“No way,” Ober said.
“Just relax,” Nathan said. “What’s the card say?”
“Dear Ben,” he read. “At this point, I’m sure you’re raging mad. I hope you’ll give me a chance to explain. I’m sorry I had to leave so early this morning, but I had some stuff to do at work. Always your friend, Eric.”
“Oh, please,” Ben said, passing the card to Nathan. “He hasn’t been up before noon for a whole year, and today he had to go in early? He ran out on me.”
“It sounds like there’s an explanation,” Nathan said, passing the card to Ober.
“What could he possibly say?” Ben asked. “What explanation could possibly excuse this? ‘Sorry, we had some space to fill, so I decided to dick you over’?”
“Maybe they needed to fill in for the word jumble,” Ober said.
“Ober, don’t screw around with this,” Ben warned. “This is serious for me. This story could get me fired.” Ben was silent as he leaned on Eric’s dresser. Watching their friend, Nathan and Ober said nothing. “DAMN!” Ben screamed, pushing a stack of papers from Eric’s dresser. “They’re definitely investigating now. They can’t ignore this.”
“You have to speak to him,” Nathan said. “Give him a call.”
Looking at his watch, Ben said, “I’m late. I have to go.” He marched down the stairs, grabbed his overcoat from the closet, and stormed out of the house.
“This will not be a pretty one,” Nathan said when the door slammed shut.
“Did you know about this?” Ober asked.
“Of course I didn’t know,” Nathan said.
“I knew,” Ober said, sitting on Eric’s bed.
“You knew?” Nathan asked. “You knew and you didn’t stop him?”
“There was no stopping him,” Ober explained. “You know how Eric gets when he’s in reporter mode. He’s out to win the Pulitzer.”
“Did you at least say something to him?”
“Of course,” Ober said. “He wouldn’t listen. Besides, it was too late. He told me last night.”
“I’ll tell you one thing, their friendship is over,” Nathan said, picking up the knocked-over papers. “And Ben is not a person you want as your enemy.”
“He’s definitely going to kill him,” Ober said.
“Absolutely. He’ll never forgive this. And no matter how long it takes him, he’s going to make sure Eric’s miserable.”
“Maybe we should make up a flyer for a new roommate,” Ober said,
“Actually, why don’t you do that at work today? It’ll say: Wanted, semi-messy roommate to replace our old dead one. Must be willing to live with one genius, one monkey, and one Supreme Court clerk who’s recently acquired a taste for blood.”
As he approached the Supreme Court, Ben struggled to calm himself. Taking deep, slow breaths, he climbed the stairs and entered the marble edifice. Biting the inside of his cheek, he showed his I.D. and walked around the metal detector. He made every attempt to appear calm, taking extra-small strides to slow himself down. Walking through reception, he was relieved to see that Nancy wasn’t in yet. As he entered his and Lisa’s office, he lightly shut the door behind him.
“I guess you saw it,” Lisa said, the paper open on her desk.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Ben said, heading directly for his desk. “He’s a dead man.”
“Have you talked to him?”
“He ran out before I got up. Has anyone said anything yet?”
“Nothing so far. It’s only seven, though. The day is young.”
“That’s just great. Thanks for that piece of advice.”
“Listen, it’s only the Washington Herald. Everyone in this town knows it’s a right-wing, lunatic paper. No one takes it seriously.” Getting no response from Ben, she added, “It didn’t even make the front page.”
“Terrific. I’m thrilled.”
“Listen, it could be worse. At least he didn’t say that it was a clerk.”
“Well then, I’m tickled-fuckin’-pink,” Ben said, his voice rising. “It’s all okay now. I don’t have to worry. My career is just perfect. Thanks, Sally Sunshine, for showing me the way.”
“Listen, I don’t need your asshole tone,” Lisa yelled across the desk. “I was just trying to help.”
“Well, sorry if I’m not in the mood.”
“It has nothing to do with being in the mood,” she said. “If you want to be miserable, go right ahead. But don’t take it out on me.”
“I’m sorry,” Ben said, leaning back in his chair. “I really am. I’m just scared about this whole thing.”
“And you deserve to be. I’d want to kick the crap out of him.”
“I have no idea what to do.”
“Well, I hate to be the one to say this, but there’s not a lot you can do about it now. We have to get the Russell decision done, and I still haven’t seen your first draft.”
“Can’t you do it?”
“Oh, don’t even think that,” Lisa warned. “I’m your friend, and I’m here whenever you want to talk, but don’t think you’re getting out of your work just so you can sulk all day.”
“C’mon. I’d do it for you.”
“Are you crazy? While you’re writing Russell and Pacheco, I’m editing Oshinsky, and Lowell Corp., and Pacific Royal, and Schopf. And we haven’t even started working on Grinnell, which is scheduled to be announced at the end of the month.”
“So what are you saying?”
“What I’m saying is, don’t leave work and run down to the Washington Herald to confront your roommate, which I know you’ve been planning to do since you saw the damn article.”
Ben fought a smile. “That’s not what I was thinking.”
“Oh, really?”
“I was going to wait until lunch to go down there.”
At eleven-thirty, Ben’s phone rang. “Hello, Justice Hollis’s chambers,” he said, picking up the receiver.
“Ben Addison? This is the Supreme Court security office. We need to speak to you. We believe you may be leaking information to the public.”
“E-excuse me?” Ben said, panicking.
“Just kidding!” Ober said. “It’s just me.”
“Don’t do that! You scared the shit out of me.”
“Oh, relax,” Ober said. “You have nothing to worry about.”
“What do you want?”
“Eric called me. He said he’d like to talk to you tonight.”
“What time?”
“Eight, if that’s okay with you.”
“That’s fine. I’ll see him then.”
“Who was it?” Lisa asked, noticing the irritated look on Ben’s face.
“Just Ober.”
A half hour later, the phone rang again. “Hello, Justice Hollis’s chambers,” Ben said.
“Is this Ben Addison?” a voice asked.
“Yes,” Ben said, annoyed to be pulled away from the Russell opinion.
“Hi, Mr. Addison. My name is Diana Martin, and I’m with The Washington Post. I was wondering if you had any comment on the story in this morning’s Herald.”
“Listen, if you work with Ober, tell him to bite me.”
“Mr. Addison, I think you have me confused with someone else. As I said, I’m with The Washington Post. I’d be happy to fax over my press credentials. In fact, if you’d like, perhaps we could meet for lunch and talk this over.”
Sitting up straight in his chair, Ben knocked over the coffee on his desk. “How can I help you today, Ms. Martin?” he asked as Lisa pulled a pile of napkins from her left-hand drawer.
“Well, as I said, I was wondering if you had any comment on the story in today’s Herald.”
As Ben lifted piles of paper from his desk, Lisa dabbed away the coffee. “I’m sorry,” Ben said. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“In this morning’s Washington Herald, there was a story about a possible leaking of information during the recent CMI decision. I was wondering if you had anything you’d like to say about it. If you’d like, I’ll keep your identity secret. You’ll be an unidentified source.”