“So you think Justice Gutierrez treats you that way because you’re black?” Sherlock asked.
He smiled at her. “No. I’ve never thought Justice Gutierrez is prejudiced. He hired me because I was law review, at the top of my class at Maryland, interviewed well, and presented him two topflight recommendations. But I really do think it made him feel warm and fuzzy to hire a black man, because he’s a minority himself, although I doubt he’s ever thought of himself in that way.”
“All right,” Savich said. “Tell me about Danny O’Malley. Bobby, when you were in Eliza’s office on Friday morning, what was Danny doing?”
“Okay. All right.” Bobby took a deep breath. “Danny was at his desk, working on something, I don’t know what. He looked up, saw me, and kind of winced. He did that whenever I came in. He never said anything nasty to me, not like Eliza did, he’d just sort of wince. Maybe he didn’t like it that I’d ask Eliza out on dates. Maybe he wanted Eliza too, sort of a dominance thing.”
“No,” Sonya said. “Danny really liked Eliza, he looked up to her. He wasn’t interested in her that way. He was going out with Annie Harper, you know, the girl he met over at the Department of the Interior.”
Sherlock asked, “Bobby, did you see Danny go into Justice Califano’s office?”
Bobby shook his head.
Tai Curtis said, “I wasn’t anywhere close that day. You guys weren’t either, were you?”
Dennis and Sonya shook their heads.
Ben said, “Bobby, did you see Danny at any other time on Friday?”
Bobby thought a moment, then nodded. “Yeah, I saw him and Fleurette go out to lunch. They had their heads together, talking real low, about what, I don’t know. I didn’t see Danny again. What did he have on the murderer, Agent Savich? What could he have possibly known, found out?”
“We don’t know yet, but we will soon.”
Callie said to Sonya McGivens, “Could I come with you to the kitchen, Ms. McGivens? I need a glass of water.”
“Sure.” Sonya shrugged, tugged her lacy white top over her bare stomach, where it hovered for perhaps two seconds before slipping back up, and wandered out of the living room. She’d been here before, Callie thought. Why? Certainly not to hang out alone with Bobby.
“None of us are stupid, Detective—I’m sorry, I don’t remember your name?”
“My name’s Callie Markham.”
Sonya stopped dead in her tracks, stared up and down at Callie. “I thought you looked familiar. You’re Justice Califano’s stepdaughter. I was thinking maybe you’d given me a parking ticket or something, but that’s not it at all. You’ve visited your stepfather before in his chambers, haven’t you? And you’re not a cop, you’re a reporter—for The Washington Post, right?”
“Yes, I am. But I’m not here to do any story, Ms. McGivens. I’m on leave from the paper. I’m here because I think I can help with this investigation, a sort of an inside eye, someone who knows many of the players. I really want to find out who killed my stepfather. Can you tell me what you nearly said out there about Justice Wallace?”
Sonya rolled her eyes. “Please keep this quiet, Callie. Can I call you Callie?”
“Of course.”
“And call me Sonya. Okay, I’ll tell you, not that you’ll believe it—Justice Wallace tried to come on to me once, in a subtle sort of way. I must have looked so horrified, he tried to laugh it off as a joke. He looks at me sometimes, I’ll see him from the corner of my eye, looking. I have a good figure and I like to show it off, but to have a Supreme Court Justice staring at you, well, it’s enough to put you off your feed. But who really knows what old guys are thinking anyway?”
“I don’t even know what young guys are thinking most of the time,” Callie said.
“That’s easy. It’s always sex. That detective you’re with, Ben Raven, now you look in those sexy dark eyes of his, and he’s transparent as water. He might as well be wearing a neon sign: Wanna have sex with me, Callie? He’s a hunk. You guys dating, right?”
Ben the hunk wanted to have sex with her? Nah, he barely liked her, although he had been looking at her butt. And he liked her butt, even if it was civilian. She cleared her throat, aware that Sonya was smirking at her. “No, we’re not dating. I’m not lying, dammit. Listen, really, we’re paired up on only this investigation. Since I’m not a cop, he isn’t too pleased about me tagging along.”
“Oh boy, are you ever blind. Polish up your eyesight, Callie. He likes you, I can tell. And you know what? He didn’t look below my face once, not once. That’s fortitude. Yeah, the man wants you.”
Callie smiled, since this notion clearly astounded Sonya McGivens. “I’m curious, Sonya. You’re not going to show off your body when you’re out in the real world, are you?”
“Probably not, but it would be a temptation. Some guys on the jury wouldn’t hear a single word out of the other lawyer’s mouth. They’d be looking at me and agreeing with whatever I said.” She sighed. “But professionalism has its place. I do wish guys and their libidos would remember that. Hey, since you’re a reporter, you must have problems with men who think because you’ve got different equipment you shouldn’t be allowed to play in their sandbox.”
Callie grinned. “Tell you what. Let’s go for drinks some evening and try to solve that problem. Right now, we’ve got to focus on this. Do you know if Justice Wallace may have behaved inappropriately with any other female law clerks?”
“There are only ten of us, but I think I’m the only one he ever tried anything with. I’ve heard some stories, everyone has, about Court secretaries that go back years. His poor wife. She seems nice, but downtrodden, like she knows too much and has no intention of doing anything about it. It’s like her generation is hard-wired to protect their husbands even when they know the men have been unfaithful. Me, I can’t stand women who let their husbands walk all over them, but I guess that’s the way things were for them.”
“So he never hit on Eliza?”
Sonya laughed, really laughed, and Callie saw her navel ring dance. She gasped out, “Justice Sumner Wallace hit on Eliza Vickers? Oh, that’s a hilarious image. Oh no, he knew Eliza would have produced a spit right there, skewered him on it, and barbecued him. She’d have turned him into leather. No, he wasn’t suicidal.”
Callie liked Sonya and was tempted to ask if she thought Eliza had slept with her stepfather, but she couldn’t get the words out of her mouth. She had a feeling that Sonya would have told her if she’d seen or heard anything.
Callie said, “Sonya, would you really be surprised if it turns out Danny O’Malley tried to blackmail whoever killed my stepfather?”
Sonya got a glass down from the cupboard, turned on the water at the sink, slid her fingers through it to make sure it was cold, and filled the glass, all without saying anything. When she handed the glass to Callie, she said, “Oh yes. You see, Danny always looked out for numero uno. He was a good law clerk, don’t get me wrong, he worked hard, and he was smart, but he was after big money, wanted to make gobs of it, and unlike most of us, that’s why he came to the Supreme Court. He believed it was his ticket to New York. He wanted to make his mark there, nowhere else, not like Bobby Fisher who obsesses about going to L.A. and defending the stars.”
“Was Danny bright enough to succeed in the big time in New York, do you think?”
“The truth is we all have a ticket to just about anywhere, Callie. I don’t know about Danny’s future. He was really bright, but sometimes he’d talk and talk, and you’d know he hadn’t read enough or thought enough about the topic to even give an opinion. He trusted his ability to bullshit. Maybe that’s what he did here, only this time it didn’t turn out well for him.”