Rough Trade

whispered, pulling her into the handicapped stall.
    “Do you want the long version or the short?”
    “Short first.”
    “You’re going to get canned.”
    “Okay. Now what’s the long version?”
    “This morning Stuart Eisenstadt came looking for you,” whispered Cheryl furtively. “Oh, it must have been around ten-thirty. He was so upset, I immediately knew that something was up, but of course, he wouldn’t tell me what it was. He just said that I should get hold of you like yesterday. I tried you up at Chrissy’s house, but the line was always busy and you weren’t answering in your car. I also tried the firm’s Milwaukee office and down at Monarchs Stadium, but no one knew where you were—”
    “I was at Chrissy’s. Jeff took the phone off the hook because they were getting so many calls from the media—”
    “Well, the shit was hitting the fan here, too. About a half an hour later Skip Tillman and John Guttman came looking for you—the same lynching party that did the deed when they fired Rick Cooper.”
    I had no idea who Rick Cooper was, but then, of course, I was as ignorant of the nuances of firm politics as the Jester probably was of portfolio management. Cheryl, on the other hand, kept up. She liked to say it was her favorite spectator sport.
    “Naturally, when I told them I hadn’t been able to reach you, Guttman jumped all over me, that asshole. He accused me of lying about where you were to protect you.”
    “You were lucky he didn’t break out the brass knuckles and the rubber hoses.”
    “I think that’s what they used on Sherman. Poor baby, jjg’s going to be in therapy for at least the next decade.”
    “So what’s with being reassigned to word processing?”
    “My punishment for conspiring with you, I guess.”
    “So any idea why heads are going to roll, specifically miner
    “Only that it’s got to have something to do with Avco and it’s big. After they sent me down here, they told me that if I so much as thought about picking up the phone and calling you that it would mean my job.”
    “I’m glad you didn’t. You wouldn’t have been able to reach me anyway. Some psychopath broke into Chrissy’s house and tried to abduct her at gunpoint.” I unbuttoned my blouse and craned my neck to show her the rapidly intensifying bruise that spread from collarbone to shoulder where the Jester had gotten me with the pipe.
    “Hey. If I were you, I’d just take off my blouse for Tillman. Not only is the bruise impressive, but the sight of your lacy brassiere will send him into cardiac arrest— problem solved.”
    “It’s that kind of thinking that’s going to take you far in the legal profession,” I assured her.
    “So what are you going to do?”
    “I don’t know. I’ll think of something. In the meantime I have two things I need you to do for me.”
    “What?”
    “First off, I need you to get me a car.”
    “You can use mine.”
    “No, no. I need a car. Mine’s totaled.”
    “The Volvo? How did that happen?”
    “It’s a long story. Anyway, I need a new car.”
    “What kind? You know this isn’t exactly like sending out to Marshall Field’s for a change of clothes.”
    “I trust your judgment. Pick something. Call Rob Geller at my bank when you know how much it’s going to be, and he’ll see that it gets paid for.”
    “Gotcha. What’s the second thing?”
    “Promise me you won’t let them force you into quitting. I need you too much to have you fold on me now. If they cut your pay, I’ll make up the difference. Just promise me you’ll hang tough until I’ve got this worked out.”
    “Sure, but only under one condition,” replied my secretary.
    “What’s that?”
    “That you won’t let them intimidate you into quitting either. You are ten times the lawyer of anyone else in this firm, and if they don’t know that, then they’re even stupider than I thought.”
     
    Making my way to Skip Tillman’s office, I had the all too familiar feeling of being summoned to the headmaster’s office. Even so, Cheryl’s pep talk had helped, and the closer I got, the more determined I became to not let myself get lynched. I had already faced down one ugly, angry man and walked away relatively unscathed. I wasn’t going to let Tillman get the better of me either.
    Doris was back at her post. She punched the intercom button and announced my arrival in the hushed tones appropriate in the presence of the condemned. Tillman rose to his feet from behind