Equivocal Death (10 page)

stuff looks like it was recycled from a fifties dorm party.”

7

“Well, this
is
the Harvard Club,” Kate said, taking a potato chip 8

from Justin’s plate. “Maybe it’s a bow to tradition.”

9

Justin raised a skeptical eyebrow. “The tradition of
Cheez Whiz?
”

10

he asked.

11

Kate shrugged. “Hey, are you up for a game of chess?”

12

“Why not?”

13

Kate reached back behind her chair, where a velvet curtain con-14

cealed a set of built-in shelves. From the bottom shelf, she pulled 15

out a plastic box of chess pieces.

16

“Black?” she asked, snapping off the lid to the box.

17

“Of course.”

18

Justin pushed his plate to the table’s corner so they could set up 19

their pieces on the inlaid chessboard.

20

Playing chess at the Harvard Club was one of Kate’s favorite 21

ways to spend an evening. It was Justin who’d first suggested it dur-22

ing one of their early visits. At first, Kate demurred; she hadn’t 23

played since junior high. But after Justin persuaded her to try, she’d 24

been surprised at how quickly the moves came back.

25

Justin had already made off with both of Kate’s knights and one 26

of her rooks by the time she remembered what she’d meant to ask.

27

“You’ve worked with Madeleine Waters, right?”

28

“Huh?” Justin was giving the chessboard his full attention.

29

“Madeleine Waters. Haven’t you worked with her?”

30

“Sure,” Justin didn’t look up. “On the Titan Pharmaceuticals ar-31

bitration. Right after I started at the firm. It was Martin Drescher’s 32

case. She was the junior partner.”

33

“Drescher,” Kate said. She rolled her eyes.

ort 34

Justin moved a pawn one square forward and looked up.

reg 35

9858_01_003-152_r5hb.qxd 9/28/00 3:57 PM Page 53

E Q U I V O C A L D E A T H

5 3

“He’s not so bad. The way I look at it, it’s the same thing with 1

any partner. You just have to know how to handle them.”

2

Incredible. That made
two
associates leaping to Drescher’s de-3

fense. Andrea at lunch and now Justin. Were they drugging Sam-4

son’s water supply, creating Stepford associates along with billable 5

hours? But, brushing these thoughts aside, she forced herself to stay 6

on track. “So, what did you think of Madeleine?”

7

“You know all the history, right? The whole blow-up over her 8

partnership election?”

9

“Well . . . , I know the part about Carter Mills. That he was 10

Madeleine’s mentor. And that they had some sort of falling out.”

11

“Right. But there’s a lot more to it than that.”

12

“Like what?”

13

Justin laughed. “Geez, Kate, where have you been?”

14

“At my desk,” Kate said. “Working. That’s why I keep you 15

around. To be sure I stay informed.”

16

“I’m hurt. And here I thought you loved me for
myself.
For 17

my —”

18

“Come on, Justin. Just tell me what happened.”

19

“Okay, okay. Sometime in the late eighties — after Mills beat 20

out Drescher for managing partner — Drescher and his crowd 21

started accusing Mills of taking advantage of his position. Mainly, 22

Drescher was furious about WideWorld Media. When the Wide-23

World business first started coming in, Drescher and Mills worked 24

on it together. But as time went on, more and more of it went di-25

rectly to Mills. While he’s never been able to prove it, Drescher’s 26

always believed that Mills edged him out.”

27

Justin rattled off the history as if he were reading from a report.

28

“How do you
know
all this stuff?” Kate asked. “I mean, I knew 29

about the basic conflict, but how do you know all those details?”

30

Justin grinned. “Just a little hobby of mine. I keep my ears 31

open.”

32

“I have to admit, I’m impressed. But what does this have to do 33

with Madeleine?”

34 sh

35 re

9858_01_003-152_r5hb.qxd 9/28/00 3:57 PM Page 54

5 4

A M Y G U T M A N

1

Justin twirled the remains of his drink. “It was Madeleine’s part-2

nership election that brought things to a head. Everyone thought 3

the dispute between Mills and Drescher had been pretty much 4

smoothed over. But when Madeleine came up for partner, it blew 5

wide open again. Drescher — who
hates
Mills — saw this as the 6

perfect opportunity to screw him. Madeleine was Mills’s protégé.

7

He brought her to the firm and trained her. It would have been a 8

huge humiliation for him if she hadn’t made partner. So a rumor 9

starts going around that Madeleine isn’t really such a great lawyer.

10

That she’s only up for partner because she’s fucking Mills. Drescher 11

tried to keep his fingerprints off, but it was pretty clear that he was 12

the source.”

13

“D’you think they really had an affair? Madeleine and Carter, I 14

mean.”

15

“Sure. Probably. Have you seen that wife of his? She looks like a 16

Valium addict.”

17

Kate thought of Diane Mills, whom she’d seen at several firm 18

functions. She was a pretty but fragile blond who always seemed 19

slightly frightened. Had she always been that way? Or had it come 20

with the passing years? Had Diane Mills known about Madeleine?

21

Madeleine Waters. That’s who she wanted to talk about now.

22

“What about the other stuff?” Kate asked. “Is it true that 23

Madeleine only made partner because of her relationship with 24

Mills?”

25

“Hard to say.”

26

“What do you mean?”

27

“The thing about Madeleine is that she had almost no trial ex-28

perience. She was Mills’s senior associate on the United Telephone 29

case. Everyone says she did a great job. She organized document 30

productions all over the country, coordinated with local counsel 31

on all the state cases. But in the end the case settled.”

32

“Well, that’s not her fault.” Kate felt defensive, as if she and not 33

Madeleine had been called to account.

ort 34

“Of course it isn’t. At the same time, it means that she was reg 35

never really tried under fire. So everyone agrees she’s a great facil-9858_01_003-152_r5hb.qxd 9/28/00 3:57 PM Page 55

E Q U I V O C A L D E A T H

5 5

itator, great at organizing things. But that’s hardly the same thing 1

as going to trial. I mean, a lot of people would say that someone 2

who pays that kind of attention to detail is probably not going to 3

be so good at the big picture.”

4

“But that’s ridiculous. I mean, it’s like she’s being penalized for 5

doing well. If she’d screwed up, she wouldn’t have had a shot at be-6

ing partner. They would have said that if she can’t even handle 7

pretrial work, she’d never be able to function at trial. But when she 8

does a good job, they turn that against her, too. It’s like she 9

couldn’t win.”

10

Justin shrugged. “I’m not saying that I agree. I’m just repeating 11

what I’ve heard. Hey, why are you so upset?”

12

Kate looked down at her hands. “I’m not upset. It’s just . . . I 13

don’t know. It just doesn’t seem fair.”

14

“Life
isn’t
fair. You know that.”

15

“Well, I don’t have to like it.”

16

Justin’s eyes moved back to the chessboard. “Uh, Kate, are you 17

going to make a move or what?”

18

“Oh. Yeah.” Kate looked back at the game. After a few seconds, 19

she moved her remaining rook across the board.

20

“Are you sure you want to do that?”

21

“Why?”

22

“Because then I’ll be able to take your queen.”

23

“Oh.” Kate moved the rook back to its previous position and re-24

considered the board. “It’d be good if this bishop were a knight,”

25

she said. “Then I could take
your
queen.”

26

“You’re right,” Justin said. “But you don’t have any knights.

27

They’re all gone.”

28

“And whose fault is that?” After briefly surveying her options, 29

Kate moved a pawn. “So what happened with the partnership 30

vote?”

31

“The partnership vote? Oh, you mean, about Madeleine. Let’s 32

see . . . this big piece came out in
American Law.
Of course, 33

Drescher planted it, but it totally backfired. Madeleine ended up 34 sh

being the centerpiece. The angle was something like ‘brilliant, 35 re

9858_01_003-152_r5hb.qxd 9/28/00 3:57 PM Page 56

5 6

A M Y G U T M A N

1

beautiful woman sabotaged by evil patriarchy.’ Made it look like 2

the old boys’ network was alive and kicking at Samson & Mills.

3

Really bad PR. Carter grabbed the opportunity. Convinced the 4

middle-of-the-road-guys — McCarty, Stroesser, some others —

5

that Drescher was out of control. Basically forced Drescher’s camp 6

to fold. And Madeleine was elected partner.”

7

Kate was getting confused. “So given all that history, why’s 8

Madeleine been working with Drescher?”

9

“Now that I don’t know.” Justin eyed her across the table. “Why 10

are you so interested in Madeleine anyway?”

11

“Didn’t I tell you? She’s going to be working on the Thorpe 12

case.”

13

Now it was Justin’s turn to be surprised. He stopped with his 14

hand in midair, a pretzel still clutched in his outstretched fingers.

15

“You’ve got to be kidding,” he said.

16

“No, really. I thought I told you. Anyway, she was at this meet-17

ing yesterday in Carter’s office. He said that Madeleine would be 18

overseeing the day-to-day stuff.”

19

Justin whistled softly. “I’d sure like to know the story behind
that
20

little arrangement.”

21

“Me too.” She’d hoped that Justin would have some answers.

22

But apparently there were limits even to his encyclopedic knowl-23

edge of firm politics. They went back to the game. As the minutes 24

ticked by, Kate realized she was growing tired.

25

“Checkmate.” Justin grinned across the table.

26

“Hmmm.” Kate stared at the board. “If this bishop were a rook, 27

then I’d be home free.”

28

“But it’s not a rook. I have both rooks right here.” Justin ges-29

tured to a cluster of white pieces.

30

“You’re gloating,” Kate said. “I hate it when you gloat. Fine. Go 31

ahead and take my king.”

32

“You don’t
take
someone’s king, Kate. Once it’s checkmate 33

you —”

ort 34

“Whatever,” said Kate.

reg 35

Justin smiled.

9858_01_003-152_r5hb.qxd 9/28/00 3:57 PM Page 57

E Q U I V O C A L D E A T H

5 7

“I don’t know why you’re so pleased with yourself tonight,” Kate 1

said. “You always win. It’s not any big surprise.”

2

“Come on, Kate. I’m a junior associate at Samson & Mills. How 3

many pleasures do I have left in life?”

4

“How about the pleasure of my company?”

5

The words hung in the air, sounding less flip than she’d in-6

tended. She was annoyed to find herself blushing again. What was 7

going on? After all, it was just Justin. They’d spent dozens of 8

evenings together over the years. It was all Andrea’s fault, Andrea 9

and her stupid matchmaking ideas. Before Justin could respond, 10

Kate moved on.

11

“I hate to be a slug, but I’m still exhausted from traveling,” she 12

said, careful to keep her voice neutral. “Do you mind if we call it a 13

night?”

14

“Sure. I’ve got a busy day tomorrow anyway.” Justin took a final 15

gulp of his drink and pushed back his chair. Kate followed suit, 16

smoothing down her skirt as she stood up. Her feet were sore. She 17

should have worn running shoes for that cross-town walk to meet 18

Tara, but she never could get used to how they looked with a suit.

19

That crazed yuppie race-walker thing.

20

“Hey, Justin, do you have a copy of that article you were talking 21

about? The
American Law
piece?”

22

“Probably. Do you want me to try to dig it up?”

23

“Yeah, I’d sort of like to see it.”

24

“No problem. I’m sure I’ve got it somewhere.”

25

Together, they headed to the cloakroom and then out to the 26

street. It was getting colder. Midtown was closing down. Across 27

the street, Kate saw an entwined couple emerge from the Royalton 28

Hotel and slip into a waiting car. A wave of sadness passed through 29

her. Or maybe it was just fatigue.

30

“Let’s get you a cab,” Justin said.

31

Kate could smell the wool of Justin’s coat, still damp from the 32