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Glass Houses(74)



The officer waved him away. “I recognize you, Mr. Demarkian. Mr. Benedetti said you were expected. Must be one hell of a project you’re working on.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Must’ve been a hundred and fifty boxes went up there this morning,” the guard said. “The boys said the whole mess was for you.”

Gregor went to the elevators, pushed the button, and got on the first one that arrived. There were boxes and there were boxes. Specifically, there were small boxes and there were large boxes. He had no idea what he would do if he was looking at 150 large boxes. Maybe Rob could assign him an assistant. Maybe he could quit and go to Hawaii. With or without Bennis.

The elevator opened at Rob Benedetti’s floor and Gregor stepped out. There were some boxes in the halls. In fact, there were several stacks of them. They weren’t small, but they weren’t the size moving companies provided either. At least one of the stacks reached almost to the top of his head.

He went to the door of Rob Benedetti’s office and stuck his head in. A young woman he didn’t recognize was sitting at the desk, typing away furiously at a word processor.

“Can I help you?” she asked him, looking up. He was about to explain who he was, when she stood. “Oh, I’m sorry. It’s you, Mr. Demarkian. Just a minute, please. Mr. Benedetti is very anxious to see you. He’s been talking about it all day.”

Gregor didn’t even want to think of a Rob Benedetti who had come to work directly from that mess in South Philadelphia last night. He looked around, but the office looked the same. Rob Benedetti was an interim appointment as district attorney. He wouldn’t have the job for real until he was elected to it, and he didn’t look as if he wanted to settle in until he knew that was going to happen. This was in distinct contrast to John Jackman, who was so sure of his election to the Mayor’s Office that he was no longer running so much as he was assuming.

Rob stuck his head out of his office and said, “I’m right here, Gregor. Come on in.”

Gregor went in. The inner office, like the outer office, was spare. Benedetti really wasn’t taking anything for granted.

“It’s interesting,” Gregor said. “You look very tentative. John doesn’t.”

“John doesn’t have to. John isn’t tentative. He’s the biggest deal to hit this city in decades, and everybody knows it. Besides, our incumbent mayor is an idiot and a fool. Although, of course, if you repeat that, I’ll deny it.”

“I’ll bet.”

“It’s true, though,” Rob said. “Mickey Mouse could win the mayoral race against Old Dumbful. Which is what the municipal workers call him, by the way. Which doesn’t answer the question about how he managed to get elected in the first place, but here you are. And here we are. I’ve got some stuff for you to look at.”

“A hundred and fifty boxes.”

“Yep, those,” Rob said. “Also some stuff on the computer. They’re still working on double-checking that the physical evidence is where they say it is; but once they’ve done that, we’ll give you somebody to walk you through those.”

“Have they found all the ones they’ve looked for so far?”

“No,” Rob looked embarrassed. “But I don’t think it’s time to panic yet, Gregor. Physical evidence gets mislaid all the time. You just have to go through what you’ve got until you find it.”

“Who’s going through it? Gayle? Or Leehan?”

“Neither. I put a couple of clerks on it, smart women, really; you’re going to like them. But no matter how good an idea that seems from where we’re sitting now, the fact is that you’re going to have to deal with Marty and Cord eventually. You really are. They’re the only ones who know the case inside and out, and the evidence inside and out—”

“Meaning their records are a mess, and they’ve broken every rule in the book about leaving an adequate paper trail so that somebody new could step in if something happened to them.”

“I think,” Rob said carefully, “that they were mostly trying to cut out the other one. I mean—”

“I know what you mean. Have you looked through any of this?”

“No,” Benedetti said. “I haven’t had time. And it’s been a little intimidating watching all this stuff come in here. I called Marsha Venecki at six this morning, as soon as I thought it was feasible. I got her out of bed, and she swore at me.”

“I can bet. Do you have a room for me to work in?”

“Yes, we do. A big one.”