The only good Lawyer

take some of even those clients with them.”
    “Right.”
    “And again there was no covenant not to compete that could stop them.”
    Radachowski nodded. “We still had to be careful, though.” Another belly laugh. “All the hush-hush steps we conspirators took at D, E & F. The ambiguous memos, the out-of-office meetings. We even had a code name for the real estate broker helping us shop for our new office space here.”
    “Code name?”
    “To put on telephone messages or appointments calendars, so the other partners at D, E & F wouldn’t tumble to what we were doing.”
    It was a nice education for me, and nostalgia trip for Radachowski, but I thought we should return to my case. “Woodrow Gant didn’t join up until after you all were here, though, correct?”
    She stopped, seeming to remember why I was sitting in front of her. “Correct. Three—no, three and a half—years ago. Woodrow wanted out of the D-A.’s office, and we were a good fit for him.”
    “How so?”
    “We didn’t have anybody doing divorce, and in a small firm, it can be a profit center. Plus, Frank really believed in what he and Len did with me.”
    “Meaning hiring for... diversity?”
    A little hardening again, more the cross-examination look than the jury one. “Meaning giving a person of talent a good base.”
    “So things worked out well.”
    “Very well. Woodrow thrived here, loved the open atmosphere.”
    I thought about Imogene Burbage calling her boss, “Mr. Neely,” but skipped it. “How do you mean?”
    “Woodrow was just... real loose. For example, he’d come up to me and say, ‘Hey, man, this place is the ultimate comfort zone.’ “
    Sounded off to me. “He called you ‘Hey, man Radachowski shrugged. “He called everybody that. Male, female, old, young, didn’t matter. Universal greeting for Woodrow. Which was about the only formality he insisted on.”
    “Formality?”
    “That we all use his full first name, ‘Woodrow’— instead of ‘Woody’? I think he didn’t want anybody linking him even subliminally to that naive bartender on Cheers.”
    I could see Gant’s point. “Were you here the day Mr. Spaeth appeared for his deposition?”
    A sudden chill in the ait. “No, but that doesn’t mean I don’t feel some responsibility for it.”
    “How do you mean?”
    “I was the one who recommended Woodrow to Nicole in the first place.”
    Remembering that Radachowski had used Mrs. Spaeth’s first name before, I leaned forward. “When was this?”
    The eyes behind the thick lenses swam left-right-left for a moment. “I think I can tell you without violating any confidences. It was during the Boston Adult Literacy Fund benefit—at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge ? I spoke there seven or eight months ago,” a flourish toward the wall of photos behind her, “and of course they introduced me as a lawyer. After my talk, this woman came up to me from the audience, said she needed a divorce lawyer and could I recommend one. Naturally, I gave her my card and Woodrow’s name.”
    “Didn’t you say before that divorce work at a small firm can be a ‘profit center’?”
    “Yes.”
    “I might be missing something, but it’s hard to see how Epstein & Neely could make any money on the Spaeth divorce, given that the husband was out of work.”
    Radachowski showed me the big teeth. “You might be surprised, John. But that’s why I said ‘can be’ a profit center. The firm doesn’t make much off my charitable work, either but we still believe it important.”
    “Did you ever meet Alan Spaeth yourself?”
    “No. Never even saw him until... until the television coverage.” Radachowski’s eyes began to fill.
    I didn’t want to lose her cooperation. “I’m sorry to put you through—”
    “John,” a little harshly, to cut me off while she swiped at the tears with the back of her hand. Then, in the softer tone, “Do you really think you have to apologize to a litigator for anything you ask her about?”
    “I guess not.”
    “So, go ahead.”
    “There’s no question Mr. Gant ate at a restaurant called Viet Mam with a woman that night. There’s at least a possibility she also was present when the attack occurred.”
    A sober nod. “That woman wasn’t me.”
    I said, “Do you have any idea who she might be?”
    “No. Woodrow had an... active social life, I think, but while we were good friends here at work, we didn’t go out much together afterwards, and I don’t remember him