as he pulled out a banana and an egg biscuit.
Frank shifted uncomfortably in the worn seat. A piece of metal jabbed
into his back. The car reeked of cigarette smoke.
“Were either of them ever alone in the master bedroom or the house?”
“Always somebody in the house. Man had a lot of people working there.
They coulda gone upstairs by themselves. I never kept a watch on them.
Wasn’t my job, you know?”
“How’d Rogers and Budizinski come to be working with you that day?”
Jerome thought for a moment. “I’m not sure, come to think of it. I know
it was an early job. It might’ve just been they were the first ones
here. Sometimes that’s all it takes.”
“So if they knew ahead of time You were going to do a place like that
early, and they got here before everyone else, they could hook on with
you?”
“Yeah, I guess they could. Man, we just look for bodies, You know what
I’m saying? Don’t take no brain surgeon to do this shit.”
“When was the last time you saw them?”
The Other man scrunched up his face, bit into his banana.
“Couple Of Months ago, maybe longer. Buddy left first, never said why.
Guys come and go all the time. I’ve been here longer than anybody except
Mr. Patterson. Slick moved away, I think.”
“Know where?”
“I remember him saying something about Kansas. Some construction work.
He used to be a carpenter. Got laid off up here when commercial went
belly up. Good with his hands.”
Frank wrote this information down while Jerome finished his breakfast.
They walked back to the garage together.
Frank looked inside the van, at all the hoses, power handles, bottles
and heavy cleaning equipment.
‘This the van you used to do the Sullivan place?”
“This been my van for three years. Best one in the place.”
“You keep the same equipment in the van?”
“Damn straight.”
“Then you better get a new van for a while.”
“What?” Jerome slowly climbed out of the driver’s seat.
“I’ll talk to Patterson. I’m impounding this one.”
“You’re shitting me.”
“No, Jerome, I’m afraid I’m not.”
“WALTER, THIS IS JACK GRAHAm. JACK, WALTER SULLIVAN.”
Sandy Lord sat down heavily in his chair. Jack shook hands with Sullivan
and then the men sat around the small table in conference room number
five. It was eight o’clock in the morning and Jack had been in the
office since six after pulling two all-nighters. He had already consumed
three cups of coffee and proceeded to pour himself out a fourth from the
silver coffee pot.
“Walter, I’ve told Jack about the Ukraine deal. We’ve gone over the
structure. The Hill word looks real good. Richmond pushed all the right
buttons. The Bear’s dead. Kiev got the glass slipper. Your boy came
through.”
“He’s one of my best friends. I expect that from my friends. But I
thought we had enough lawyers on this deal.
Padding the bill, Sandy?” Sullivan heaved himself up and looked out the
window at the pristine early-morning sky that promised a beautiful fall
day. Jack glanced sideways at the man as he made notes from the crash
course on Sullivan’s latest deal. Sullivan didn’t look all that
interested in completing the multibillion international monolith. Jack
didn’t know that the old man’s thoughts hung back at a morgue in
Virginia, remembering a face.
Jack had caught his breath when Lord had ceremoniously appointed him to
play second chair to Lord on the biggest transaction currently going on
in the firm, leapfrogging over several top Partners and a host of
associates senior to Jack.
Hard feelings had already started to roll through the plush hallways. At
this point Jack didn’t care. They didn’t have Ransomed Baldwin as a
client. Regardless of how he had gotten it, he had rain, substantial
rain. He was tired of feeling guilty for his Position- This was Lord’s
test case on Jack’s abilities. He had as good as said it. Well, if he
wanted the deal rammed through, Jack would deliver. Philosophical,
politically correct ivory tower babble didn’t cut it here. Only results.
“Jack is one of our best attorneys. He’s also Baldwin’s legal eagle.”