public official is a federal offense.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Lisa said, walking over to Ben’s desk. She opened his Dictaphone and pulled out the tape. “We’ll send this to DeRosa just to be safe.”
“Do you think DeRosa would ever believe it happened that way?” Ben asked. “That he’d see this and think I really took a bribe?”
“Not anymore,” Lisa said, dropping the tape in an envelope. “By going in and being honest about it, you’ve preempted that conclusion. Mailing him this just seals the deal.” As Ben wrote a quick note to DeRosa, Lisa asked, “Do you think DeRosa is listening to us talk right now?”
“No way,” Ben said. “He’d only bug us if he thought I was lying. And if he thought I was lying, there’s no way I’d still be working at the Court. They can’t risk another breach like that. This is the one place we can actually feel safe.”
Lisa went to her desk, picked up the copies of the bankbook pages, and handed them to Ben. He inserted the copies in the envelope. “So what do we do now?” Lisa asked.
“We sit here and hope Rick calls.”
“Oh, he’ll definitely call,” Lisa said. “Mark my words. He’s going to make sure you got his package of incriminating evidence, and then he’s going to blackmail you. My guess is he’ll threaten to distribute the tape and the bankbook unless you give him a new decision.”
“I never thought I’d say this, but I hope he does.”
At six-thirty that evening, Ben returned to the office. “Anyone call for me?”
“Not yet,” Lisa said. “How are you holding up?”
“I’m okay,” Ben said. “Antsy, but okay. By the way, in case you were wondering, I flipped through the U.S. Code and confirmed that accepting a bribe usually carries a sentence of five to fifteen years.”
“Great,” Lisa said wryly. “Any other vital bits of—”
Ben’s phone rang. When he didn’t grab it, she said, “What are you waiting for? Pick it up.”
“Should I—”
“Pick it up!”
Hesitantly, Ben lifted the receiver. “Hello, this is Ben.”
“Hey, Ben. It’s Adrian Alcott calling.” Before Alcott even identified himself, Ben had recognized the voice of Wayne & Portnoy’s most persistent recruiter.
“It’s not Rick, is it?” Lisa asked.
“I should be so lucky,” Ben whispered, covering up the mouthpiece of the phone.
“So how is everything in the ol’ Court?” Alcott asked.
“It’s fine. We’re super-busy.”
“I’m sure you are,” Alcott said. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay there. Last time we spoke, we got cut off abruptly.”
“Yeah, sorry about that,” Ben said. “We had to get something directly to Hollis, so I had to run.”
“No apology necessary,” Alcott said. “I mean, who’s more important, me or a Supreme Court justice?” When Ben didn’t respond, Alcott added, “By the way, the reason I’m calling is that I wanted to tell you that we’re going to be there in three weeks. We’re arguing for the respondent in Mirsky.”
“That’s great,” Ben said, struggling to act surprised even though Alcott had told him the news on three previous occasions.
“It looks like it’s going to be a hard one, too,” Alcott said. “After Osterman’s majority in Cooper, no one’s had any luck with Sixth Amendment cases up there.”
“No comment,” Ben said coldly. “You know I can’t talk to you about pending cases.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Alcott said. “I apologize. I didn’t mean to—”
“No apology necessary,” Ben said. “It’s just one of the perks of working here.”
“Well, I hope you’ll let us show you the perks of working here,” Alcott said, sounding proud of his transition. “It’s not the Supreme Court, but we do okay for ourselves. Speaking of which, the other reason