Once We Were Brothers Read Online Free PDF Page A

up.”
    The sommelier interrupted with the wine selection. Liam swirled the wine, took a sip and gestured for him to fill the glasses.
    “Cat, I don’t think Solomon’s insane. Since our meeting, I’ve done some poking around.”
    “I should have figured.”
    “Adele introduced me to several people who know Ben. He’s very active in his synagogue life. He’s the congregation librarian. They say he spends hours reading and studying the Bible. He even teaches an adult class on Tuesday nights. On the Zohar.”
    “The Zohar?”
    “I’m not very knowledgeable here, but I’ve been told that the Zohar is one of the central books of the Kabbalah, a spiritual, mystical commentary of the Old Testament. Divine energy. It talks of secrets and codes.” Liam waggled his fingers.
    Catherine shot him a hard look. “I’m not taking his case.”
    “Did I ask you to?”
    “Well, I’m not.”
    “It may interest you to know that everyone I talked to, without exception, admires and respects Ben.”
    “I’m not taking his case.”
    “I know. You said that.”
    The conversation was interrupted by the service of a smoked salmon terrine. The two ate quietly for a time, with just the sounds of fork tines on the china.
    Finally Catherine broke the silence. “So, who are you dating these days? Are you still with Donna Talcott?”
    “I wouldn’t say I was with her. We see each other off and on. She’s fun to be around, but…I don’t think it’s ever going anywhere.”
    Catherine broke her sourdough roll in half and put a small pat of butter on the bread plate. She took a sip of wine. “Do you have any idea what it would be like to litigate against someone like Rosenzweig, to accuse him of being a Nazi?”
    “Why do you care? You’re not taking the case.”
    “Right.” She took a small bite of her roll. “Why are you so invested in this, Liam?”
    Liam laid his fork down and turned toward Catherine.
    “Adele is good people. Just an ordinary lady who cares about her neighbors, who brings soup over to Mrs. Delevan’s when she’s sick, who pays the eight-year-old kid next door a quarter to bring her the Sunday newspaper from her parkway, who has a nice greeting for every passerby when she’s out sweeping the leaves from her sidewalk. People like this, like Adele and Ben Solomon, they have no access to lawyers and courtrooms. They don’t know any big time litigators like you.” He picked up his fork. “But they’re good people.”
    “The fees and expenses would run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Rosenzweig would hire a team of lawyers. I couldn’t staff the case, even if the firm would let me take it on. It’d never get past the management committee.”
    “It’s not your choice to decide whether or not to take a case?”
    “Are you kidding? I’m just an associate, not even a junior partner. I’ve only been with the firm for two years. Remember? I came out of early retirement.”
    Liam nodded. “Of course I remember. I’m sorry.”
    “If I wanted to bring a case in, I would first have to submit it to the practice group chairman for approval. The chairman decides what cases to accept and what to assign to me. That’s how it works. They’re all commercial cases. All on behalf of mega-institutions. This bank versus that. A zoning petition to allow a heavy manufacturing plant to locate where it should never be. A battle between insurance goliaths to see who stands the loss for last year’s tornado in Lewisburg. Companies that don’t blink at billing rates that exceed nine hundred dollars an hour. Cases like Ben’s, against prominent defendants, would have to be approved by the management committee.”
    She shook her head. “People like Adele Silver and Ben Solomon – the firm doesn’t want them. I don’t like it, but that’s big firm economics.”
    “So why do you stay at Jenkins?”
    “After I came back from my absence, Jenkins was happy to have me. You ought to know.” She took a sip of