The Pelican Brief

“I think so.”

“I rest my case. It’s huge and wonderfully busy.”

He emptied the can and set it on the floor. “Where to from there?” He knew he shouldn’t ask because she hadn’t volunteered. But he wanted to know.

“I’ll catch a quick flight somewhere. I’ll do my four-airports-in-one-night routine. It’s probably u

Somewhere in the Caribbean. That narrowed it to a thousand islands. Why was she so vague? Did she not trust him? He was sitting here playing with her feet and she wouldn’t tell him where she was going.

“What do I tell Voyles?” he asked.

“I’ll call you when I get there. Or I might drop you a line.”

Great! They could be pen pals. He could send her his stories and she could send postcards from the beach.

“Will you hide from me?” he asked, looking at her.

“I don’t know where I’m going, Gray. I won’t know until I get there.”

“But you’ll call?”

“Eventually, yes. I promise.”

By 11 P.M., only five lawyers remained in the offices of White and Blazevich, and they were in Marty Velmano’s on the tenth floor. Velmano, Sims Wakefield, Jarreld Schwabe, Nathaniel (Einstein) Jones, and a retired partner named Frank Cortz. Two bottles of Scotch sat on the edge of Velmano’s desk. One was empty, the other almost there. Einstein sat alone in one corner, mumbling to himself. He had wild, curly gray hair and a pointed nose, and indeed looked crazy. Especially now. Sims Wakefield and Jarreld Schwabe sat in front of the desk with ties off and sleeves rolled up.

Cortz finished a phone chat with an aide to Victor Mattiece. He handed the phone to Velmano, who placed it on the desk.

“That was Strider,” Cortz reported. “They’re in Cairo in the penthouse suite of some hotel. Mattiece will not talk to us. Strider says he’s over the edge, acting very bizarre. He’s locked himself in a room, and, needless to say, he ain’t coming to this side of the ocean. Strider says they’ve told the boys with the guns to get out of town immediately. The chase is off. The fat lady is singing.”

“So what’re we supposed to do?” asked Wakefield.

“We’re on our own,” said Cortz. “Mattiece has washed his hands of us.”

They spoke quietly and deliberately. The screaming ended hours ago. Wakefield blamed Velmano for the memo. Velmano blamed Cortz for bringing in a sleazy client like Mattiece in the first place. That was twelve years ago, Cortz screamed back, and we’ve enjoyed his fees ever since. Schwabe blamed Velmano and Wakefield for being so careless with the memo. They dragged Morgan through the mud again and again. It had to be him. Einstein sat in the corner and watched them. But that was all behind them now.

“Grantham mentioned only me and Sims,” Velmano said. “The rest of you guys may be safe.”

“Why don’t you and Sims skip the country?” Schwabe said.

“I’ll be in New York at 6 A.M.” Velmano said. “Then to Europe for a month on the trains.”

“I can’t run,” Wakefield said. “I’ve got a wife and six kids.”

They’d heard him whine about his six kids for five hours now. As if they didn’t have families. Velmano was divorced, and his two children were grown. They could handle it. And he could handle it. It was time to retire anyway. He had plenty of money stashed away, and he loved Europe, especially Spain, and so it was adios for him. He sort of pitied Wakefield, who was only forty-two and didn’t have a lot of money. He earned well, but his wife was a spendthrift who had a penchant for babies. Wakefield was unbalanced at the moment.

“I don’t know what I’ll do,” Wakefield said for the thirtieth time. “I just don’t know.”

Schwabe tried to be a bit helpful. “I think you should go home and tell your wife. I don’t have one, but if I did I’d try to brace her for it.”

“I can’t do that,” Wakefield said pitifully.

“Sure you can. You can tell her now, or wait six hours and she’ll see your picture on the front page. You have to go tell her, Sims.”

“I can’t do that.” He was almost in tears again.

Schwabe looked at Velmano and Cortz.

“What about my children?” he asked again. “My oldest son is thirteen.” He rubbed his eyes.

“Come on, Sims. Get a grip,” Cortz said.

Einstein stood and walked to the door. “I’ll be at my place in Florida. Don’t call unless it’s urgent.” He opened the door and slammed it behind him.

Wakefield stood weakly and started for the door.

“Where are you going, Sims?” asked Schwabe.

“To my office.”

“What for?”

“I need to lie down. I’m okay.”

“Let me drive you home,” Schwabe said. They watched him carefully. He was opening the door.

“I’m fine,” he said, and he sounded stronger. He closed it when he left.

“You think he’s okay?” Schwabe asked Velmano. “He worries me.”

“I wouldn’t say he’s okay,” Velmano said. “We’ve all had better days. Why don’t you go check on him in a few minutes?”

“I’ll do that,” Schwabe said.

Wakefield walked deliberately to the stairway and down one flight to the ninth floor. He picked up speed as he approached his office. He was crying when he locked the door behind him.

Do it quick! Forget the note. If you write it, you’ll talk yourself out of it. There’s a million in life insurance. He opened a desk drawer. Don’t think about the kids. It would be the same if he died in a plane crash. He pulled the .38 from under a file. Do it quick! Don’t look at their pictures on the wall.

Maybe they’ll understand one day. He stuck it deep in his mouth, and pulled the trigger.

The limo stopped abruptly in front of the two-story home in Dumbarton Oaks, in upper Georgetown. It blocked the street and that was fine because it was twenty minutes after midnight, and there was no traffic. Voyles and two agents jumped from the rear of the car, and walked quickly to the front door. Voyles held a newspaper. He banged the door with his fist.

Coal was not asleep. He was sitting in the dark in the den in his pajamas and bathrobe, so Voyles was quite pleased when he opened his door.

“Nice pajamas,” Voyles said, admiring his pants.

Coal stepped onto the tiny concrete porch. The two agents were watching from the narrow sidewalk. “What the hell do you want?” he asked slowly.

“Just brought you this,” Voyles said, sticking the paper in his face. “Gotta a nice picture of you right next to the President hugging Mattiece. I know how much you like newspapers, so I thought I’d bring you one.”

“Your face’ll be in it tomorrow,” Coal said as if he’d already written the story.

Voyles threw the paper at his feet, and started walking off. “I got some tapes, Coal. You start lying, and I’ll jerk your pants off in public.”

Coal stared at him, but said nothing.

Voyles was near the street. “I’ll be back in two days with a grand jury subpoena,” he yelled. “I’ll come about two in the morning and serve it myself.” He was at the car. “Next I’ll bring an indictment. Of course, by then your ass’ll be history and the President’ll have a new bunch of idiots telling him what to do.” He disappeared into the limo, and it sped away.

Coal picked up the paper, and went inside.

Gray and Smith Keen sat alone in the conference room, reading the words in print. He was many years beyond the excitement of seeing his stories on the front page, but this one brought a rush with it. There had been none bigger. The faces were lined neatly across the top—Mattiece hugging the President, Coal talking importantly on the phone in an official White House photo, Velmano sitting before a Senate subcommittee, Wakefield cropped from a bar convention picture, Verheek smiling at the camera in an FBI release, Callahan from the yearbook, and Morgan in a photo taken from the video. Mrs. Morgan had consented. Paypur, the night police reporter, had told them about Wakefield an hour earlier. Gray was depressed about it. But he wouldn’t blame himself.