“What happened? Are you okay? Did he proposition you?”

“He definitely wants info,” Ben said. After a full explanation of the last few hours, he continued, “So all we have left are the pictures that you and Nathan snapped as we drove away. Hopefully, those’ll be enough.”

“When will they be done?”

“They’ll be ready tomorrow morning,” Ben said, searching under every piece of his memorabilia collection. “Nathan gave them to some place around the corner. But if those don’t come out, we’re back where we started.”

“They’ll come out,” Lisa said. “Once Nathan runs the photos and the license plates through the State Department, we’ll have everything we need.”

“I guess,” Ben said.

“So you’re calm? You’re not crazy?”

“I’m completely calm,” he said, crawling on the floor and searching under his bed. “Lisa, by the way, thanks for hanging in the dumpster. We would’ve been lost without you.”

“Don’t sweat it. That’s what I’m here for.”

“I know, but I just wanted to say thank you.”

“Any time,” Lisa said, hanging up the phone.

Later that evening, Nathan walked into Ben’s room. Ben was sitting at his desk, slumped in his chair and staring at the wall. “How’re you doing?” Nathan asked.

“I’m okay. Just trying to figure this whole thing out.”

“Any ideas?”

Ben slowly shook his head. “Not really.”

“You don’t really need to stay involved with this bullshit,” Nathan said as he sat on Ben’s bed. “I mean, you can just walk away. The only thing hurt is your pride.”

“It’s not about pride,” Ben said, still slumped over. “Rick will always have information that can damage my career. If I walk away, I’ll never know when he’ll be back to dangle it in front of my face. At least if we get something on him, we can counteract whatever blackmail he might think of in the future.” Ben opened the top drawer of his desk and pulled out a pencil. “Besides, I want this guy.”

“Not to be a pessimist, but have you thought about turning yourself in and explaining the situation to the police? I mean, it’s not like you leaked the information on purpose. Rick tricked you out of it.”

“I’ve definitely thought about that,” Ben said. “But it doesn’t matter how Rick got the information from me. If they found out I released a decision, they’d have to kick me off the Court.”

“Yeah, but it’s not like you’d go to jail-there was no criminal intent on your part.”

“If a clerk got fired from the Supreme Court, it’d make every paper in the country. The media eats up Court scandals faster than my family eats dessert. And if that happened, my entire career would be finished. I’d be disbarred and I’d never be able to practice law again.”

“I think you’re just worried that you’d lose your Golden Boy status.”

“You’re probably right. I’ve busted my ass to get where I am. The last thing I want to do is throw it all away by confessing. No offense, but that doesn’t sound like the optimal solution.”

“I’m just exploring all your options,” Nathan said. “You know I’ll support you no matter what you decide to do.”

Early the next morning, Ben knocked on Nathan’s door. “Do you have the receipt for the pictures? I want to go pick them up.”

“Hold on a second,” Nathan said, bent over as he tied the laces on his sneakers. “I’ll go down with you.”

Nathan untied his laces and retied them again. “C’mon,” Ben said. “How many times have you tied them already? Four? Five? Six? You have a sickness, y’know that?”

“I just like the perfect knot,” Nathan said, still bent over. “Excuse me for being a perfectionist.”

“You’re not a perfectionist. You’re the poster boy for next year’s obsessive-compulsive calendar.”

“There. Done.”

“Now that’s a beautiful bow,” Ben said, staring at his roommate’s shoes. “Wonderful job.”

“Jealous,” Nathan said as they headed downstairs to get their coats. “By the way, my mother’s been bothering me all week. Are you coming over to dinner the night before Thanksgiving?”

“Who’s going to be there?” Ben asked, buttoning his coat.

“Well, it’ll be my family, the four of us, and Lisa, if she’s coming.”

“What do you mean, the four of us? I’m not eating with Eric.”

“C’mon,” Nathan pleaded, opening the front door. “Now you’re being immature.”

“I’m not being immature. I just want to enjoy my time at your house. If Eric’s there, I won’t. It’s as simple as that.”

“What do you want me to do?” Nathan asked. “Should I tell him he can’t come? Should I invite everyone and leave him out? Besides, if he’s not invited, our mothers’ll never leave us alone. They’ll want to know the whole story, start to finish.”

Silent until they reached the corner, Ben said, “Fine. He can come.”

“Thank you,” Nathan said, breathing a sigh of relief. “I’m glad your forgiving side won out.”

“Don’t think this has anything to do with forgiveness. I just weighed my hatred for Eric against the consequences of maternal interrogation. From there it was no contest. Moms are undefeated.”

Ben and Nathan walked three more blocks until they reached Rob’s Camera and Video. As they approached the store, Ben said, “We’ll probably have to enlarge the photo.”

“It won’t be a problem. They can do that within an hour. I’m more worried that the license won’t give us good information.”

“It definitely will. Even if it only gives us a limo company, that’s a start.” Ben opened the door for his friend and followed him inside.

Nathan pulled out the two ticket stubs and handed them to one of the two female clerks waiting behind the counter. “We have some pictures to pick up.”

As one of the clerks took the stubs to the photo bins, the other looked at Ben. “Did you go to Maryland undergrad? Because you look really familiar.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t,” Ben said. “My friend did, though. He got a degree in shoelace tying.” Pointing to Nathan’s feet, he asked, “Have you ever seen anything tied so tight in your whole life? I mean, besides him?”

The clerk leaned over the counter. “That is a nice bow.”

“I’m sorry,” the other clerk said, shuffling though the envelopes of finished photos. “When did we say your pictures would be ready?”

“You said to pick them up this morning,” Nathan said. “They were under the last name Oberman. Two rolls of film.”

The clerk shook her head. “I can’t find them here. Hold on a second.” The clerk flipped through a small looseleaf binder and stopped on a page. “Wait, I found them. They were picked up about an hour ago by your friend.”

A chill ran down Ben’s back. “What friend?”

“Oh, I remember that guy. I helped him,” the other clerk said. “He said that if you came in, we should tell you that he already picked up the photos.”

“This wouldn’t happen to be a tall guy with blond hair and droopy eyes?” Ben asked.

“That’s him,” she said. “He was so sweet.”

“Fuck!” Ben said, banging the glass counter.

“Relax,” Nathan said. Looking at the perplexed clerks, Nathan explained, “That wasn’t our friend. You gave our pictures to someone who shouldn’t have seen them.”

“I’m so sorry,” the clerk said. “I didn’t mean-”

“Don’t worry about it,” Nathan said.

“What do you mean, don’t worry about it?” Ben yelled. Turning to the clerks, he asked, “Don’t you have a policy about picking film up? Don’t you always ask for a receipt?”

“He knew the name-he said you guys were friends.”

“Do you keep any negatives on file?” Ben shot back. “Anything at all in case someone walks off with your pictures?”

“No. The negatives go right back to the customer.”

“I don’t fuckin’ believe this,” Ben said, walking to the door.

“You don’t happen to have security cameras here, do you?” Nathan asked. “Something that might’ve snapped a picture of our friend?”

“I’m sorry, we don’t,” the clerk said. “They were stolen when we were robbed last March.”