Blowout

Justice had ever lost his head with this young woman.
    She said between frantic bites, “None of us know a thing, honest, Detective Raven.”
    Bobby picked up the last slice of pizza that looked nearly petrified. He held it out belatedly toward Callie. “No, thank you, you go ahead,” she said, and tried not to shudder.
    Ben said to Bobby, “I understand you were in Justice Califano’s chambers Friday morning, shooting the breeze with Eliza Vickers until you remembered the Chief Justice’s meeting, and took off.”
    Bobby Fisher slowly nodded. “Yeah. I wanted—” He stepped away from the other three law clerks, came close to Ben. “Okay, I don’t want you to think I’m keeping anything back. The deal is I wanted to ask her out, but Eliza was playing hard to get. There was this show at the Kennedy Center I wanted to see. I wanted her to go with me.”
    “Did she accept?” Sherlock asked.
    Bobby shook his head. “No, she never accepted. I guess that was maybe my last shot. Who cares? No tragedy. Usually she acts like a bitch to me, anyway.”
    “She was a bitch because?” This from Callie, who, if they believed she was a local cop like Ben Raven, was fine. Better yet, since she hadn’t ever met these four, they didn’t know her relationship to Justice Califano.
    Bobby shrugged his narrow shoulders, looked away from her, not meeting her eyes. “She didn’t like me. Called me Justice Alto-Thorpe’s clone, and the way she said it wasn’t nice. Sure, I usually agreed with my own Justice, she’s brilliant, you know? Why wouldn’t I want to be like her?”
    Callie said, “So, you think Eliza was a bitch because she wouldn’t go out with you? Isn’t that a bit over the top, Bobby?”
    The other three law clerks were standing, all attention. Tai Curtis and Sonya McGivens nodded in agreement. Dennis Palmer looked blank, probably an expression he’d cultivated.
    “Look, she wouldn’t go out with me, and she wasn’t very polite about it. It’s not like I’m a pauper. I could take her nice places. And being a law clerk in the Supreme Court means I’m no run-of-the-mill law school graduate.”
    Ben said, “Yeah, I hear it’s a great opportunity for all of you.”
    Bobby said, “Oh yes, it is. And when I met Justice Alto-Thorpe, I knew it would be a great year. I’m going into litigation, civil litigation in the entertainment industry, and I’m going to live in Malibu.”
    Ben Raven saw Tai Curtis and Dennis Palmer exchange looks that clearly said, Can you believe this idiot? Let them keep listening, Ben thought. When he got them each alone, there was no telling what would pop out of their mouths.
    “Okay,” Sherlock said, “she’s a bitch because she wouldn’t give you the time of day. Most guys move on, Bobby, they don’t get all hung up on it, don’t insult the woman who rejected them. Did she dislike you because you respected Justice Califano less than Justice Alto-Thorpe?”
    He flushed a bit. “The truth is I thought Justice Califano was pompous and overbearing, not at all like Justice Alto-Thorpe. Yeah, sure, Eliza knew what I thought. It’s the truth.” The other three law clerks were frowning, as if embarrassed to be in the same room with him.
    Savich glanced over at Dennis Palmer, one of Justice Gutierrez’s law clerks, a stocky young black man with a tough jaw and hard eyes. He was the best dressed of the four of them. He was drinking a can of Heineken, chugging it down. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and looked at Bobby with something like contempt.
    Bobby picked up on it and hurried to say, “Hey, it’s just that Justice Califano and Justice Alto-Thorpe usually disagreed, and I don’t think either of them liked the other very much.”
    “How about Justice Bloomberg?” Callie asked, wanting to keep him talking. “How did he and Justice Califano get along?”
    Bobby shrugged. “Justice Bloomberg isn’t much of a talker. He sort of sits there like a big Buddha. Usually when court is in session, he nods maybe once an hour, says very little. However, he always votes with Justice Alto-Thorpe, and that’s the right way, the just way.”
    Dennis Palmer said in a beautiful, deep voice, a voice that would very likely help him win over juries in the future, “Bobby’s mainly right about Justice Bloomberg. But the fact is, he’s the most junior Justice. That means he’s the one who has to take all the notes, keep the records of all the proceedings. He