Lawyer Ethics

Tick, tick, tick...

'Faster,' thought Agnieszka Madera, who was standing at the counter, looking at the girl sitting at the table. The girl with black hair and dark complexion represented the Roma ethnic group and was engaged in professional begging. She belonged to that family or group which during Advent and Lent is brought by buses to the vicinity of Catholic churches in order to show their suffering and misery and to beg money from passers-by in the pre-Christmas or pre-Easter spirit of compassion and generosity. In the evening, the beggars boarded the bus again and were driven to their homes - not poor at all, as befits beggars. Agnieszka herself lived in a house far worse than theirs.

Since the Lenten season was already behind them, Tserita, as the girl's name was, was dressed and made up like any normal middle class girl of her age. She had an appointment with her boyfriend, so she was impatient that everything was taking so long. Even the stupid wait for a milkshake and a burger with fries.

Madera became more impatient. She spent half an hour persuading the girl to want to talk to her. If Tserita got tired of waiting, she would just leave without even looking.

"Two burgers with fries and two Strawberry Delight shakes ready!"

Finally! Agnieszka Madera felt like screaming with joy and relief. She grabbed the tray and almost ran to the table where Tserita was waiting.

"I'm sorry it took so long..."

"I'm leaving in fifteen minutes anyway," the girl announced while reaching for a shake. "You lost minutes of conversation, not me."

The journalist wanted to curse at the girl's arrogance, but she had to be nice to her or she would lose a potentially bombastic source of information.

"So I'll get straight to the point. Do you mind if I record our conversation?"

The girl, busy with her drink, shrugged her shoulders. So Agnieszka took out her smartphone and turned on the recording. She placed the phone on the table.

"You said you were at the police station when Kwiecień was arrested..." reporter asked first question.

The girl set her mug down and reached for her burger and fries. She bit into the bun looking at the journalist with bored eyes.

Agnieszka Madera bit her tongue to avoid saying something blunt. This little one was far too arrogant for her age.

"Were you also there when Kwiecień's defender appeared?"

"Yeah," she admitted. "I remembered him because he's quite a hunk. I have a weakness for blue-eyed blondes and this one was really something."

Madera felt a surge of triumph. Maybe this girl really would turn out to be a great source of information.

"Since you remember that he was handsome, do you remember what kind of mood he was in? You know, was he smiling, happy, or was he serious, angry, sad...?"

Tserita chewed on a bitten off piece of burger but you could tell by her face that she was thinking. She swallowed, drew her shake with a straw and suppressed a burp.

"When he walked into the precinct he was serious but pretty confident. Jeez, the kind of guy in a suit you see in shows about expensive lawyers. That's why I paid attention to him. You know, the kind of walking million dollar guy. But then..."

"Then...?" the journalist all turned to listen.

"Then I didn't see him very well, because he just flitted down the hallway, but he looked different. Like a spectre."

"Like a spectre..." repeated Madeira in thought. "Was he pale? Frightened? Nervous?"

"I couldn't see well, but I think he was. I thought so. Like he had just had an unpleasant conversation."

"Do you know who he was talking to? Or do you guess at least?"

"I saw him with that old dog who claimed Kwiecień but then that cop was at his desk and the lawyer wasn't there. He's an attorney, he was probably talking to the prisoner."

"And it was after that conversation that he was so upset?" the reporter made sure.

"Well, yes. Then I saw him again with that cop. They went to the back exit or something."

"So that's why he disappeared from our sight," guessed Madera.

"Well, I guess so. So what, I've told you everything and time is running out too..."

"Oh, yes," Agnieszka Madera reached into her wallet and handed the girl a hundred. She wondered what else she could ask as long as she was talking to Tserita, but the girl tucked the bill away in a flash, took the burger and shake, and after throwing a short 'bye' left.

So Adam Lechoń saw Kwiecień, exactly as all the journalists suspected, and then disappeared off the face of the earth. Hm, hm, I wonder why that happened?

Agnieszka smiled like a thoroughbred investigative journalist. Sudden disappearance of the defender was definitely suspicious. Oh, very suspicious indeed.

Intuition and experience told her that during the conversation with Kwiecień Lechoń must have learned something that shook him up enough to make him forget about his duties as a lawyer. Something that shakes a lawyer defending a serial killer cannot be trivial. Could it be that Wojciech Kwiecień confessed to him that he committed the crimes?

That would be sensational!

If a lawyer was given a case by the court, he couldn't just give it up. Every defendant has a right to a defense and every attorney has a social duty. Even the biggest, highest paid star of the bar had to give up his time to defend some petty thief. Since everyone had the right to a lawyer, the defense attorney could not say that he did not like this defendant and was not going to defend him.

Adam Lechoń got the case through his law firm, not directly, but once his name appeared on the papers, he was obligated to stick with the case to the end. The end did not come when the court acquitted the defendant. The prosecution still had the right to appeal. Only after the final appeal could Lechoń be taken off the case. The only exception to do so sooner would probably be some unforeseen calamity involving Lechoń, or a serious illness. An ordinary cold was certainly not one of them.

In the meantime, Adam Lechoń simply disappeared and his law firm remained silent.

It was not that Agnieszka was looking for an empty sensation in order to make a name for herself in the journalistic world or to make her name flare up like a supernova. Madera considered herself a reliable journalist and therefore wanted to find out the truth about a serial killer. The sudden disappearance of his lawyer was an interesting and important piece of this puzzle. Because if Lechoń is risking being punished by the court or the bar, it means he has a damn good reason for it.

And she will certainly get to the bottom of what it is.

Agnieszka reached for her cell phone and dialed the number for Przemek. At this point, her colleague was the best person to help her with this journalistic investigation.

"Um? What do you want?" she heard her friend's discouraged voice.

"I need you to do me a favor…"