Game Over by Fern Michaels Page B

thinking,” Harry said. “We have to keep Cosmo Cricket in the loop. I think Maggie should be the one to call him. Makes it more professional.”
    â€œYou dumb shit! Maggie is not supposed to know, just the way Lizzie is not supposed to know. Cosmo doesn’t know we all ratted him out. Maybe we could sic Ted and Espinosa on him,” Jack said.
    â€œHold on here! I’m not calling Cosmo Cricket, and I have plans for Ted and Espinosa as soon as it gets light out,” Maggie said.
    â€œWhere does that leave us, then?” Jack growled.
    â€œSitting in Maggie’s kitchen, sucking our thumbs, that’s where,” Harry said. “This is not good, Jack.”
    â€œNo, Harry, it definitely is not good. The girls are going to go nuclear when they put it together. I just don’t know if they’ll be more pissed that Lizzie isn’t going to the Supreme Court or that they aren’t getting their pardons.”
    â€œBoth,” Maggie snarled. She wanted to cry when she thought about Abner Tookus and all she’d had him do. Now she was going to have to explain the large expenditure to Annie. Her insides jumping all over the place, she reached behind her for her cell phone, which was charging. She punched in Abner’s number and waited.
    â€œI want a freebie, and I want it right now,” she demanded. “If you don’t give it to me, I have this guy sitting here in my kitchen who will kick your ass all the way to the moon, and he won’t be there to catch you when you land. Do not say one word. Just listen and get back to me in thirty minutes. Yes, I said thirty minutes. I want to know where Supreme Court Justice Leonard lives when he is not in Washington. I want his and his wife’s medical records, and I also want their financial statements, plus their address here in Washington, or wherever they live during the nine months of the Supreme Court term. Thirty minutes, or you’re on the way to the moon.
    â€œGentlemen, I am hungry. In fact, I am starving. And since there is no way I am going out to breakfast, I am going to cook. How do eggs, bacon, and pancakes sound? I’ll even brew you a pot of tea, Harry. Jack, you make another pot of coffee and nuke the bacon. Make the whole pound. Harry, you’re in charge of the toast, and, yes, I like toast even when I have pancakes. I also have a melon in the fridge, which you can cut up.”
    â€œGo for it!” Jack said happily. “That person you just called, he can get all that in thirty minutes?” His voice was so skeptical, Maggie actually laughed when she really felt like crying.
    â€œHe probably already has it and will wait a full twenty-nine minutes before he calls, but, yeah, he’s that good. His fees are astronomical, but he always comes through. Plus, he is in love with me but won’t admit it.”
    Neither Jack nor Harry knew what to say about that, so they just looked at each other and rolled their eyes.
    â€œWhat? You don’t believe me? You don’t think anyone but Ted Robinson could love me? Well, he does. Love me, I mean.” And then she burst into tears.
    Jack and Harry started to twitch, unsure what their next move should be. Maggie solved the problem by swatting each of them with a spatula.
    Things settled down in the kitchen as the trio worked together to put breakfast on the table. The conversation mainly concerned Lizzie and how disappointed she was going to be that her possible appointment to the United States Supreme Court was all a hoax.
    â€œI bet if we tried, we could get Justice Leonard to resign and make it happen for Lizzie,” Harry said thoughtfully as he snatched a piece of bacon to nibble on.
    Jack stopped what he was doing; so did Maggie. It was Jack, though, who gave voice to the question. “What do you have in mind, Harry?”
    â€œWell…”

Chapter 11
    Y oko stared at the cell phone in her hand for long minutes before