Long Hours
Mitch learned fast. He was appointed to work with one of the partners, Avery Tolleson, and helped him with several of his clients. He learned to respect Avery's talent for hard work. Avery taught Mitch all about billing clients for his time. As an associate he could bill $100 an hour. His future progress at the firm, he was warned, depended on how much income he made for the firm. He learned that it was acceptable to bill clients more than he actually worked. 'If you think about a client while you're driving over to the office in the morning,' Avery told him, 'add on another hour.' He could bill clients for twelve hours a day, even if he never worked twelve hours a day. Mitch also learned that Avery liked to bend the firm's rules. His marriage was breaking up and his eyes followed every good-looking woman he saw on the streets. He also drank at lunch-times.
From Avery and the other partners Mitch learned the way things were done at Bendini, Lambert & Locke. He learned that secrecy was valued highly; he learned to talk to no one outside the firm, not even Abby.
Mitch was determined to become a partner in less time than anyone else ever had before. He was determined to earn the firm more money than any associate ever had before. He had heard the stories about how many hours people worked; even sixteen hours a day was not unknown in the firm.
It was said that Nathan Locke started work at six a.m. every day. On his first full day Mitch arrived at the office at 5.30. No one else was there.
He climbed the stairs to his office on the second floor, made himself a cup of coffee and began to work. After a while he got up from his desk and went over to the window. It was still dark outside. He didn't notice the figure suddenly appear at his door.
'Good morning.'
Mitch turned round from the window. 'You frightened me,' he said.
'I'm sorry. I'm Nathan Locke. I don't believe we've met.'
'I'm Mitch McDeere, the new man.' They shook hands.
'Yes, I know.'
Mitch could not stop himself staring at the man's eyes. Nathan Locke's eyes were cold and knowing. They were the most evil eyes he had ever seen.
'I see you're an early riser,' Locke was saying.
'Yes, sir.'
'Well, it's good to have you in the firm.'
***
After a few days DeVasher, Lambert and Locke had a meeting.
They were sure Mitch could not keep going: nobody could work a hundred hours a week for more than a few months.
'How's his wife taking it?' Lambert asked.
'This will change, but at the moment I can only hear his side of the conversations,' DeVasher said. 'She's not delighted. She's practicing her cooking for the first time and he's getting sandwiches from the shops, because he's never home in time for dinner.'
'What do you mean, "This will change"?' asked Locke.
'I mean Chicago is still worried, you know? We don't think Kozinski and Hodge told the FBI anything important, but Lazarov wants to be safe. He wants the homes of all associates bugged.'
'Don't you think that's going a bit too far?' asked Lambert.
'Chicago doesn't think so.'
'All of them, even McDeere?'
'Yes. I think Tarrance will try again. Oh, and before I forget, we've found McDeere's brother Ray - or rather, McDeere led us to him. He's in Brushy Mountain Prison, near Nashville. He accidentally killed someone in a bar fight and the court gave him fifteen years. He's done four of them. McDeere went to visit him last Sunday. I wonder if we could use this as a lever against McDeere, if we ever need to.'
by John Grisham