Part 18 (1/2)
”What?” he asked.
”Why don't you admit you got burned out” scoffed Zenger.
”You don't have a Sandler file anymore. What you don't know is that you're G.o.d-d.a.m.ned lucky you don't.”
Thomas could feel his mouth dry and open in unconcealed amazement. He felt just as many witnesses in past years had felt before attorney Zenger. Totally befuddled, caught off base by the unexpected a.s.sertion, the unantic.i.p.ated declaration of the facts.
Thomas tried to recover.
”You know more than I do)' he said.
”Why don't you let me in on it.”
Aah' scoffed Zenger, leaning back now and sipping coffee slyly ”There's nothing to let you in on.”.
”How did you know-?”
”About the fire? I read the papers, d.a.m.n it. And even though my G.o.d-d.a.m.ned flesh is giving out, I have not lost the capacity for thought. Victoria Sandler dies. Your offices are demolished by arson.
Your offices just happen to be where the files were on years and years of Sandler transactions. Well, what else am I to a.s.sume?”
”What was in the files? And who wanted it?”
Zenger shrugged.
”I couldn't begin to guess” he said.
”Come off it!” Thomas's voice was sharp, his patience thinning.
”I didn't come up here to play games. You may be having your cheap fun-' ”Calm yourself, calm yourself,” cautioned Zenger patiently, waving a frail hand across the table.
”You'll get your answers. In time.”
”I want them now.”
”You'll get them now.”
Thomas gazed across the table in silence.
”I'm waiting,” he said.
”Yes. I can see that.” Zenger paused.
”Some people, young people mostly, don't know how lucky they are.”
”What does that mean?”
”It means you're a very lucky young man. You have a great name to live up to. You have your youth. You have your freedom.
And you have no knowledge of the Sandler family.”