“I’m sure he could. I hope to meet him someday.”
Michael glanced at her and then looked away. “Ramsey sees the world differently than it actually is. He made it in the world by himself, why can’t everybody else? I admire the guy, though. He sticks it equally to the poor and the rich, the state and the individual. He doesn’t play favorites. I’ll give him that.”
“You overcame a lot too.”
“Yeah. I’m not blowing my own horn, but I’ve got an IQ over one-sixty. Not everybody has that.”
“I know,” Sara said wistfully. “My legal brain says what happened today was correct. My heart says it’s a tragedy.”
“Hey, this is the Supreme Court. It’s not supposed to be easy. And by the way, what was Knight trying to do in there today?” Michael was perpetually in the loop on everything that happened at the Court, all the inner secrets, the gossip, the strategies employed by the justices and their clerks to further philosophies and points of view on cases before them. He felt behind on whatever Knight had alluded to in court this morning, though, and it bothered him.
“Michael, it was only a couple sentences.”
“So what? Two sentences with a ton of potential. Rights for the poor? You saw the way Ramsey picked up on it. Is Knight posturing for something down the road? A case she was trying to set up in there?”
“I can’t believe you’re asking me that. It’s confidential.”
“We’re all on the same team here, Sara.”
“Right! How often do Knight and Murphy vote together? Not very. And this place has nine very separate compartments, you know that.”
“Right, nine little kingdoms. But if Knight has something up her sleeve, I’d like to know about it.”
“You don’t have to know everything that goes on at this place. Christ, you already know more than all the clerks combined, and most of the justices. I mean, how many other clerks go down to the mail room at the crack of dawn to get a jump on the appeals coming in?”
“I don’t like to do anything halfway.”
She looked at him, was about to say something, but then stopped herself. Why complicate things? She had already given him her answer. In reality, although a driven person herself, she could not imagine being married to someone with standards as high as Michael Fiske’s. She could never reach them, sustain them. It would be unhealthy even to try.
“Well, I’m not betraying any confidences. You know as well as I do that this place is like a military campaign. Loose lips sink ships. And you have to watch your backside.”
“I’m not disagreeing with you in the grand scheme of things, but I am in this case. You know Murphy, he’s a throwback — a lovable throwback, but he’s a pure liberal. Anything to help the poor he’d go for. He and Knight would be aligned on this, no doubt about it. He’s always on the lookout to throw a wrench in Ramsey’s machine. Tom Murphy led the Court before Ramsey got the upper hand. It’s no fun always being on the dissenting end in your twilight years.”
Sara shook her head. “I really can’t go into it.”
He sighed and picked at his meal. “We’re just pulling away from each other at all points, aren’t we?”
“That’s not true. You’re just trying to make it seem that way. I know I hurt you when I said no, and I’m sorry.”
He suddenly grinned. “Maybe it’s for the best. We’re both so headstrong, we’d probably end up killing each other.”
“Good old Virginia boy and a gal from Carolina,” she drawled. “You’re probably right.”
He fiddled with his drink and eyed her. “If you think I’m stubborn, you really should meet my brother.”
Sara didn’t meet his gaze. “I’m sure. He was terrific during that trial we watched.”
“I’m very proud of him.”
Now she looked at him. “So why did we have to sneak in and out of the courtroom so he wouldn’t know we were there?”
“You’d have to ask him that.”
“I’m asking you.”
Michael shrugged. “He’s got a problem with me. He sort of banished me from his life.”