Near Miss

“All right. You aced the bar exam.”

“I told you I would,” Carly said to Stone.

“I mean,” Eggers said, “that you got every answer right.”

“That’s what I meant, too,” she said.

“The president of the New York State Bar Association called me at the end of the workday. He said that the people who administer the exam said that this has never happened before.”

“Wow,” Dino muttered.

“Is that true?” Carly said.

“It’s true.”

“Oh, well,” she said. “I guess I’ll just have to learn to live with being unique in my perfection.”

Stone winced. “Can’t you think of some way to bring her down a notch or two?” he asked Eggers. “She’s nearly impossible to live with as it is.”

“Don’t worry,” Eggers said. “That will happen eventually, just not tonight.”

“Okay,” Stone said to Carly, “you get to have one free evening, then it’s the real world again. What do you want?”

“Look, I was first in my class at Yale Law, I got a job at the most prestigious firm in town, I drive a snappy car, and as of tonight, I have my own apartment. What else could I possibly want?”

“Well, that was easy,” Eggers said.

“Come to think of it, there is something I’d like,” Carly said.

“Uh-oh,” Stone said.

“If it’s within your gift.”

“Try me,” Eggers replied.

“I’d like a larger office with a leather sofa and a TV.”

“A TV?” Eggers said.

“A big one, that disappears into a cabinet when clients are around.”

“Why do you need a TV in the office?”

“So I can learn when I’m not working. I like to keep it tuned to a news channel.”

“Which one?”

“CNN or, sometimes, MSNBC, when Rachel Maddow or Lawrence O’Donnell are on.”

Eggers chewed on an ice cube for a moment. “Is that it? No afterthoughts?”

“That’s it, no afterthoughts.”

“Okay, you’ll get the office two doors down from Herb Fisher. The guy who sits there is being moved to Estate Planning next week.”

“The poor bastard,” Carly said. “Okay, deal!” She put out her hand and Eggers reluctantly shook it.

Dino turned to Eggers. “Next, she’ll want your office.”

“Not just yet,” Carly said.

“You’re going to have to make a lot of rain before you think about that,” Eggers said.

“Oh,” she replied, “I made a little rain today.”

“What rain?”

“A liquor distributer, Jones & Jones. That’s what I thought you were talking about earlier.”

“Do you know someone there?” Eggers asked.

“I’ve been sleeping on Jones’s sofa,” she replied. “By the way, they spent two million on legal fees last year.”

“Gee,” Eggers said. “Maybe you ought to come and sit next door to me.”

“All in good time,” she said. “Let’s frighten Herb Fisher first.”

“Okay, one more thing,” Eggers said. “It’s traditional that when an associate passes the bar exam on the first try, we give them a ten percent raise.”

“How generous!” she said.

“Because you aced it, and because you’re already making rain, I’m going to give you a twenty-five percent raise.”

“Thank you! I accept with gratitude.”

“You just keep showing me what you’ve got, kiddo.”

“I’ll make a point of it,” she said.

Chapter 18

Carly’s suitcase turned out to be two large ones, but Fred got them into the Bentley without trouble.

“Where were you going to sleep tonight?” Stone asked, when they were on the way home.

“In a hotel, but I didn’t know the name of one,” she said. “That’s why I brought my bags.”

“How convenient,” Matilda said.

“It is, isn’t it? Things always seem to work out.”

“I bet they do.”

Fred turned into the garage, and, while Fred got Carly’s luggage, Stone took her and Matilda to the house next door and showed them the vacant apartment.

“It’s charming,” Carly said. “How did I get so lucky?”

“I’ve never seen anyone impress Bill Eggers so much or so fast,” Stone said. “Come on, I’ll show you the house.”

He gave Carly the ten-cent tour, with Matilda tagging along, then sat them down for a cognac in the study. “Is all this going to your head?” he asked Carly.

“Of course, it is,” she replied. “I’m impressed with myself.”

“Honestly, I’m a bit impressed with you, too,” Matilda said.

“Thank you.”

“Are you going to remember everything I’ve told you?” Stone asked. “All my advice?”

“I have a photographic memory,” she said, “and it doesn’t have to be written down.”

“There’s a wrinkle I haven’t told you about,” Stone said.

“What’s that?”

“Somebody is trying to kill Matilda and me, and you have to be careful not to get in the way.”

“When I met you last, two people were trying to kill you, and we managed to handle that.”

Matilda looked at Stone, surprised. “How often do people want you dead?”

“Too often.”

“Well,” Carly said, “your present status sounds like an improvement over last time.”

“I suppose it is, in some ways, but the would-be killer employs a number of people to do his killing for him.”

“Why don’t you get Ed Rawls to shoot them for you? It worked in Maine.”

“It may come to that,” Stone said, “but we don’t want a lot of people being shot in Dino’s jurisdiction. He has to live with the statistics.”

“Are you able to arm me?”

“I don’t know. Can you restrain yourself?”

“I’m a model of self-restraint,” she said.

“First, we’ll have to get Dino to get you a license to carry.”