"Ah hell," she said, "the car crashed and I cut it on the broken glass." She signaled to the waitress. "What do you say we get the check?"
"I'll do that."
Minutes later they were back outside. Evans blinked in the milky midday light. They walked down the street. "So," Evans said. "I guess you're pretty good at karate."
"Good enough."
They came to the warehouse. He shook her hand.
"I'd really like to have lunch again some time," she said. She was so direct about it, he wondered whether it was personal, or whether she wanted him to know how the lawsuit was going. Because like Balder, much of what she had said was not encouraging.
"Lunch sounds great," he said.
"Not too long?"
"Deal."
"Will you call me?"
"Count on it," he said.
BEVERLY HILLS
TUESDAY, AUGUST 24
5:04 P. M.
It was almost dark when he went home to his apartment and parked in the garage facing the alley. He was going up the back stairs when the landlady poked her head out the window. "You just missed them," she said.
"Who?"
"The cable repair people. They just left."
"I didn't call any cable repair people," he said. "Did you let them in?"
"Of course not. They said they would wait for you. They just left."
Evans had never heard of cable repair people waiting for anyone. "How long did they wait?"
"Not long. Maybe ten minutes."
"Okay."
He got up to the second-floor landing. A tag was hooked on his doorknob. "Sorry We Missed You." There was a check box to "Call again to reschedule service."
Then he saw the problem. The address was listed as 2119 Roxbury. His address was 2129 Roxbury. But the address was on the front door, not the back door. They'd just made a mistake. He lifted his doormat to check on the key he kept there. It was right where he'd left it. It hadn't been moved. There was even a ring of dust around it.
He unlocked the door and went inside. He went to the refrigerator, and saw the old container of yogurt. He needed to go to the supermarket but he was too tired. He checked the messages to see if Janis or Carol had called. They hadn't. Now of course there was the prospect of Jennifer Haynes, but she had a boyfriend, she lived in DC, and...he knew it would never work.
He thought of calling Janis, but decided not to. He took a shower, and was considering calling for pizza delivery. He lay down on the bed to relax for a minute before he called. And he fell immediately asleep.
CENTURY CITY
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25
8:59 A. M.
The meeting was held in the big conference room on the fourteenth floor. Morton's four accountants were there; his assistant Sarah Jones; Herb Lowenstein, who did estate planning; a guy named Marty Bren, who did tax work for NERF, and Evans. Morton, who hated all financial meetings, paced restlessly.
"Let's get to it," he said. "I am supposedly giving ten million dollars to NERF, and we have signed papers, is that right?"
"Right," Lowenstein said.
"But now they want to attach a rider to the agreement?"
"Right," Marty Bren said. "It's pretty standard boilerplate for them." He shuffled through his papers. "Any charity wants to have full use of the money they receive, even when it is earmarked for a particular purpose. Maybe that purpose costs more or less than predicted, or it is delayed, or mired in litigation, or set aside for some other reason. In this case, the money has been earmarked for the Vanutu lawsuit, and the relevant phrase NERF wants to add is "said moneys to be used to defray the cost of the Vanutu litigation, including fees, filing, and copying costs...blah blah...or for other legal purposes, or for such other purposes as NERF shall see fit in its capacity as an environmental organization."
Morton said, "That's the phrase they want?"
"Boilerplate, as I said," Bren said.
"It's been in my previous donation agreements?"
"I don't recall offhand."
"Because," Morton said, "it sounds to me like they want to be able to pull the plug on this lawsuit, and spend the money elsewhere."
"Oh, I doubt that," Herb said.
"Why?" Morton said. "Why else would they want this boilerplate? Look, we had a signed deal. Now they want a change. Why?"
"It's not really a change," Bren said.
"It sure as hell is, Marty."
"If you look at the original agreement," Bren said calmly, "it says that any money not spent on the lawsuit goes to NERF for other purposes."
"But that's only if there's money left after the lawsuit ends," Morton said. "They can't spend it on anything else until the suit is decided."
"I think they imagine there may be long delays here."
"Why should there be delays?" Morton turned to Evans. "Peter? What is going on over there in Culver City?"
"It looks like the suit is going forward," Evans said. "They have a large operation. There must be forty people working on that one case. I don't think they plan to give it up."
"And are there problems with the suit?"