“Unbelievable,” Ben said as he left the store.

Waving to the clerks, Nathan said, “Thanks for your help,” and walked outside. Running to catch up with Ben, he said, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left the photos in there overnight.”

“It’s not your fault,” Ben said. “I should’ve seen this one a mile away. This was just dumb. I could’ve been here early this morning.”

“How do you think he knew? Do you think there was someone following us when we left you at the restaurant?” As he struggled to keep pace with his friend, Nathan asked, “Did you tell Lisa where the photos were?”

Ben was silent.

“You told her, didn’t you?”

Again, silence.

“Answer me,” Nathan demanded. “Did you tell Lisa about the photos?”

Coming to an abrupt halt, Ben threw his arms in the air and screamed, “YES! I TOLD HER! What the hell do you want me to say? I told her they were at a camera store a few blocks away!”

“Now why’d you do that? I told you-”

“I told her because I trust her. And when I speak to her, I don’t worry about guarding my thoughts-she’s my friend. So no matter what you say, until you have proof that it’s Lisa, I won’t believe a single bit of your conjecture.”

“What kind of proof are you waiting for? If she put a knife in your back, you’d say it wasn’t her because you didn’t see her with your own two eyes.”

“Lisa has nothing to gain by talking to Rick. If she was after the money, she’d leak the decisions to Rick herself.”

“Is that what you think?” Nathan asked. “What about this scenario: Rick and Lisa are conspiring, and Lisa is leaking the decisions to Rick. The only problem is that if word gets out that information is leaking, there’s no fall guy. Enter one befuddled clerk named Benjamin Addison. Get enough information on him, and if anything ever goes wrong, you have an instant scapegoat. All they need to do is keep amassing evidence of your involvement.”

Ben walked silently for almost a block. Finally, he said, “I don’t agree with you, but I understand what you’re saying. When we get back from Thanksgiving, I’ll be happy to talk about it, but until then, I want to enjoy my time at home. Lisa’ll be with me and I refuse to suspect her the entire weekend.”

“Then maybe you shouldn’t take her home with you,” Nathan said.

“Get it out of your head. She’s got her ticket and she’s coming home. That’s the end of the discussion.”

“It’s your life,” Nathan said.

Chapter 10

“THEY DECIDED GRINNELL,” BEN SAID, COMING into the office carrying a stack of books.

“How do you know?” Lisa asked, looking up from the paperwork on her desk. “Conference isn’t over yet.”

“Oh, yes, it is,” Ben said, dumping the books on Lisa’s desk. “Osterman just buzzed his clerks and told them they’ll be writing the majority. Veidt finally went to the dark side.”

“Says who?”

“I just saw one of Blake’s clerks in the elevator. He had the biggest shit-eating grin on his face. Historical-monument-destroying prick.”

“I can’t believe this.” Lisa picked up the phone. “Where’s Hollis? How come no one told us?”

“I don’t think now’s such a good time to call. He’s probably pissed about it.”

“Are we definitely doing the dissent?” Lisa asked, returning the phone to its cradle.

“That’s my guess. I’m not sure, though.”

“Why’re you so upset?” Lisa asked. “I thought you were in favor of seeing it as a taking of property.”

“I am,” Ben said. “I just don’t like seeing the vampires win. They played dirty on this one.”

“Did they say what the final vote was?”

“It was five to four. Apparently Osterman convinced Veidt that if New York’s zoning was allowed to protect the church, Grinnell and the other owners were going to bear a disproportionate burden.”

“So Osterman’s decision is based on a disproportionality argument? Are you sure it isn’t challenging the legality of zoning?”

Shaking his head, Ben said, “If they attacked the zoning directly, they couldn’t get all the votes they needed for a majority. Blake’s clerk said that was the only way they could get Veidt on board. So Osterman’s decision is going to say that the benefits of historic monuments are enjoyed by the whole city. Therefore, the preservation of such monuments is a burden that should be borne by the city, not by individuals.”

“So if New York wants to protect the church, it’s going to have to pay Grinnell and Associates the expected future value of the property?”

“You got it,” Ben said. “Grinnell just got the golden ticket, and he doesn’t even know it. He’s going to reap all the profits of a mall complex that he’s never going to have to build. That should teach the city to interfere with a private citizen.”

“How can you think that’s fair? This was so obviously planned by Grinnell. He bought that property with a constitutional lawyer at his side. He knew the city would freak if he said he was going to raze a church to open a mall. And the bigger he said his plans were, the more he knew he’d collect if the Court went his way.”

“C’mon,” Ben said. “This case took three years to reach us. You don’t really believe the whole transaction was legal speculation?”

“I don’t think it was all speculation, but I do think Howard Grinnell is a piece of shit. You read the record-he’s an uptight greedy developer who was born with a silver stick up his ass.”

“That was in the record?” Ben asked. “I never saw that.”

“You know what I mean. I just can’t believe Veidt was such a coward,” Lisa said, flipping her legal pad to a clean page. “We have to write a scathing dissent for this. I want to limit this decision as much as possible.”

“Don’t worry. Veidt’s lack of enthusiasm limits their opinion to this set of facts. By the time we’re done with it, this decision will look like it came out of a traffic court.”

Lisa put her pencil down and took a deep breath. While a halfhearted vote by a justice ensured victory in the case at hand, it usually also led to a halfhearted decision. And if history was any indicator, halfhearted decisions rarely made strong legal precedents.

“Besides,” Ben said, “this decision will be overruled in a year. When Blake steps down, you know we’re going to get a liberal justice.”

“I know,” Lisa admitted. “It’ll just annoy me to see Grinnell take home all that cash.” Looking up from her desk, she added, “Have you thought about how Rick fits into all this?”

“I haven’t figured it out yet, but my guess is that if he knew the decision, he’d try to buy a piece of Grinnell’s action.”

“Have you decided whether you’re going to tell him? Or is there a new plan to catch him on tape?”

“I’m not sure,” Ben said. “I just have to survive Thanksgiving with my family.”

“Where the hell is Ober?” Ben asked Nathan as the two friends stood in their living room, suitcases by their sides.

“He probably got lost on his way home,” Nathan said. “The simpleminded are easily confused.”

“I say we leave his ass,” Lisa said, returning from the kitchen with a can of soda in her hand. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll miss the flight.”

“Trust me, we don’t want that,” Ben warned. “If he misses the plane, his mother will be on our backs all weekend.” Ben screeched in imitation of Ober’s mom: “You’ve forgotten my baby! Where’s my baby?”

“He’s an only child,” Nathan explained to Lisa. “His mom’s a bit possessed.”

“You mean possessive,” Ben corrected.

“Oh, yes, I mean possessive. Silly me,” Nathan said, repeating the friends’ old high school joke.

“GET ME OUT OF HERE!” Ober announced, flinging open the front door.

“Where the hell were you?” Ben asked.

“There was an emergency at the office,” Nathan said sarcastically. “There was an outburst of rowdy orange-juice-subsidy letter writers who needed swift attention.”