"So it made me curious. My father represented the Sandler family in several cases. Zenger and Daniels handled the Sandler fortune for years. So Victoria finally died, long after most people had forgotten about her." He smiled and his tone changed.

"What do dead people leave besides bodies?"

"Wills " "Exactly. That old woman had been out of her mind for years.

Probably didn't know where her own will was. The previous will, Arthur Sandler's, was probated by Zenger and Daniels. That made me wonder if-' if Victoria Sandler's will was in your Ale" she said.

"And if you were sitting on a ma.s.sive probate case."

"Brilliant deduction."

She smiled coyly.

"In other words, if the probate fee were enormous enough you wouldn't mind being a lawyer again?"

"With the probate fee on a will like that I'd gladly accept it as my first and last big case. Then I'd take the money and get out of this sleazy profession. To be specific, I'd be able to buy my freedom."

Her grayish-blue eyes glanced to where his fingers ran up and down the charred center drawer of that filing cabinet.

"What did you find?"

"A black hole in s.p.a.ce," he said.

"There's enough left in this drawer for me to know what was here when the fire started. The beginnings of the Ss. Lbok." He fingered each file as he spoke.

"Eugene Sabato. Margaret Saichter. Robert Samuelson He reached a s.p.a.ce filled only with ashes from the other folders.

"Here it skips' he said excitedly.

"No Sandler. It continues with Saperstein, @oward. Then Saxon, Reginald. And that's the end of the drawer." His hand moved back to the center.

"Nothing but ashes and an empty s.p.a.ce where the biggest frigging folder in the whole office should be."

He looked at her. Her expression was pensive yet skeptical.

"What do you think?" he asked.

Her eyes met his.

"Flimsy," she said.

"What's flimsy?"

"Your whole theory."

"Why?" His tone was almost belligerent.

"One of your a.s.sociates could have taken the file' ' "They'd have no reason to," he said.

"Anyway, I asked them.

They didn't "When's the last time you definitely saw it?"

He shrugged. He had no idea.

"See?" she asked.

"The Sandler file could have disappeared months ago. Maybe even years ago. Linking its disappearance to the fire is an excellent theory. But it's farfetched. Where's the motive?"

"I don't know," he said.

"Who's alive who'd even have a motive?"

He shrugged again.

"Somewhere someone must be," he said.

"Whoever burned me out knew what he was doing. And he didn't start in my filing room for fun "I'm not disputing that," she said.

"But I say you're leaping to conclusions. Whoever burned you might have taken twenty folders out of your file. And who knows what they might have been taken for. He might have used them for kindling in this same room' He thought about it.

"Possible he conceded.

"But I could have some fun with the only clues to me. I could find out what was in the Sandler file " "How?" she asked.

A sly smile crossed his face. He led her from the blackened filing room back to the one clear working area in the office.

"I talked to the old man's former a.s.sociate," he said.

"Zenger?" she asked.

"Zenger."

"I'd forgotten he was even alive."

"It's not hard. He's eighty-two. Lucid, though. His mind works even though I suspect the body is failing. He lives on Nantucket.

Genteel retirement "What did he say?"

"About the Sandlers? Nothing" "Big help that is," she said. He sat behind the desk. Failing to find a chair, she sat on the edge of the desk. He was aware of her gracefulness and figure as she sat and looked him in the eye.

"He said he'd talk to me personally about it," Thomas said.

"I'd have to go up there to meet him."

"How's he going to remember what's in a ten-year-old file?"

"He's not" Thomas said.