Ted spoke around him to Duran, who was behind the wheel. “Hey, I’m trying to get to Pesso’s in Bayside for gelato. You guys want to give me a lift?”

“Didn’t your old man ever tell you nobody likes a wiseass?” Kasabian said.

The cop was bigger than Ted but not by much. He carried his weight too far forward, leaning into the balls of his feet as he tried to appear threatening. Ted hadn’t wrestled since college, but he thought the cop would be a sucker for a double leg takedown.

“My father kept all his good advice to himself,” Ted said. “I’ve tried to live by that same code.”

“What did the widow tell you?” Duran asked. He didn’t seem interested in his partner’s macho performance.

“I’m fired,” Ted said. “She didn’t want to talk to me. Go ahead; you give it a shot. Maybe you’ll do better. Here’s a tip: ask her about the giant.”

-30-

-30-

First order of business on Monday morning was to tell Lester the play was over. Ted owed it to him. The man had pulled rabbits out of hats, forded impassable rivers, climbed towering mountains, and bought Barbara Miller cake.

Ted checked the records room first. Lester had some research to do on two surplus-money deals he had unearthed. There was no sign of him. He wasn’t on the main floor either. Ted immediately thought of the aroma of vodka and breath mint that Lester carried with him the first day.

There was only so much time Ted was prepared to expend on being considerate of the feelings of an employee who seemed to have decided to blow off the morning shift. Hangovers were for weekends. Everything changed on Monday morning. Ted gave up the search and moved on to the next order of business.

The file was in the hands of the judge’s clerk. Ted had never met the man. Clerks could be touchily protective of their charges. It could take years to develop a relationship. Courthouse regulars made it a point to schmooze these gatekeepers. Ted was going in blind.

It was rush hour for the elevators. He wriggled forward, but he was an amateur, a part-timer. The regulars were unafraid to use knee-high briefcases as weapons of persuasion. Teamwork might have been effective, but it was not in evidence. This crowd couldn’t maintain simple good manners. Ted naively assumed that if he remained upright, the flow of humanity would eventually bring him to an elevator door. Not so.