and showed they had been instructed to work beyond the ordinary schedule. Daniel feared losing his position if he testified, but Nadia explained that retaliation for lawful cooperation could create additional problems for the owner. She promised not to exaggerate what the law could guarantee and encouraged him to tell only what he personally knew.
"He has keys to everybody's life here," Daniel said, looking at the rows of tagged brass keys in his cabinet. "Sometimes it feels as if the building belongs to him more than the people in it do."
"The building is his investment," Nadia replied. "The apartments are their homes. The law has to make room for both concepts."
Thomas left the meeting more troubled than he admitted. He had spent much of his career reviewing records in cases where the real hardship was compressed into two paragraphs of facts. Watching Daniel hesitate over the possibility of losing his job reminded him how much courage a witness sometimes needed before the first page of testimony existed.
On the morning of the hearing, the courthouse corridors smelled of floor polish and old paper. Eleanor wore a navy dress and the gold cross her mother had given her decades earlier. James wore a dark suit whose shoulders still fitted perfectly, though its sleeves had begun to fray inside the cuffs. They arrived with Nadia and Thomas half an hour early, carrying two binders and Eleanor's original notebook.
Richard Caldwell arrived in a black suit with Gregory Hamilton at his side. His watch gleamed when he glanced at the time. He had expected to find two elderly tenants alone with a folder and enough confusion to make them accept a settlement. Seeing Nadia did not particularly worry him. Seeing Thomas at the opposite table did.
He stared for several seconds before approaching Gregory. "Who is that man?"
Hamilton followed his gaze. "Their son, I assume."
"He looks familiar."
"Richard, sit down."
The clerk called the case and asked the parties to identify themselves. Nadia rose for the Washingtons. Gregory rose for Caldwell. At that moment Thomas stepped into the side corridor to return a call from the court administrative office confirming that the hearing would be handled by a judge with no conflict. Richard watched him pass and recognized the face from a newspaper article about a statewide judicial conference.
"That's Judge Thomas Washington," Richard whispered, suddenly hoarse.
Hamilton looked at him. "Yes. And you should have thought about the possibility that your tenants had family and legal counsel before filing this petition."
"He's their lawyer?"
"He's their son. He's not their lawyer. Sit down."