“Another attorney in the building,” said Fellinger. “We’ve worked together, there was a trust level and this cousin sounded ideal. Yale graduate, had worked as a playwright, smart, industrious. He interviewed fine. A bit on the wimpy side but that’s okay, I don’t need attitude. I even paid him a bit more than I might normally because of the Ivy League thing.”

“Give me the name of Williams’s cousin, Mr. Fellinger.”

“She needs to be involved? You’re sure it’s relevant?”

“I’m not sure of anything.”

“All right … her name is Flora Sullivan but I can’t believe she’d have anything to do with something … unsavory.”

Tall, lanky woman. Bird-like, myopic. Same body type as Jens Williams. A pair of storks.

Once you knew, the family resemblance was obvious.

I said, “Williams ended up being a disappointment.”

Grant Fellinger said, “He was no great shakes as an assistant, but adequate. It wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago that other attorneys in the firm began to take me aside. Their staffers had started complaining about Jens. Had been feeling uneasy for a while but no one came forward because no one knew it was more than an individual issue. But once women began talking to each other, a pattern arose. Not something you could really sink your teeth into, no inappropriate touching, not even remarks. He’d just begun to bother female employees by looking at them. By being there when he didn’t need to be.”

I said, “Showing up and creeping them out.”

“Exactly. The complainants—there were seven of them, all younger women—would find him staring at them. The adjectives they used included lascivious, sly, weird, spooky, stalky. Even rapey, which is a new one on me. In any event, you get the picture. So how do you deal with something so ambiguous? There were certainly no legal grounds but I met with the partners and we agreed we’d have to do something.”

He looked back at the bar. “Here’s where it gets sensitive. I absolutely need you to be discreet.”

We waited.

Fellinger said, “Well … what we decided was that we’d try to find something else about Jens that was objectionable and use that to get him out. And he made it easy because his work had begun to suffer. Tardiness, lack of focus, downright apathetic toward the end. I began wondering about some sort of emotional issue. Particularly in view of the complaints.”

I said, “Inhibitions breaking down.”