"In other words, my clients should abandon any idea of serenity, uninterrupted sleep, privacy and quietness for the remainder of their natural lives?"
"No," Mel said. "I think, in the end, they'll have to move. I'm not speaking officially, of course, but I'm convinced that eventually this airport and others will be obliged to make multibillion-dollar purchases of residential areas surrounding them. A good many of the areas can become industrial zones where noise won't matter. And of course, there would be reasonable compensation to those who owned homes and were forced to leave them."
Elliott Freemantle rose and motioned others in the delegation to do the same.
"That last remark," he informed Mel, "is the one sensible thing I've heard this evening. However, the compensation may start sooner than you think, and also be larger." Freemantle nodded curtly. "You will be hearing from us. We shall see you in court."
He went out, the others following.
Through the door to the anteroom Mel heard one of the two women delegates exclaim, "You were magnificent, Mr. Freemantle. I'm going to tell everyone so."
"Well, thank you. Thank you very..." The voices faded.
Mel went to the door, intending to close it.
"I'm sorry about that," he said to Cindy. Now that the two of them were alone again, he was not sure what else they had to say to each other, if anything.
Cindy said icily, "It's par for the course. You should have married an airport."
At the doorway, Mel noticed that one of the men reporters had returned to the anteroom. It was Tomlinson of the Tribune.
"Mr. Bakersfeld, could I see you for a moment?"
Mel said wearily, "What is it?"
"I got the impression you weren't too smitten with Mr. Freemantle."
"Is this for quotation?"
"No, sir."
"Then your impression was right."
"I thought you'd be interested in this," the reporter said.
"This was one of the legal retainer forms which Elliott Freemantle had distributed at the Meadowood community meeting."
As Mel read the form, he asked, "Where did you get it?"
The reporter explained.
"How many people were at the meeting?"
"I counted. Roughly six hundred."
"And how many of these forms were signed?"
"I can't be sure of that, Mr. Bakersfeld. My guess would be a hundred and fifty were signed and turned in. Then there were other people who said they'd send theirs by mail."
Mel thought grimly: now be could understand Elliott Freemantle's histrionics; also why and whom the lawyer was trying to impress.
"I guess you're doing the same arithmetic I did," the reporter, Tomlinson, said.
Mel nodded. "It adds up to a tidy little sum."
"Sure does. I wouldn't mind a piece of it myself."
"Maybe we're both in the wrong business. Did you cover the Meadowood meeting too?"
"Yes."
"Didn't anyone over there point out that the total legal fee was likely to be at least fifteen thousand dollars?"
Tomlinson shook his head. "Either no one thought of it, or they didn't care. Besides, Freemantle has quite a personality; hypnotic, I guess you'd call it. He had 'em spellbound, like he was Billy Graham."
Mel handed back the printed retainer form. "Will you put this in your story?"
"I'll put it in, but don't be surprised if the city desk kills it. They're always wary about professional legal stuff. Besides, I guess if you come right down to it, there's nothing really wrong."
"No," Mel said, "it may be unethical, and I imagine the bar association wouldn't like it. But it isn't illegal. What the Meadowood folk should have done, of course, was get together and retain a lawyer as a group. But if people are gullible, and want to make lawyers rich, I guess it's their own affair."
Tomlinson grinned. "May I quote some of that?"
"You just got through telling me your paper wouldn't print it. Besides, this is off the record. Remember?"
"Okay."
If it would have done any good, Mel thought, he would have sounded off, and taken a chance on being quoted or not. But he knew it wouldn't do any good. He also knew that all over the country, ambulance chasing lawyers like Elliott Freemantle were busily signing up groups of people, then harassing airports, airlines, and -in some cases-pilots.
It was not the harassing which Mel objected to; that, and legal recourse, were everyone's privilege. It was simply that in many instances the homeowner clients were being misled, buoyed up with false hopes, and quoted an impressive-sounding, but one-sided selection of legal precedents such as Elliott Freemantle had used tonight. As a result, a spate of legal actions---costly and time-consuming---was being launched, most of which were foredoomed