Supreme Justice

Chapter Fifty

Ginny’s office was three doors down from the fire stairs in a row of broom-closet-size spaces that were reserved for new associates. By seven thirty, an eerie silence had replaced the hum of activity that filled the floor during working hours. The only sound Ginny heard was made by a vacuum cleaner on the far side of the building. There were usually a few of her fellow wage slaves toiling away in the evening, but the last person to leave had said good-bye at seven fifteen.

Ginny concentrated on a memo Stewart had written justifying waterboarding and other interrogation techniques that sounded vaguely similar to stuff she read about when she was studying the Spanish Inquisition. She had to admit that the assignment was interesting, even if Stewart’s positions were appalling. She shuddered when she thought that the woman who’d written these tracts might soon be sitting on the Supreme Court, and she felt a twinge of conscience about the part she was playing, no matter how small, in seeing that she got there.

The hum from the vacuum cleaner grew louder, and Ginny stood up to shut her door. When she looked down the aisle she saw a tall, broad-shouldered man wearing a baseball cap and the uniform of the cleaning crew slowly maneuver the machine in and out of a group of cubicles used by the secretarial staff. Most of the cleaning crew was Hispanic, and the man’s blond hair and Nordic features surprised Ginny. She stared for a moment, then shut her door.

Ginny made some notes on a legal pad. She paused to think about a way to spin the conclusion of Stewart’s memo so the nominee wouldn’t sound like a cross between Hannibal Lecter and Torquemada and was suddenly aware that the vacuum cleaner sounded like it was right outside her door.

When The Swede arrived at the fire exit, he left the vacuum cleaner running to cover the sound of his approach and pulled his Glock out of his coveralls. Masterson had called him that afternoon and told him that one of the firm’s associates had seen Ginny Striker using a cell phone to take pictures of the contents of a file in the drawer marked “Ta-Tm.” He believed it was the TA Enterprises file. Masterson wanted the cell phone, he wanted the names of anyone who had seen the pictures, and he wanted Striker neutralized.

“Drop the gun,” Dana Cutler commanded from the entrance of the secretarial cubicle in which she’d been hiding since six that evening.

Most people would freeze in this situation, but Bergstrom reacted instinctively and sprayed shots in Dana’s direction as he powered backward through the fire door. Dana threw herself to the floor and barely avoided the bullets that flew by her. She was starting to look up when she heard the steel door slam shut. For a moment, she toyed with the idea of following Bergstrom. Then Ginny’s door opened and Striker stepped into the hall to see what had made the dull cracks she’d heard over the whine of the vacuum cleaner.

“Get back,” Dana shouted, even though she was pretty certain they were safe. Ginny backed into her office and closed the door, and Dana scouted the area around Ginny’s office before knocking.

“What happened?” Ginny asked.

“The cleaner was getting ready to kill you. I had the drop on him, but he surprised me and got away.”

“Were those shots I heard?”

Dana nodded.

Ginny stepped back and sank onto a chair. Her breathing was shallow.

“Don’t worry. You’re safe,” Dana assured her.

“For now. And what about Brad?”

“I have someone watching your apartment. I’ll have Brad ask Justice Moss to authorize police protection until we’re certain you’re both safe.”

“And when will that be?” Ginny asked.

Dana wished she knew.

“Did you get an early parole, or did Spartacus lead a second slave revolt?” Brad joked when Ginny and Dana arrived at the apartment at eight thirty. But his smile disappeared rapidly when he saw the frightened look on Ginny’s face and Dana’s grim countenance.

“What happened?” he asked.

“A man tried to kill Ginny, and we think Dennis Masterson sent him.”

“Did you call the police?” Brad asked as he crossed to his fiancée.

“No,” Dana answered. “This is something we should talk to Keith about.”

“Why did someone try to kill you?” Brad asked.

“Let me sit down,” Ginny answered. “I have something to show you.”

She sat on the couch, and Brad sat next to her. Ginny opened her cell phone and showed him the photos she’d taken of the TA Enterprises file.

Brad gawked. “Where did you get this?”

“The firm keeps old, closed files in the subbasement of our building.”

“More important, why did you go looking for this file?”

Ginny colored. “When you called Dana in the middle of the night, I eavesdropped on your conversation. You talked about being stymied without proof that Millard Price was connected to TA Enterprises, and it dawned on me that there might be a file in the office.”

“And Masterson found out you’d been rooting around in the files?”

“He must have if he sent someone after her,” Dana said.

“At least you know that Price set up the company,” Ginny said.

“That information is not worth your life,” Brad said.

“If you give these pictures to Justice Moss or the FBI, Masterson won’t have a reason to go after me anymore,” Ginny said.

“I’m not so certain. A prosecutor would need you to lay a foundation for the admission of the pictures at a trial. You’re the only one who knows where you found them, and I’ll bet that file has ceased to exist.”

“I know one thing for certain,” Dana said. “From this point on, you two are through with anything to do with the Woodruff case and Millard Price. There is no upside to your continued involvement, and as we learned tonight, there could be a very big downside.”

“Justice Moss is in Texas giving a speech,” Brad said. “She’ll be back in two days. When she returns, I’ll brief her about the pictures and what Dana learned in Oregon. Then I’ll tell her to turn the information over to the FBI. What are you going to do, Dana?”

“I’m not sure,” she said, but Dana knew damn well what she was going to do. The man who tried to kill Ginny tonight had threatened her and the man she loved. She was not going to sit around and wait for Bergstrom or Masterson to make the next move. She was going to track down Bergstrom and make certain the people she cared about were safe.