Susan always listened to the radio in the morning. She always got up early so she could watch at least some of the morning news shows on television, and she always read the newspaper on the subway ride into the city. She lived near the end of the subway line, so she usually got a seat, and her morning commute passed with a large cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other.
Mike Sheldon always liked her to be up on the news of the day. He often used her as a sounding board, and she took it very seriously that her opinions might have an effect of public policy. Privately, she also enjoyed the fact that Mike Sheldon listened to her a lot more seriously than he did Dennis Moran.
Some people always made it a point to complain about how
long it took to get through security and into City Hall. Susan
never complained, there didn't seem to be any point to it. She
just knew that if she was walking up the broad front steps at
8:30am, she could be at her desk by five minutes to nine.
That morning she got to her desk a few minutes early, as usual, and Dennis Moran was already waiting there, so excited he couldn't sit still. She deliberately avoided asking him what was the matter, acting as though everything was perfectly normal. The door to Mike Sheldon's office was closed.
When Dennis stepped out into the hall, Susan looked at Nora, whose desk was opposite hers, and raised her eyebrows, tilting her head after Mike Sheldon's assistant. Nora grinned and jerked a thumb at the closed door of the inner office. Then, turning in profile, she made the exaggerated gesture she used to indicate a big nose and a bigger belly.
Susan frowned by reflex at Nora's crude joke, but her mind was already occupied with the news that Ben Stein was in Mike Sheldon's office. No wonder Dennis was in a dither. The mere mention of the mayor's most important supporter was enough to get him nervous. Once, during a particularly long meeting, Nora had cracked Susan up with a pantomime of Dennis fetching coffee for the great man, laughing at his jokes, adjusting his tie, cleaning his glasses, polishing his shoes and kissing his ring.
By the time this was over, both women had been convulsed in silent, red-faced laughter, desperately trying to keep from making a sound which could have been heard inside, their glee all the more difficult to control because of the possibility that the conference might end at any time and the men could come out and catch them.
Dennis came back in, sat on the edge of Susan's desk and turned her phone around to face him. He lifted the receiver and dialed an extension in the building. "Moran here," he barked. "You got her? Good, bring her up"
He hung up and grinned, leaning toward her. "This is going to be great," he said quietly. "Ben Stein is in there, with the Chief, giving him a hard time about finding his daughter. And in about a minute I'm going to open those doors and bring Carly Stein in. That ought to go over big, don't you think?"
It pleased Susan to think how much this was going to annoy Mike Sheldon. The idea that he would appreciate being upstaged like this was hilarious, and it gave her a certain pleasure to imagine how Dennis was going to made to suffer for his great triumph. She turned her phone around to face her again.
The outer door opened and two police officers came in, hauling between them a limp, sullen girl in a dirty pea jacket. Dennis barely looked at the new arrivals except to summon them forward with a gesture. He winked at Susan, went to the door to the inner office, knocked and opened it. "Excuse me, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Stein," she heard him say, "but–"
She didn't hear the rest because she was looking at the sullen girl with the long, thick hair and the low bangs. The girl's head was tilted forward, but Susan glimpsed her face and stood up.
Her stomach suddenly ached. She was paralyzed for an instant, wanting to act, to interfere, but unable to figure out how.
"Mr. Stein, sir, here is your daughter," Dennis said and the girl was brought into the office. Susan moved to the doorway, feeling like she was in a dream, floating, unable to do anything but watch.
Benjamin Stein stood up, his face expressing relief and tolerant forgiveness, but then he froze. Mike Sheldon's eyes widened and he half stood behind his desk. Ben Stein turned, his face growing red and then purple. "That's not my girl, you stupid shit!! That's your daughter, the slut!"
Mike Sheldon sat down in his chair again, his face blank. He spread his hands and placed all ten fingers lightly on his desk blotter. Meanwhile, Ben Stein was pulling on his coat.
"I knew you'd blow this," he snapped. "Well, I've already started to deal with it myself–"
"Gregory Hobbs," Micki Sheldon said quietly. She straightened up slowly as he paused. The two police officers released her, unsure what they were supposed to be doing, but certain that it probably didn't involve holding the mayor's daughter.
"He works for you," she said, pulling a laminated card from her jacket pocket. "I have his company I.D. here, as a matter of fact. He murdered a young man last night, in an alley down on Mendoza between Sixth and Seventh. The body is still there–"
Ben Stein finished putting on his coat and left without a word, nearly knocking down Dennis Moran, who seemed to be having some trouble absorbing what was going on.
Micki Sheldon turned slowly to face her father. She began to speak, but he cut her off. He looked at Dennis. "What was she picked up for?" he asked in a soft voice.
"Who?" Dennis asked.
Mike Sheldon just looked at him, not saying a word. "Oh, uh," he said, gesturing at Micki. "Curfew violation."
"That's three days in holding, I believe. Take her away."
"But, chief–Carly Stein–don't you want to ask her–" Dennis began.
"There's a dead man, named Danny–" Micki began urgently, but her father just looked at his desk blotter, his fingers tensing.
"Now," he said quietly.
Dennis motioned the two dazed officers to remove Micki Sheldon from her father's office. Susan got out of the way and returned to her desk as the door to the inner office closed. Dennis went out with the two officers and Micki, and Susan and Nora sat in stunned silence for several minutes. Then the intercom buzzed.
"It's Dennis," he said. "Get me the chief."
Knowing that Mike Sheldon probably wouldn't respond, she buzzed his office. After a few moment's silence, she said automatically, "He's stepped away. What is it?"
"Listen, Susan, get him. Bang on the door. This–"
Feeling like just hanging up, she said, "He's not answering, he won't answer, and I'm sure he doesn't want to talk to you. What is it?"
"It's Micki. They had her in the van, and it crashed."
"Oh, my God," she breathed, aware of Nora's fixed expression as she listened. "I'll get Mike. Is she–"
"Wait," said Dennis. "She's not dead, she wasn't even hurt, as far as they could tell. Before anybody knew what happened, she got out and ran into the subway. They didn't have the cuffs on her because she's the old man's daughter."