She picked up her briefcase as she pushed back her chair, and her skirt hiked up enough for him to see the hollow between her slender thighs.

“Without proof,” Benton said, “we shouldn’t dismiss what Oscar says. It’s possible he’s being followed. We don’t know for a fact he’s not.”

“That, Nessie, Bigfoot. Anything’s possible. Seems to me, no matter what, I have a PR bomb ticking, a legal bomb ticking, because we didn’t take him seriously when he called last month. And what I don’t need is the Little People of America picketing One Hogan Place. I definitely don’t need another problem. Seems I have more than my share. Which reminds me, and I’ll just say it.”

She paused to collect her coat, and they passed through the crowded cafeteria.

“If there’s a scandal,” she said, “do I need to worry that Kay might discuss it on CNN? Could that be why Oscar gave us no choice about getting her here? He wants the news coverage?”

Benton stopped at the cashier’s desk to pay the bill.

When they were outside the cafeteria, he said, “She would never do that to you.”

“I had to ask.”

“Even if she were the type, she can’t do it,” Benton said as they walked toward the atrium. “She’s either his physician or she ends up your witness.”

“Not sure Oscar thought of all that when he demanded an audience with her, demanded she pay a house call,” Berger said. “Maybe he thought he was giving her some grand pre-interview.”

“I don’t know what the hell he thought, but I shouldn’t have talked her into it. I shouldn’t have let anybody talk her into it.”

“Now you’re sounding like a husband. And by anybody, you obviously mean me.”

He didn’t answer.

Her high heels clicked on polished granite.

“If and when Oscar’s charged,” she said, “it may turn out that what he’s telling Kay is the only information we ever get that might be remotely reliable. It’s good she’s examining him. Good for a number of reasons. We want him happy. We want him treated extremely well. We want him safe and everyone around him safe.” She put on her coat. “When Marino interviewed him over the phone, Oscar started throwing around the term hate crime. He said he was a little person, made that point repeatedly to Marino, who of course didn’t understand what a little person was. Had to ask him. Oscar, by now quite agitated, answered, ‘Fucking dwarf.’ Said that’s why he was being followed, targeted. It was a hate crime in progress… .”

Berger’s cell phone rang.

“Kay’s going to have to be told Marino’s here,” she added as she put on her wireless earpiece.

She listened for a moment, and anger touched her face.