Ted shouldn’t have been surprised. The courthouse was a petri dish for rumor. She could have learned about him from any number of sources. Lester may have been overzealous in his research, or Little Richie indiscreet.

“Who’s been sharing my secrets?” he asked.

“Oh, come on. People tell me things. It’s called trust. If I give them up, then pretty soon nobody tells me nothing.”

Ted knew about trust. It rarely paid a dividend. “My interest in the project is very limited.”

“You’re not an LBC guy.” She gave him another look over. “Or a lawyer. Your shoes are shiny, and your suit isn’t.”

Without reason, he felt flattered. “Are you a lawyer?”

“Organizer. I told you.”

“So you did. Is that a real job?”

“I’m not going to let up, you know. You’re going to tell me what you’re doing.”

Ted realized that they were both enjoying the game. The same attitude from a man might have been annoying or worse. But as long as they were talking, this good-looking woman was focused entirely on him. What was there not to like about that? He made a decision.

“Sharing trade secrets doesn’t help pay my beer bill, but for you I might make an exception,” he said. “Are you willing to trade?”

She tilted her head and squinted one eye. “I’ve been working to stop this damned project for two years. They have a big head start on me, but I’ve learned a lot.”

She wasn’t going to give up what she knew without getting good value. He respected that. “So, it’s worth having a conversation. Are you free for lunch tomorrow?”

“Okay,” she agreed immediately. “But we split the tab.”

That meant choosing a place that a community organizer could afford. “Vietnamese all right with you?”

-24-

-24-

Ted overdosed on Galllagher’s iced tea that afternoon, earning himself a caffeine headache, but he reduced the stack of paperwork that had been building all week and returned all of the important phone calls. Lester managed to get the notarized agreement from Barbara Miller and filed it with the appropriate clerk before the courthouse closed for the weekend.

“Quitting time, Lili,” Ted called out.