Free The Tenth Justice by Brad Meltzer Page A

previously well-organized floral arrangement. They found nothing. “It has to be in here,” Lisa said. “There’s no other reason to send flowers.”
    “Maybe he just wanted me to worry,” Ben suggested. “Or maybe he’s playing with my mind.”
    As Lisa wiped off the sofa, Ben reexamined the pile of flowers. For fifteen minutes, they repeated their inspection of each individual bloom. Then they ripped apart the basket itself. Again, nothing.
    “Damn,” Ben said, pushing the pulpy mess from the sofa. “It’s impossible.”
    “I don’t think we missed anything.”
    Ben leaned back on the sofa. “Of course we didn’t miss anything. We just wasted our time.”
    “It’s okay. You know we had to do this. I mean, what if we really did find something?”
    “But we didn’t,” Ben said, nervously picking at the sofa’s worn fabric. “We can’t find anything.”
    Lisa lightly put her hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay to be scared about this.”
    “It’s just that my life—”
    “I know what’s at stake,” Lisa said. “And this is more than you should have to deal with. But we’ll get you through it.”
    “I don’t want you to get involved. I only told you to warn you.”
    “Too late, baby,” Lisa chided, her hand still on Ben’s shoulder. “Now, are we going to sit here all day or are we going to try to find this guy?”
    Looking at his co-clerk, Ben forced a smile. “You’re a good friend, Lisa Marie. If I go to jail, I’m taking you with me.”
    Later in the week, Ben, Lisa, and Ober waited for Nathan to return from work. In the living room of Ben’s house, Ben and Ober sat on the large blue couch, while Lisa sat alone on the love seat, her feet up on the cushions. “I don’t understand it,” Lisa said. “It’s almost nine o’clock. Where the hell is he?”
    “He said the search request would be finished by around seven or eight,” Ben said, looking at his watch. “Maybe it’s just running a little late.”
    “Maybe he was captured by Rick and his band of rogue clerks,” Ober suggested as he clipped his toenails. “Now we’ll have to go rescue them using makeshift weapons made from common kitchen appliances.”
    “What’s wrong with you?” Ben asked, looking at his roommate.
    “It’s just a thought,” Ober said.
    Lisa tried to change the subject. “I still don’t understand how you all managed to wind up in Washington. All of my friends are scattered around the country.”
    “It’s actually pretty simple,” Ben explained. “Nathan, Eric, and I are all interested in politics, so Washington seemed like the right choice. Ober came because he didn’t want to be left out.”
    “That’s not true,” Ober said, looking up from his feet. “I came here because I believe in Senator Stevens.”
    “That can’t possibly be true,” Lisa said. “You don’t know squat about Stevens.”
    “I know plenty about Stevens.”
    “Name one thing you know about him,” Lisa challenged. “Pick any platform and explain it.”
    After a long pause, Ober laughed. “He’s against crime and he’s prochildren.”
    “That’s a revolutionary thought,” Lisa said. “And here I thought Stevens ran on the always popular pro-crime, anti-children platform.”
    “Leave him alone,” Ben added. “Ober is a man of unusual knowledge. He knows more than he lets on.”
    “I find that hard to believe,” Lisa said.
    “Believe it,” Ober said. “For example, I know how to tell if a set of dice is balanced correctly.”
    “Dice?”
    “Yeah, dice. Like the dice you use in a board game.”
    “Over the past few years, Ober has been the most—shall we say—entrepreneurial of the four of us,” Ben explained. “Right after college, he and his father invented a board game that they thought would sweep the nation. Hence, the dice knowledge.”
    “
You
invented a board game?” Lisa asked.
    “Actually, my dad came up with idea. It was called—”
    “Speculation—The Game of Cunning and