Blowout

himself and the three law clerks. Also, Margaret had given him a lovely Georgian silver set and he really got a kick out of serving coffee to any visitors. But you’ve seen his office, I’m sorry. You know exactly what it looks like.”
    Savich said, “True, but I didn’t live there, not like you did. Now, Eliza, keep going. His door is nearly completely closed. What are you doing? What is Danny doing?”
    “Agent Savich, part of my brain was always on Stewart, if he could possibly need me. I remember I was speaking to one of Justice Alto-Thorpe’s law clerks—Bobby Fisher—yeah, like that chess player. Bobby was Justice Alto-Thorpe’s clone, at least that’s the image he projected. I suppose he was serious and not just kissing up, and that’s why she loved him. It was really rather pathetic, and the other law clerks weren’t shy about showing their contempt for him. Anyway, Bobby was in our office, chewing the fat. Actually, he does that a lot, visits a good five minutes with the secretaries before coming to me, and all I could think about was how to get rid of the little jerk. He was usually after a date when he came visiting, but I always blew him off. I remember Danny was there, drafting a concurrence—that’s an opinion that agrees with the result reached by the majority but for different reasons. He was hunched over his desk, concentrating. Then Bobby looked down at his watch, yelped, and bolted out of the chambers. He didn’t bother to tell me why, the dork, probably because I turned him down again. But I looked up at our big clock right behind Fleurette’s desk and saw it was one minute until ten-thirty—time for the Friday meeting in the Chief Justice’s chambers. So I gave a fast knock on Stewart’s door and opened it.
    “He had the phone in his hand. He hung it up pretty fast when he looked at me and saw my urgency. ‘What?’ he asked, and I said in my usual shorthand to him, ‘Friday meeting, conference room,’ and he shook his head like who cared? He sat there, tapping his pen on the leather top of his beautiful desk, and he was frowning, looking off somewhere. Then he shook his head again, as if he still couldn’t decide on something, and got up. He didn’t say another word, just gave this big sigh, and walked off to that meeting.
    “I didn’t see him until I was eating a sandwich at my desk at a little after noon. Danny and Fleurette went out to a café down the street, anything to get out of the pressure cooker for a while, they said, and Stewart walked in, nodded, and went right back into his office. He shut the door this time, all the way.”
    Savich said, “Why didn’t you tell us this morning, Eliza?”
    “I didn’t think it was odd or out of character, just business as usual. When he was really thinking about something, he’d stay in his office by himself. When he wanted to discuss a topic, or he was ready for a good argument about it, he’d call me in.
    “Sometimes we liked to leave the building to talk. Walk up into the residential neighborhood behind us. Check out the construction, just to be outside. It helped him to focus his mind.”
    “But on Friday, it’s still lunchtime. What did he eat?”
    “I brought him a pita sandwich, roast lamb, his favorite.”
    “He ate alone? In his office?”
    She nodded.
    “He didn’t ask you to join him?”
    She shook her head.
    “Was this unusual?”
    “No, not really.”
    “Where’s Danny?”
    “Danny got back about a quarter of one and Fleurette a little after one. Danny fritzed around a bit, not really doing anything useful that I could see, then he said he had to ask Justice Califano something. I was busy so I didn’t ask him what it was, specifically, just tossed off something like, ‘It better be important. He’s got his brain wrapped around something.’ ”
    “And what did Danny say to that?”
    “He said, ‘Oh, he’ll make time for this, Eliza, he’ll give me a few minutes.’ Oh God, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, it seemed like business as usual, but now it looks so different. What did he mean by that? Danny already knew something, didn’t he?”
    Sherlock said, “Probably. You’re doing great. Okay, Danny knocks on the door?”
    “Yes.”
    “Did Justice Califano say anything you could hear?”
    “Something like, ‘Yes, Danny? Come on in, but not for long, I’m really busy.’ Something like that.”
    “How long was Danny with Justice Califano?”
    “I’m not sure, not long, maybe ten