The grin on my face said it all.
“You know how partnerships are made, don’t you, son?”
He held out his hand. I took it, and the firm of Devlin amp; Knight drew its first breath.
“You might be interested to know, Mr. Devlin, we have a client at the door before we have a door.”
“Oh?”
“Anthony Bradley wants us to handle his case when they charge him with the drug dealing at Harvard. I think we’ve got a shot at a good plea bargain. He was getting out of that business on his own. As a matter of fact, Kip Liu called him in for a last meeting at the restaurant on Chinese New Year’s. He told Anthony he was letting him out. It turned out he just wanted him in Chinatown to frame him for the murder. I talked to Anthony. He’ll help the DA prosecute the heart out of the tong.”
“Not a bad case for an opener.”
I got up to go.
“Well, Mr. Devlin, the day’s running out, and I’ve got three things to do.”
“Such as?”
“The first thing I’m going to do is call a friend of mine in immigration. I’m going to start the process to get Mei-Li citizenship. Then I’m going to hand in my resignation at Bilson, Dawes.”
“Sounds like a good start. What’s three?”
“That’s the best part. I’m going to pick up a certain gal who’s been in this hospital for the last few days because she was crazy enough to go on a date with me. She’s ready to go home. I’m going to see if I can make it up to her. Maybe for the rest of our lives. Who knows?”
His head was back on the pillow and he nodded. He had a sort of a smile that I don’t think was for me. I think it was for someone who had filled his life and then left it ten years earlier.
I started to leave, and then turned around.
“Could I ask my new senior partner a favor?”
“Ask.”
“Do you suppose you could call me ‘Michael,’ or maybe ‘Mike’?”
He hunched up on his elbows.
“I’ll never call you ‘Mike.’ It’s too small. A name is something you earn. Nobody gives it to you. You’ve earned a proud name. You’ll be ‘Michael’ to me from now on.”
I started to say, “Thank you, Mr. Devlin,” but something crawled up in my throat. I just held up a hand to him on the way out the door.
When I got to the corridor, I looked back. Some things you get to keep forever. I’ll take to my grave the look on his face. He was rereading Mike Loftus’s column.
