The Tenth Justice - Brad Meltzer [57]
“I can’t wait.”
“Hold on,” Ben said, pulling out a small pad from his top drawer. “I have to write this one down.” As he scribbled on the little pad, he announced, “On Friday, November twenty-first, Lisa Marie Schulman said ‘I can’t wait,’ as she referred to her upcoming meal of death.”
“It’ll be fun,” she said.
“‘It’ll be fun,’” Ben said as he added that phrase to the pad. “I think that’s what Napoleon said right before he went to Waterloo.”
“Ben, my family is still impressed with the Lava lamp. How much worse can your family be?”
“I’d say a great deal worse. A world of worse. Maybe a whole universe of worse.”
“Just stop it already.”
“Lisa, I’m not exaggerating. My parents are mutants. They’re sick, bizarro freaks who were spawned to bring guilt and angst to all the innocent children of Earth.”
“Well, I can’t wait to meet them. They sound like wonderful people.”
“‘They sound like wonderful people,’” Ben said as he resumed his writing on the pad of paper. “Ho, boy, I can’t wait until you eat these words.”
“Whatever you say,” Lisa said, opening up one of the many brown folders on her desk. “Meanwhile, have you finished with the Russell opinion? You said you’d have it done two days ago.”
“Don’t rush me. It needs more work.” Ben returned the pad to his desk. “And by the way, can we meet at your house tonight? I want to go over my meeting with Rick before tomorrow.”
“Absolutely. Oh, and Ben? I don’t mean to be a dick, but I really do need the Russell decision.”
“Lisa, I said I’d get it to you. What do you want?”
“I want you to finish it. I believe you when you say you’re working on it, but you’ve been doing the first draft for over two weeks now.”
“Well, I’m sorry I had a busy week, but my life’s been a bit chaotic lately.”
“Don’t pull that with me,” Lisa scolded. “You know I completely sympathize with everything you’ve had to deal with. All I’m saying is that you have to do your best to ignore it all. Like it or not, this Court is more important than whatever’s going on in your life.”
Ben was seething as he turned to a clean page of his legal pad. “Fine. I understand. Let me get to work now.”
“Ben, stop it. What do you want me to do?”
“How about being a bit more understanding!” he shouted. “It’s easy for you to be diligent, but I’m the one who’s chasing the psychopath. Every time my mom calls, I’m terrified he’s contacted my family. On top of all that, my friend betrayed me and the Marshals Office is threatening me—and the week’s not over yet.”
“Y’know, for one second, I wish you could see things from another perspective besides your own.”
“And I suppose your perspective is the optimum one?”
“I’m serious,” Lisa said. “Hollis knows I always go over the decisions before he sees them, so he’s gotten used to asking me for them. For the past week, he’s been asking me, and I’ve been making up excuses. On Tuesday, I said we were working on a few points. On Wednesday, I said we still hadn’t resolved them. Yesterday, I avoided him completely. I don’t know what to tell him today. We’re in this together, and I don’t mind taking the fall with you, but this is stupid. Russell is a nonsense procedural issue. Hollis told us exactly how he saw this one, but we’re dragging our feet on it. Just finish it and give it to me. Even if you’re halfway done, give it to me and I’ll touch it up. I just have to hand him something by the end of today. I’m sorry if that means I have to ride you, but at this point it’s the only way you’ll take me seriously.”
Ben stared at his legal pad. “I’m sorry,” he said coldly. “You’re absolutely right. I’ll have it for you before lunch.”
“Ben, I—”
“No explanation’s necessary. You’re right. If I couldn’t get it done on time I should’ve passed it to you.”
“That’s all I was trying to say.”
“Are you ready for tomorrow?