Blowout

doesn’t have time to ask the lawyers questions. He’s a deeply religious man, I do know that, but I’ve never seen him make any waves about it. As for my Justice—Justice Gutierrez—he and Justice Califano agreed a lot more often than they disagreed. They got along well. Actually, truth be told, the only Justice my Justice really didn’t care for was Justice Alto-Thorpe, but of course he’d never say anything bad about anyone. Face it, Bobby, you suck up to her, you never see anything but what you want to see.”
    Bobby looked pissed off, but also resigned. “That’s not true. You’re all ganging up on me.”
    Sonya McGivens said, “We’re not ganging up on you. Fact is you do suck up to her. If you saw her walking toward the bathroom, you’d probably rush down the hall in front of her to open the door. The stall door, too.”
    “She has her own bathroom, like all the Justices,” said Bobby.
    What he’d said was so absurd that the law clerks started shaking their heads and laughing. Sonya McGivens was laughing so hard she was holding her belly. She was hiccuping when she said, “I saw you once, following her, nearly into the bathroom, and yeah, you did open the door for her.”
    Bobby paused a moment, then said, frowning, “I wondered why she didn’t use her own private bathroom.”
    The laughter grew louder.
    Bobby looked like he wanted to hurl all of them out the front window, Sherlock thought, except it wouldn’t be possible; it looked painted shut. “You’re all laughing at me. Why the hell did all of you come over here today to drink my beer and scarf my pizza?”
    “You begged us to come,” Tai Curtis said. “Look, we’ve got to straighten up here. We apologize, Bobby. Now, guys, Danny’s dead, and these agents didn’t come here to listen to us laughing about bathrooms.”
    Sherlock nodded to Tai. It was time to bring things back on track. “Let’s continue, then. Now, Bobby, you spoke to Eliza, she blew you off, and you ran out. But you didn’t remind her about the Friday meeting?”
    “No, I guess I didn’t,” Bobby said, looking down at his banged-up Nikes. “I was upset at her, I’ll admit it.”
    “Stop being a masochist, Bobby,” Sonya said, not unkindly. “Stop asking her out. Eliza could eat you for breakfast.”
    Bobby turned a dull red and chugged down some beer.
    This was going nowhere fast, Ben thought. “Did you see Justice Califano after the Friday meeting in the Chief Justice’s chambers?”
    “No. The Justices rarely ever hang around together when they’re not in conference.”
    Callie said, “Do you know what Eliza had planned for Friday night?”
    “Nah, she didn’t say. I asked her, but she gave me this look, like what’s it to you, jerk face? That’s when I left.”
    “Fleurette heard you two arguing,” Savich said. “What was that about?”
    “The capital punishment case coming up. Eliza said I should consider trying to let some air into my brain, a little air couldn’t hurt, and a new idea might find its way in. Can you believe she said that? Just because she didn’t agree with me?”
    Sonya rolled her eyes. “Oh no, Bobby, I simply can’t imagine that.”
    Bobby said suddenly, “Wait, I do remember I saw Justice Califano and Justice Wallace talking on Friday afternoon, outside the gift shop on the basement level. The Justices were seldom down there, so it surprised me a little. I was on my way to get some soda from the cafeteria for Justice Alto-Thorpe, and there they were, standing there, real close, and neither of them looked happy.”

CHAPTER
19
    N OW THIS WAS a kicker, if, that is, Bobby was telling the truth, Savich thought. “Did you hear anything they were saying to each other?”
    Bobby shook his head. “No, but Justice Califano was intense. I remember he pulled some papers out of his jacket pocket, held them rolled up, and gestured with them in front of Justice Wallace’s chest, as if he were punctuating each of his words.”
    “You heard nothing at all?” Sherlock said.
    “I saw Justice Wallace rear back, like it was an attack and he looked surprised and indignant, but there were lots of tourists milling around, a big crowd of them, finishing up a tour in the gift shop to buy souvenirs, and I couldn’t see them any longer. I wondered what it was about, but they disagreed sometimes, all of them. I didn’t pay that much attention at the time.”
    “Okay,” Sherlock said. “Let’s get back to Eliza.” From