The Street Lawyer Learn English through story level 3

chapter one

mister

mister pointed at the dynamite around

his waist

i pull this he said and we die

the old black man got into the elevator

behind me

he smelled of smoke and cheap wine and

life on the streets without soap

his beard and hair were half gray and

very dirty

he was wearing sunglasses and a long

dirty coat hung down to his knees

he looked fat probably because he had

all his clothes on

in the winter in washington the street

people wear all their clothes all the

time

they can’t leave any of their clothes at

home because they don’t have a home

the old man didn’t belong here

everything here was expensive

the 400 lawyers in the building who all

worked for drake and sweeney were paid

an unbelievable

amount of money

i knew that because i was a drake and

sweeney lawyer myself

the elevator stopped at six

the man hadn’t pushed an elevator button

when i stepped out and turned right he

followed me

i pushed the heavy wooden door of a big

meeting room

there were eight lawyers at the table

inside and they all looked surprised

they were looking behind me so i turned

my friend from the elevator was standing

there

he was pointing a gun at me

put that gun down said one of the

lawyers at the table

his name was rafter he was a hard man in

a courtroom maybe the hardest lawyer

that drake and sweeney had

suddenly a shot hit the ceiling

rafter’s eyes opened wide and his mouth

shut lock the door the man said to me

i locked the door of the meeting room

stand against a wall

we all stood against the wall

the man took off his dirty coat and put

it carefully on the large expensive

table in the center of the room

he had five or six red sticks around his

waist tied there with string

i had never seen dynamite before but

they looked like dynamite to me

i wanted to run and hope for a bad shot

when he fired at me

but my legs were like water

some of the lawyers were shaking with

fear and making noises like scared

animals

please be quiet said the man calmly

then he took a long yellow rope and a

knife from the pocket of his pants

you he said to me

tie them up

rafter stepped forward

listen friend he said what do you want

the second shot went into the wall

behind rafter’s ear

do not call me friend said the man

what would you like us to call you i

asked him quietly

call me mister

i tied the eight lawyers with the yellow

rope

one of them barry nuzzo was my friend

we were the same age 32 and we had

started at drake and sweeney on the same

day

only our marriages were different

his was successful and mine wasn’t

he had three kids claire and i didn’t

have any

i looked at barry and he looked at me

i knew we were both thinking about

barry’s kids

we could hear police cars outside and

noises as the police entered the

building

mister pointed at the dynamite around

his waist

i pulled this he said and we die

for a second we all looked at each other

nine white boys and mister

i thought of all those terrible

shootings you read about in the

newspapers

a crazy worker returns to work after

lunch with a gun and kills everybody in

his office there had been killings at

fast food restaurants and playgrounds

too

and those dead people were children or

honest workers

who would care about us

we were lawyers

time passed

what did you eat for lunch today mr

asked me breaking a long silence

he spoke clearly and from the sound of

his voice he had had a good education

he hadn’t always been on the streets

i had chicken and salad i said surprised

alone

no i met a friend

how much did it cost for both of you

thirty dollars

mr didn’t like that

thirty dollars he repeated for two

people

you know what i had for lunch

no

i had soup

free soup from a shelter and i was glad

to get it

you could feed a hundred of my friends

for thirty dollars you know that

yes mister

call your

boss there was a phone on the table

i called arthur jacobs

800 lawyers worked for drake and sweeney

around the world but at 79 jacobs was

the oldest of the partners here in

washington he answered at the first ring

of the phone

mr jacobs

michael are you okay

wonderful i said

what does he want from us

i spoke to the man what do you want

mister

soup with bread said the man

get it from the shelter at l street and

17th

they put a lot of vegetables in the soup

there

soup with bread i said into the phone

no said the man get soup and bread for

all of us

mr jacobs i said

i heard i can hear him

a shelter for street people does carry

outs

mr jacobs please just do it he has a gun

and dynamite

i put the phone down

you said the man he was talking to me

what’s your name

michael brock

how much money did you earn last year

don’t lie

i thought quickly

i didn’t lie

a hundred and twenty thousand

he didn’t like that

how much did you give to poor people

i don’t remember my wife does that

thank you mr brock

mister pointed the gun at the other

lawyers

he asked all of them the same questions

nate malamud the only partner in the

room earned more than a million dollars

more than a million mister said to him

i know you

you walk past me when i sit on the

sidewalk every morning

you never give me any money

why can’t you help poor people homeless

people

nate was a big man with white hair

he had been with drake and sweeney for

30 years

he was red in the face with

embarrassment now

i’m sorry he said

who did the eviction

said mister suddenly

and again

who did the eviction

nobody spoke

none of us understood him

but mister wasn’t looking for an answer

he looked out the window

maybe he was thinking

maybe he was dreaming

maybe he was watching the police out

there

our soup and bread arrived half an hour

later

there was a knock on the door and

somebody outside shouted through the

door

your food

mister shouted back

if i see a policeman out there i’ll kill

these men

then he pointed the gun at my head

the two of us walked slowly to the door

unlock the door and open it very slowly

mister said there was nobody outside

the food was on the floor near the door

as i stepped outside and bent down to

pick it up i heard a shout stay down

a policeman stepped quickly out of the

office opposite and shot mister through

the head

mr fell without a sound and my face was

covered in blood

whose blood

mister was lying on the floor

half his head had gone

but the sunglasses still covered one eye

his hands were nowhere near the dynamite

policemen came running from all the

offices are you hurt one of them asked

me

i didn’t know

i couldn’t see

there was blood on my face and shirt and

a liquid that i discovered later

was part of mister’s brain

chapter 2

devon hardy

who did the eviction

mister had asked

but i guess he already knew the answer

to that

a policeman led me to the first floor of

the building where friends and family

and doctors were waiting

the doctors crowded around

but where was my wife

six hours in a room with a gunman and

she hadn’t come to see me

it was funny really because my wife

claire was a doctor herself at one of

the biggest hospitals in washington

i lay on a table for 10 minutes while

doctors examined me to make sure i was

all right

then my secretary polly

arrived there were tears in her eyes as

she put her arms around me

where’s claire i asked her

i called the hospital she’s working

paulie knew there wasn’t much left of

the marriage

are you okay she asked

i think so

i’ll take you home

i was pleased someone was telling me

what to do

my thoughts came into my head slowly

it was like i was underwater

we left the draken sweeney building by a

back door

there were police cars everywhere and

ambulances and television vans even a

fire truck i’m alive

i’m alive i realized smiling for the

first time

i’m alive

i looked up to heaven and said a very

big thank

you when i got home to our apartment on

p street in georgetown claire wasn’t

there

i sat in the empty apartment and thought

about her

we had met the week after i moved to

washington

i was just out of yale with a great job

she came from one of america’s oldest

families

we were in love we got married

but drake and sweeney make you work very

hard the first year

i worked 15 hours a day six days a week

i saw claire on sundays and we went out

together when i wasn’t too tired

for the last five years i had worked

about 200 hours a month

that’s eight hours every day for six

days with two or three hours on sunday

but young lawyers at drake and sweeney

don’t complain about long hours

fewer than one in ten become partners

and everybody wants to be that one in

ten because you earn at least a million

dollars a year

claire was good about it for the first

few months

but then she got tired of having a

husband who was never there and i didn’t

blame her

there are a lot of divorces at drake and

sweeney

long hours at work each hour paid for by

a client are more important than a happy

wife

by the end of our first year together

claire was unhappy and we weren’t

talking together very much

she decided to go to medical school and

i thought that was a great idea

drake and sweeney were telling me that i

was a possible future partner

i just had to work even harder

when claire was studying i didn’t feel

so guilty about that

but claire didn’t just study

she worked unbelievably long hours

she had decided she wanted to be a great

doctor

soon we were playing a crazy game called

i can work harder than you

and another game called my job is more

important than your job because i’m a

doctor

lawyer

my boss arthur jacobs of course was on

my team

he had become a partner in drake and

sweeney at the age of 30 the youngest

ever partner

and he would soon be the oldest ever

working partner

the law was his life

all three of his divorced wives could

tell you that

i woke up suddenly

i had fallen asleep in an armchair at

the apartment and claire was sitting in

a chair next to me

where were you today i said

at the hospital

at the hospital

nine of us are in a room with a crazy

man and a gun for six hours we get lucky

and escape

eight families come and see their

relative because they’re interested in

whether or not he’s alive

and how do i get home

my secretary drives me

i couldn’t be there oh no of course you

couldn’t be there how silly of me

i couldn’t be there because the police

asked all doctors to stay at their

hospitals until the situation at drake

and sweeney ended

they always do that when there’s a

possible shooting

oh

did you call

i tried

i guess there were a lot of people

trying

next morning we made breakfast together

we ate in the kitchen watching the small

television

the six o’clock news showed the drake

and sweeney building and you could see

mister looking out of the window

the television news said the dynamite

wasn’t real

the sticks were made of wood and mr had

painted them red

the gun was real enough though

it was a 44 stolen

mister’s real name was davon hardy

he was 45

he had fought in vietnam

he had been in prison a few times for

stealing but he wasn’t a big criminal

and he was homeless with no known family

that morning’s washington post had more

details

according to someone called mordecai

greene the director of the 14th street

law center devon hardy had recently lost

his job

then he became homeless

he was living in an old warehouse this

wasn’t unusual

a lot of homeless people move into empty

buildings because they have no money for

their own place

devon hardy had recently been evicted

from the warehouse as an illegal

squatter

lawyers are responsible for evictions

who did the eviction mister had asked

but i guess he already knew the answer

to that

and now i knew it too

drake and sweeney had thrown mr into the

streets

chapter three

mordecai green

mordecai green was a warm caring man

whose work was on the streets

he was a lawyer with a heart

i had told paulie i would be at work

today the day after mister came into the

office

but for the first time ever

i didn’t go to work when i was well

enough to go

just as it started to snow i got into my

car a lexus and drove through the

streets of washington

the snow came down harder and harder

i just drove

paulie’s voice came over the car phone

she sounded worried

where are you

who wants to know

a lot of people

arthur jacobs wants to see you you have

clients waiting for you

i’m fine paulie tell everybody i’m at

the doctor’s office

are you

no but i could be

i drove around georgetown not going

anywhere just driving

the clouds were dark

the snow would be heavy

people were hurrying through the snow on

the sidewalks

i saw a homeless man and wondered if he

knew davon hardy

where did street people go in a snow

storm

i called the hospital i wanted to ask

claire to meet me for lunch

but the hospital said claire was busy

and they couldn’t contact her

that was the end of our lunch together

i turned and went northeast past logan

circle into the gang area of the city

and drove until i found the 14th street

law center

i parked at 14th and q

certain that i would never see the

expense of lexus again

the 14th street law center was in an old

tall red brick house that had seen

better days

the windows on the top floor were

protected by pieces of wood over the

glass

the door wasn’t locked

i went in slowly out of the snow and

entered another world

it was a law office all right

but there was no expensive furniture

here

not like at drake and sweeney

i stepped into a large room which had

three metal desks each covered in files

there were more files on old pieces of

carpet on the floor

the computers and the only photocopier

were 10 years old

there was a large photograph of martin

luther king on one wall

the office was busy and dusty and

interesting

you’re looking for somebody

asked a woman at a desk with the name

sophia mendoza on it

she looked mexican

she wasn’t smiling but i did

it was funny

nobody at drake and sweeney would talk

to a visitor like that

they would lose their job

but i would soon learn how important

sophia was to the 14th street law center

i’m looking for mordecai green i said

but just then he came out of his office

sophia went back to her work

green was an enormous black man at least

two meters tall and very heavy

he was in his early fifties with a gray

beard and round red glasses he shouted

something about a file to sophia and

then turned to me

can i help you

i want to talk to you about devon hardy

i said and gave him my drake and sweeney

card

he looked at me for a few seconds and

then looked quickly at sophia who was

speaking in fast spanish into the phone

mordecai green walked back into his

office and i followed him in

the office was a small room with no

windows and the desk and floor covered

in files and law books

sit down he said

but you might get dirty

what do you want

i sat down

i was in the room with devon hardy when

he was shot i said

i couldn’t think this morning i didn’t

want to go to work so i came here

any idea why he did it because of the

eviction said mordecai green

a few months ago he moved into an old

warehouse at the corner of florida

avenue

it wasn’t a bad place for a homeless

person

it had a roof some toilets water

who owned the warehouse

mordecai pulled a thin file from one of

the piles on his desk

it was exactly the one he wanted

he looked at the file for a minute

the warehouse was owned by a company

called river oaks

and river oaks lawyers are drake and

sweeney

probably

is that all

no

i heard the devon hardy and the others

got no warning of the eviction

but you can evict squatters with no

warning

oh yes

you can’t evict tenants without a

warning though

was devon hardy a squatter or a tenant

i don’t know

i thought of another question

how did devon hardy know about drake and

sweeney

who knows

he wasn’t stupid though

crazy but not stupid

i had taken enough of his time

he looked at his watch i looked at mine

we exchanged phone numbers and promised

to stay in contact

mordecai green was a warm caring man

whose work was on the streets protecting

hundreds of nameless clients

he was a lawyer with a heart

on the way out

sophia didn’t look up from her

conversation on the phone

the lexus was still there covered by an

inch of snow

chapter 4

mom and dad

welcome to the world son

you think the guys in factory jobs like

what they’re doing

you’re getting rich they aren’t

after i left mordecai green’s office i

drove around and around the city while

the snow fell

as a lawyer with hours to work which my

clients paid for

i couldn’t do this sort of thing

just moving with the traffic not going

anywhere

but i was doing it now

i didn’t want to go back to the empty

apartment

i didn’t want to go to a bar either

i’d probably never leave

so i drove

i went through poor parts of the city i

had never seen before

then i went back to drake and sweeney

and went up in mister’s elevator again

walked along the hall to my office and

sat down at my desk

for the first time i wondered how much

everything in my office had cost

the expensive old desk the red leather

armchairs and the persian

carpets weren’t we just chasing money

here in this building

why did we work so hard to buy a more

expensive carpet or an older desk

was that a good reason to work

was this the life i wanted

in my expensive room i thought of

mordecai green giving his time to help

people who had nothing

i had about ten pink telephone messages

from clients on my desk and none of them

interested me

i didn’t like this work

my clients were big companies and i

worked on their lawsuits against other

big companies

the lawsuits continued for years

maybe a hundred lawyers worked on each

one

all sending paper to each other

paulie came in and brought me cookies

she put them on the table with a big

smile before she left for home for the

day

a couple of lawyers came in said how you

doing and left again

they were probably on their way home too

alone in the office again

i picked up one big file and then

another one

which lawsuit did i want to work on

today

i didn’t want to work on any of them

i couldn’t do it

it didn’t make any sense to me now

i went to my computer and began

searching our client files

river oaks was started in 1977

in hagerstown maryland

it was a private company so it was

difficult to get information about it

river oaks was the client of a drake and

sweeney lawyer called braden chance

i didn’t know the name but i looked

again in our computer files

braden chance was a partner in real

estate on the fourth floor

he was 44 years old married and went to

law school at duke

there were 42 files for river oaks

four were about evictions

river oaks had bought a warehouse on

florida avenue

on january 27th some squatters were

evicted from the warehouse one of them

as i now knew was devon hardy

the file on the eviction itself had a

number next to it

the number meant that only braden chance

could open the file i wrote down the

file’s name and number and walked down

to the fourth floor

when i got there i saw a legal assistant

and asked him where braden chance’s

office was

he pointed to an open door across the

hall although it was late

chance was at his desk looking busy

he didn’t like me just walking in from

the hall

at drake and sweeney you phoned first

and made an appointment but that didn’t

worry me very much

chance didn’t ask me to sit down

but i did and he didn’t like that either

you were next to the guy when he got

shot

he said unpleasantly after i said devon

hardy’s name

yes i said

terrible for you huh

it’s over

mr hardy who’s now dead was evicted from

a warehouse

was it one of our evictions

it was said chance but he didn’t look at

me as he spoke

i guess that arthur jacobs had looked at

the file with him earlier in the day

what about it added chance

was he a squatter

of course he was

they’re all squatters aren’t they

our client just got them out of the

warehouse

are you sure he was a squatter

not a tenant

chance looked angry

what do you want

could i see the file

no

why not

i’m very busy will you please leave

if he was a squatter there’s no problem

why can’t i see the file

because it’s mine and i said no how’s

that

maybe that’s not good enough

he stood his hands shaking as he pointed

to the door

i smiled at him and left

the legal assistant from the hall had

heard everything and we exchanged looks

and smiles as i passed his desk

the man’s a fool

he said very quietly

i smiled again

yes

but what was chance hiding

there was something wrong

and it was in that file i had to get it

i went back to my office to think

the phone rang

it was clear

why

are you at the office

she spoke very slowly and her voice was

colder than the snow outside

i looked at my watch

i remembered we had arranged to have

dinner together at the apartment

i uh

well

a client called from the west coast

i had used this lie before it didn’t

matter

i’m waiting michael

should i start to eat

no i’ll be back at the apartment as fast

as i can

i ran from the building into the

snowstorm but i didn’t really care that

another evening together had been ruined

a few hours later claire and i were

having our coffee by the kitchen window

the snow had finally stopped

i had an idea

let’s go to florida i said

she gave me a cold look

florida

okay the bahamas we can leave tomorrow

it’s impossible

not at all i don’t have to work for a

few days

why not

because i’m going crazy

and at drake and sweeney if you go crazy

then you get a few days off

you are going crazy i know

it’s fun actually

people are nice to you they smile

polly brought me cookies today i like it

the cold look returned and she said

i can’t

and that was the end of that

i knew she couldn’t do it

she was a doctor people had appointments

with her

but also she didn’t want to go with me

okay

i said

then i’m going to memphis for a couple

of days to see my parents

oh really she said

she didn’t even sound interested

i need to see my parents

it’s been almost a year and this is a

good time i think

i don’t like the snow and i don’t feel

like working

like i said

i’m going crazy

claire got up and went to bed

well

call me she said over her shoulder

i knew that was the end of my marriage

and i hated to have to tell my mother

my parents were in their early 60s and

trying to enjoy not working for the

first time in their lives

mom had been a bank manager dad had been

a lawyer in atlanta

they had worked hard saved hard and

given me the best of everything

dad always wanted me to be a lawyer like

him

i rented a car at memphis airport and

drove east to the rich part of the city

where the white people live

the blacks had the center of the city

and the whites the area outside

sometimes the blacks moved out from the

center into a white area and then the

whites moved further out

my parents lived on a golf course in a

new glass house

you could see the golf course from every

window

i had called from the airport so mom

knew i was coming

what’s wrong

she asked me when she saw me

nothing i’m fine

where’s claire

you guys never call as you know i

haven’t heard her voice in two months

claire’s fine mom

we’re both alive and healthy and working

very hard

are you spending enough time together no

are you spending any time together

not much

i saw the tears in her eyes

i’m sorry mom

it’s

lucky we don’t have kids

to talk about something else i told her

the story of mister

are you all right

she asked a look of shock on her face of

course

i’m here aren’t i

the company wanted me to take a couple

of days holiday so i came home

you poor thing

claire and now this

later that afternoon my dad and i played

golf

dad i’m not very happy at drake and

sweeney i said

i don’t like what i’m doing

welcome to the world son

you think the guys in factory jobs like

what they’re doing

you’re getting rich they aren’t

be happy

he was happy

he was winning at the golf

ten minutes later he said

are you changing jobs

i’m thinking about it

why don’t you just say what you’re

trying to say

as usual i felt weak and like i was

running away from something

i’m thinking about working for the

homeless i said as a lawyer i added

quickly

dad didn’t stop playing

he hit a ball into the distance

i’d hate to see you throw it all away

son

he said

you’ll be a partner in a few years

we walked after his ball

a street guy’s killed in front of you

and you have to change the world

you just need a few days away from work

is that all

chapter five

leonte burton

inside were a young mother and her

children

all dead

the mother had started the engine of the

old car and left it running

of course the apartment was empty when i

returned friday night but there was a

note in the kitchen

just like me claire had gone home to her

parents in providence for a couple of

days

i knew claire wanted to end the marriage

too

i just didn’t know how badly

i went for a long walk

it was very cold outside with a strong

wind

i passed beautiful homes with families

in them eating and laughing and enjoying

the warmth

then i moved on to m street

friday night on m was always fun time

the bars and coffee shops were full and

people were waiting in line to get into

the restaurants

i stopped at the window of a music club

listening to sad music with snow over my

feet

watching the young couples drink and

dance

for the first time in my life

i didn’t feel young

i was 32

but in the last five years i had worked

more than most people do and twenty

i was tired

those pretty girls in there would never

look at me now

i went back to the apartment

at some time after nine the phone rang

it was mordecai green

are you busy he asked

to do what

to work

the shelters are full

we don’t have enough helpers

i’ve

never done that kind of work

can you put butter on bread

i think so

then you’re the man for us

we’re at a church on 13th and euclid

i’ll be there in 20 minutes

i changed into the oldest clothes i had

jeans and an old blue jacket and took

most of my money out of my wallet

as i closed the apartment door behind me

i was excited and i didn’t exactly know

why

i parked the lexus opposite the church

the attack i half expected didn’t happen

no gangs

the snow kept the streets empty and safe

for now

i went into the church down into a big

room below it and entered the world of

the homeless

it was unbelievable how many people were

in that room

volunteers were giving out blankets and

apples

mordecai was pouring fruit juice into

paper cups and talking all the time

a line waited patiently for food at a

table

i went to mordecai and he said hello

like i was an old friend

it’s crazy he said

one big snowstorm and we work all night

he showed me the bread the butter the

meat and the cheese

it’s real complicated

you do 10 with meat and then 10 with

cheese okay

yeah

you learned fast

then he disappeared

i made ten sandwiches quickly then i

slowed and watched all the people

most of the homeless looked down at the

floor

most of them said thank you to the

volunteers when they got the food

then they ate slowly

even the children were careful with

their food

mordecai came back and started making

sandwiches next to me

where does the food come from i asked

him

food bank

people give it

tonight we’re lucky because we have

chicken

usually it’s just vegetables

how many shelters like this are there in

the city

this isn’t actually a shelter

the church kindly opens its doors when

the weather’s bad

when the doors close they go out again

i tried to understand this

then where do these people live

some are squatters

they’re the lucky ones

some live on the streets some in parks

some in bus stations some under bridges

usually it’s okay

but they can’t stay out in the open

tonight

it’s too cold

they have to go to one of the shelters

how many shelters are there

about twenty

two are closing soon

no money

how many beds

about five thousand

and how many homeless

good question

they’re a difficult group to count

maybe ten thousand

i thought about that

then i asked mordecai about himself

you have a family

yes

a wife

three sons

ones in college the ones in the army

and

and we lost our third boy on the streets

ten years ago

he was killed

gangs

what about you

married no kids

mordecai disappeared again

a helper brought cookies

i took four of them and walked to a

corner where a young mother was asleep

with a baby under her arm and two small

children half asleep under blankets

the oldest boy’s eyes opened wide when

he saw the cookies in my hand

i gave him one

his eyes shone as he took it and ate all

of it

then he wanted another one

he was small and thin no more than four

years old

the mother woke up saw the cookies and

smiled

what’s your name i said to the boy

after two cookies he was my friend for

life

ontario

how old are you

he showed me four fingers

four i said

he said yes and put his hand out for

another cookie which i gladly gave him

i wanted to give him things

anything he wanted

where do you live i whispered

in a car

he whispered back

you got more apple juice

sure

i went to the kitchen and got him a cup

of apple juice and more cookies

the mother was sleeping again

like many homeless people she moved a

lot in her sleep

she was cold i took my jacket off and

put it over her

then the baby cried and woke her

without thinking i took the baby smiling

at the mother all the time

she was happy to let me hold it so she

could get some sleep

i stayed there until three in the

morning

the next day was saturday

since tuesday when i met mister

i hadn’t worked even one hour for drake

and sweeney

i lay in bed

i hated the work at drake and sweeney

i didn’t want to go back

ever i had breakfast at a cafe on m and

wondered what ontario was having for

breakfast

then i went shopping

candy and small toys for the kids soap

for the mall

warm clothes and lots of children’s

sizes

i’d never had so much fun spending two

hundred dollars

and i wanted to spend more

i wanted to put that family in a hotel

for a month

i wanted to start a lawsuit against the

person who had made them homeless

i couldn’t wait to have ontario’s family

as my clients

i went back to the church leaving all

the toys and clothes in the car

but ontario’s family weren’t there

i asked mordecai where they were

who knows

homeless go from kitchen to kitchen

shelter to

shelter next morning sunday i had the

small television in the kitchen on while

i ate breakfast

but the tv news stopped me from eating

i heard the words

but i didn’t want to believe them

i walked toward the television

my feet were heavy

my heart was cold

my mouth was open in shock and disbelief

sometime around 11 pm washington police

found a small car near fort totten park

in a gang area in the northeast of the

city

it was parked on the street

inside were a young mother and her

children all dead

the mother had started the engine of the

old car and left it running to keep the

family warm

the air in the car poisoned them while

they slept

they gave the mother’s name

it was lonte burton

the baby was tamiko

the other children were alonso

and ontario

their candy and toys and soap and

clothes

were still in my car

chapter 6

a new person

now i too carried my photograph of a 22

year old black mother who had died for

nothing in a car

i was at the 14th street law center

how much would a funeral cost i asked

mordecai

i don’t know

are you interested

i want them to have a good funeral

okay then

let’s arrange it now

we got into mordecai’s old ford taurus

the burton family’s bodies were in the

morgue of the general hospital

mordecai entered like he owned the place

i’m mordecai green lawyer for the burden

family

he informed an anxious young man behind

the desk

a doctor from the hospital arrived and

mordecai pushed open the big metal door

inside the white room were lines of

bodies covered in sheets

their names were on little pieces of

paper tied to their toes

we stopped in a corner

lonte burton said the doctor and pulled

the sheet down to her waist

it was ontario’s mother all right in a

white dress

she looked the same as when i saw her

alive a few days ago

she looked like she was sleeping

i couldn’t stop staring at her

that’s her

said mordecai in a confident and loud

voice

like he’d known her for years

only one sheet covered the children

they were lying in a line with their

hands by their sides like little

soldiers

i wanted to touch ontario

i wanted to tell him i was sorry

i wanted to wake him up take him home

give him some food

give him everything he could ever want

that’s them

said mordecai

i looked up to heaven and i heard a

voice in my head say

don’t let it happen again

the doctor took us to an office

we helped the assistant make a list of

everything that had been found with the

family

my old blue jacket was the best thing

they owned

do you want it back

mordecai asked me

no

i waited outside in the car while

mordecai arranged the funeral in another

office

he told me the price would go up if they

saw my expensive clothes

in less than a week i had seen five dead

street people

first mister had changed my life

now ontario had broken my heart

there was a knock on the car window i

jumped

it’s five thousand dollars all four

mordecai shouted through the closed car

window

yeah yeah i said and he disappeared back

into the hospital

soon he was back driving fast

the funeral will be tuesday at the

church here at the hospital the

newspapers will be there and television

it’s a big story

thanks mordecai i said

after the funeral there’s going to be a

march a march to the government

buildings on capitol hill for the burton

family

television is going to film it the

newspapers are going to write about it

are you okay

no

i called in sick tuesday

at 10 i left for the funeral

it was a very nice church

beautiful

it didn’t open its doors to the homeless

and i could understand why

i sat alone

i could see mordecai with two people i

didn’t know the tv people were in one

corner

i could also see the coffins

the baby’s coffin was very small

ontario’s coffin and his brothers were

bigger but not much bigger

lonte burton’s parents were dead

but her grandmother was there

she put flowers on the coffins and for a

terrible second i thought she was going

to open them

i had never been to a black funeral

before

and i didn’t know what to expect

but i had seen old film of coffins open

at funerals

after the funeral there was the march to

capitol hill

there were big photos of lonte burton

everywhere and under her face the words

who killed lonte

on capitol hill mordecai spoke to the

people

he didn’t talk about the homeless

he talked about the last hours of the

burton family

he talked about the baby’s last meal in

the church

he talked about the cookies the boys had

eaten

he described how the little family left

the church and went back onto the

streets into the snowstorm where lante

and her children lived only a few more

hours

mordecai described things he didn’t

actually know had happened

but i didn’t care and the crowd didn’t

either

when he described the family trying to

get warm before they died

i heard women crying around me

if this man mordecai green could make a

crowd cry like this

he must be a great lawyer

when mordechai finished we marched to

the capitol the government building

carrying the commons

i had never been on a march like this

before

rich people don’t march

their world is safe and clean and there

are laws to keep them happy

but now i too carried my photograph of a

22 year old black mother who had died

for nothing in a car

i wasn’t the same person as i had been

before mister and ontario came into my

life

and i could never be that person again

so i accepted when mordecai green phoned

me a few days later and invited me to a

restaurant near dupont circle

and when he invited me to join the 14th

street law center i accepted his offer

of a job too

we can pay you thirty thousand dollars a

year smiled mordecai

you’ll be a partner

let’s see drake and sweeney beat that

i smiled too

i nearly told him about the file i

needed from drake and sweeney the file

that would give us the story of davon

hardy’s eviction but i didn’t

that night i told claire my news

it was almost 10 and we were sitting in

our favorite chairs with glasses of wine

after a few minutes i said we need to

talk

what is it she asked i’m worried

i’m thinking of leaving drake and

sweeney

oh really

she either expected this or wanted to

seem calm

i had told her all about lonte burton

and her family

yes i can’t go back there

why

not the work’s boring and unimportant

i want to do something to help people

i told you about mordecai green

his law center has offered me a job

i’m starting monday

how much did he offer you

thirty thousand a year

that’s ninety thousand dollars a year

less than you are now

you don’t do work for the homeless for

the money

as young law and medical students we had

wanted to help people

we told ourselves then that money was

not important

and

now

i’m tired she said

she finished her wine and went to the

bedroom

the next day she visited a divorce

lawyer

i promised to leave the apartment by the

weekend

chapter 7

brayden chance and river oaks

the note read

top key is to chance’s door

bottom key is to the file drawer under

the window

i went back to drake and sweeney for my

last day they didn’t want me to leave

there was a lot of work and they didn’t

want to find someone new

i was invited to breakfast with arthur

jacobs in the partner’s private dining

room on the eighth floor

how could i turn my back on a world of

breakfasts in the partner’s dining room

that was the idea

over breakfast arthur suggested that i

could stop working at drake and sweeney

for a year and work pro bono at the law

center

he said that drake and sweeney should do

more pro bono work

he offered to pay the difference between

the law centers 30 thousand a year and

what i earned at drake and sweeney

i smiled

i would be drake and sweeney’s pro bono

boy for a year and they could all feel

good about themselves

during that year a partner would take my

clients

i would return after a year happy and

take my clients back

actually

i didn’t say no immediately

they had at least tried

arthur often talked about pro bono work

though clients and their paid hours

always came first

but i thought about the offer and then i

said no

by now i hated my old work too much to

go back to it

i didn’t like the old me that had done

the work very much either

i was trying to explain to arthur that i

was a different man now

when braden chance sat down at a table

not far from ours

he didn’t see me at first but then i saw

him staring at me

good morning brayden i said loudly

arthur turned around to see who i was

talking to

you know him he asked quietly

we’ve met i said

he’s a fool

said arthur very quietly

it was the same word the legal assistant

had used about chance

when i got back to my office there were

two files on my desk

they hadn’t been there before my

breakfast with arthur

in the first one there was a list of

names headed

people evicted river oaks

number four was davon hardy

number 10 was lonte burton and three

children

i sat there for two or three minutes in

silence

why would anyone put something like this

on my desk if the information wasn’t

true

at the bottom of the page someone had

written a few words in pencil

the eviction was wrong

i opened the second file

there were two keys in it and a type

note

the note read

top key is to chances door

bottom key is to the file drawer under

the window

i put the files away

i had to do some work

i also had a working lunch that day

working lunch meant that the client was

paying

but the law had never seemed so

unimportant and boring

i got through the day only because i

knew it was my last at drake and sweeney

it was almost five before i got a few

minutes alone

i said goodbye to paulie and locked the

office door from the inside

i took the files out again and began to

think and make notes

i had an idea who had sent the files

the young legal assistant who would call

chance a fool

legal assistance did the evictions and

it was his job to put documents in the

file

i phoned another legal assistant and

asked him for the name of chance’s

assistant

the guy was called hector palmer

he had been with drake and sweeney about

three years all in real estate

we met in the library on the third floor

hector palmer was very nervous

did you put those files on my desk i

asked him

there was no time to play games

what files

his eyes went around and around the room

looking at everything except me

the river oaks eviction you were there

right

yeah he said

what’s in the river oaks file

bad stuff

tell me

i have a wife and four kids i need this

job

you’ll be okay

you’re leaving what do you care

i wasn’t surprised he knew

people talked

i was news

so before i leave you want me to go into

chance’s office and take a file and i

can’t be sure what’s in it

do what you want

and he ran out of the library

i went back to my office and made some

more notes

i would lose my job if i was caught

taking the file but i was already

leaving

it would be much worse if i was caught

in chance’s office with a key that

wasn’t mine

i didn’t like the idea at

all then there was the problem of

copying the file

some drake and sweeney files were very

thick

i would have to stand in front of a

photocopier for a long time

and also our photocopiers worked from a

plastic card that had our names on it

drake and sweeney knew exactly who

copied what

i could use a photocopier somewhere else

but it was illegal to take the file from

the building

and i was a lawyer

but couldn’t i just borrow the file

i only needed it for half an hour to

photocopy it

i could take it to the 14th street law

center photocopy it and bring it back

immediately

that made me a little less of a thief

it was now getting late

this friday night

i was starting work with mordecai on

monday it was now or never

but i hadn’t got a key to the 14th

street law center

i looked at my watch it was half past

six

i drove to 14th street my partners were

still there

sophia actually smiled at me but only

for a second

welcome to your new job said mordecai

seriously like i needed all the luck in

the world

how about this he said pointing at my

new office

the best office in the area

beautiful i said stepping inside

my new office was about half the size of

the one i just left my drake and sweeney

desk would be too big to go in there

there was no phone

i like it i said and i did

i’ll get you a phone tomorrow

said mordecai

it was dark and sophia wanted to leave

mordechai and i ate some sandwiches he

had bought he made us both coffee

i looked at the copier

it was about 10 years old but i knew it

worked

what time are you leaving tonight i

asked mordecai with my mouth full of

sandwich

i don’t know

in an hour maybe why

i’m going back to drake and sweeney for

a couple of hours

i have some last minute stuff they want

me to finish

then i’d like to come back here late

would that be possible

mordecai was eating his sandwich

he reached into a drawer and threw me a

key

come and go as you please he said

will it be safe

no

so be careful

park as close to the door as you can

walk fast

then lock yourself in

i walked fast to my car at 7 30. the

sidewalk was empty

my lexus was fine

maybe i would be okay on the streets

the drive back to drake and sweeney took

11 minutes

if it took 30 minutes to copy chance’s

file then it would be out of his office

for about an hour and you would never

know

real estate was empty

i knocked on chance’s door

no answer

i used the key to his door and went in

should i turn on the light

it was dark

i would have to

i locked the door turned on the light

went to the bottom file drawer under the

window and unlocked it with the second

key

i found the river oaks file and was

reading through it when a voice outside

shouted hey and i jumped

a conversation started outside

two guys were talking baseball

i turned off the lights listening to

their talk

then i sat on chance’s sofa for 10

minutes

i could put the file back

if they saw me leaving chance’s office

nothing would be done

it was my last day

but if they saw me taking a file that

was very different

be patient i told myself

after baseball they started talking

about girls

i think they were a couple of young

legal assistants working late

then finally it was quiet

i locked the drawer in the dark opened

the door and went out

hey

shouted someone behind me

i ran

i ran to the back of the building got

into the lexus and drove off

that was stupid i thought why did i run

why didn’t i talk to the guy

i still worked at drake and sweeney

didn’t i

that was my last thought before the

lexus was hit by a jaguar speeding down

18th street

i remember a voice saying

i don’t see any blood

and then i remember claire sitting by my

bed at the george washington university

medical center

chapter 8

hector palmer

michael you won’t be a lawyer when they

finished not here not anywhere you’re

going to lose your license

i woke up at seven in the morning and a

nurse gave me a note from claire

it was a really sweet note

it said that she had to go to work and

that she had spoken to my doctors and i

probably wouldn’t die

claire and i must look like a happily

married couple to the doctors and nurses

why were we getting a divorce

my left arm was blue

my chest hurt when i breathed

i looked at my face in the bathroom

there were some small cuts but nothing

that wouldn’t disappear over the weekend

a nurse told me the jaguar had been

driven by a gang member who sold drugs

welcome to the streets i thought as i

tried not to breathe too much

the doctor came at 7 30.

no bones were broken

they wanted me to stay in hospital for

one more day just to be safe but i said

no

i had to find a new apartment

the first real estate office sent me to

an apartment at adams morgan north of

dupont circle

it was three little rooms at the top of

a house

everything in the bathroom worked the

floor was clean there was a view over

the streets

i took it

that evening i went back to my old

apartment to see claire

we ate a chinese carryout

our first ever meal together had been a

carry-out

and this was our last meal together as

husband and wife

claire had the divorce papers waiting

for me on the table and i signed them

in six months i would be single

do you know someone called hector palmer

she asked halfway through the chinese

dinner

my eyes opened wide

yes

he called an hour ago

said he had to talk to you

who is he

a legal assistant with drake and sweeney

he wants me to help him he has a problem

must be a big one

he wants to meet with you at nine

tonight at nathan’s on m street

why a bar i said half to myself half

declare

he didn’t say

he sounded strange on the phone

suddenly i wasn’t hungry

i finished the meal only because i

didn’t want to look worried in front of

claire

but it wasn’t necessary she wasn’t even

looking at me

i walked to m street

parking is impossible on a saturday

night

it was raining and my chest hurt

as i walked i thought about what to say

i thought of lies i could tell

after taking the file it seemed easier

to lie

hector might be there for drake and

sweeney he might be wired to record what

i said

i would listen carefully and say little

nathan’s was only half full

i was 10 minutes early but he was there

waiting for me at a table in the corner

as i came in he jumped up from his seat

and put his hand out

you must be michael i’m hector palmer

from real estate nice to meet you

huh

didn’t we meet in the library

we sat down

he started kicking me under the table

i understood

he was wired and they were watching

a waiter came

i ordered black coffee and hector asked

for a beer

i’m a legal assistant in real estate

hector explained as the drinks arrived

you’ve met braden chance one of our

partners

yes i said

as they were recording everything i said

i would say as little as possible

i worked mainly for him

you and i spoke for a minute one day

last week when you visited his office

if you say so

i don’t remember seeing you

he smiled and i kicked him back under

the table

we both understood the situation now

listen

i asked you to meet me because a file is

missing from braden’s office

and you think i took it

well no but it could be you

you asked for that file when you went

into his office last week

so you do think i took it i said angrily

well go to the police

hector palmer drank some of his beer

drake and sweeney have already gone to

the police he said

the police found an empty file in your

desk with a note about two keys

one to the door the other to a file

drawer

they also found your fingerprints on the

file drawer

i hadn’t thought about fingerprints

drake and sweeney took everybody’s

fingerprints when they joined the

company

but that was five years ago and i had

forgotten about it

we might want to speak to you about all

of this again later said hector palmer

i picked up my coat and left

i spent my first working day at the 14th

street law center getting the file back

from the wreck of the lexus

mordecai helped me

we had to go to georgia avenue where the

police keep wrecked cars

i told mordecai that the file was

important but not what was in it

back home in my new apartment i looked

at the file

river oaks was a real estate company

they wanted to build a new mail office

for the washington post office and then

rent the building to them

they had bought the warehouse where

devon hardy and lontay burton lived and

they wanted to pull it down and start

rebuilding

they were in a hurry

they wanted to start pulling the

warehouse down in february

on january 27th hector palmer visited

the warehouse

his note about that visit was on the

list of documents in the file but it

wasn’t actually in the file

somebody had taken it out

almost certainly chance

after mister had visited us

on friday january 31st hector palmer

returned to the warehouse with the

police and evicted the people who were

living there

the eviction had taken three hours

hector palmer’s note about it was two

pages long

although he tried to hide what he felt

it was clear that he disliked being part

of the eviction

he described how lonte burton had fought

with the police

my heart stopped when i read

the mother had three children one a baby

she lived in a two-room apartment with

no bathroom

they slept on the floor

she fought with the policeman while her

children watched

in the end she was carried out of the

building

i drove to 14th street and copied the

file

then i went back to my old apartment

claire was at the hospital

i took my sleeping bag a few suits my

radio the small tv from the kitchen

my cd player and a few cds a coffee pot

a hair dryer and three blue towels

i left a note telling her i was gone

i didn’t know what i felt

i had never moved out before i wasn’t

sure how it was done

as i drove away i didn’t feel happy to

be single again

claire and i had both lost

back at the 14th street law center my

first visitor was my old friend barry

nuzzo

he sat down carefully in the chair

opposite my desk he didn’t want to get

dirt on his expensive suit

was he wired like hector palmer

maybe they had sent barry because he was

my friend and also one of mr’s guests

that tuesday afternoon

so you’re here for the money he said

joke

of course

you’re crazy

they’re gonna come after you michael you

can’t take a file

you mean a criminal lawsuit for theft

probably

and they talk to the bar association

rafters working on it

michael you won’t be a lawyer when they

finished not here not anywhere you’re

going to lose your license

i wasn’t ready for that

i have the file

the file has plenty of information about

drake and sweeney in it

you can’t use the file michael you can’t

use it in a lawsuit because you took it

from our offices and that’s theft

i said nothing

i didn’t know what i was going to do

but i knew i couldn’t give the file back

now

i had nothing else in the fight against

drake and sweeney

barry stood up to leave

will you phone me sometime michael he

said at the door

sure

chapter nine

the homeless

i’m michael where do you live ruby

here and there

the building had been a department store

many years ago

now the sign on it said samaritan house

it’s a private shelter mordecai said

90 beds the food’s okay

some churches in arlington got together

and they pay for everything we’ve been

coming here for six years

inside we used a bedroom as an office

this is a good office mordecai said we

can be private here

what about a bathroom i asked

they’re in the back

you don’t get your own bathroom in a

shelter

i could hear radios

people were getting up

it was monday morning and they had jobs

to go to

is it easy to get a room here i asked

mordecai although i already knew the

answer

nearly impossible

there’s a long waiting list

how long do they stay

maybe three months

this is one of the nicer shelters so

they’re safe here

after three months the shelter tries to

find them an apartment

and our clients all come from shelters i

asked

half come from the shelters mordecai

said the other half from the streets

we take anybody

anybody who’s homeless

the people here at this shelter have

jobs but they don’t earn enough to pay

rent for an apartment

so when they get one they lose it again

one missed paycheck and they lose their

homes

my first client was called waylene

age 27 two children no husband

her problem wasn’t complicated she had

worked in a fast food restaurant

she started to tell us why she left her

job but mordecai said that the reason

didn’t matter

she hadn’t had her last two paychecks

because she had no address the

restaurant had sent the checks to the

wrong place

the checks had disappeared and nobody at

the restaurant cared

will you be here next week mordecai

asked

wayleen wasn’t sure

maybe here maybe there

she was looking for a job she might move

in with someone or get her own apartment

we’ll get your money and we’ll have the

check sent to our office said mordecai

he gave her the address of the 14th

street law center she said thanks and

left

call a fast food restaurant mordecai

told me

tell him you’re wayleen’s lawyer be nice

at first

if they don’t send the checks stop being

nice

if necessary go there and get the checks

yourself

i wrote down everything mordecai said

like it was complicated

whalen’s paychecks were for two hundred

and ten dollars

my last client at drake and sweeney was

trying to get 900 million dollars

but i was happy enough when i got home

at the end of the day

my new apartment now had some old chairs

in it and the tv was on a box

i smiled at my furniture my mother had

called

i listened to her voice on the answer

phone

she and dad wanted to visit me

that evening i watched basketball on tv

and had a few beers

at 11 30 i called claire we hadn’t

talked in four days

why shouldn’t we talk

we were actually still married

i thought maybe we could have dinner

soon

the phone rang and then a voice said

hello

it was a man

i couldn’t speak

i had been gone less than a week and

claire had a man in the apartment at 11

i almost put the phone down but then i

said

i’d like to speak to claire please

who’s calling

michael her husband

she’s in the shower he said

he sounded pleased with himself

tell her i called i said

i walked around the room until midnight

then i went for a walk in the cold

why did our marriage go wrong

who was that guy

was he someone she had known for years

and i didn’t know about him

i told myself it didn’t matter

we weren’t divorcing because of other

people we were divorcing because of us

and if she was free to find another guy

then i was free to find someone too

yeah

right

at 2am i was walking around dupont

circle stepping over people sleeping in

the street

it was dangerous but i didn’t care

after a couple of hours i went home and

got some sleep

then i wanted to work

i got to 14th street before 8 that

morning ready to start

as i walked through the snow making my

way to the law center i thought of my

clients

by now i had a few

there was waylene and her paychecks

there was also marvis

like me marvis wanted a divorce

his wife was on drugs she had taken

everything he had including their two

children

marvis wanted them back

how long will the divorce take marvis

had asked me

six months i told him

marvis was clean

he didn’t drink and he was looking for

work

i enjoyed the half hour i spent with him

and i wanted to help him

another client was a 58 year old woman

her husband was dead and the government

was sending her money to the wrong place

i could get all her money back and then

get it sent to the right place

a lot of my clients had problems like

that

they were just not getting money often

from the government that should be

theirs

when i reached the law center a little

woman was sitting against our door

the office was still locked it was below

freezing in the streets when she saw me

she jumped to her feet and said

good morning are you a lawyer

yes i am

for people like me

she looked like she was homeless

sure

come in

i opened the door

it was colder inside than outside

i made some coffee and found some old

cookies i offered them to her and she

quickly ate one

what’s your name i asked

we were sitting in the front office next

to sophia’s desk waiting for the coffee

and for the office to get a little

warmer

ruby she said

i’m michael where do you live ruby

here and there

she was between 30 and 40 dressed in a

lot of old clothes she was very thin

tell me i said

i need to know

do you live in a shelter

not now she said

i live in a car

i sleep in the back

i poured two large paper cups full of

coffee and we went into my office

what can i do for you i asked

with both hands on the coffee cup to

keep warm and without looking at me she

told me her story

she and her son terence lived in a small

apartment

when terence was about 10 she went to

prison for four months for selling drugs

terence lived with her sister those four

months but when ruby came out of prison

they had lost the apartment

she and terrance slept in cars

warehouses and under bridges in warm

weather

when it was cold they went to the

shelters

she couldn’t stop taking drugs

a few years back she had worked for a

couple called roland’s

their children were grown and away from

home

ruby offered to pay mr and mrs rowlands

fifty dollars a month if terrance could

stay with them

the roland’s weren’t sure at first but

in the end they agreed

terence had a small bedroom at the

roland’s house

he started to get good grades at school

the roland’s were good people

ruby was allowed to visit terrence for

an hour each night

with great difficulties she managed to

pay each month as agreed she was pleased

with herself

until she went to prison again

she couldn’t stop taking drugs

and now terence didn’t want to talk to

her

he wanted to join the army

mr rollins was an army man

one night ruby took some drugs and then

went to the roland’s house

she screamed and shouted and the rolands

and terrence threw her out

the next day the roland started a

lawsuit

they wanted terence to become their son

ruby wasn’t allowed to visit him until

she stopped taking drugs

i want to see my son she said

i miss him so bad

you won’t see terrence until you stop

the drugs i said trying to say it nicely

i had to get her onto a drugs program

sophia knew where ruby should go

sophia knew everything and everybody

she made a phone call and then ruby and

i were on our way to naomi’s women’s

center on tenth street

it opened at seven closed at four and

between those hours helped women with a

drug problem

i spoke with megan the young woman in

charge of naomi’s we had a long talk

it was the first long talk i had had

with anyone in a long time

chapter 10

chicago

there’s going to be a lawsuit hector i

said

against drake and sweeney you can’t hide

from that

i was sleeping on the floor at the

apartment

i liked it down there and it helped me

understand my new clients

in the middle of the night the phone

rang it was clear

the police were in her apartment wanting

to search it for the file

i looked at my watch it was one am

i’ll be right there

the door was open and i ran in

there were three policemen in there and

i shouted at the nearest one

i’m michael brock who are you

lieutenant gasco said the policeman not

very nicely claire i shouted get the

video camera there’s gonna be a lawsuit

lieutenant gasko

lieutenant gasco showed me a document

it’s signed by a judge he said

and it says we can search for the file

but he knew i was a lawyer and he didn’t

look very happy

the file’s not here because i don’t live

here i said now give me your names and

then go

claire was filming it all with the video

camera

their document was fine and i knew that

but the three policemen gave me their

names and then left

can they come back

asked claire no

that’s good

did you tell him where i live i asked

her

michael i don’t know where you live you

just gave me a phone number

i said good night without touching or

kissing her i knew that was what she

wanted

i thought hard

now i had to tell mordecai everything

it was possible that the police would

come to the law center looking for the

file

next morning i tried to phone hector

palmer from the law center

his secretary said he had left the

washington office

i put the phone down

now what

i stared at the ceiling

mordecai came into my office

i started my story

my wife and i are together i moved out

of our apartment

i’m sorry said mordecai what else could

he say

don’t be

early this morning the police tried to

search the apartment where i used to

live

they were looking for a file that i took

when i left drake and sweeney

what kind of file

the devon hardy and lontay burton file

i’m

listening i don’t think that devon hardy

and lontay burton and the others were

squatters

i think they were tenants and if they

were tenants the eviction was illegal

it sure was

can a vague tenants without warning

but do you know

are you guessing

i told mordecai the story of the river

oaks file

i told him that something probably a

note dated january 27th was missing from

the file

and what do you think is in this note he

asked

i can’t be sure

but i think it’s a note from hector

palmer

i think he knew they were tenants and he

said that in the note

but river oaks wanted them out quickly

so they could start pulling the

warehouse down

they wanted to start the new building

for the post office in february

i think hector palmer’s note of january

27th was removed from the file so drake

and sweeney could evict devon hardy and

lonte burton and the others as

squatters good

said mordecai

so we starred a lawsuit for the family

of lante burton and the other people who

were evicted

yes i said

that way hector palmer has to tell the

judge what he knows

i’ll contact monty burton’s parents

mordecai said

they would be our clients in the lawsuit

her parents are dead

but she has a grandmother

fine

she’ll be our client

but first we need to find hector palmer

i think drake and sweeney will keep him

in the company

if he leaves the company they lose

control of him

but they want him out of washington

i think he’s working for great conswini

in another city

probably a new job with more money

sophia

shouted mordecai loud enough to be heard

on capitol hill

sevilla we’re looking for someone

sophia came in with paper and a pencil

i know she said i heard

she turned to me

i can help

tell me everything you know about this

person

i told sophia hector palmer’s name

address and job

i described him and said he had a wife

and four kids

age

maybe thirty

how much did he get a month at drake and

sweeney

as a legal assistant

three thousand

he has four kids so one or more will be

in school

he can’t send kids to a private school

on thirty five thousand

we start with the schools then the

churches

she went back to her desk and she was on

the phone for an hour

each time she said hello in english

asked for the person she wanted and then

the conversation was in spanish

an hour later she came back into my

office

they moved to chicago do you need an

address

but how did you don’t ask

a friend of a friend in their church

they moved to chicago last weekend i can

get you an address but it will take

longer

i don’t need an address i’ve been to

drake and sweeney’s chicago office a

couple of times

two days later i was there again

but i hadn’t flown first class as in the

old days

i waited outside the drake and sweeney

building from seven in the morning while

106 lawyers the third highest number

after washington and new york arrived

for work

at 8 20 hector palmer arrived and i

followed him into the building

he got off on floor number 51.

there was a phone there

i phoned mordecai and told him about my

progress

then i phoned megan at naomi’s women’s

center

ruby was still there doing okay

hector palmer wasn’t going anywhere for

the next 10 hours so i had another long

talk with megan

there was a list of partners names on

each floor i chose one

i have an appointment with dick healy i

said loudly as i passed the desk

and then i walked past the desk down the

hall

hector had his own office in chicago

hello hector

i said as i walked in so how’s chicago

what

what are you doing here

i sat on hector’s desk

there’s going to be a lawsuit hector i

said against drake and sweeney you can’t

hide from that

i didn’t feel as confident as i tried to

sound

and who’s starting this lawsuit

lontay burton’s grandmother

and later at the other people who were

evicted when we find them

hector just looked at me

you remember alante don’t you hector

she was the young mother who fought with

the policeman when you were evicting

everyone

you felt bad about it because you knew

she was a tenant

so you wrote that in a note dated

january 27th and you put that in the

file

but braden chance took your note out

again that’s why i’m here hector i want

a copy of that note

why would i have a copy

because you’re smart hector

you knew that drake and sweeney’s

evictions were illegal

you knew how important your note was

maybe you even guessed braden chance

would remove it

hector thought about that

i guess he wouldn’t be happy hiding in

chicago

the evictions were wrong and he knew it

he had tried to help me once before

meet me at 12 in front of the building

he said

he was there on time

i have four children please protect me

he said as he gave me an envelope

i thanked him got a taxi and opened the

envelope

the note was dated january 27th

it said that the tenants were paying 100

a month rent on the 15th of every month

to a man called johnny

there was even a copy of a receipt

signed by johnny saying that he had

received 100 rent from lontay burton on

january fifteenth

it couldn’t be any clearer

they were tenants

the eviction was illegal

at chicago o’hare airport i faxed copies

of the note and the receipt to mordecai

then i caught the next plane back to

washington

a taxi from the airport took me back to

14th street where mordecai and sophia

weren’t looking as happy as i had

expected

lieutenant gasko was in the office

waiting for me

as he took me out to the police car

sophia was phoning fast and talking fast

first in english than in spanish

but she and mordecai couldn’t stop

lieutenant gasco taking me to central

police station like any other criminal

drake and sweeney said i had taken their

file and that was theft

chapter 11

megan

her eyes held mine for a second and i

thought

no wedding ring on her finger

it was friday afternoon i knew mordecai

could get me out on bail but some very

bad things could happen to a

good-looking white boy in prison over

the weekend

in the police car to central i tried to

think about all the great people who had

spent some time in prison like martin

luther king

but then i thought of my parents

their son in prison would be the end of

their world

my friends already thought i had ruined

my life

i didn’t know what claire would think

especially she had a new man now

at central gaskell led me like a lost

dog

they took everything i had in my pockets

and i signed for it

then my photograph and fingerprints were

taken

there were police everywhere but only

one other white face a man who was very

drunk

we were walking to the cells

i was scared

can i get bail i asked

i think your lawyer’s working on it

gasco said the cell door closed behind

me

there were five other prisoners in the

cell with me all black all much younger

than me

i sat on the floor

in the cell opposite i could see the

drunk white guy and hear him shouting

two large black men had him in a corner

of the cell

they were hitting his head

minutes passed

one of the young guys in my cell walked

over to me

this was the end

nice jacket

he said touching my jacket with his foot

as i sat on the floor

thanks i said trying to sound like a

minute

he was 18 or 19

thin

probably a gang member who would spend

his life on the streets

i could use a jacket like that he said

giving me a kick with his foot

you shouldn’t be a low-life street gang

member then i thought

would you like to borrow the jacket i

asked i wasn’t going to fight back

if i did the other four would help the

first one

what did you say

i said would you like to borrow

the kick caught me in the head and i

shouted from the shark

my friend said he could use a jacket

like that said one of the other four

a gift would be nice

i quickly took off my jacket and held it

toward the young gang member who had

kicked me

is this a gift he said taking it

it’s whatever you want it to be

he kicked me again hard in the head

is this a gift

yes

thanks man

i sat in a ball on the floor my face

hurt

the floor was getting cold

what would happen when i needed the

toilet

nice shoes said a voice above me

i gave them to him

mordechai got me out on bail at seven pm

my bail was ten thousand dollars

my friends at drake and sweeney had told

the newspapers about my stay in prison

lawyer out on bail

was it theft i read the next day

they took a photo of me when i first

joined drake and sweeney and that was

there too

they were trying to ruin my life

i wondered which client was paying for

all the hours rafter and arthur jacobs

were spending on me

a client was definitely paying

a client paid for every hour of every

lawyer’s time

river oaks probably

i went into work at 14th street

ruby was asleep in front of the door

why are you sleeping here i asked

she didn’t answer

she was hungry

i unlocked the door made coffee and went

to find the cookies

the phone rang it was megan

ruby had left naomi’s

are you taking drugs again i asked ruby

she didn’t look at me

no she said

yes you are

don’t lie to me ruby i’m your friend and

your lawyer and i’ll help you see

terrence but i can’t help if you lie to

me

now will you go back to naomi’s

yes

good

i’ll take you

okay

she took another cookie her fourth

on the way back to naomi’s she said

you were in prison

how did you know

you hear stuff on the street

when we arrived megan took ruby into the

women’s group and then asked me to stay

for coffee

she threw a washington post to me

bad night huh she said with a smile

there was my photo again

it wasn’t too bad

what’s this

she asked pointing at my face

a guy in my cell wanted my shoes he took

them

she looked at my shoes

old nikes

those

yes

good shoes aren’t they

how long were you in there

a couple of hours

and i got my life together i’m a new man

now

she smiled again

a perfect smile

her eyes held mine for a second and i

thought

no wedding ring on her finger

she was tall and a little too thin

her hair was dark red and short and well

cut

her eyes were light brown very big and

round and nice to look at

she was very attractive and i wondered

why i hadn’t noticed it before

i told her about me

she told me about herself

her father was in the church in maryland

he liked baseball and he loved

washington

as a teenager megan had decided to work

with the poor

it was a job but a job she liked

i told her the story of mr and how i had

started working with the homeless

she was very interested and asked lots

of questions

then she asked me to come back later for

lunch

if the sun was shining we could eat

outside

i like that

i thought it was romantic

you can find love anywhere even in a

shelter for homeless women

chapter 12

the washington post

the photographs said it all

because of drake and sweeney these poor

people were dead

the file was thick

rafter had worked very hard

it was my copy of drake and sweeney’s

complaint to the bar association

in one sentence

i had stolen their file so now i should

lose my license

but it was a shock

drake and sweeney wanted blood my blood

it was frightening

since i had started law school ten years

earlier i had never thought of any other

kind of work

what would i do without a law license

but there was one thing drake and

sweeney didn’t know yet

tomorrow morning at nine o’clock

mordecai and i were starting a four

million dollar lawsuit against them for

the death of the burton family

i went into mordecai’s office

what do i do i said

he smiled

same as they did

call the washington post

i was at college with tim claussen

he’s one of the best journalists

next morning we told tim claussen about

the lawsuit against drake and sweeney

the burton story was already big as a

result of the march and my night in

prison and this made it even bigger

he asked us a lot of questions and i was

happy to answer

drake and sweeney went to the newspapers

first

the story was in the newspaper the next

day

for an old law company like drake and

sweeney it was the worst thing in the

world

arthur jacobs photo appeared next to

davon hardy’s

there were also photographs of lonte

burton taken from the march

you didn’t even have to read this story

the photograph said it all

because of drake and sweeney these poor

people were dead

the next day it got even worse for drake

and sweeney

the post office didn’t like all these

stories in the newspapers and they

didn’t want river oaks as their real

estate company

that left river oaks with nothing

river oaks told the washington post they

didn’t know the evictions were illegal

a million dollar lawsuit for lost

business by river oaks against drake and

sweeney was becoming possible

arthur jacobs phoned mordecai at the law

center

he wanted to meet mordecai at drake and

sweeney’s offices to talk about the

lawsuit

without me

mordecai smiled at me

this could be the meeting he said

maybe i replied

my future could depend on mordecai’s

talk with arthur jacobs

that night i couldn’t sleep

mordecai was enjoying himself

he told me afterward that he couldn’t

believe arthur jacobs was nearly 80.

the old man told mordecai immediately

that braden chance was gone

he didn’t choose to leave drake and

sweeney they told him to go

chance had been the only one who knew

those people were tenants

i believed that

mordecai showed arthur jacobs the

missing note from the file and the

receipt

rafter was at the meeting too with some

other lawyers

and for a long time none of them said a

word

then arthur jacobs made a suggestion

he said he wanted to meet with us and a

judge

with the judge there we could decide

everything on one day

the burton lawsuit the theft of the file

lawsuit and the bar association

complaint

the judge would be judge diorio who

mordecai knew was a fair judge

what do you think

mordecai asked me

what do you think

i say we do it

i’ll call judge diorio in a range of

time

chapter 13

burton against drake and sweeney

you put this family on the street

you’ve told as you did and that’s where

they died

we were in judge diorio’s room but this

wasn’t a cord

there were two lawyers from river oaks

from drake and sweeney there was arthur

jacobs rafter

nathan malamud and barry nutso

why malamad and not so who were not

going to speak for drake and sweeney

then i understood

malamada natso had gone back to work

after that tuesday with mr

they were fine so why wasn’t i

judge diorio said good morning and then

gave mordechai five minutes to make the

complaint against drake and sweeney in

the burton lawsuit

mordecai needed just two minutes

he explained clearly how drake and

sweeney’s illegal eviction led to the

deaths of lonte burton and her children

arthur jacobs spoke for drake and

sweeney

he didn’t disagree with mordecai about

what had happened to lantai and her

children

but he said it was in part her own fault

there were places for her to go

arthur said there were shelters open

she spent the night before in a church

with many other people

why did she leave

her grandmother has an apartment in

northeast why didn’t this mother do more

to protect her little family

why was she in the street at all

diorio asked and i almost smiled

arthur stayed calm

the eviction was wrong he said we are

not arguing with mr greene about that

we are saying that events after the

eviction were partly the mother’s fault

how much of it was her fault asked judge

diorio

at least half

that’s too high

we don’t agree judge diorio

mr greene

mordecai stood shaking his head in

disbelief

like arthur was a first-year law student

these people have nowhere to live mr

jacobs

that’s why they’re called homeless

you put this family on the street

you’ve told us you did

and that’s where they died

we could go to court

would you say the same thing there

stand up in court mr jacobs say

it was the mother’s fault her family

died

arthur and the rest of the drake and

sweeney lawyers looked scared enough at

the idea of telling a court full of

black people that the burton family’s

death was in part lontai’s fault

drake and sweeney are guilty of an

illegal eviction

said judge diorio

that’s clear i wouldn’t advise you to

blame the mother in a court

mordecai and arthur sat down

we had won the burton lawsuit without

going to court

now we would discuss how much drake and

sweeney should pay

rafters stood up

he talked about how much money you

usually got for dead children in

lawsuits

he had read a lot of these lawsuits

across the u.s

he offered fifty thousand dollars for

each child

he became pouring

he started to discuss the amount of

money lontai had lost because she died

and so she didn’t go to work

that was added to the money you usually

got for dead children

in total he offered seven hundred and

seventy thousand dollars

is that your final offer mister rafter

asked judge diorio

he looked like he hoped it wasn’t

no sir rafter said

mr green

mordechai stood again

we do not accept their offer judge

diorio

sir

this talk of the value of each child

means nothing to me

i know how much i can get if this comes

to court and the people of washington

decide

and that is a lot more than mr rafter is

offering

these children were of course homeless

black children

mr rafter you have a son at private

school

would you take fifty thousand dollars

for him

rafter looked down and didn’t reply

i can walk into a washington court and i

can get a million dollars each for

anti-burdens little children

that’s the same as any child in an

expensive school in virginia or maryland

the defense team looked at each other

they all had kids in expensive schools

in virginia and maryland

mordecai then talked about the last

hours of lonti burton and her family as

he had at capitol hill

he was a born storyteller and he had a

good story to tell

his voice went up and then down in anger

at the end he pointed at the drake and

sweeney lawyers speaking for them

those people in that warehouse he

shouted they’re just a bunch of

squatters

throw them out

he asked for four million dollars

it was silent in the room when he

finished

judge diorio made some notes

the next thing to discuss was the file

do you have the file

judge diorio asked me

yes sir

will you give it to me

yes sir

mordecai gave judge diorio the file and

we all sat and watched for ten minutes

while the judge read it

when he had finished he said

the file has been returned mr jacobs

there was a criminal lawsuit about its

theft

what do you want to do now

if we can agree on the burton law suit

we will stop the criminal lawsuit

against mr brock for theft of the file

mr brock is that acceptable to you

yes

yes sir it is

next we have the complaint to the bar

association by drake and sweeney against

michael brock

mr jacobs

arthur stood up again

he talked about why it was wrong for a

lawyer to steal a file from his own

company

he didn’t seem to be enjoying it and he

didn’t take too long about it

but i had been one of them and then i

had damaged them

they wouldn’t forgive me for that

the complaint to the bar association

wouldn’t be stopped

i wasn’t a criminal arthur said so they

would stop the theft lawsuit

but i was a lawyer and a good one

and so the complaint should go to the

bar association

the lawyers from river oaks didn’t speak

but it was clear they agreed

it was of course their clients file i

had taken

and arthur spoke so well that actually i

agreed with him too

mr brock said judge diorio

do you have anything to say

i hadn’t prepared anything but i wasn’t

afraid to say what i felt

i looked arthur in the eyes and said

mr jacobs i have always had a very high

opinion of you and i still do

i was wrong to take the file and i am

sorry i did it

i was looking for information and i was

going to put the file back but all that

is no excuse

i apologize to you to drake and sweeney

and to your client river oaks

mordecai told me afterwards that he knew

immediately drake and sweeney would

agree to his next suggestion

the anger had gone out of the situation

mordecai suggested twenty five thousand

dollars each to all the people evicted

by drake and sweeney

when we could find them

he suggested three million dollars for

the burton lawsuit paid at 300 000 a

year

and after a lot of talk we agreed that i

would lose my license for nine months

only

chapter 14

a new life

i’m thinking about my new life i said

and we both smiled

early friday i was happily helping

homeless people at the 14th street law

center though not of course speaking as

a lawyer when arthur jacobs suddenly

appeared at my door

i said hello nicely though i couldn’t

imagine what he wanted

he said no to coffee he just wanted to

talk

arthur said that the last few weeks had

been the most difficult of his 56 years

as a lawyer

drake and sweeney was okay again now but

he still couldn’t sleep

he felt guilty about the deaths of the

burton family and he would never forget

it

and he was tired of chasing money

i was too surprised to say much so i

just listened

arthur was suffering and i felt sorry

for him

he asked about the law center and the

work we did

how long had the center been there how

many people worked there

where did the money come from

this gave me an opportunity and i took

it

i told arthur that because i couldn’t

work as a lawyer i was starting a pro

bono program

i was going to use lawyers from the big

washington law companies

these volunteer lawyers would work a few

hours a week and i would tell them what

to do

we could reach thousands of homeless

people

arthur liked the idea

as we discussed it the program grew

larger

after a few minutes he was talking about

sending all 400 of his washington

lawyers to do pro bono work for a few

hours a week

would 400 lawyers be too many arthur

asked

no i said

but i’ll need help from inside drake and

sweeney

i know someone he’s at the chicago

office but i’m sure you can get him back

as i had guessed arthur knew nothing

about hector palmer or how he had helped

me get the river oaks file hector would

be back in washington in a month working

with me

arthur stayed in my office for two hours

he was a much happier man when he left

he had a purpose in life

i walked into his car and then ran to

tell mordecai the good news

we could help as many homeless people as

we needed to

megan’s uncle owned a house near fenwick

island right near the ocean a perfect

place for a weekend break

we left washington friday afternoon

i drove and megan told me where to go

and ruby sat in the back seat eating

cookies excited by the thought of

spending a few days outside the city

megan had told me very clearly that

there were three bedrooms in her uncle’s

house one for each of us it rained

saturday

a cold shower that blew in from the

ocean

megan and i sat and watched it out of

the window sitting close together on the

couch

where’s our client i asked

ruby

watching tv

what are you thinking

she asked quietly

everything and nothing

32 days earlier i had been married to

another woman

living in a different apartment

and doing different work

i didn’t even know the woman whose head

was now on my shoulder

how could life change so much in a month

i’m thinking about my new life i said

and we both smiled

you

第一章

先生

先生 指着他腰间的炸药

我拉了这个 他说我们死

了 那个黑人老头上了我身后的电梯

他闻到了烟味和廉价酒的味道

街上没有肥皂的生活

他的胡子和头发半灰了 很脏

他戴着墨镜 一件

脏兮兮的长外套垂到膝盖

他看起来很胖 可能是因为他

在华盛顿的冬天

都穿着衣服 街上的人总是穿着他们所有的衣服

他们不能离开任何 他们的衣服在

家里，因为他们没有

家 老人不属于这里 这里的

一切都很贵

大楼里的 400 名律师

都为德雷克和斯威尼工作 得到

了

难以置信的钱

我知道，因为我是 我自己是德雷克和

斯威尼律师

电梯在六点停了

当我走出去并右转时他没有按电梯按钮 他

跟着我

我推开了

那里一个大会议室的沉重木门 里面的桌子上有八位律师，

他们看起来都很惊讶，

他们都在看着我，所以我把

我的朋友从电梯里转过来，他正站在

那儿，

他用枪指着我

把枪放下，说

桌子上的一位律师

他的名字是 椽子 他

是法庭上的硬汉 或许

是德雷克和斯威尼打过的最严厉的律师

突然射中天花板

椽子睁大眼睛闭上嘴

锁上那个人对我说的门

一堵墙

我们都靠墙站着

那人脱下他的脏外套，

小心翼翼地放在房间中央那张昂贵的大

桌子上

他的腰间系着五六根红色的棍子

，用绳子系着

我从未见过的炸药 但

他们对我来说就像炸药

我想逃跑，希望

当他向我开枪时

，我的腿像水一样

一些律师

吓得发抖，发出像害怕的动物一样的声音

请注意 安静的男人平静地说

然后他从裤子口袋里拿出一根长长的黄色绳子和一

把刀

你他对我说

把它们绑起来

椽上前

听朋友他说你想要什么

第二枪

打到椽耳朵后面的墙上

不要叫我朋友说那个人

你想让我们叫你什么我

让他悄悄地

叫我先生

我用黄色绳子绑了八位律师

其中一个巴里·努佐是我的朋友

我们同岁 32 我们已经

开始 同一天在德雷克和斯威尼，

只有我们的婚姻不同，

他成功了，我的不是

他有三个孩子克莱尔，我

没有任何

我看着巴里，他看着我

我知道我们都在考虑

巴里的 孩子们

我们可以听到外面

的警车和警察进入

大楼时的噪音

先生指着他腰间的炸药

我拉了这个 他说 我们死

了一会儿 我们都看着彼此

九个白人男孩和先生

我想到了所有

你在报纸上读到的那些可怕的枪击事件

一个疯狂的工人午饭后带着枪回到工作岗位

，杀死了

他办公室里的每个人

快餐店和游乐场

也发生了杀戮

，那些死去的人是孩子或

会关心的诚实工人

我们是律师

时间过去了

你今天午餐吃什么 先生

问我打破了长时间的沉默

他说话清晰，从他的声音来看

他受过良好的教育

他并不总是在街上

我有鸡肉和沙拉 我一个人说很惊讶

不 我遇到一个朋友

你们俩花了多少钱

三十美元

先生不喜欢那

三十美元 他为两个人重复了

你知道我午餐吃了

什么 不

我有

一个收容所的免费汤和 我很

高兴得到它

你可以用 30 美元养活我的一百个朋友

你知道

是的 先生

打电话给你的

老板 桌子上有一部电话

我打电话给亚瑟·雅各布斯

800 名律师为德雷克和斯威工作 ney

环游世界，但 79 岁时，jacobs

是华盛顿最年长的合伙人，

他在电话响起的第一响就

接了

jacobs

michael 先生，你好吗，

太好了，我说

他想从我们这里

得到什么，我和那个人谈过你想要什么

面包汤先生说这个人

从 l 街和 17 号的避难所得到了

他们在汤里放了很多蔬菜

我对着电话

说面包汤没有说那个人为我们所有人准备了汤和面包

jacobs 先生我 说

我听说我能听到他

为街头人提供的避难所确实进行了

雅各布斯先生请就这样做他有枪

和炸药

我放下电话

你说他和我说话的

那个人你叫什么名字

迈克尔布洛克

多少钱 你去年挣的

别说谎

我很快就想

我没有说谎12

万

他不喜欢

你给了穷人多少钱

我不记得我妻子这样做了

谢谢布洛克

先生指出

他问了所有其他律师的枪 其中同样的问题

奈特·马拉穆德 房间里唯一的合伙人

赚了超过一百万

超过一百万 先生对他说

我知道你

你从我身边走过 当我

每天早上坐在人行道上

你从来不给我钱

为什么可以 你不帮助穷人无家可归的人

奈特是个白头发的大个子

他已经和德雷克和斯威尼一起工作了

30 年

他因为尴尬而脸红了

现在很抱歉他

说是谁驱逐了

他突然又一次说先生

谁做了驱逐

没有人说

我们谁也不理解他

但先生没有寻找答案

他看着窗外

也许他在想

也许他在做梦

也许他在看警察在

那里

我们的汤和面包半小时

后到了

有人敲门，

外面有人在门外大喊大叫，

如果我在外面看到警察，我会杀了

这些人，

然后他用枪指着我的

头，我们两个走得很慢 到门

把门解锁然后慢慢打开

先生说外面没人

对面的办公室，一枪打中了先生

的头，

先生无声无息地倒地，我的

脸上满是鲜血，

他的血

先生躺在地板上，

他的半个头已经不见了，

但太阳镜仍然遮住了一只眼睛，

他的手根本没有靠近炸药

警察来了 从所有办公室跑来跑去

你受伤了吗其中一个人问

我

我不知道

我看不到

我的脸和衬衫上还有

一种液体我后来发现

这是先生大脑的一部分

第 2 章

德文·哈迪是

谁做的 驱逐

先生问过，

但我想他已经知道答案

了

，警察带我到

大楼的一楼，朋友、家人

和医生

在那里等着医生，

但我的妻子在哪里

和一个枪手在一个房间里呆了六个小时，

她没有来看我

这真的很有趣，因为我的妻子

克莱尔本人

是华盛顿最大的医院之一的

医生 确保我

没事

然后我的秘书

波莉到了

她的双臂搂着我

克莱尔在哪里 我问她

我给医院打了电话 她在工作

波莉知道婚姻已经没有多少了

你还好吗 她 问

我想所以

我带你回家

我很高兴有人告诉我

该怎么

做 和电视车 甚至是

一辆消防车 我还活着

我还活着 我第一次意识到我还活着时微笑

当我回到我们位于乔治敦 p 街的公寓时，我抬头仰望天堂，非常感谢你

克莱尔不是

在那里，

我坐在空荡荡的公寓里，想着

我们在我搬到华盛顿后一周认识的她，

我刚从耶鲁大学毕业，找到了一份很棒的工作，

她来自美国最古老的家庭之一，

我们相爱了，我们结婚了，

但是德雷克和斯威尼 让你

第一年工作很努力

我每周工作 6 天，每天工作 15 小时

我在星期天见到克莱尔，我们一起出去

，在过去的五年里我不太累，我每个月工作了

大约 200 小时

，也就是八小时 六天每天工作

小时，周日两到三个小时，

但德雷克和斯威尼的年轻律师

不会抱怨长时间工作，

不到十分之一的人成为合伙人

，每个人都想成为十分之一，

因为你至少赚了一百万

一年 1 美元

克莱尔在最初的几个月里对此很满意

，

但后来她厌倦了有一个

从未在那里的丈夫，我没有

责怪她

，在德雷克和斯威尼有很多离婚，

每小时工作时间很长

顺便说一句 nt 比幸福的妻子更重要

在我们在一起的第一年结束时，

克莱尔很不开心，我们也没有

经常聊天，她决定去医学院，

我认为

德雷克和斯威尼告诉我这是个好主意 我

是一个可能的未来伴侣

我只是

在克莱尔学习的时候更加努力工作 我并没有

为此感到内疚

但克莱尔不只是学习

她工作的时间令人难以置信

她已经决定她很快就会成为一名伟大的

医生

我们 正在玩一个疯狂的游戏，叫做

我可以比你更努力

，另一个游戏叫做我的工作

比你的工作更重要，因为我是一名

医生

律师，

我的老板亚瑟·雅各布斯当然在

我的团队中，

他已经成为德雷克和斯威尼的合伙人

30 岁时 最年轻

的合伙人

，他很快就会成为最年长的

工作合伙人

法律就是他的生命 他

的三个离婚妻子都可以

告诉你

我突然醒来

我在扶手椅上睡着

了 公寓和克莱尔坐在

我旁边的椅子上

我今天

在医院说在医院

里我们九

个人和一个疯子和一把枪在一个房间里呆了六个小时我们很

幸运逃脱了

八个家庭来看看 他们的

亲戚，因为他们对

他是否还活着

以及我如何回家感兴趣

我的秘书开车送我

我不能在那里哦不，你当然

不能在那里我多么愚蠢

我不能在那里因为 警察

要求所有医生留在他们的

医院，直到德雷克和斯威尼的情况结束

他们总是在

可能发生枪击事件时

这样做

在厨房里看小

电视 六点钟的新闻显示德雷克

和斯威尼大楼，你可以看到

先生从窗外看

电视新闻说

炸药不是

真的 棍子是木头做的，先生

把它们涂成

红色 枪是真实的，

虽然是 44 被盗

先生的真名是 davon hardy

他是 45

他曾在越南打过架

他曾因偷窃入狱几次，

但他不是大罪犯

，他无家可归 没有人知道的家人

那天早上华盛顿邮报有更多

细节

据一个叫 mordecai

greene 的人说 第 14 街

法律中心的主任德文哈迪最近失去

了工作

然后他变得无家可归

他住在一个旧仓库里

这并不罕见

的无家可归的人搬进空荡荡的

建筑物，因为他们没有钱

住自己的地方

德文哈迪最近被

从仓库驱逐为非法

擅自占地

律师负责驱逐

驱逐先生问过谁，

但我想他已经知道答案

了

那现在我也知道了，

德雷克和斯威尼把先生扔到了

街上

第三章

mordecai green

mordecai green 是一个热情有爱心的人，

他的工作在 s 特里茨，

他是一位有爱心的律师，

我曾告诉保利，我

今天会在先生进入办公室后的第二天

上班，

但这是

我第一次没有去上班，当时我已经

足够好了，可以

刚开始上班 下雪了，我

开着一辆雷克萨斯，穿过

华盛顿的街道，

雪下得越来越大，

我只是开着

车，保利的声音从汽车电话里传来，

她听起来很担心

，你在哪里，

你想认识

很

多亚瑟·雅各布斯想认识的人 见到你你有

客户在等你

我很好保利告诉大家我

在医生

办公室你

不是但我可能是

我开车在乔治敦附近什么也不去

只是

开车乌云很

黑下雪会很重

人们 在人行道上匆匆穿过雪地

我看到一个无家可归的人，想知道他是否

认识 davon hardy

然后他们联系不上她

，我们一起吃午饭就结束了

我转身向东北经过洛根

圈进入城市的帮派区，

然后开车直到我找到第 14 街

法律中心，

我把车停在 14 街

，我确定我会 再也看不到

雷克萨斯的费用

第14街法律中心在一座古老的

高大红砖房子里，曾经有过

更好的日子

顶楼的窗户被玻璃上的

木块保护

着 门没有锁

我慢慢走进去 走出雪地，

进入另一个世界，

这是一间律师事务所，

但这里

没有像德雷克和

斯威尼那样昂贵的家具

地板上的

地毯 电脑和唯一的复印机

都用了 10 年 一面墙上挂着

一张马丁·路德·金的大照片

桌子上

写着索菲亚·门多萨（sophia mendoza）的男人

她看起来像墨西哥人

她没有笑但我笑了 但我

笑

了

到了第 14 街法律中心

我正在寻找 mordecai green 我说

但就在他从办公室出来

索菲亚回到她的工作

格林是一个巨大的黑人男子，至少

有两米高，很重

，他早年的时候 五十多岁，留着灰色的

胡须，戴着圆形的红色眼镜，他

对索菲亚大喊了一些关于文件的事情，

然后转向我

，我能帮你吗？

我想和你谈谈德文哈迪

我说，给了他我的德雷克和斯威尼卡，

他看着我 几秒钟，

然后迅速看

向电话里用快速西班牙语讲话的索菲亚

mordecai green 走回他的

办公室，我跟着他走进办公室，

这是一间没有窗户的小房间

，桌子和地板上都堆满

了文件和法律书籍

坐下 他说

但你可能会弄脏

你想要什么

知道他为什么这样做是因为

驱逐

几个月前，他搬进

了佛罗里达大道拐角处的一个旧仓库，

对于一个无家可归的人来说，这不是一个糟糕的地方，

它有一个屋顶，一些厕所的水

，谁拥有 仓库

mordecai 从他桌上的一摞文件中取出一个薄文件，

这正是他想要

的文件 他看了一会儿文件

仓库归一家名为 River Oaks 的公司所有

，River Oaks 的律师是德雷克和

斯威尼，

可能

是

不，

我听说德文哈迪和其他

人没有收到驱逐的警告，但你可以在没有警告的情况下

驱逐擅自占地者

哦，是的，

你不能在没有警告的情况下驱逐租户，

尽管德文哈迪是擅自占地者还是租户，

我不知道

我 想到另一个

问题 devon hardy 知道 drake 和

sweeney

谁知道

他虽然

疯了但并不愚蠢

我已经花了足够多的时间

他看了看他的手表 我看了看我的

我们交换了电话号码并

承诺保持联系

mordecai 绿色是一个温暖的人 有爱心的人，

他的工作在街头保护

数百名无名的客户

他是一名在路上有一颗心的律师

索菲亚没有从

电话里的谈话中抬起头来

雷克萨斯仍然在那里被一

英寸的雪覆盖

第4章

妈妈 和爸爸

欢迎来到这个世界 儿子

你认为工厂工作的人喜欢

他们正在做的事情

你正在变得富有 他们不是

在我离开 mordecai green 的办公室后我

开车在城市里转来转去

当下雪时

作为一名律师 我的客户支付的工作时间

我不能做这种事情，

只是在交通无处可去的情况下移动，

但我现在正在做

我不想回到我不想去的空荡荡的

公寓

要么我去酒吧

我可能永远不会离开，

所以我开车

穿过了我以前从未见过的城市贫困地区

然后我回到德雷克和斯威尼

，再次乘坐先生的电梯，

沿着大厅走到我的办公室，

在我的办公桌前坐下

我第一次想知道

我办公室里的所有东西花了多少

钱昂贵的旧办公桌红色皮革

扶手椅和波斯

地毯我们不只是

在这栋楼里追逐金钱

为什么我们如此努力地购买更

昂贵的地毯或 旧的办公桌

是工作的一个很好的理由

是我想要

在我昂贵的房间里过这样的生活我想到

了末底改·格林花时间帮助

那些一无所有的人

我的办公桌上有大约十个来自客户的粉红色电话信息

他们都不

感兴趣

我不喜欢这项工作

我的客户是大公司，我

处理他们针对其他

大公司

的诉讼 诉讼持续了数年

可能有一百名律师在处理每

一件诉讼，他们

都互相发送文件 er

paulie 进来给我带来了饼干

她带着灿烂的笑容把它们放在桌子上，

然后她就回家了

那天

有几个律师进来说你过

得怎么样 然后又走了

他们可能在回家的路上太

孤单了

我又拿起了一个大文件，然后又拿起了

另一个

我今天想处理的诉讼

我不想处理任何一个

我做不到

现在对我来说没有任何意义

我去了 到我的电脑并开始

搜索我们的客户文件

River Oaks 于 1977

年在马里兰州黑格斯敦成立，

它是一家私人公司，因此

很难获得有关它的信息

River Oaks 是德雷克和

斯威尼律师的客户，名叫布雷登机会

我没有 知道这个名字，但我又看了

一遍我们的电脑文件，

布莱登机会是四楼的房地产合伙人，

他 44 岁，已婚并

在杜克大学上过法学院

，河橡树有 42 个文件，其中

四个是关于

河橡树的驱逐 买了一个仓库

1 月 27 日在佛罗里达大道上，一些擅自占地者被

逐出仓库，其中一个

我现在知道是 devon

hardy 驱逐文件本身

旁边有一个数字，

这个数字意味着只有布雷登机会

才能打开我写下的文件

文件的名称和号码，然后我

走到四楼

，我看到一个法律助理

，问他布雷登机会的

办公室在哪里，

他指着大厅对面一扇敞开的门，

虽然时间很晚，

机会在他的办公桌上看起来很忙

他 不喜欢我刚从

德雷克和斯威尼的大厅走进来，你

先打电话预约，但这

并不让我担心，机会没有让我坐下，

但我做了，他不喜欢那样 要么

当他被枪杀时你就在旁边

他在我说德文哈迪的名字后不愉快地说

是的我说

对你来说太糟糕

了

哈迪先生现在已经死了被从仓库驱逐

是不是我们的驱逐之一

据说是机会但是 他说话的时候没有看着

我

我猜阿瑟·雅各布斯

那天早些时候和他一起看过文件

那增加了

他的机会 他是擅自占地

者 当然他是

他们都是擅自占地者 他们不是

我们的客户 刚把他们从

仓库里弄出来

你确定他是擅自占地者

不是房客

机会看起来很生气

你想要什么

我不能看到文件

吗，因为它是我的，我说不，那可能还不够好

他站着双手颤抖，他

指着门

我对他微笑然后

离开大厅的法律助理已经

听到了一切，我们交换了

当我经过他的办公桌时

，他的眼神和微笑 这个人是个傻瓜，

他非常平静地说

我再次微笑

是的，

但是有什么机会隐藏

那里有什么问题

，它在那个文件中我必须得到它

我回到我的办公室

想电话 响

了，很清楚

你为什么在 办公室

她说得很慢，声音

比外面的雪还要冷。

我看了看表，

我记得我们约好

在公寓里一起吃晚饭，

呃，

一个从西海岸打来的客户，

我用过这个谎言，然后它没有。

不管

我在等 迈克尔

我应该开始吃饭

不 我会尽快回到公寓

我从大楼里跑进了

暴风雪 但我真的不在乎

另一个晚上一起被毁

了 几个小时后，克莱尔和我

在厨房的窗户边喝咖啡，

雪终于

停了

不必工作

几天

为什么不

因为我要疯了

，在德雷克和斯威尼，如果你疯了，

那么你会休息几天

你要疯了我知道

这很有趣实际上

人们对你很好他们微笑

波莉带来 我今天的饼干我喜欢

冷酷的表情又回来了，她说

我不能

，这就是

我知道她做不到的结局，

她是一名医生，人们

和她有约会，

但她不想和我一起去，

好吧，

我

当时说 我要去孟菲斯

几天看看我的父母

哦，真的，她说

她甚至听起来都不感兴趣

我需要见我的

父母已经快一年了，这是一个

好时机，我想

我不喜欢 下雪了，我不

想像我说的那样工作，

我快疯了

克莱尔起身去睡觉了

给我打电话 她说

我知道那是我婚姻的终结

，我讨厌不得不告诉我 妈妈

我的父母都 60 岁出头，他们

有生以来第一次试图享受不工作的乐趣

妈妈曾经是一名银行经理 爸爸曾

在亚特兰大

当过律师 他们努力工作 努力攒钱，

给了我爸爸一直想要的最好的东西

我要成为像他一样的律师

我在孟菲斯机场租了一辆车然后

开车向东到富人区

在白人居住的城市中，

黑人在城市的中心

，白人在外面的区域，

有时黑人从

市中心搬到白人区域，然后

白人搬到更远的地方，

我父母住在一个高尔夫球场上

新的玻璃房子

你可以从

我从机场打来的每个窗口都看到高尔夫球场所以妈妈

知道我来

了怎么

了当她看到我什么时她问

我我很好我很好

你们从来没有打电话给克莱尔因为你知道我

没有 两个月后没听到她的声音

克莱尔的好妈妈

我们都还活着，很健康，工作

很

努力，你们在一起的时间够吗？

没有，你们在一起的时间不多吗？

我看到她眼里的泪水，

对不起，妈妈，

这

很幸运 我们没有孩子

可以谈论其他事情我告诉她

先生的故事

你还好吗

她问她脸上带着震惊的表情

当然

我在这里不是

我公司要我带

几个 假期所以我回家了

你p 哦，

克莱尔，现在

下午晚些时候，我爸爸和我打

高尔夫球，

爸爸我对德雷克和斯威尼不太满意

就像

他们正在做的事情

你正在变得富有 他们不高兴

他很高兴

他在高尔夫上获胜

十分钟后他

说你要换工作

我在考虑

为什么你不直接说你的 “

我想说像往常一样，我感到虚弱，就像我

正在逃避

我正在考虑为

无家可归者工作的事情我说作为一名律师我很快补充说，

爸爸没有停止打球，

他把球打到了远方

我” 不想看到你把它全部扔掉

儿子

他说

你几年后就会成为合伙人

我们追着他的舞会

一个街头小子在你面前被杀

你必须改变世界

你只需要几天的时间 作品

是里面的所有

第五章leonte

burton都是一位年轻的母亲和她的

孩子

都死

了 r 启动了旧车的引擎

并让它继续

运转 当然，当我星期五晚上回来时，公寓是空的，

但是

厨房里有一张纸条，

就像我一样，克莱尔已经回家了

几天，

我 知道克莱尔也想结束婚姻

我只是不知道

我走

了多远 外面很冷 风很大

我路过美丽的房子 有家人

在里面吃着笑着享受

着温暖

然后我继续前进 到 m 街

星期五晚上 m 总是很有趣的

时间 酒吧和咖啡店都挤满了

人们排队

等候进入餐馆 情侣们

第一次喝酒跳舞

我32岁了，

但在过去的五年里，我工作的

时间比大多数人都多，20岁

我累了，

那些漂亮的女孩从不

看我不

我

在九点后的某个时间回到公寓 电话响

了 是末底改

绿 你忙吗 他

要求做什么

工作 避难所都满了

我们没有足够的帮手

我

从来没有做过那种

工作 把黄油涂在面包上

我想是这样

那么你就是我们的男人

我们在 13 日在教堂 euclid

我将在 20 分钟内

到那里 我换上了最旧的衣服 我有

牛仔裤和一件旧的蓝色夹克 拿走了

大部分 当我关上身后的公寓门时，我从钱包里掏出钱

我很兴奋，我不知道

为什么

我把雷克萨斯停在教堂对面

我一半预料到的袭击没有发生

没有

帮派 积雪让街道空无一人 现在安全

了，

我走进教堂，进入了

它下面的一个大房间，进入了无家可归者的世界，

令人难以置信的是

，那个房间里

有多少人志愿者正在分发毯子和

苹果，

末底改正在将果汁倒入

纸杯并交谈

一直排着长队 耐心地在

餐桌上吃饭

我去了末底改 他打招呼

就像我是

老朋友 太疯狂了 他说

一场大暴风雪 我们整夜工作

他给我看了面包 黄油

肉和奶酪

你做的真的很复杂 10 肉，然后 10 个

奶酪，好吧，

是的，

你学得很快，

然后他就消失

了 食物

然后他们吃得很慢

即使孩子们都很小心

他们的食物

末底改回来并开始

在我旁边做三明治

食物是从哪里来的 我问

他

食物银行的

人今晚给了

我们很幸运因为我们通常有

鸡肉

它只是蔬菜

城里有多少这样的避难所

这实际上不是

避难所 当天气不好的时候教堂会敞开大门 当门关上时

他们又出去了

我试着去 明白这

一点 然后这些人住在哪里

有些是擅自占地者

他们是幸运的

一些住在街上 一些在公园

一些在公共汽车站 一些在桥下

通常没关系

但他们今晚不能呆在户外

太冷了

他们 必须去其中一个

避难所 那里有多少避难所

大约 22

个即将关门

没钱 有

多少床位

大约五千人

有多少无家可归者

好问题

他们是一个难以数清的群体

可能有一万人

我想了想

然后我 问末底改自己

你有家庭

是的

有妻子

三个儿子

在大学 军队里的人

我们在街上失去了我们的第三个男孩

十年前

他被黑帮杀害

了 你

结婚了 没有孩子

末底改又失踪了

一个帮手带来了

我拿了四个饼干走到一个

角落，一个年轻的母亲

抱着一个婴儿睡着了，两个

小孩在毯子下半睡半醒

，最大的男孩睁开了眼睛

他看到我手里的饼干，

我给了他一个

，他接过，眼睛都亮了，把它都吃光

了，

然后他想要再来一个，

他又小又瘦，不超过

四岁，妈妈醒来看到饼干

笑了

你叫什么名字 吃了两块饼干后我对男孩说

他是我

安大略省

的终生朋友你多大了

他给我看四根手指

我

说是的然后伸出手

去拿另一块饼干我很高兴给了他

我想给 他

有他想要的任何东西

你住在哪里我

在

车里低声说

你有更多的苹果汁

确定

我去厨房给他拿了

一杯苹果汁和更多的

饼干妈妈

又像许多无家可归的人一样睡觉了她搬家

在她睡觉的时候

她很冷 我脱下我的夹克盖

在她身上

然后婴儿哭着叫醒了她

我不假思索地抱着婴儿一直对着

妈妈微笑

她很高兴让我抱着它这样她

就可以得到

我睡了一会儿 直到

凌晨三点 第二天是星期六

自从我遇到先生以来

我连一个小时都没有为德雷克

和斯威尼工作

我躺在床上

我讨厌德雷克和斯威尼的工作

我不想回去

在 m 的一家咖啡馆吃了早餐，

想知道安大略早餐吃什么，

然后我去买

糖果和小玩具给孩子们买肥皂

给商场买

暖和的衣服，还有很多儿童

尺码

我从来没有这么开心花了

两百美元

和 我想花更多的钱

我想把那个家庭放在旅馆里住

一个月

我想对那个让他们无家可归的人提起诉讼

我迫不及待地想让安大略的家人

成为我的客户

我回到教堂离开了

车里的所有玩具和衣服，

但安大略的家人都不在

我问末底改他们在哪里

谁知道

无家可归者 第二天早上从厨房到厨房

避难所再到

避难所 周日我

在厨房里开着小电视，同时

我吃早餐

但是电视新闻阻止了我吃东西

我听到了这些话，

但我不想相信它们

我走向电视

我的脚很沉重

我的心很冷

我的嘴在震惊和难以置信中

张开 大约晚上 11 点华盛顿警察

发现了一个 小汽车

在城市东北部的一个帮派地区的托顿堡公园附近

停在街上，

里面是一位年轻的母亲和她的

孩子都死

了母亲已经启动了旧车的引擎

，让它继续运转以维持

家庭

车里暖和的空气 在

他们睡觉时毒害了他们

他们给了母亲的

名字 是 lonte

burton 婴儿是

tamiko 其他孩子是 alonso

和 ontario

他们的糖果、玩具、肥皂和

衣服还在我的车里

第 6 章

现在是一个新人 我也带着我的一张 22

岁黑人母亲的照片，她

在车里白白死去

他们有一个很好的葬礼

好的 那么

让我们现在安排吧

我们进入末底改的老福特

金牛座 伯顿一家的

尸体在综合医院的

太平间里 办公桌后面一个焦虑的年轻人

医院的医生来了，

末底改推开

白色房间里的金属大门 是一排排的

尸体，上面盖着床单

他们的名字写在绑在脚趾上的小纸片上

我们在一个角落里停了

下来 伯顿说，医生

把床单拉到腰间，

那是安大略的妈妈，她

穿着白色连衣裙

，看起来和我

几天前还活着的

时候一样，看起来就像在睡觉一样，

我无法停止盯着她看

那是

她 末底改 用自信而响亮的

声音说

就像他认识她多年一样

只有一张床单盖着

他们躺在一排的孩子们

双手放在身体两侧

老人

我想去安大略省

我想告诉他 我很抱歉

我想叫醒他 带他回家

给他一些食物

给他他想要的一切

那是他们

说 末底改

我仰望天堂 我听到一个

声音 头

说不要再发生这种事

医生带我们去了一个办公室

我们帮助助理列出了

与家人一起发现的所有东西

我的旧蓝色夹克是他们拥有的最好的东西

你想要它回来吗

末底改问我

不，

我在车外等着，而

末底改在另一个办公室安排葬礼，

他告诉我，如果他们

在不到一周的时间内看到我的昂贵衣服，价格

就会上涨 伤透了我的

心 车窗被敲响了 我

跳

了 5000 美元 四个

末底改都透过紧闭的车窗大喊

是的 我说他很快就消失

在医院里

他很快又开车回来了

葬礼将于周二

在医院这里的教堂举行

报纸将在那里和电视

这是一个大故事

谢谢末底改 我说

葬礼后将进行

游行 前往

国会山的政府大楼为伯顿

家庭

电视台进行游行 将要拍摄它

报纸会写关于

它 你还好吗

不

我在星期二 10 点生病打电话给

我去参加葬礼

这是一个非常漂亮的教堂

美丽

它没有向无家可归者敞开大门

我能理解 为什么

我一个人坐着

我可以看到末底改和两个人 我

不知道电视人在一个

角落

我还可以看到

棺材 婴儿的棺材很小

安大略省的棺材，他的兄弟

更大，但没有多大

lonte burton 的父母 死了，

但她的祖母在那儿，

她把花放在棺材上，有那么

可怕的一秒钟，我以为她

要打开它们了。

我以前从未参加过黑色葬礼

，我不知道该怎么办 期待，

但我看过葬礼后在葬礼上打开棺材的老电影，

那里是前往国会山的游行，

到处都是隆特伯顿的大照片

，在她的脸上，在国会山

杀死隆特的人莫迪凯

对他没有说的人说的话

' 不谈无家可归者

他谈了伯顿一家的最后几个小时

他谈了婴儿在教堂的最后一顿饭

他谈了男孩们吃的饼干

他描述了这个小家庭是如何

离开教堂回到

街上 兰特

和她的孩子们只住了几个

小时的暴风雪，

末底改描述了他

实际上并不知道发生的事情，

但我不在乎，

当他描述家人

在死前试图取暖时，人群也不在乎

我 听到我周围的女人在哭，

如果这个人 mordecai green 可以让人

群像这样哭泣，

他一定是一位伟大的律师

当 mordechai 结束时，我们向

国会大厦进军政府大楼

在

富人不

游行之前

，我从来没有像这样进行

过游行

在汽车里一无所获，

我不再是

先生和安大略省进入我生活之前的

那个人，我再也不能成为那个人了，

所以几天后当末底改格林打电话给

我并邀请我去一家

餐馆时，我接受了 在杜邦环路附近

，当他邀请我加入第 14

街法律中心时，我也接受了

他的工作邀请，

我们每年可以付给你三万美元。

我差点告诉他我

需要从德雷克和斯威尼那里得到的文件，这个文件

可以告诉我们达文哈迪被驱逐的故事，

但

那天晚上我没有告诉克莱尔我的

消息已经快 10 点了，我们坐在

我们最喜欢的椅子上 船尾的酒杯

呃几分钟我说我们需要

谈谈

这是什么她问我很担心

我正在考虑离开德雷克和

斯威尼

哦真的

她要么预料到这一点要么想要

看起来平静

我已经告诉她关于隆特伯顿

和她的家人的一切

是的，我不能回到那里，

为什么工作不枯燥又不重要

我想做点什么来帮助

我告诉过你关于末底改格林的人

他的法律中心给了我一份工作

我从星期一开始

他给了你多少钱

三万 一年

比你少九万美元现在

你不为无家可归的人工作

作为年轻的法律和医学生我们

想帮助的人

我们曾经告诉自己钱

并不重要

，

现在

我' 我累了，她说

她喝完了酒，

第二天她去了卧室，她拜访了一位离婚

律师

这 窗下的文件抽屉

我最后一天回到德雷克和斯威尼

那里他们不想让我离开

那里有很多工作他们

不想找到新人

我被邀请和亚瑟

雅各布一起吃早餐 八楼合作伙伴的私人餐厅

我怎么能

拒绝在合作伙伴餐厅享用早餐的世界，

这是

早餐的想法亚瑟建议我

可以停止在德雷克和斯威尼

工作一年，并在 法律

中心

他说德雷克和斯威尼应该做

更多的无偿工作

他愿意支付

法律中心每年 3 万的差额和

我在德雷克和斯威尼挣的钱

我笑了，

我会成为德雷克和斯威尼

一年的公益男孩 并且在那一年他们都

对自己感觉良好

合伙人会带我的

客户

我会在一年后高兴地

回来并带我的客户回来

实际上

我没有立即拒绝

他们至少

经常尝试亚瑟

虽然客户和他们的带薪工作

总是排在第一位，

但我对无偿工作很感兴趣，但我考虑了这个提议，然后我

说不

，现在我非常讨厌我的旧工作，无法

回到它

我不喜欢以前做过的我

我正试图向亚瑟解释我

现在是一个不同的人，

当布雷登机会坐在离我们不远的一张桌子旁时

，

他一开始没有看到我，但后来我看到

他盯着我看，

早上好，布雷登 我大声说

亚瑟转身看看我在

和谁说话

你知道他他悄悄地问

我们见过我说

他是个傻瓜

亚瑟很平静地说

这是我回到我的法律

助理用来形容机会

的同一个词 办公室

我的办公桌上有两个文件 在我

和亚瑟共进早餐之前它们

不在那里 第一个 有一个名字的名单

被驱逐的人 河流橡树

第四号是 davon hardy

第十号是 lonte burton 和三个

孩子

我坐在那里 在 si 里呆两三分钟

如果页面底部的信息不真实，为什么有人会在我的桌子上放这样的东西

有人

用铅笔写了几句话

驱逐是错误的

我打开第二个文件，

里面有两个键和一个类型

请

注意，读过的便条

顶部钥匙是机会门

底部钥匙是窗户下的文件抽屉

我把文件放在一边

我必须做一些工作

我那天还吃了工作午餐

工作午餐意味着客户正在

付款，

但法律 从来没有如此

不重要和无聊

我度过了这一天，只是因为我

知道这是我在德雷克和斯威尼的最后

一次 快五点了，我才

独处几分钟

我和保利说再见并

从里面锁上了办公室的门

文件又拿出来，开始

思考和做笔记

我知道是谁寄来文件

的 年轻的法律助理会认为

机会是愚蠢的

法律援助进行了驱逐

，他的工作是把文件放入

我打电话给 ano 的文件中 那个法律助理

问他机会的

助理

的名字 这个人叫

赫克托帕默 他和德雷克和斯威尼一起工作了大约

三年

我们在三楼图书馆遇到的房地产

赫克托帕默很

紧张 你把那些 我桌子上的文件 我

问他

没有时间玩游戏

他的眼睛在房间里转来转

去 看着除了我之外的所有东西

我有一个妻子和四个孩子我需要这份

工作

你会没事的

你要离开你在乎什么

我并不惊讶他知道

人们在谈论

我是新闻

所以在我离开之前你想让我去

机会的办公室拿走 一个文件，我

不能确定里面有什么

做你想做的

，他跑出了图书馆

离开

它会更糟 如果我

拿着不是我的钥匙被抓到机会的办公室，

我根本不喜欢这个主意，

那么复制文件就会出现问题，

一些德雷克和斯威尼的文件很

厚，

我不得不站在一个

复印机很长一段时间

，而且我们的复印机是

用一张印有我们名字的塑料卡工作的，

德雷克和斯威尼知道谁

复制了

我可以在其他地方使用复印机的东西，

但是从大楼里拿文件是违法

的

，我是 律师，

但我不能只借文件

吗？我只需要半个小时来

复印它

我可以把它带到第 14 街法律

中心复印它并立即带回来

，这让我不再像

现在这样的小偷了 这个星期五晚上迟到了，

我星期一开始和末底改一起工作，

现在或从来没有，

但我没有第 14

街法律中心的钥匙

我看了看手表，已经六点半

了，

我开车到第 14 街，我的合伙人是

还在那里

索菲亚·阿图 艾莉对我笑了笑，但只是

对你的新工作再次表示欢迎

大约

是我刚离开德雷克和理发师

办公桌的一半大小

那里没有电话

我喜欢它 我说我做到了

我明天会给你一个电话

说

末底改 天黑了 索菲亚想离开

莫迪凯，我吃了他买的一些三明治，

他给我们煮了咖啡

一个小时后不知道 也许

我为什么要回到德雷克和斯威尼那里

待几个小时

吃着他的三明治，

他把手伸进一个 抽屉里扔给我一把

钥匙，随你便去，他说安全吗，

不，

所以要小心把车

停在离门近的地方，尽可能

快地走，

然后把自己锁在里面

，我在 7 点 30 分快速走到我的车上。

人行道是 清空

我的雷克萨斯很好，

也许我在街上会没事

开车回到德雷克和斯威尼需要

11 分钟

如果复制机会的文件需要 30 分钟，

那么它将离开他的

办公室大约一个小时，你永远不会

知道

真实的 庄园是空的

我敲了机会的门

没有回答

我用他门的钥匙进去了

我应该打开灯天

很黑

我不得不

锁上门打开灯

去了窗户下面的底部文件抽屉

然后用第二把钥匙打开它

我找到了橡树河的档案，正在

阅读它，这时外面有个声音在

喊嘿，

我跳了起来 沙发 或者 10

分钟，

如果他们看到我离开机会的办公室，

我可以把文件放回去，

这是我的最后一天，

但如果他们看到我拿了一份非常不同的文件，请

耐心等待，我

在棒球比赛后告诉自己，他们开始谈论

我的女孩 以为他们是几个年轻的

法律助理工作到很晚

然后终于安静了

我在黑暗中锁上抽屉

打开门出去

嘿

喊我身后有人

我跑

我跑到大楼后面

钻进雷克萨斯开车 关闭

那是愚蠢的我想我为什么要逃跑

为什么我不和

我还在德雷克和斯威尼工作的那个人说话我不是吗

这是我在

雷克萨斯被一辆在第 18 街疾驰而过的捷豹撞到之前的最后一个想法

我记得一个 声音说

我没有看到任何血

然后我记得克莱尔

坐在乔治华盛顿大学

医学中心的床边

第 8 章

赫克托帕尔默

迈克尔当他们结束时你不会成为律师

不在这里也不在任何你

要去的地方 失去你的执照

我早上七点醒来，一位

护士给了我一份克莱尔的便条，

这是一个非常甜蜜的便条，

上面说她必须去上班

，她已经和我的医生谈过了，我

可能不会死

克莱尔和我在医生和护士眼中一定看起来像一对幸福的

夫妻

为什么我们要离婚

我的左臂发青

我呼吸的时候胸口疼

我在浴室里看着我的脸

有一些小伤口，但没有

什么不会的 周末

没有消失 一位护士告诉我，美洲虎是

由一个卖毒品的帮派成员驾驶的

为了安全起见，我还要再住院一天，但我说

不行，

我必须找一个新

公寓 第一个房地产办公室把我送到

杜邦环以北亚当斯摩根的一套公寓，

那是一所房子顶部的三个小房间

浴室里的一切都正常

地板很干净 可以看到街上的景色

那天晚上我回到了我的旧

公寓去看克莱尔

我们吃了一个中国外卖

我们一起吃的第一顿饭是

外卖 这是我们在一起的最后一顿饭

丈夫和妻子

克莱尔

在桌子上等着我的离婚文件，我

在六个月后签署了我将单身

你知道有人叫赫克托帕尔默

她在中式晚餐中途问

我睁大眼睛

是的

他一小时前打电话

说 他必须和你谈谈

他是

德雷克和斯威尼的法律助理

他想让我帮助他 他有问题

一定是个大问题

他想在

今晚九点在米街的内森家见你

为什么我说是酒吧 半对自己半

声明

他没有说

他在电话里突然听起来很奇怪

我不饿

我吃完饭只是因为我

不想在克莱尔面前看起来很担心

但没必要她不是 即使

看着我

我也走到了我身边

周六

晚上

不可能在街边停车 下雨了，

我走路时胸口受伤 我想着该说什么

我想到了谎言

拿完文件后我可以说谎 撒谎似乎更容易

hector 可能会在 drake 和

sweeney 那里 他可能会 有线记录

我说的话

我会仔细听并说小内

森只有半满

我早了10分钟但是当我进来时他

在角落的一张桌子上等

我他从座位上跳起来

把他的 递出

你一定是迈克尔，我是

房地产行业的赫克托·帕默，很高兴见到你，

嗯

，我们不是在图书馆见过吗？

我们坐下

他开始在桌子底下踢

我 点了黑咖啡，赫克托

要了啤酒，

我是房地产的法律助理，

赫克托解释说，当饮料到达时，

你遇到了布莱登的机会，我们的一位

合作伙伴

是的，我说，

因为他们正在记录我所说的一切，

我会说 可能

我主要为他工作，

上周有一天你去他的办公室时我说了一分钟

如果你这么说

我不记得见过你

他笑了我把他踢回

桌子底下

我们都明白现在的情况

听着

我让你见我是因为

布雷登的办公室丢失了一份文件

你认为我处理得

很好没有但可能是

你上周去他的办公室时要了那个文件

所以你确实认为我拿走了我生气地说

好吧 去警察局

赫克托·帕默喝了他的啤酒

德雷克和斯威尼 已经

去警察局 他

说警察在你的办公桌上发现了一个空文件，上面

写着两把钥匙，

一把钥匙打开门，另一把钥匙打开文件

抽屉，

他们还 在文件抽屉里发现了你的指纹

我没想到指纹

德雷克和斯威尼在每个人

加入公司时都拿了他们的指纹

但那是五年前我

忘记了

我们可能想和你谈谈这

一切 后来说，赫克托·帕尔默（Hector Palmer）

我拿起外套离开

了我在第 14 街法律中心度过了第一个工作日，

从雷克萨斯·

莫迪凯 (lexus mordecai) 的

残骸中取回档案

我告诉末底改，文件

很重要，但不是

我新公寓里

的文件。我查看了文件

River Oaks 是一家房地产公司，

他们想为华盛顿邮局建造一个新

的邮局，然后

租用这栋大楼 对他们来说，

他们已经购买了

devon hardy 和 lontay burton 居住的仓库，

他们想把它拆掉并开始

重建

他们很着急

他们想

在 2

月 1 月 27 日开始拆掉仓库 hector palmer 参观

了仓库，

他的笔记是关于 那次访问在

档案中的文件清单上，但

实际上并没有在档案中

第 31 名赫克托·帕尔默

和警察一起回到仓库

并驱逐了

住在那里

的人 驱逐花了三个小时

赫克托·帕尔默关于它的说明

长达两页，

尽管他试图隐藏他认为

很明显他不喜欢成为其中一员

的内容

他描述了 lonte burton 如何与警察打架

当我读到

这位母亲有三个孩子 一个孩子

她住在一个没有浴室的两居室公寓里

他们睡在地板上

她和警察打架时，我的心都停止了 他的描述

最后看着她被抬出

大楼

我开车到第十四街复制

文件

然后我回到我的旧公寓

克莱尔在医院

我拿了睡袋几件西装我的

收音机厨房里的小电视

我 cd 播放器和几张 cd 咖啡

壶 吹风机和三条蓝色毛巾

我留下了一张纸条告诉她我走了

当我开车离开时，我对再次单身感到不高兴，

克莱尔和我都

在第 14 街法律中心迷路了我的

第一个访客是我的老朋友巴里·

努佐，

他小心翼翼地坐在

我办公桌对面的椅子上，他没有 不想

弄脏他那件昂贵的

西装，他像赫克托·帕默一样用电报联系，

也许他们派了巴里，因为他是

我的朋友，也是周二下午先生的客人

之一，

所以你来这里是为了他说的钱

，当然

你是开玩笑的 疯了，

他们会追上你，迈克尔，你

不能拿档案，

你的意思可能是盗窃的刑事诉讼

，他们会和

正在处理它

的律师协会椽子交谈，迈克尔，当他们结束时，你不会成为律师，

不在任何地方 你

将失去你的执照

从我们的办公室拿走那是盗窃

我说不 事情

我不知道我要做什么

但我知道我现在不能把文件还给

我在对抗德雷克和斯威尼巴里的战斗中没有别的东西

巴里站起来离开

你会打电话给我吗迈克尔

他在 门

确定

第 9 章

无家可归者

我是迈克尔 你住在哪里 ruby

到处

都是 这座建筑多年前曾是一家百货公司

现在它上面的标志上写着 samaritan house

这是一个私人避难所 末底改说

90 张床 食物还可以

一些教堂 阿灵顿聚在一起

，他们支付了我们

来这里六年的一切费用

我们将卧室用作办公室

这是一个很好的办公室 mordecai 说我们

可以在这里保持私密

我问

他们在后面

你的浴室怎么样 不要在避难所里拥有自己的浴室

我能听到收音机的声音

人们在起床

那是星期一早上 他们有工作

要去

在这里找房间容易吗 我问过

末底改 虽然我已经知道

答案

几乎不可能 等待名单

他们要待多久

大概三个月

这是最好的避难所之一，所以

三个月后他们在这里很安全 避难所试图给

他们找公寓

，我们的客户都来自避难所 我

问

一半来自避难所 mordecai

另一半说我们从街上

带走

任何无家可归

的人 这个收容所里的人有

工作，但他们没有足够的收入来

支付公寓的租金，

所以当他们得到一个时，他们又失去了它

我的第一个客户叫 waylene

27 岁 两个孩子 没有丈夫

她的问题并不复杂 她

曾在一家快餐店工作过

她开始告诉我们她为什么离职，

但末底改说原因

并不重要

她没有

因为她没有地址，所以她没有收到最后两张薪水

餐厅把支票寄

错了

地方 支票不见了，

餐厅里没有人关心

你下周会来吗 末底改

韦琳问他不确定

也许在这里也许

她正在寻找一份工作她可能

会和某人一起搬进来或拥有自己的公寓

我们会得到你的钱我们会把

支票寄到我们的办公室说末底改

他给了她 第 14

街法律中心的地址 她说谢谢，然后

给快餐店打电话

我自己写下了 mordecai 所说的一切，

好像很复杂

鲸鱼的薪水是 210

美元

我在德雷克和斯威尼的最后一个客户

试图获得 9 亿美元

，但当我一天结束时回到家时我很高兴

我的 新公寓里现在有几把旧

椅子，电视在一个盒子里

我对着我妈妈打电话给我的家具微笑 我

在应答电话上听到她的声音

她和爸爸

那天晚上想来看我 我在电视上看篮球

我在 11 点 30 分喝了几杯啤酒，我给克莱尔打了电话，我们已经

四天没说话了

为什么我们不应该说话

我们实际上还是结婚了

我想也许我们可以很快吃晚饭

电话响了，然后一个声音说

你好，

这是 男人，

我不会说话，

我离开不到一周，

克莱尔在 11 点 30 分在公寓里有一个男人

。

我差点把电话放下，但后来我

说我想和克莱尔谈谈，拜托

谁在打电话给

迈克尔她的丈夫

她在洗澡 他说

他听起来对自己很满意

告诉她我打过电话 我说

我在房间里转来转去直到半夜

然后我在寒冷中出去散步

为什么我们的婚姻出了问题

那个

人是谁 他是她认识的人 几年了

，我不认识他

就

在凌晨 2 点，我在杜邦圈走来走去，

跨过 peo 睡

在街上

很危险，但我不在乎

几个小时后我

回家睡了一会儿

然后我想工作

那天早上 8 点前我到了第 14 街

准备开始，

因为我走过造雪场 我

去法律中心的路上 我想到了我的

客户 现在我有几个

waylene 和她的薪水

还有

像我一样的马维斯 马维斯想要离婚

他的妻子吸毒 她吸走

了他所有的一切 包括他们的两个

孩子

马维斯想要 他们回来

了 离婚需要多长时间

marvis 问我

六个月 我告诉他

marvis 很干净

他不喝酒 他正在找

工作

我很享受和他一起度过的半个小时

我想帮助他

另一个客户是 58 岁的女人，

她的丈夫去世了，

政府把她的钱寄到了错误的地方

○

当我到达

法律中心时，政府应该是他们的 律师

是的，我

适合像我

这样的人 她看起来像无家可归

确定

进来

我打开门

，里面比外面更冷

我煮了些咖啡，找到了一些旧

饼干，我给了她，她

很快吃了一个

，你叫什么名字 问

我们坐在前厅，

在索菲亚的办公桌旁边等咖啡

，等办公室拿点

暖和的

红宝石她说

我是迈克尔你住在哪里红宝石

在这里和那里

她30到40岁，穿着

很多 旧衣服她很瘦

告诉我我说

我需要知道

你住在避难所

现在不是她说

我住在车里

我睡在后面

我倒了两个装满

咖啡的大纸杯然后我们走进我的办公室

我能做什么 为了你，我

双手放在咖啡杯上要求

保暖，她没有看我，她

告诉我她的故事

她和她的儿子特伦斯住在一个小

公寓里，

当时特伦斯大约 10 岁，她

因贩卖毒品入狱四个月

特伦斯 那四个月和她姐姐住在一起

，但是当鲁比出狱时，

他们失去了公寓

几年前，她曾为一

对叫罗兰的夫妇工作，

他们的孩子长大了，离家

出走

，鲁比提出每月付给罗兰斯夫妇

五十美元，如果特伦斯能

和他们在一起

，罗兰夫妇起初并不确定，

但最后他们同意了

特伦斯在罗兰家有一间小卧室

他开始在学校取得好成绩

罗兰人很好

鲁比被允许每晚拜访特伦斯

一个小时

困难重重 sh 我设法

按约定每月支付她对自己很满意

直到她再次入狱

她无法停止

吸毒现在特伦斯不想和她说话

他想参军

罗林斯先生是一名

军人 晚上 ruby 吃了一些药然后

去了 roland 的房子

她尖叫着喊着 roland

和 terrence 第二天把她赶了出去

roland 开始

打官司

他们想让 terence 成为他们的儿子

ruby 直到她停止才被允许拜访他

吸毒

我想见我儿子 她说

我非常想念他

你不会看到特伦斯 直到你

停止吸毒 我说试图说得好听

我不得不让她参加毒品计划

索菲亚知道 ruby 应该去哪里

索菲亚知道

她打了个电话，然后我和 ruby

正在前往

位于第十街的 naomi 妇女中心，

那里七点开门，四点关门。

n

负责 naomi 的我们进行了长谈

这是我

很长一段时间以来与任何人进行的第一次长谈

第 10 章

芝加哥

会有一场官司 hector 我

说要

起诉德雷克和斯威尼，你无法掩饰

我在睡觉 在公寓的地板上，

我喜欢那里，它帮助我

了解了我的新客户

在半夜电话

响了很

明显警察在她的公寓里

想要搜索文件

我看了看手表 是凌晨一点，

我马上就

到，门是开着的，我跑进去，

里面有三个警察，

我对最近的一个喊道，

我是迈克尔·布洛克，你是谁，

加斯科中尉说那个警察

不太好，克莱尔，我喊道

摄像机会打官司

加斯科中尉 加斯科中尉给我看了一份文件，

上面有法官签名，他

说我们可以搜索文件，

但他知道我是律师，他看起来不太

高兴 文件不是 因为我不在这里 住

在这里我说现在给我你的名字

然后去

克莱尔用摄像机拍摄这一切

他们的文件很好我知道

但是三个警察给了我他们的

名字然后离开了

他们可以回来

问克莱尔不

那很好

你告诉他我住在哪里我问

她

迈克尔我不知道你住在哪里你

只是给了我一个电话号码

我说晚安没有触摸或

亲吻她我知道这就是她

想要的

我想了很久

现在我不得不告诉 末底改

一切 明天早上警察可能会

来法律中心寻找

档案

我试图从法律中心给赫克托·帕尔默打电话

他的秘书说他已经离开

华盛顿办公室

我现在把电话放下

我盯着看 天花板

末底改走进我的办公室

我开始我的故事

我和妻子在一起 我搬出

了我们的

公寓 很抱歉 末底改 他还能说

什么

今天早上不要早起 警察试图

搜查公寓 nt 我以前

住的地方

他们正在寻找

我离开德雷克和斯威尼时带

的文件 什么样的

文件 devon hardy 和 lontay burton

我正在

听的文件 我不认为 devon hardy

和 lontay burton 和其他人 是

擅自占地者，

我认为他们是租户，如果他们

是

租户，驱逐是非法的 文件中缺少日期为 1 月 27 日的

内容，您认为这张便条里有什么他

问

我不能确定，

但我认为这是赫克托·帕尔默的便条，

我认为他知道他们是租户，他

在便条中说，

但河 奥克斯希望他们尽快

搬走，这样他们就

可以开始拆除仓库，他们想在 2 月开始为邮局建造新大楼 t devon hardy 和

lonte burton 和其他人作为 squatters

好说 末底改

所以我们

为兰特伯顿的家人和其他

被驱逐的人提起诉讼

是的，我

这么说 hector palmer 必须告诉

法官他知道

我会 联系 monty burton 的父母

mordecai 说

他们将是我们的客户，

她的父母已经死了，

但她有一个祖母

罚款，

她将成为我们的客户，

但首先我们需要找到 hector palmer，

我认为 drake 和 sweeney 会让他

留在

公司 他离开了公司，他们失去了

对他的控制，

但他们希望他离开

华盛顿 有人

索菲亚拿着纸和铅笔进来了

我知道她说我听到

她转向我

我可以帮忙

告诉我你所知道的关于这个

人的一切

我告诉了索菲亚赫克托帕尔默的姓名

地址和工作

我描述了他并说他有一个妻子

和四个孩子，

大概三十岁

他在德雷克和

斯威尼

做法律助理一个月能挣多少钱

三千

他有四个孩子，所以一个或多个孩子

要上学

他不能送孩子 三万五千去一所

私立学校，

我们从学校开始，然后

是教堂 西班牙语

一个小时后她回到我的

办公室

他们搬到了芝加哥 你需要一个

地址

但是你怎么不

问他们教堂里朋友的朋友

他们上周末搬到芝加哥 我可以

给你一个地址 但它会 需要

更长的时间，

我不需要地址我去过

德雷克和斯威尼的芝加哥办公室

两次，两天后我又去了那里，

但我没有坐头等舱，因为

过去

我在德雷克和斯威尼外面等着

从早上七点开始 g 虽然

106 名律师是仅次于华盛顿和纽约的第三高律师

，8 点 20 分到达工作地点，赫克托帕默到达，我

跟着他进了大楼，

他在 51 楼下车。

那里有一个电话，

我给 mordecai 打了电话，告诉他我的

进展

然后我给娜奥米妇女中心的梅根打了电话

ruby 还在那里 还好

hector palmer

在接下来的 10 个小时内没有去任何地方 所以我又

和 megan

进行了长时间的交谈 每个楼层都有一个合作伙伴名单

我选择了一个

我有 与 dick heally 的约会

当我经过办公桌时我大声说

然后我从办公桌前走过

大厅

赫克托在芝加哥有自己的办公室

你好赫克托

我走进去的时候说 芝加哥

怎么样 你在这里做什么

我坐在 赫克托的办公桌上

会有一场诉讼赫克托我

说要对德雷克和斯威尼说你无法

隐瞒

我并没有像我试图听起来那样自信

以及谁在提起这场诉讼

朗泰伯顿的祖母

和我

当我们找到其他被驱逐的人时

，

你会大吃一惊，赫克托只是看着我，你记得阿兰特，你不，赫克托

她是那个年轻的母亲，当你驱逐每个人时，她和警察打架，

你为此感到难过，因为你知道

她是 一个房客，

所以你在 1 月 27 日的便条中写下了它，

然后你把它放在了

文件中，

但布雷登机会又把你的便条拿出来

了，这就是我在这里的原因，赫克托，我想要

那个便条的副本，

为什么我要一份副本，

因为你' 聪明的赫克托

你知道德雷克和斯威尼的

驱逐是非法的

你知道你的笔记有多重要

也许你甚至猜到布雷登的机会

会删除它

赫克托想

我猜他不会高兴躲在

芝加哥 驱逐是错误的而且他知道

他曾试图帮助我一次，然后

在 12 点在大楼前见到我

他说

他准时到

我有四个孩子 请保护我

他说他给了我一个信封

我感谢他 叫了一辆出租车并打开了

信封上写着

1 月 27 日的信封，

上面写着租户

每月 15 日

向一个叫 johnny 的人支付每月 100 元的租金，

甚至还有一份由 johnny 签名的收据副本，上面

写着他

从 lontay burton 收到了 100 元的租金

1 月 15 日

，再清楚不过了，

他们是

租户，

在芝加哥奥黑尔机场驱逐

是非法的 回到

第 14 街，末底改和

索菲亚看起来并不像我预期的那样高兴，

加斯科中尉在办公室

等我

，他把我带到警车

索菲亚打电话很快，

首先用英语比西班牙语说得快，

但是 她和末底改无法阻止

加斯科中尉带我去中央

警察局，就像任何其他罪犯一样，

德雷克和斯威尼说我拿走了他们的

档案，那是盗窃

第 11 章

梅根

她的眼睛盯着我的 f 或者一秒钟，我

以为

她的手指上没有结婚戒指，

那是

星期五下午 我试着

想想所有

像马丁路德金一样在监狱里呆过一段时间的伟人，

但后来我想到了我的父母，

他们的儿子在监狱里将是他们世界的尽头，

我的朋友们已经认为我毁了

我的生活，但

我没有 不知道克莱尔会怎么想，

尤其是她现在在中央加斯凯尔有一个新男人

像迷路的

狗

一样带我走他们把我口袋里的所有东西都拿走了

我签了名，

然后我的照片和指纹

被拍

在那里到处都是警察，但只有

一个警察 白脸 一个

喝得酩酊大醉的人

我们正走向牢房

我很害怕

我可以保释吗 我问

我认为你的律师正在处理这

件事 加斯科说牢房的门在我身后关上了 牢房里

还有另外五个囚犯

和我一起的牢房 全黑

比我年轻得多

我坐在对面牢房的地板

上 我可以看到那个

喝醉的白人 听到他大喊

两个大个子黑人把他放在

牢房的一个角落

他们撞到他的头

几分钟

过去了 我牢房里的年轻人

走到我身边，

这是最后

一件漂亮的夹克，

他说当我坐在地板上时，他用脚抚摸我的夹克，

谢谢，我说试图听起来像一

分钟，

他 18 或 19

很瘦，可能是帮派成员 谁愿意

在街上度过一生，

我可以穿这样的夹克他说

用脚踢我

你不应该是一个低俗的街头帮派

成员然后我

想你想借这件夹克我

问我是

如果我这样做，我不会反击其他四个会帮助

第一个

你说什么

我说你

想借踢我的头，我

从鲨鱼

那里大喊我的朋友说他可以穿一件

夹克 那说其他

四个礼物中的一个会很好

我迅速脱下外套，把它

拿给那个踢我的年轻帮派成员

这是礼物吗他说拿走

它是你想要的任何东西

他又用力踢了我的

头这是一个礼物

是的

谢谢

我坐着的人 在地板上滚球 我的脸

受伤了 地板开始变冷

当我需要上厕所时会发生什么

漂亮的鞋子在我上方有声音

我把它们给了他

mordechai 晚上七点让

我保释 我的保释金是一万美元

我的 德雷克和斯威尼的朋友

告诉报纸，我在监狱里

被保释的律师是不是我第二天读到的盗窃

，当我第一次加入德雷克和斯威尼时，他们给我拍了一张照片

，那也是

他们试图毁掉我的 生活中

我想知道是哪个客户为

椽子和亚瑟·雅各

布斯花在我身上

的所有时间付钱

你为什么睡在这里我问

她没有回答

她饿了

我打开门煮咖啡去找

饼干电话响了是梅根

鲁比离开了

娜奥米你是不是又吸毒我问鲁比

她没有 “不要看着我，

不，她说

是的，你

不要骗我，红宝石，我是你的朋友和

你的律师，我会帮你看看

泰伦斯，但如果你现在对我说谎，我无能为力，

你会回去吗？ 对 naomi

是的，

很好，

我带你去，

好吧，

她在回 naomi 的路上第四次吃了一块饼干，

她说

你在监狱

里，你怎么知道

我们到达时你在街上听到了一些东西，megan 把 ruby 带进了

女子组，然后 让我留下

来喝咖啡 她给我发了一封华盛顿邮报

晚安 她笑着说

又有我的照片

还不错

她指着我的脸问 这

是什么 我牢房里的一个人想要我的鞋子 他拿走了

他们，

她看着我的鞋子，

旧耐克

鞋，是的，好鞋，它们不

长 你在那里呆

了几个小时

，我的生活开始

了 稀疏

的头发是深红色的，短而

剪得很好

她的眼睛是浅棕色的，又大又

圆，很好看

她的父亲在马里兰州的教堂里，

他喜欢棒球，也喜欢

华盛顿

，十几岁的时候，梅根决定

和穷人一起工作，

这是一份工作，但她喜欢的工作

我告诉她先生的故事以及我是如何

开始与 无家可归者

她很感兴趣并问了

很多问题

然后她让我稍后再回

来吃午饭

如果阳光明媚我们可以

在外面吃饭

我喜欢

我认为这很浪漫

即使在无家可归妇女收容所中你也可以在任何地方找到爱情

章节

12 洗涤 吨

贴照片说这一切都是

因为德雷克和斯威尼这些可怜

的人死

了文件很厚

椽子已经很努力了

这是我的副本德雷克和斯威尼

在一句话中向律师协会投诉

我偷了他们的文件所以现在我 应该

失去我的执照，

但这是一个震惊

德雷克和斯威尼想要血我的血

自从我十年前开始法学院以来这很可怕

我从来没有想过任何其他

类型的工作

没有法律执照我会做什么

但是有一个 德雷克和

斯威尼不知道的事

明天早上九点

，我和末底改要为伯顿一家的死

对他们提起四百万美元的诉讼

我走进末底改的办公室

我该怎么办 我说

他笑得

和我一样 他们确实

给华盛顿邮报打了电话

我和蒂姆克劳森一起上大学

他是最好的记者之一

第二天早上我们告诉蒂姆克劳森关于

对德雷克和斯威尼的诉讼

伯顿的故事是 alrea

由于游行和我在

监狱里的夜晚，我变得更大了，这让事情变得更大

他问了我们很多问题，我很

高兴回答

德雷克和斯威尼首先去了报纸第二天报纸上

的故事

像德雷克和斯威尼这样的老律师事务所

这是世界上最糟糕的事情

亚瑟·雅各布斯的照片出现在达文·哈代旁边

还有 lonte burton 从游行中拍摄的照片

你甚至不必阅读这个

故事 照片说明了一切

因为德雷克和斯威尼，这些可怜的

人

第二天就死了，德雷克

和斯威尼

的情况变得更糟了邮局不喜欢

报纸上的所有这些故事，他们

不希望河橡树作为他们

离开河的房地产公司

橡树什么都没有

奈德·莫迪凯在法律

中心

他想在德雷克和斯威尼的办公室见莫迪凯，在

没有我的情况下谈论诉讼

莫迪凯对我微笑，

这可能是他说的会议，

也许我回答说，

我的未来可能取决于

莫迪凯那天晚上与亚瑟·雅各布斯的谈话

睡不着

mordecai 玩得很开心

事后他告诉我他简直不敢

相信亚瑟·雅各布斯快

80 岁了。老人立即

告诉 mordecai 布雷登机会已经过去了

他没有选择离开德雷克和

斯威尼，他们告诉他离开

机会是唯一知道

那些人是房客的人

我相信

末底改向亚瑟雅各布斯展示

了档案中丢失的便条，

收据

椽子也在与其他一些律师会面

，很长一段时间他们都没有

说话 阿瑟·雅各布斯提出了一个建议，

他说他想见我们和一位

法官

，那里的法官我们可以

在某一天决定一切

伯顿诉讼 盗窃档案

法 uit 和律师协会的

投诉 法官将是 diorio 法官，

mordecai 知道他是一个公平的法官

，你认为

mordecai 问我

你认为

我说什么，我们会这样做，

我会在一段时间内打电话给 diorio 法官

第 13 章

伯顿反对 德雷克和斯威尼，

你把这个家庭放在了

你告诉过的街道上，那是

他们死去的地方，

我们在迪里奥法官的房间里，

但这不是绳索

有来自德雷克和斯威尼河橡树的两名律师

有亚瑟·

雅各布斯 椽子

nathan malamud 和 barry nutso

为什么是 malamad 而不是 so 谁

不会为德雷克和斯威尼说话

然后我明白

malamada natso

在那个星期二之后和先生一起回去工作了，

所以我为什么不

法官 diorio 说早上好 然后

给了莫迪凯五分钟的时间在伯顿诉讼中

控诉德雷克和斯威尼

莫迪凯只用了两分钟

就清楚地解释了德雷克和

斯威尼的非法驱逐是如何导致

朗特死亡的 伯顿和她的孩子们

阿瑟·雅各布斯为德雷克和

斯威尼代言 关于兰台和她的孩子们发生的事情，他不同意末底改的观点，

但他说部分原因是她自己的错

，她有地方可以去

亚瑟说有避难所

前一晚她和很多人一起在教堂度过了

她为什么要离开

她的祖母在东北有一套公寓

为什么这位母亲不做更多的事情

来保护她的小家庭

为什么她在

街上一问就到了我差点

亚瑟微笑着保持

冷静 驱逐是错误的 他说我们

没有和格林先生争论

我们是说驱逐后的事件

部分是母亲的错 有

多少是她的错 问迪里奥法官

至少有一半

我们不知道 不同意 迪里奥法官

greene mordecai 先生

难以置信地摇着头

就像亚瑟是法学院一年级的学生

这些人无处可住

雅各布斯先生

这就是为什么他们被称为无家可归者

你把这个家庭放在街上

你告诉我们你做了

，那是他们死的地方

我们可以去法庭

你会说同样的话吗

在法庭上站起来雅各布斯先生说

这是母亲的错她的家人

死了

亚瑟和其他人 德雷克和

斯威尼的律师

一想到要告诉一个满是

黑人的法庭伯顿一家的

死部分是隆泰的错，

德雷克和斯威尼犯了

非法驱逐罪的想法，看起来就足够害怕了。

迪里奥法官

说，很明显，我不会建议你

在法庭上责备母亲

末底改和亚瑟坐下来

我们在没有上法庭的情况下赢得了伯顿的诉讼

现在我们将讨论德雷克和

斯威尼应该支付多少

椽 站起来

他谈到你

通常在诉讼中为死去的孩子得到多少钱

他在美国读了很多这样的诉讼

他为每个孩子倒了五万美元

他开始讨论

隆泰因为她死而损失了多少钱

所以她没有去上班

那加在你通常

为死去的孩子得到的钱

上 他提供了

七十七万美元

是你的最终报价 椽先生

问迪里奥法官

他看起来像他希望这不是

没有 拉特爵士说，

格林·

莫迪凯先生又站了起来，

我们不接受他们的提议 迪里奥法官

先生，

这个关于每个孩子的价值的言论

对我来说毫无意义

rafter 先生提供的东西远远超过

这些孩子当然是无家可归的

黑人儿童

rafter 先生，你有一个儿子在私立学校

，你愿意为他花五万美元吗？

rafter 低头不回答

我可以走进华盛顿法院，我

减负担小孩子每人可以获得一百万美元

这与

弗吉尼亚州或马里兰州昂贵学校的任何孩子一样

辩护团队互相看着

他们都有孩子在昂贵的学校

在弗吉尼亚州和

马里兰州，末底改随后谈到了 lonti burton 和她的家人的最后几个小时，就像

他在国会山时一样

在德雷克和

斯威尼的律师为他们说话

时 那个仓库里的那些人 他

大喊他们只是一群

擅自占地的人

把他们扔出去

他要了四百万

美元 他完成后房间里

一片寂静 迪里奥法官接下来做了一些

笔记 讨论是文件

你有文件

吗 迪里奥法官问我

是的 先生

你能给我吗

文件已归还 雅各布斯先生

有一场关于盗窃的刑事诉讼

如果我们能就伯顿诉讼达成一致，您现在想做什么

我们将停止

针对布洛克先生盗窃文件的刑事诉讼 e

brock 先生是您可以接受的

是

是 先生 这是

下一个我们

有德雷克和斯威尼向律师协会投诉

迈克尔·布洛克

雅各布斯·亚瑟先生

再次站起来

他谈到为什么

律师从那里窃取文件是错误的 他自己的

公司

他似乎并不喜欢它，他

并没有花太长时间，

但我曾经是其中之一，然后

我伤害了他们

他们不会原谅我

向律师协会

投诉 ‘不要被阻止

我不是犯罪亚瑟说所以他们

会停止盗窃诉讼

但我是一名律师而且是一个很好的

人所以投诉应该去

律师协会

河橡树的律师没有说话

但它是 很明显，他们同意

这当然是他们的客户档案

我拿走了

，亚瑟说得很好，实际上我也

同意他的观点，

布洛克先生说迪里奥法官

你有什么要说的，

我没有准备任何东西，但我不

害怕说 我觉得

我看着亚瑟的眼睛 d 说

jacobs 先生，我一直

对你有很高的评价，我仍然认为

我拿文件是错误的，我很

抱歉我这样做了

我正在寻找信息，我

打算把文件放回去，但所有

这些 没有任何借口

我向你向德雷克和斯威尼道歉

，向你的客户 River Oaks

莫迪凯事后告诉我，他知道

德雷克和斯威尼会立即

同意他的下一个

建议，愤怒已经过去了，

莫迪凯

向所有人建议每人 25,000 美元

当我们找到他们时被德雷克和斯威尼驱逐的人

他建议

为伯顿诉讼支付 300 万美元，每年支付 30 万

美元

，经过大量讨论后，我们同意我

将失去我的执照 9 个月

只有

第 14 章

新生活

我正在考虑我的新生活，我

说周五早上我们都笑了。

我很高兴

在第 14 街法律中心帮助无家可归的人，

尽管

当亚瑟·雅各布斯突然出现时，我当然不是以律师的身份说话

在我家门口

我很好地打了声招呼虽然我无法

想象他想要什么

他拒绝喝咖啡他只是想

谈谈

亚瑟说过去几周

是他作为律师德雷克和斯威尼的 56 年中最困难的

现在又一次，但

他仍然无法入睡

他对伯顿一家的死感到内疚

，他永远不会忘记

它

，他厌倦了追逐金钱

我太惊讶说不出话，所以我

只是听

亚瑟正在受苦，我感到抱歉

对于他，

他询问法律中心和

我们所做的工作

该中心在那里工作了多久 有

多少人在那里工作

钱从哪里来

这给了我一个机会 我接受

了

我告诉亚瑟 因为我不能

工作 作为一名律师，我开始了一项

公益计划，

我将聘请华盛顿大律师事务所的律师，

这些志愿律师每周工作几个

小时，我会告诉他们该

怎么做，

我们可以接触到成千上万的无家可归

者

arthur li 在

我们讨论时同意了这个想法 几分钟后计划变得

更大

他正在谈论

派他所有的 400 名华盛顿

律师每周做几个小时的公益工作

400 名律师会不会太多 亚瑟

问

不 我说

但我 需要德雷克和斯威尼内部的帮助，

我知道他在芝加哥办公室的某个人，

但我相信你可以让他回来，

因为我猜亚瑟

对赫克托·帕默一无所知，也不知道他是如何帮助

我拿到橡树河档案的。

一个月后回到华盛顿 和我一起工作

亚瑟在我的办公室里待了两个小时

他离开时是一个更快乐的人

他有人生目标

我走进他的车然后跑去

告诉末底改

我们可以提供帮助的好消息 我们需要多少无家可归的人

梅根的叔叔在芬威克岛附近拥有一所房子，就在海边

一想到要在城外呆几天，饼干就兴奋不已，

梅根非常清楚地告诉我

，她叔叔的房子里有三间卧室

，我们每个人

一间。

看着

窗外，紧挨着坐在

沙发

上，我问 ruby

看电视

，你在想什么，

她静静地问

一切，什么也没问

32 天前，我和

另一个

住在不同公寓

里做不同工作的女人结婚了

甚至不知道

现在头靠在我肩上的女人

一个月内生活怎么会发生如此大的变化

我正在考虑我的新生活 我

说我们都对你微笑