Chapter 1 Boston: July 1986

Jan Schlichtmann, a lawyer, was having a dream of a woman who had sat across
from him in the courtroom for the last five months as she was one of the jurors in a
case he was handling. In his dream, he was standing next to her in the midst of a
dense forest together with the other jurors. She seemed to be pondering over which
path in the forest she should go as Schlichtmann was exhorting her to choose the
direction he wanted her to take, yet she remained undecided. The dream remained
unresolved because he was awakened by a phone call pertaining to the repossession
of his Porsche car as his automobile loan was several months in arrears.
Almost half an hour later, a sheriff came to his front door with some documents
dealing with the repossession of the Porsche. He told the sheriff he would get the car
parked three blocks away. As Schlichtmann was walking along the street noticing the
people he passed by on the way, he perceived that his future or perhaps even his life
hung in the balance while everyone around him was living their lives unperturbed.
Schlichtmann came back with the car and immediately handed the keys to the sheriff
who at once removed the license plate and unloaded all Schlichtmanns personal
things stuffed in the dashboard and the backseat of the Porsche. Among those
articles found in the car were some law books and several transcripts of depositions
in the civil action of Anne Anderson, et al., v. W. R. Grace & Co., et al., which led to
the sheriffs knowledge of Schlichtmann being a lawyer for the case. Before the sheriff
drove away with the Porsche that Schlichtmann had just driven less than five
thousand miles in almost two years of owning it, the sheriff made a remark that Anne
Andersons case must have been a tough one, which made them both laughed.
Two days later, Schlichtmann dressed in his favorite suit with an Hermes tie which he
considered lucky, he walked to the federal courthouse in downtown Boston as he had
no money for a cab. While walking, the precariousness of ones position in life
suddenly dawned on him. He was close to being a homeless as he was not only in
arrears on his mortgages but he was also facing a lawsuit for his failure to make a
single maintenance payment in his condominium association. After seventy-eight
days of trial, all the money was gone and the law firm is in the red. If he lost this case,
Schlichtmann would be sunk so deeply into debt that it would take five years for him
to climb back to even. Oddly though, Schlichtmann was not at all concerned about
money. He was more apprehensive to the fact that if he lost this case, he would lose
something far greater than his money, and that was his confidence as he had staked
too much of himself on this one case.
Schlichtmann tarried at a courtroom corridor and at around eight oclock, the jurors
had concluded their deliberations and walked past Schlichtmann as he gazed down
the floor but from the corners of his eyes he meticulously studied their demeanor to
guess their mood. The sound of their footsteps receded till Schlichtmann was all by
himself again.