The Tenth Justice - Brad Meltzer [24]
Lisa was silent for a minute. “So those flowers you got yesterday—they weren’t from your mom, were they?”
“They were from Rick. I wanted to tell you yesterday, but I just…”
“Did you check the basket for bugs?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know—bugs, listening devices.”
“You don’t think—”
“Let’s get out of here,” Lisa said, pushing her chair away from the table and grabbing her bag.
The two clerks ran up the escalator and dashed out of Union Station. Watching them from the opposite corner of the food court, Rick leaned back in his chair. “Where are they going?” he asked.
“I couldn’t hear,” Rick’s associate said as he approached the table. “But did you see the panic on their faces? They don’t know where to run.”
Rick smiled. “The funny thing is, it’s only going to get worse.”
Racing down First Street, Ben and Lisa didn’t say a word until they returned to the Court. “Hey, guys,” Nancy said as they marched past her desk. “How was lunch?”
“Good,” Ben said.
“Fine,” Lisa said.
They darted into their office and slammed the door behind them. They headed straight for the file cabinet, where Ben grabbed the large wicker basket. When he put it on the sofa, they rolled up their sleeves and methodically ripped the enormous bouquet apart. Flower by flower, they crushed every corolla and scrutinized every stem. Twenty-two roses, fourteen irises, eleven lilies, and four stems of freesias later, the sofa, as well as half of the office floor, was covered with the picked-apart remains of a previously well-organized floral arrangement. They found nothing. “It has to be in here,” Lisa said. “There’s no other reason to send flowers.”
“Maybe he just wanted me to worry,” Ben suggested. “Or maybe he’s playing with my mind.”
As Lisa wiped off the sofa, Ben reexamined the pile of flowers. For fifteen minutes, they repeated their inspection of each individual bloom. Then they ripped apart the basket itself. Again, nothing.
“Damn,” Ben said, pushing the pulpy mess from the sofa. “It’s impossible.”
“I don’t think we missed anything.”
Ben leaned back on the sofa. “Of course we didn’t miss anything. We just wasted our time.”
“It’s okay. You know we had to do this. I mean, what if we really did find something?”
“But we didn’t,” Ben said, nervously picking at the sofa’s worn fabric. “We can’t find anything.”
Lisa lightly put her hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay to be scared about this.”
“It’s just that my life—”
“I know what’s at stake,” Lisa said. “And this is more than you should have to deal with. But we’ll get you through it.”
“I don’t want you to get involved. I only told you to warn you.”
“Too late, baby,” Lisa chided, her hand still on Ben’s shoulder. “Now, are we going to sit here all day or are we going to try to find this guy?”
Looking at his co-clerk, Ben forced a smile. “You’re a good friend, Lisa Marie. If I go to jail, I’m taking you with me.”
Later in the week, Ben, Lisa, and Ober waited for Nathan to return from work. In the living room of Ben’s house, Ben and Ober sat on the large blue couch, while Lisa sat alone on the love seat, her feet up on the cushions. “I don’t understand it,” Lisa said. “It’s almost nine o’clock. Where the hell is he?”
“He said the search request would be finished by around seven or eight,” Ben said, looking at his watch. “Maybe it’s just running a little late.”
“Maybe he was captured by Rick and his band of rogue clerks,” Ober suggested as he clipped his toenails. “Now we’ll have to go rescue them using makeshift weapons made from common kitchen appliances.”
“What’s wrong with you?” Ben asked, looking at his roommate.
“It’s just a thought,” Ober said.
Lisa tried to change the subject. “I still don’t understand how you all managed to wind up in Washington. All of my friends are scattered around the country.”
“It’s actually pretty simple,” Ben explained. “Nathan, Eric, and I are all interested in politics, so Washington seemed like the