Stardust(157)

Inside, there was barely enough light to see, the shades half-drawn. Liesl would be outside, watching. Minot’s personal office was in the next room, but all the files were out here, where the staff worked. For a second he was tempted, now that he was in, to go through Minot’s desk, but that would be actual theft, not just collecting something of his own. He crossed over to the file cases. What if Riordan had already taken it out? Something he didn’t want Minot to find? But it was still there, in Heinrich’s now useless file. Ben folded it quickly and put it in his jacket pocket. Now get out before the cleaning staff started working its way down the hall. He returned the file and went over to the window, pulling the shade, then raising it back into position, and waited by the door. It would take at least a few minutes for Liesl to talk to Frank, helpless and panicky.

Ben jumped, his skin tingling, when the phone rang. Was someone supposed to be here? For one terrible second he expected it to be picked up in the inner office, but it kept ringing, so shrill that everyone must hear, and then finally stopped. He breathed out, his ears still filled with sound, listening now to the hall. Why so worried? Everything was fine, what he’d expected. There were even footsteps now, a woman’s voice, Liesl on time. He put his ear near the edge of the door to hear better. Liesl was thanking Frank, slightly scatterbrained, someone likely to have forgotten her work. They were now at Statewide, Liesl thanking him again as he used his passkey. Take him inside. Two, three minutes and Ben would be out. He opened the door a crack. They were going in, Liesl still talking, keeping him busy. Now. He opened the door.

He saw them before he heard them, two shadows followed by the sound of footsteps, clunky, not furtive. He pulled back in, banging his shoulder, and listened. Closer. Then Frank was back in the hallway, alert.

“Congressman,” he said.

“Thought you were catching forty winks somewhere,” Minot said, genial.

“No, just helping next door. Little lady forgot something.”

Could Liesl hear or would she blunder out into the hall?

Ben slid his hand toward the knob, turning the lock quietly, hoping the sound would disappear under Frank’s voice. If it were open, Minot would wonder. He looked toward the window, frantic. Too late to fiddle with the sash lock. Under a desk? Did Liesl think he was already gone? But what choice would she have, once she’d got her papers? A new voice now, Minot’s guest. The shadows were larger against the glass. Another look around the office. Nobody hid under desks, something out of Mack Sennett. Minot was taking out his key. Ben tiptoed away from the door. Next to the filing cabinets there was a supply closet, not a real closet with a door you could close, just shelves covered by an accordion screen. He wedged himself behind, his back flush against the shelves, trying not to move anything.

“This won’t take a minute,” Minot said, opening the door. He flicked on the overhead light.

Ben glanced to his left—did he make a shadow?

“But I did promise. And you know people—think nobody’s busy but them.”

“I can imagine,” Bunny said.

Ben went still, his mind racing, almost jumping again when the phone rang.

“That’ll be him,” Minot said, picking up and talking, the words bunching together, slipping past Ben, just business.

A meeting with Bunny arranged by whom? Minot just another union  , another negotiation? Bunny was walking around the room, politely distancing himself from Minot’s call. Maybe looking out toward the hall, where Liesl would be any minute. But she’d see the lights, realize people were here. Ben imagined her in the hall, being swept down toward the back door by her own story—she had the papers, why stay? Her voice now, to Frank. Don’t say any more. If he could hear it, Bunny could.

“You’re a peach,” she said. “You saved my life.”

Distinct to him, or was he the only one listening, Bunny preoccupied? Then the sound of her heels.

“Everything okay, Congressman?” Frank said, his head in the door.

Minot nodded and waved him off. Now he’d follow, let her out, and she’d go to her car, expecting to find Ben, alarmed when she didn’t. Don’t come back.

“Sorry about that,” Minot was saying. “Now where— Ginny was supposed to leave— Here it is.” Ben heard the ruffle of paper. “We can talk more in the car.”

“I think I know what you need. You understand, our records aren’t anything like this.” Ben imagined him waving to the cabinets.

“No, these are the best anybody has, thanks to Jack Tenney.”

“It’s understood that Mr. L won’t be called,” Bunny said.