“Don’t tell me. He was charged with Understanding America Too Well.”
“Eventually, the well ran dry, of course, and the bank went after the retired milkman.”
“Why would Habeck take on a case like that? I don’t see how the milkman can pay him much.”
“Okay. Habeck took on the milkman’s case. As soon as the bank heard that, they began to shake in their collective boots. Habeck, Harrison and Haller bought a few shares in the bank, and then threatened the bank with full exposure. Charged loan-forcing, incompetent administration, and a loan policy so inept that clearly the bank’s charter should be revoked. After all, Fletch, they made a half-a-million-dollar loan to a milkman!”
“Oh, boy. So the bank is going to swallow the five-hundred-thousand-dollar loss, or whatever part of it the milkman didn’t pay back out of principal?”
“Not only that, two of the partners in the bank, who also happen to be bank officers, are buying back the few shares of stock Habeck, Harrison and Haller own at what you may describe as well above market value.”
“Phew. What I’m learning about the law. Tell me, Alston, is that called ‘settling out of court’?”
“I think it’s called having a bank by the short hairs, and tugging.”
“I think it’s called blackmail. Of course, I never went to law school.”
“At law school, it’s called blackmail.”
“So far today, I’ve learned Habeck, Harrison and Haller, as a law firm, is actively in the burglary business, the blackmail business, judge fixing… what else do you guys do for a living?”
“Don’t ask.”
“You sure all law firms aren’t this way?”
“Absolutely not.”
“What happened to the milkman?”
“He moved to New York State, where he’s employed as—”
“A milkman!”
“No. As some kind of a psychotherapist. During his three years in Nebraska, he qualified for some kind of a degree, got a professional certification which permits him to earn a living being understanding.”
“I’ll bet he’s good at it.”
“I’ll bet he is.”
“Upward mobility, Alston.”
“The American dream.”
“Through judicious use of credit.”
“The name of the game.”
“The creation of another debt-free professional.”
“Warms my heart.”
“The legal system works, Alston.”
“Don’t you ever forget it.”
“And a bank had to sharpen its loan policy, from which we all benefit.”
“Habeck’s last case that reached the newspapers was about a year ago.”
“The case of the Fallen Doctor.”
“Yeah, the doctor who organized a certain number of his patients into drug pushers. The doctor was a wreck himself.”
“And Habeck got him off by charging the Narcotics Bureau with entrapment.”
“Ultimately, yes. First he went through a lot of dazzling footwork regarding the sanctity of the patient-slash- doctor relationship. To wit, doctors are not to be entrapped by the confidences of patients who turn out to be narcs.”
“And, tell me, Alston, how did Habeck, Harrison and Haller get paid for that job?”
“There was a million dollars of cocaine never found by the authorities.”
“Good God. Burglary, blackmail, drug pushing… why doesn’t someone bring charges against Habeck, Harrison and Haller?”
“Who’d dare? In fact, talking to you right now, I feel my pants slipping down around my ankles.”
“I appreciate that, Alston.”
“Where you may be right is that a Habeck client got out of jail last Tuesday. And he’s not a very nice person. He served eleven years the hard way. And I don’t understand why Habeck took on the case in the first place.”
“No personal notes?”
“All the files, except for a microfilm record of the case, are in the warehouse in Nevada and I can’t get to them.”
“He must have had a reason.”
“A child molester. A real sweetheart. He had two trained German shepherds. Apparently he’d enter a housing project, first attract little kids with his dogs. Then the trained dogs would herd and hold the little kids in a corner of the building, or the play yard, and this son of a bitch would then make free with them.”
“Jesus.”
“Say one for me. Takes all types, uh?”
“Jesus!”
“Lots of little kids gave evidence. There were lots of witnesses to the event with which he was finally charged. I guess he had been getting away with it for a long time. He counted on the dogs to help him make his escape. What he didn’t count on were a couple of black brothers who weren’t intimidated by German shepherds and kicked their heads in.”
“And he got only eleven years?”
“Habeck must have done something for him.”
“Eleven years!”
“I’m sure they were eleven hard years, Fletch. Child molesters are not popular in prison. They get very few invitations to the cellblock cocktail parties.”
“What’s his name?”
“Felix Gabais. Employed at various jobs, bus driver, school-bus driver, taxi driver. Lived with a crippled sister in the Saint Ignatius area. Would be about forty-one, forty-two years old now.”
“If Habeck got him out of prison in eleven years on that kind of charge, I can’t see why he’d go gunning for Habeck.”
“He’s crazy, Fletch. I mean, a guy who works all that out with trained dogs has to be crazy. Talk about premeditation.”
“I guess so.”
“In this case, he’s had eleven years to premeditate.”
“Alston, I have another thought. Supposing someone killed or maimed one of your loved ones. And Habeck got him off scot-free, or something meaningless, a suspended sentence, or something. Wouldn’t that incline you to go after Habeck?”
“Come again?”
“I heard of a case today in which Habeck was involved. Drunken teenager stole a car and killed someone with it. Habeck got him off with just a sentence of probation. What about the victim’s family? Wouldn’t they have reason to be pretty mad at Habeck?”
“I can see them wanting to harm the drunken kid.”
“But not Habeck?”
“That would take too much thinking. First, in anger, I think people want to see people get the punishment they deserve. When the courts don’t give perpetrators the punishment they clearly deserve, yeah, I think even the most decent people feel the temptation to go out and beat the perpetrator over the head themselves.”
“But, if they think twice…”
“If they think twice, they’re angry at something vague, you know, like
“You don’t think anyone ever focuses on the defense attorney who twists the legal system to get genuine bad guys off free?”
“It’s possible. Someone bright, maybe.”
“Someone bright who sees a pattern in what Habeck is doing.”
