Читать книгу Game Over - Fern Michaels - Страница 11

The Sisters were gathered in the conference room as they waited for Charles to join them. They were talking among themselves in hushed whispers.

Annie was listening intently to the conversation around her, one eye on the door so she could alert the others when Charles was about to appear.

“I’m not sure what we’re supposed to be feeling here,” Kathryn said. “Should we be happy for Lizzie, or is this something that’s going to work against us and her? Especially her.”

Nikki, the only lawyer in the group, sat up straight. Her voice was tight with emotion. “It’s every lawyer’s dream to be nominated to the Supreme Court. We all live and breathe for that to happen. But having said that, Lizzie isn’t every lawyer. Plus, she just got married. She’d be on one coast, and Cosmo would be back in Nevada.”

“Well, he did buy that big new house for Lizzie, so that has to mean he’s contemplating living here,” Alexis said.

“They’ll crucify Lizzie in the vetting process. I can see it now. She represented the vigilantes. She married Nevada’s most famous lawyer, who just happens to represent the gambling industry. It will be a three-ring circus,” Isabelle said.

“The big question is, will Lizzie even want to go to the Supreme Court?” Yoko asked as she chewed on her thumbnail. “We all know she turned down a federal judgeship, saying she preferred to work in the trenches, so to speak. I don’t want to see those people chew her up.”

“None of us want to see that happen,” Myra said.

“Then we need to prevent it, don’t we?” Annie said grimly. “But first we need to find out Lizzie’s reaction to this news.”

“I can tell you exactly how Lizzie is going to play it,” Nikki said. “First, she’s going to be stunned speechless. Then, at warp speed, she’s going to see everything that could and will go wrong. Her first worry will be us, then Cosmo. Then she’ll make that little snorting noise she makes sometimes and say, ‘No big deal.’ But it is a big deal. It will all seem like a dream for about ten minutes. Then she’s going to get angry. With us and with Cosmo, because we found out before she did, and Cosmo acted like the man he is and didn’t go to her right away.”

The Sisters looked at Nikki in awe.

Annie cleared her throat just as Charles appeared in the doorway. They all looked at the heavy load of files and folders he was carrying. He offered up a greeting and went straight to the bank of computers lining the far wall.

“Enough already, Charles. It’s late. We’re all tired. Please, join us and tell us what is going on,” Myra called over her shoulder.

And then the Sisters all started to babble at once.

Charles clapped his hands over his ears, a signal for quiet. “I understand your concern, your worry. Now, let’s sit down and try to come to some sort of resolution where Lizzie is concerned. To begin with, I want to tell you I have a seed of an idea, but it will require my leaving the mountain for a day or so. Now, one at a time, tell me your thoughts and your concerns and where and how you think this is going to play out.”

“That’s an absolute no-brainer, Charles. First and foremost, we don’t want to see anything happen to Lizzie. We don’t want her splashed nine ways to Sunday, and we don’t want to be the ones responsible for her not being confirmed,” Annie snapped.

“With all your resources, surely you can find a way to do something, dear,” Myra said.

“I suppose in the back of all our minds, we’re wondering how this will affect the pardon Martine Connor promised. We all know the only reason Lizzie took on the job of chief White House counsel was because of us. Pro bono, no less,” Kathryn said. “For us,” she added emphatically.

Myra leaned forward. “I would like us all to take a vote right now. As of this moment, our pardon, which is really iffy to begin with, goes on the back burner, never to be brought up again until we have Lizzie on whatever road she wants to walk down. I want to see a show of hands.” Myra smiled when she saw eight hands shoot upward, Charles’s included. “Then it’s settled. Lizzie is our priority. The moment we find out which way she wants to go on this…honor…we go to work.”

“It’s one o’clock in the morning, girls. I say we hit the sheets and convene first thing in the morning,” Nikki said.

“Then I’ll say good night and good-bye,” Charles said as he gathered up what looked like a fifty-pound briefcase. “I will call every few hours. Call me if you make any carved-in-stone decisions. And, no, I am not telling any of you where I’m going, not even you, Myra.” He kissed his wife and blew kisses to the others as he marched across the room and out the door.

“Charles, it’s one o’clock in the morning!” Myra said weakly.

“Best time to travel, old girl,” Charles called.

The Sisters grumbled among themselves as they gathered up their jackets and boots for the trek across the compound to their living quarters. Some of the comments were: “Charles never leaves the mountain, like in never.” “It has to have something to do with Lizzie. He’ll turn himself inside out for her.” “He never moved from the computer all day. It was like he knew what was going to go down before it did, and he was preparing for this.”

And then came the big question posed by Annie. “How long before the secret gets out and Lizzie’s name is worldwide?” When there was no response, Annie huffed and puffed her way across the compound, Murphy nipping at the tops of her boots.

Inside their quarters, Kathryn ripped at her outer clothes, tossing them in a pile by the front door. Murphy immediately claimed her down jacket as his bed for the night. “Who was the fool who said we should get some sleep? With all this going on, I’ll probably never sleep again. Well?”

“I think it was me,” Myra said.

“No, it was me,” Nikki said. “Look, we don’t have to go to sleep. It was just a suggestion. We can sit here all night and hash it out to death, but we don’t have enough information to do that. Until we hear from Lizzie herself or Maggie, there’s nothing we can do. We don’t have information, we don’t have a plan, and Charles is obviously up to something he thinks will help, so we can’t undermine whatever that may be. Ergo, the best thing to do is try to go to sleep.”

“Why don’t we try calling Maggie?” Isabelle asked.

“That’s not a good move,” Alexis said. “She might still be at Lizzie’s house or maybe even staying the night. Girl talk of the most serious kind. We can’t rock that boat right now. That’s my opinion.”

“Maggie will call when she has something to report,” Yoko said. “I don’t know if I should be happy or sad for Lizzie. She just got married, and she’s so happy. Now her world is going to turn upside down.”

“Lizzie can handle anything,” Isabelle said.

“No, Isabelle, Lizzie can’t handle everything. Did you forget that time Jack brought her to the mountain from the cemetery? She’d given up. The press is going to go back to the day she was born. They’ll bring in that whole Mafia thing,” Nikki said.

“But…”

“Nikki’s right,” Annie said. “This is just a wild guess on my part, but wherever Charles is going, I think it has something to do with Lizzie’s background. I want all of you to think about something. Then we’re going to bed, whether we like it or not. Right now, at this moment in time, we ourselves are outrageously famous. We can spread the word that we want Lizzie nominated. If we’re to believe our own press, politicians shudder and run for cover when our names are mentioned. Just the fact that we’re on it, so to speak, will speak volumes, and don’t forget Maggie and the Post. Now, if Lizzie decides to pass on the nomination, and the press and the Washington insiders go after her, we go after them. One at a time.”

Myra got up and started to wring her hands. “Annie, dear, when we broke into Baron Bell’s offices, what was the name of that senator you said had a thick file in that old safe?”

Annie’s eyes sparked. “Ah yes, Senator Lantzy. He sits on every committee and is quite powerful. He has a voice in the Senate, and his colleagues listen to him. And we have the file on him that Baron Bell made sure never saw the light of day! Ooooh, I’m starting to get excited, girls.”

“Ah, I’m suddenly seeing some light and perhaps the beginning of a plan,” Nikki said. She yawned elaborately. “I think I might be able to sleep now.”

The yawn was contagious as the others followed Nikki out of the room. Only Myra and Annie remained.

Annie reached down into the bowl of candy and popped a handful of M&M’s into her mouth. When she finished chewing, she said, “Cough it up, Myra. Where did Charles go? And don’t even think about telling me you don’t know, because if you say that, I am going to snatch those pearls right off you and drape them around Murphy’s neck. He will eat them, and there go your beloved pearls.”

“I think, and I say I think, he went to see Hank Jellicoe.”

“I need more than that, or those pearls belong to Murphy,” Annie snapped.

“Henry Jellicoe of Global Securities, also known as Hank to his friends. When Hank was known as HJ Securities and just starting out, he did the security for my candy company. When Charles came to the States, he took over, and Hank moved on to become Jellicoe Securities. Over the years he built the company, until today it’s known as Global Securities. He’s got offices all over the world. His yearly revenue, Charles told me last year, was in the billions. You want security, you go to Hank Jellicoe. He hires only the best of the best. Ex-FBI, ex-CIA, ex–Secret Service. Then he debriefs them and retrains them at some secret location. He pays his people astronomical sums of money, and there’s a waiting list to get hired. Anyway, he and Charles are great friends. Oh, did I mention his people also do, or at least they used to do, security for the White House when big doings are going on? Impeccable reputation. Oh, one other thing. He keeps files on everyone. You think J. Edgar had files. Ha! According to Charles, what J. Edgar had was kindergarten stuff compared to Jellicoe. You happy now, Annie?”

Annie nodded sagely. “Okay, you get to keep the pearls. By the way, Myra, I have yet to see you on the pole.”

“This might be a very good time for us to retire for the evening, Annie dear,” Myra said as she headed to the door to go back to the main building, which she shared with Charles.

“Why don’t you stay here this evening? There’s an extra bed in my room. You don’t want to be alone, do you?”

“Oh, Annie, I thought you’d never ask. You’re right. I hate being alone.” Myra hugged her old friend, and together they walked down the hall to Annie’s room. “About that pole…”

Three hundred miles away as the crow flies, Maggie Spritzer stared at Lizzie Fox. People, she thought, really did go into trances. Who knew?

“Lizzie, you need to say something. I don’t even care if you tell me you hate me for coming here and telling you all this. Just say something, okay?” Maggie watched, fascinated at the way Lizzie’s throat muscles worked and the way she tried to lick at her dry lips.

“I don’t know what to say. The whole thing is…bizarre. Why me? It must be some kind of trap. It has to have something to do with the vigilantes. They’ll hash that over forever. Then they’ll start digging into my background and run with my husband’s family. You know how that went down. Doesn’t matter if we were innocent bystanders or not. Cosmo. I don’t understand why…Oh, poor Cosmo, he must be in such turmoil. They’ll go on the attack and chew him up.”

Maggie laughed. “No, they won’t. You have the most powerful weapons there are on your side. You have the Post. You have the vigilantes. You have all of Vegas and all those important people Cosmo knows. I’m thinking they’re going to be treating you with kid gloves.”

Maggie leaned across the table and took Lizzie’s cold hands in her own. “The big question, Lizzie, is, do you want to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court? You know as well as I do, it’s not what you know. It’s who you know. The best thing you could have done was take on the job of chief White House counsel pro bono. Cosmo bought you that big, wonderful new house, so that’s out of the way. You two can commute just the way you’re doing now, if it’s what you want.”

“Oh, Maggie, if it was only that easy. I made a promise to the girls to get their pardon. I won’t be able to work behind the scenes to make that happen. I will be under such scrutiny. I do not like people watching me. Unless I want them to watch me. But to answer your question, I’ve always had this picture in my mind of myself in my black robe, sitting with the other eight justices. I was always sitting in the middle. I think every lawyer ever born sees himself sitting on the highest court in the land. Yes, yes, a thousand times yes, I want that. But not at the girls’ or Cosmo’s expense. How long do you think I have before the word gets out?”

“I think you have plenty of breathing room, Lizzie. No one knows about Justice Leonard’s decision but Cosmo and the president, and, of course, the girls. The president is going to sit on it for a little while. Don’t forget, this is all new to her, too. Remember now, you can’t let on you know. That means you cannot call up Cosmo and talk it to death. At least not yet. The other thing is, do not get angry that Cosmo held out on you. I want your promise on that.”

Lizzie nodded.

“You know what? I think I’m hungry. No, I’m ravenous. What do you have to eat?”

Lizzie laughed. “My larder is full. Did you forget Cosmo was here? I have some of everything,” she said, jumping off her chair and running to the refrigerator. “I have ham, roast chicken, a potato-cheesy-onion casserole that Cosmo loves and made himself. All kinds of vegetables and fruit. Beer, wine, soft drinks, or coffee.”

“A little bit of everything. I’ll make the coffee. Are you going to join me?”

“Damn straight. We need to celebrate. Oh, Maggie, do you think it’s even remotely possible that one day soon I will be sitting on the Supreme Court, just the way Sandra Day O’Connor did? She was my idol, you know. Still is.”

Maggie turned away from the sink, where she was measuring coffee into the pot. She set it down and placed her hands on Lizzie’s shoulders. She looked deep into her friend’s eyes and saw only honesty, integrity, and hope. “Honey, us women are going to put you there if that’s what you want. As Annie would say, you can take that to the bank. You know the bank I’m talking about, the one that is owned by a woman in the District.”

Lizzie burst out laughing and almost dropped the ham she was holding.

The two women high-fived one another before Lizzie started to slice the ham.

One impossible dream coming up, Maggie thought happily.