A deep voice boomed over the loudspeaker, “Attention, please! Would you all please take your seats? Attention, please! We would like to get the meeting started. Would you sit down, please!”
Reluctantly the small groups began to break up as people started to find seats. Jennifer looked up to see that half a dozen men had mounted the dais.
In the center was Adam Warner.
Jennifer stood there, frozen, as Adam walked to the chair next to the microphone and took a seat. She felt her heart begin to pound. The last time she had seen Adam had been when they had had lunch at the little Italian restaurant, the day he had told her that Mary Beth was pregnant.
Jennifer’s immediate impulse was to flee. She had had no idea Adam would be there and she could not bear the thought of facing him. Adam and his son being in the same city filled her with panic. Jennifer knew she had to get out of there quickly.
She turned to leave as the chairman announced over the loudspeaker, “If the rest of you ladies and gentlemen will take your seats, we will begin.”
As people around her began sitting down, Jennifer found herself conspicuous by standing. Jennifer slid into a seat, determined to slip away at the first opportunity.
The chairman said, “We are honored this morning to have as our guest speaker a nominee for the presidency of the United States. He is a member of the New York Bar Association and one of the most distinguished members of the United States Senate. It is with great pride that I introduce Senator Adam Warner.”
Jennifer watched as Adam rose, accepting the warm applause. He stepped to the microphone and looked out across the room. “Thank you, Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen.”
Adam’s voice was rich and resonant, and he had an air of authority that was mesmerizing. The silence in the room was total.
“There are many reasons why we are gathered here today.” He paused. “Some of us like to swim and some of us like to snorkel…” There was a swell of appreciative laughter. “But the main reason we are here is to exchange ideas and knowledge and discuss new concepts. Today, lawyers are under greater attack than at any time in my memory. Even the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has been sharply critical of our profession.”
Jennifer loved the way he used our, making him one with the rest of them. She let his words wash over her, content just to look at him, to watch the way he moved, to hear his voice. At one point he stopped to run his fingers through his hair, and it gave Jennifer a sharp pang. It was a gesture of Joshua’s. Adam’s son was only a few miles away and Adam would never know.
Adam’s voice grew stronger, more forceful. “Some of you in this room are criminal lawyers. I must admit I have always considered that to be the most exciting branch of our profession. Criminal lawyers often deal in life and death. It is a very honorable profession and one of which we can all be proud. However”—his voice grew hard—“there are some of them”—and now Jennifer noticed that Adam was disassociating himself by his choice of the pronoun—“who are a disgrace to the oath they have taken. The American system of jurisprudence is based on the inalienable right of every citizen to have a fair trial. But when the law is made a mockery of, when lawyers spend their time and energy, imagination and skill, finding ways to defy that law, finding ways to subvert justice, then I think it is time something must be done.” Every eye in the room was fastened on Adam as he stood there, eyes blazing. “I am speaking, ladies and gentlemen, out of personal experience and a deep anger for some of the things I see happening. I am currently heading a Senate committee conducting an investigation of organized crime in the United States. My committee has found itself thwarted and frustrated time after time by men who hold themselves to be more powerful than the highest enforcement agencies of our nation. I have seen judges suborned, the families of witnesses threatened, key witnesses disappear. Organized crime in our country is like a deadly python that is squeezing our economy, swallowing up our courts, threatening our very lives. The great majority of lawyers are honorable men and women doing honorable jobs, but I want to give warning to that small minority who think their law is above our law: You’re making a grave mistake and you’re going to pay for that mistake. Thank you.”