The Tenth Justice (17 page)

“Eric, even if I was in a good mood, I’m going to be mad.”

“I told you he’d made up his mind,” Eric said, turning to Nathan.

“Ben, just give him a chance,” Nathan pleaded.

“You have a chance,” Ben said, still staring down at Eric. “Just go. I’ve been waiting all day.” When Eric was silent, Ben added, “C’mon, tell me. I’ll keep an open mind.”

“Fine,” Eric said. “I just want you to know that when you told me about what happened with Rick and the Maxwell decision, I never thought about saying a word. I mean, we’ve been friends since third grade. I’d never turn you in or let anything damage our friendship. And I certainly wouldn’t write something that I thought would get you in trouble. But you have to understand the position I was in. I’ve been working at the
Herald
for almost five months, and I haven’t done anything but edit excerpts from the
Congressional Record
. The editors wanted to transfer me down to the Style section, and when the CMI thing happened, I couldn’t pass it up. I’m the low man on the totem pole, and I had to give them something. So I gave them that.”

“That’s it?” Ben asked when Eric paused. “That’s your
reason
? You might’ve gotten transferred to the Style section?” Ben’s voice boomed. “You tell me that there’s an explanation for your actions, and that’s what you come up with? Eric, you are a piece of shit!”

“My job was at stake.”

“So you risked my job to save yours?” Ben yelled. “You think that’s the answer to the problem?”

“You don’t get it. I wasn’t risking
your
job,” Eric said.

“Oh, no?” Ben asked in disbelief. “Don’t you realize what you—”

“You know there’s no way you’ll get caught,” Eric said. “They’ll never find Rick, and we won’t tell. You can’t get hurt by this.”

“Well then, today’s my lucky day,” Ben said. “Thanks, Eric! Since they’ll never find Rick, I’m off the hook. Do you have any idea why I was late getting here? It’s because for the past hour, I was getting grilled by the Marshals Office at the Court. And in case you’re totally clueless, the marshals are responsible for all Court security. They sat me down and raked me over the coals about my involvement with the CMI leak. The head of security wanted to know about my relationship with you, since his friend at the
Herald
said we were roommates. He said that if they find out I’m involved, I’ll be fired. They want me to take a lie detector test to prove my innocence, and they’d love nothing more than to throw me to the press and watch them rip me apart.”

“Oh, shit,” Nathan said.

“Oh, shit is right,” Ben repeated. Pointing his finger in Eric’s face, he continued, “And since it’s obvious you didn’t take a single moment to anticipate the consequences of writing that story, you should also know that every paper in the country called the Court today to find out if it was true. At this point, they won’t turn me in, but they say it’s only a matter of time before the press finds a source who’ll talk. And I don’t think it will take long before someone puts the story together with the fact that you and I are roommates.”

“All I did was write about a possibility,” Eric said.

“No. All you did was plant a seed in everyone’s mind. Since that rag you write for doesn’t give a crap about reality, they ran it. The result screws no one but me.”

“But I didn’t even give a source,” Eric said.

“IT DOESN’T MATTER!” Ben yelled. “Get your head out of your ass. Not giving a source just means it takes longer for them to investigate.”

“Listen, don’t get mad at me,” Eric said, getting up from the couch.

“Then who the hell should I be mad at?” Ben asked, throwing his hands in the air.

“Well, I’m not the one who leaked information from the Court. I hate to burst your bubble, but what you did
was
illegal. I didn’t make it up.”

Ben shoved Eric in the chest. “You selfish son of a—”

Nathan jumped up, knocking over the coffee table, and wedged himself between the two friends. “This is not turning into a rumble. Both of you, relax.”

Clenching his fists, Ben stepped back from Nathan. “You really are a lowlife,” he said to Eric.

“Don’t pull that with me,” Eric said, his voice racing. “You have no idea what I was going through. You always have everything handed to you. You have no idea what it’s like to struggle on your own. My editor was breathing down my ass for a source. I didn’t care, though. I never once named you! Never!”

“Then how did the Marshals Office know that I was the source for your story about Blake’s resignation?”

Eric was silent.

“What’s the matter? You don’t have an answer for that one?”

“The Blake story was different and you know it,” Eric shot back. “For CMI, I didn’t say a word. No matter what they said, I wouldn’t give them a source. My editor told me people would call me a hack. But I kept quiet.”

“Well, you’re just the best friend a guy could have. Maybe next week you can do me a real favor and slice my throat. That’ll be the greatest.”

“I’m serious,” Eric said. “I was flooded with calls today. I got calls from
Newsweek, Time, USA Today, The New York Times
. You name it, I got a call from it. And I could have blown your story to any one of them. I could ride this one to fame and fortune. I could write a book about the whole thing. I’d have movie deals, a syndicated column, the whole world if I blew the lid off this one. You know it’s true—”

Before Eric could finish his sentence, Ben rushed toward him and pushed him against the back wall of the room, holding him by the front of his shirt. “You say one word, and I swear I’ll rip your fucking heart out!”

“Ben, let go!” Nathan demanded as he and Ober pried him off of Eric.

Straightening his shirt, Eric said, “Listen, I understand you’re pissed, but that was good journalism. The point is, I protected your ass,
and
I wrote a page five story my first time out.”

“If you killed your mother, you’d make page one,” Ben screamed. “Does that mean you should do it? You didn’t blow this story open. You would’ve been clueless unless I told you. So don’t fucking act like you’re doing me any favors by not signing away the movie rights!”

Taking a deep breath, Eric said, “Ben, do you have any idea how hard this CMI thing has been on me? From the moment you told me about how Maxwell got the info, I wanted to write the story. I waited, though. I waited until all the smoke cleared, until all the papers were finished obsessing over Maxwell and the decision. I waited until all the hoopla was over. And all I ran was a small piece that tried to explain it.”

“Do you hear what you’re saying?” Ben asked, shaking his head. “Are you trying to say I should thank you for waiting a bit before you put the knife in my back? Do you have any idea how warped that logic is?”

“I don’t know why you’re so crazy. They’ll never be able to prove—”

“That’s not the damn point!” Ben yelled. “Stop rationalizing your actions and think for a second! You knew this would happen. You knew it, and you didn’t care.”

“Ben, I never meant for you to get in trouble. What do you want me to say? I’m sorry. I’m sorry a million times. What the hell else do you want?”

“I want you out of this house.”

“What?” Eric asked.

“Ben, you can’t do that,” Ober said, his voice cracking.

Ben looked at Eric. “You heard me. I want your ass out of this house.” As Eric shook his head in disbelief, Ben continued, “I’m not joking, Eric. This isn’t some silly high school fight. I don’t want you in my life anymore. I don’t trust you, I don’t like you, and I no longer need you as a friend.”

“What if I won’t leave?”

“Then I will,” Ben said. “Our lease is up on the first of the year. That gives you a month and a half to find a new place. If you want to fight me on it, we’ll take a vote. If no one wants to vote, we’ll flip a coin. Either way, I refuse to have you in my life anymore.” Turning his back to his friends, Ben stormed up the stairs to his room.

“Eric, just let him cool off.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Eric said, walking to the front door. “I’ll be at the paper if anyone needs me.”

When the door slammed, the room was silent. “I really think he’s serious,” Nathan finally said.

“He can’t kick him out of the house,” Ober said. “We can’t let him do that.”

“What’s wrong with you?” Nathan asked, surprised by Ober’s reaction.

“We can’t let him break us up. When I moved here, it was to be with the four of us.”

“Ober, you have to relax.”

“Do you think he’ll really kick Eric out?”

“I don’t know,” Nathan said. “But when he went flying toward Eric, I thought Ben was going to kill him. This isn’t an easy thing to forgive.”

“You have to talk to him,” Ober said. “Promise me you’ll talk to him.” When he saw Nathan heading toward the stairs, he asked, “Where are you going?”

“To talk to Ben.”

“Are you going to talk about Eric?”

“No, I’m going to talk about Murray Simone, King of Hair.”

“What’d he say?” Lisa asked the moment Ben arrived at work the next morning.

“It was a disaster,” Ben said, hanging his coat in the closet. “He had no excuse.”

“Nothing?” Lisa asked. “He didn’t even make up an excuse?”

Ben grabbed the cup of coffee from Lisa’s desk and took a sip. “He tried to tell me he was going to get demoted, but it was pathetic.”

“Did you at least take a swing at him?”

“Lisa, I’ll have you know, I’m a man of words, not violence.”

“But didn’t you want to rip his face off? Didn’t you want to just bust his teeth in? Didn’t you—”

“I get the idea,” he said, fidgeting with his red and gold tie.

“Wait a minute,” Lisa said. “You hit him, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t hit him.”

“Ben, don’t lie to me….”

“I just threw him into the wall, threatened him a bit, and told him to move out.”

“All right, Mr. Tough Guy!” Lisa said. “Give me all the gore.”

“It wasn’t anything. I just lost it for a second.”

“I can’t believe it. I can’t even imagine you losing it.”

“And why’s that?”

“Because you’re such a wuss.”

“Oh, and you’re so tough?”

“Trust me, I kick ass when I have to. And given time, I’ll kick your little ass as well.”

“Lisa, I don’t want to hear your sadomasochistic fantasies in the office. That’s sexual harassment, and it’s against the law.” Ben’s phone rang. “Hello, Justice Hollis’s chambers,” he answered.

“Ben, is it okay to call you now?”

“Mom? Is everything okay?”

“Yes, everything’s fine. Are you in court?”

“No, we don’t have court on Fridays,” Ben said nervously. “Why? What’s wrong at home?”

“Well, I was wondering if there was something you had to tell me,” his mother said.

Either she was talking about Eric’s story or she’d gotten another letter from Rick. Either way, Ben saw trouble. Hoping to pry before he gave up any information, Ben said, “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“Benjamin, don’t play games with me. Now, do you have anything you’ve been meaning to tell me?”

“Mom, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Well, then, perhaps you can explain why I had to hear secondhand from Barbara that you have a very serious girlfriend.”

“Oh, my God,” Ben said as Lisa looked up from her desk. “Mom, I don’t have a serious girlfriend. Ober’s mom doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

“Don’t lie to me, Benjamin.”

“Mom, I swear I’m not lying.”

“Then who was the woman your friends were raving about at Katie’s house last week?”

“They were probably talking about my co-clerk,” Ben said, frowning at Lisa.

“You’re sleeping with your co-clerk?”

“I’m not sleeping with anybod—Mom, I’m not sleeping with Lisa. Nathan and Ober were just joking around with Aunt Katie. We’re just co-workers.”

“Well, Ober seemed to say it was more than just a working relationship.”

“When did you speak to Ober?”

“This morning. You had already left for work. What time do you go in anyway? They must be working you like a dog there.”

“It’s the Supreme Court. We tend to work hard,” Ben said. “Now tell me what Ober said.”

“That’s none of your business. William and I had a wonderful conversation. Now, tell me, is this co-clerk from Washington?”

“No. She’s from Los Angeles.”

“Is she there now?”

“No, she’s not here now,” Ben said, looking up at Lisa. “She’s taking depositions.”

“HI, MRS. ADDISON!” Lisa called out.

“I knew she was there!” Ben’s mother said. “Put her on the phone.”

“Mom, I’m not putting her on. Get it through your head.”

“Ask her if she’s going home for Thanksgiving.”

“Mom—”

“If I need to, I’ll get her number from Ober and call her myself.”

Laughing, Ben said, “Lisa, my mom wants to know if you’re going home for Thanksgiving.” Ben mouthed the words “Say yes.”

“No, I’m completely free!” Lisa shouted.

“Wonderful,” Ben’s mother said. “Tell her she’s invited to spend it with us. She’ll come home with you.”

Glancing over at Lisa, Ben said, “My mother wants me to tell you that she’s glad you’re going to be alone on Thanksgiving. She hopes you have a miserable night, and that your heat gets turned off, and that you die alone without the comfort of family and friends.”

“Benjamin!”

“She wants you to come home for Thanksgiving.”

“I’d love to,” Lisa said, sticking out her tongue at Ben.

“Great,” Ben said, turning back to the phone. “Mom, you may want to prepare an extra turkey or two. I don’t know if Ober told you, but Lisa eats like a cow and a horse and a whole barnyard of animals.”

“If you’re seeing her, I want to meet her,” his mother said.

“Fine, I give in. You caught us. We’re going out. Mom, this one’s the one. Lisa and I are in love, and she’s pregnant, and we’re thinking of naming the baby Hercules, after Aunt Flo.”

“That’s not funny,” his mother said.

“Listen, I really have to go.”

“Just tell me one last thing: What happened between you and Eric?”

“Mom, nothing happened. Why? Who said something happened?”