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whirled around and said, “Then let’s do it, old girl!”
    â€œJust like that!” Myra gasped.
    â€œYes, just like that. You’re the boss, Myra. Act like it. The girls will love you for stepping up to the plate for them. Me, too.”
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    Nellie looked around the restaurant. She’d been given an excellent table at the back of the dining room that afforded her a view of the bar and the other diners, something she’d requested. With the new smoking laws in effect she couldn’t smoke. She knew she couldn’t doodle on the fine linen tablecloth so what was she going to do until Pearl arrived? Drink, of course. Hopefully she wouldn’t be snookered by the time Justice Barnes arrived.
    Pictures and caricatures of past US presidents lined the burgundy walls. Nellie stared at them as she mentally calculated how many of them she’d seen come and go. Which one was her favorite? Harry Truman, of course. Good old “the buck stops here” Harry. When she’d committed the pictures and the presidents’ attire to memory, Nellie looked around. She saw Jack and Harry Wong a few tables away, perusing menus. Across the room, toward the front, Lizzie Fox and Maggie Spritzer were sipping on what looked like Bellinis. Where in the hell was the guest of honor? Five more minutes and she’d have to go outside and walk twenty-five feet from the building to have a cigarette or she’d have a nicotine fit. Five more minutes. If Pearl was a no-show five minutes after she had her cigarette, she was leaving. Let Justice Barnes get her bloomers in a knot.
    Nellie was shaken out of her reverie when she heard her name. She looked up to see Justice Barnes in the process of seating herself. “You’re late, Pearl. I was going to give you five more minutes and then I was going to leave.”
    The only sounds to be heard in the restaurant were tinkling glass and clinking silverware.
    Justice Barnes brushed at her steel-gray hair. “I couldn’t decide what to wear. I’m sorry.”
    Nellie looked at the shabby outfit the Justice was wearing. Her hair hadn’t been styled, either, and there was a clump of mascara at the corner of one of her eyes. “You should have taken more time, Pearl. You look like a bag lady instead of the impeccably dressed Pearl I’ve known all my life.”
    â€œCut the crap, Nellie. I’m in no mood for levity of any kind. I’m late. The world didn’t come to an end, this restaurant is still serving food. Did you do as I asked?”
    Nellie leaned back in her chair. Suddenly she felt all powerful. Here she was, seated with a Supreme Court justice who looked like a bag lady and was scared out of her wits. A Supreme Court justice who needed her help, a Supreme Court justice who had threatened her. “I was expecting you to bring Grant for support,” she said.
    â€œGrant golfs on Sunday. Well?” She looked over her shoulder at the waiter and said, “Scotch, straight up. Make it a double.”
    The moment the waiter was out of earshot, Nellie said, “I’m here but that doesn’t mean you should take that as an admission that you were right about the vigilantes and me. Threats mean nothing to me. I saw how much distress you were in the other night and I want to help you. Tell me what I can do.” She gulped at her gin and tonic, aware that Jack Emery was on his way to the men’s room, which meant he had to pass their table. For one brief second their eyes locked. She was to tug on her earlobe if she wanted him to stop at the table. Not yet, she decided.
    â€œI don’t need your help, Nellie. I need the help of those women. Are you going to sit there and lie to my face? I know, Nellie. I swear to God, I’ll tell everyone who will listen if you don’t promise me the vigilantes’ help,” she hissed.
    â€œPearl, this might be a really silly question but I’m going to