Without a Hitch by Andrew Price Page A

warned.
    “Drop what, T ? 
It’s not like everybody doesn’t know.”
    “How dare you!”
    Corbin jumped up
before this could escalate and ushered them toward the door.  “Come on,
enough!”  Corbin put his hands on Molly’s shoulders and guided her through the
door first.  As he did, behind him, he heard Theresa mumbling something about
“big feet” and “limp hair.”  In front of him, Molly turned and walked into her
office, slamming the door.  She was grinning from ear to ear.  Corbin turned to
eject Theresa, but she moved past him and stormed off down the hallway.  Corbin
stepped back into the office and closed the door.
    With Molly and
Theresa gone, Beckett turned on Corbin.  Beckett was furious.  “What the hell
do you think you’re doing?!”
    “You’re gonna
have to be more specific than that,” Corbin responded tartly.
    “You told
Theresa you were making fake documents!”
    “So what?  She
didn’t believe me.”
    “It’s a stupid
risk!”
    “She wasn’t even
listening to me,” Corbin said, cavalierly dismissing Beckett’s concerns.
    “That’s not the
point.  What if she believed you and turned us in to the cops.  That was
stupid!”
    “Do you know how
ridiculous that sounds?”
    “It is not
ridiculous!”  Beckett punched Corbin’s desk.  “You accuse me of taking risks,
but you’re the one who’s playing around!  You see this as some kind of game, a
challenge to beat the system.  Well, this is no game, and I’m not in this for
the challenge!  I don’t want fame.  I don’t want satisfaction.  I am not doing
this to prove anything to myself.  I’m in this for the money.  That’s all I
want, the money, and frankly, I’m not even sure that’s worth the price.”
    “What price?”
    “The moral
price.  We’re stealing and that’s wrong, no matter what we tell ourselves.”
    Corbin shrugged
his shoulders.  “Hey, if you want to walk, you can walk.  If you can’t go
through with this, then you’re free to quit.”
    “I’m going
through with it,” Beckett insisted, “but you need to get serious!”
    “‘Serious’?!  You
think I don’t know how serious this is?!”
    “Then stop
playing around!  There’s no reason to toy with Theresa or Molly.  Why tell them
things that can come back to haunt us?”  Beckett continued to yell.
    “Stop
overreacting.  This is the first thing I’ve ever said to them that even hints
at what we’re doing, and the only reason you think they can connect the dots is
because you know everything we’ve been up to.  They don’t.  They don’t even
know the dots exist.”
    “They can’t
connect them now , but what if you end up on trial and they call
Theresa?  Theresa might be a whacko, but she’s not stupid.  What if the
prosecutor shows her the fake documents and asks if you ever said anything
about making fake documents?  Do you think she won’t remember your comment? 
You may know the theory of the law, but you don’t know jack about how things
really happen.”
    Corbin threw his
hands up.  “Fine.”  He turned his attention to his computer, but stopped
mid-turn.  A shadow darkened his face.  “I won’t say another word, that’s fine. 
But let me tell you that you better calm down.  I am sick of dealing with your
nerves.  You were a trial attorney.  You’re supposed to be used to dealing with
the unexpected, handling disasters, but you’re panicking every other day.” 
Corbin stood up and pointed directly at Beckett.  “You need to get over your
fear of what could go wrong and just focus on doing what needs to be done. 
You’re acting erratically around here and it needs to stop!  Do you understand
me?  It needs to stop!  I won’t have it anymore!”
    Beckett froze. 
Corbin made an imposing figure when he was angry, something Beckett had never
seen before.  Normally, Corbin remained relatively emotionless around work. 
This was something new.  Beckett swallowed hard.