Two Black Briefcases
'So you want to rent a small office?' the agent said as they rode up in the lift. He was admiring the tight jeans on the blonde.
She smiled and nodded.
The lift stopped and they got out. He showed her the small two- room office. She liked it. They negotiated a price - a good price for even a small office on the ninth floor of the famous Cotton Shipping Building. She signed the forms 'Doris Greenwood'.
By noon the next day the furniture was in place. There was a knock at the door. 'Who is it?' she asked.
'It's your photocopier,' a voice answered.
She unlocked the door and opened it. Two men wheeled in a big machine and she pointed them towards the spare second room.
'It's a big copier for such a small office,' one of them remarked. 'This is the most modern machine we've got. It does ninety copies a minute.'
She smiled and said it would do fine and signed the documents. After they had gone she locked the door behind them and walked to the window. She looked north, along Front Street. A quarter of a mile away, on the opposite side, the Bendini Building was visible.
***
On a Tuesday morning Mitch's secretary checked that he had everything for his meeting with Frank Mulholland in fifteen minutes. Mitch, sitting at his desk, pointed at a large black briefcase. He finished signing the letters on the desk in front of him, picked up the briefcase and a thin document case and left the building. He checked that the briefcase was in his right hand and the document case in his left. That was the signal.
On the ninth floor of the Cotton Shipping Building, Tammy moved away from the window, put on her coat and left the office.
Mitch entered the building and went straight to the lifts. Mulholland's office was on the seventh floor. Mitch pushed the button. He was not alone in the lift, but he didn't think they had followed him here. He put the briefcase down on the floor by his foot.
Tammy got into the lift on the fourth floor. She had brought with her exactly the same kind of briefcase that Mitch had. She didn't look at Mitch but stood next to him and put her briefcase down on the floor next to his. On the seventh floor Mitch picked up her briefcase and left the lift; on the ninth floor Tammy picked up his briefcase and went to her office.
The briefcase was full of files from Bendini, Lambert & Locke. Tammy locked the door behind her. There were seven thick files. She laid them on the table next to the copier. She took the papers out of the first file and put them into the copier. She pushed the 'Print' button and watched the machine make two perfect copies of every page.
Mitch's meeting with Mulholland went well. They shook hands at the end and arranged another meeting next week.
The lift stopped on the fifth floor and Tammy walked in. It was empty except for Mitch. When the door closed he said, 'Any problems?'
'No. Two copies are locked away.'
'How long did it take?'
'Thirty minutes.'
The lift stopped on the fourth floor and she picked up the empty briefcase. 'Midday tomorrow?' she asked.
'Yes,' he replied. The door opened and she disappeared on to the fourth floor. He rode alone down to the ground floor and walked, with a briefcase in each hand, looking just as a lawyer should, back to his office.
by John Grisham