Perri O'Shaughnessy - Unlucky in Law

“His brother, Gabe Wyatt, was my client.”

“Oh, yes, that was it. What did you do for his brother? A will?”

“Why, Nina, you know that’s confidential.”

“We’re in the same firm. Is there some conflict I should know about?”

“If there were a conflict, I might not even be able to tell you. The existence of a conflict might be confidential and not in the best interests of my client.”

“Just a minute,” Nina said. “I know you’re in a hurry, but I have to get this straight. You won’t even tell me what type of matter Gabe Wyatt was pursuing with you?”

“Sorry, no.”

Something about his attitude bothered her. He wasn’t just unhelpful, he seemed downright obstructive. “Do you have information from Gabe Wyatt or anyone else that might tend to exculpate Stefan Wyatt?” she asked directly.

“I can’t answer that question,” Alan said. Nina thought she saw fright in the flecked eyes behind the glasses. He powered up the car, revved it a few times, and backed out. Nina watched him go, her mind racing alongside.

Friday 9/19

AFTER LEAVING THE OFFICE, NINA MET PAUL AND BOB FOR HOT DOGS and a sci-fi we-all-die movie downtown. Bob, in good spirits, kept his post-movie critique down to scathing.

“I’m going to Tahoe this weekend,” he announced to Paul, full of plans about who he needed to see and what he would bring back.

“Really?” Paul said. “Well, blow me down. What a surprise.”

“It was a sudden decision,” Nina said. She hadn’t told him. Why hadn’t she told him? Because she knew what he would say. She spoiled Bob. She gave him anything he wanted. Whatever Paul said, she would feel her jaw clench at the interference. “It’ll be a quick trip. He’ll stay Saturday night with Matt and Andrea.”

“You’re not going?” Paul said.

“No.”

“Good. Hey, Bob, say hi to Uncle Matt and Aunt Andrea for me,” Paul said.

“How much will you pay me?” Bob asked.

Paul cuffed him, but with a smile.

They headed out into the cold night. Paul’s car was parked a few blocks down toward the bay. They walked, Bob beside Nina, Paul offering his arm to her, simply out for a pleasant evening. She thought, Does he compare my body with hers? How could he put those sensual hands of his on another woman’s body? How could he? I’m full of self-pity and disaster already, she said to herself, and it’s only been one week of trial stress. She laid her head against his shoulder.

Surprisingly, Bob wanted to talk about school. They were studying local history this week, and had gone on a field trip to a ranch in Carmel Valley. “We practiced roping skills. We got to try it in a ring.”

“Not on a bull?” Nina asked, grateful for something to think about besides her personal issues.

“A cow,” Bob said. “The guy who owns the bull calls him ‘Devil Boy.’”

“Best stick with Bessie, then,” Paul said. They had reached Fisherman’s Wharf, and stood indecisively, the sea lions calling to them, Paul’s warm car another block farther.

“Let’s walk to the end of the pier,” Bob urged.

“Homework?” Nina asked.

“I got it covered.” He rushed ahead.

Nina and Paul strolled slowly behind him. “How would you say it went today in court?” Paul asked Nina. He had been out much of the day.

She told him. “Of course, we haven’t gotten to our own case. So far, they’re seeing only the prosecution’s story. We have to be patient.”

“I have complete faith in you.”

“We’ve got a client whose blood was found at the scene of a murder. Alex Zhukovsky is hanging tough with his story. We don’t know why anybody would want to kill Christina or want the old man’s bones. We don’t even have a decent theory. We don’t have anything,” Nina said shortly. She wanted to stop into a souvenir shop to buy herself a chambered nautilus displayed in the window. They tested the door. The store was closed.

“We will,” Paul promised. They caught up with Bob, who shooed them away, having run into some kids he knew from school. From a discreet distance, listening to the sea lions making their evening ruckus for a minute, they searched the calm waters to see if they could spot an otter. Paul said to Nina, “Hey, you didn’t mention Susan would be testifying today.”

She couldn’t decide if he was studiously casual, or just casual. “True.”

“Do you think she makes a good witness?”

“Oh, yeah. Just great. Her and her big fat lips.”

He laughed. “She’s not that bad looking,” he said.

“Not surprising you’d feel that way.”

He caught her face between his hands and held on gently. “What is it?”

She shook him off. “I don’t expect to like prosecution witnesses.”

“But her testifying against Wyatt isn’t what you hold against her,” he said, “is it? You’re jealous.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“No need, you know. The minute I decided to get back with you, we broke it off.”

“Did she drop you or did you drop her?”

He wrinkled his nose and sighed. “What’s the difference?”

“It matters,” she said stubbornly, arms crossed, unable to say why it should matter.

“I broke it off.”

“Liar.”

“Nina, this isn’t like you.”

“Yeah, it’s me. It’s me, in trial. I’m sorry.”

He pulled her to him, trying to make up, she could tell, but she couldn’t. She moved away. She felt his eyes on her as she leaned out over the railing toward the water.

A small cruise boat docked farther down, and they watched the rowdy partygoers unload.

“C’mon, let’s clear the air,” Paul said. “Nina, I’m over forty. I’ve had past relationships. You knew that. I’ve had two wives, for Chrissake. And I slept with them. I’ll bet you slept with your husbands, too, and there’s no question about Kurt, either, now that I mention it, given the fact of Bob’s existence!”

He had slept with Susan. She had known it, but the blood pounding in her head told her she had held a vain hope that he hadn’t.

“You don’t want to dredge up this old stuff,” he went on, so reasonable.

The old stuff, as he put it, was already dredged and heaped up high, obscuring her rationality.

“’Cause, just for example, you’d hate me reminding you about that kid you used to go skinny-dipping with, right? I mean, I didn’t know you then or anything, so I have no reason whatsoever to picture you and him swimming on a warm evening out there with the bullfrogs and stars. You buck naked. With him.”

Surprised that he was nursing a long-ago, minor mention of herself as a teenager hanging around the rocky pools in Carmel Valley with that wild-kid boyfriend of hers, she couldn’t think of anything to say.

“Your clothes tossed behind on the hillside, a little pot in the air. Your hair wet, drifting all over the place. A bright moon. Him some prime example of young manhood. Shit, Nina.” He frowned.

She couldn’t help herself. She started to laugh. “Yeah, it was just like that, only you left out the poison oak I got, and the tick he got, and the shouting argument part.”

“Just tell me his name,” Paul said, responding to her, now on a roll and just teasing. “So if I run into him minding his own business one fine day, I know who to pound senseless.”

Pelicans flew overhead and the black water lapped against the pilings and the shopkeepers turned out lights in the stores on each side of the pier. She kissed him. Gathering Bob up, they bought saltwater taffy and chewed on it as they walked back toward Alvarado downtown, past laughter and the smell of coffee and grease coming from the crowded fish joints.