Perri O'Shaughnessy - Unfit to Practice

Then she called a cab and went back to work.

Sandy looked startled to see her. “You okay?”

“Fine,” she said. “Let me have a look at my calendar for this afternoon.”

“Three appointments I was just about to cancel, one court appearance. Last but not least, a meeting with Kevin Cruz.”

“We better get busy, then,” she said, closing the door to her office and on Sandy’s expression, which showed a newly active fault line in the center of her forehead. Of course, there had to be a meeting with Kevin. That would complete this disastrous day.

“Paul’s on the line.”

“Later.”

“Says he won’t wait.”

She picked up.

“Nina,” Paul said. “I’ve got to tell you a few things I found out this weekend from Sergeant Cheney. I had lunch with him at Heidi’s on Sunday.”

She felt disoriented. “You’re here?”

“No. I’m home. I drove back to Carmel on Sunday night.”

“You didn’t let me know you were in town?”

“No point, unless I found something out.”

“You did, didn’t you?”

“He looked into Cody Stinson’s record. Stinson was in fact charged with auto theft once, at the age of eighteen, although he pled down to a lesser charge. Now he’s twenty-six. I think he’s discovered drug trading is more lucrative and easier to hide. They caught him for that just once.”

“He might have stolen my car, then,” Nina said. “He knows how.”

“That’s right. If he was caught once, you can bet he did it more than once.”

“You think he did it?”

“I just don’t know,” Paul said. “And I talked with Lisa Cruz’s neighbors. Turns out, she got in trouble with one of the neighbors. He cut a tree down that blocked his sun. She claimed the tree was on her property. She sued him. When she lost, his house mysteriously caught fire. Nothing ever proved, but he bought himself a Rottweiler and hasn’t had any more trouble.”

“She tried to burn him out?”

“He was away at the time. All the neighbors knew he spent Christmas with his aunt in Montana. Another time, the windshield on a neighboring teenager’s car was broken. His family’s trash ended up decorating the street. Lisa didn’t like the noise he made coming home late. Everyone incriminates Lisa, although no one says it to her face. Since her father died, she’s had a pretty tenuous hold on sanity, sounds like. She’s not popular in the neighborhood. Does a lot of screaming. They worry about her.”

“Great,” Nina said. “I’ll pass that on to Kevin’s new lawyer.”

“When her father died, she accused you to all and sundry of being responsible for causing his death. Couldn’t stop talking about how ruthless you were in ruining his business. How careless you were about what effect your client’s lawsuit would have on a sick man. When she found out Kevin hired you to represent him, she went apeshit, according to her neighbors.”

“Oh, Paul.”

“I’d call her a viable suspect.”

“Where was she the night the Bronco was stolen?”

“At home. Well, we all know how close to home she sticks when she’s got her track shoes on. And she doesn’t live far from you.”

“Okay.”

“You don’t sound right.”

“Just keep going, Paul.”

“Then there’s Officer Scholl, the self-made woman. She’s a go-getter from a poor family in rural North Carolina. First in her family to go to college, male or female. You know she went to Duke?”

“No.”

“Smart lady. Unfortunately, she had to drop out due to lack of funds. She moved to Tahoe when her parents had both passed away, looking for a new life, I guess. She was one of the first females hired in the department. This part you already know: She’s wanted to move up from Patrol to the Detective Unit for years. When she thought she finally had it locked in, you came along to ruin it. Plus, there’s something about a T-Bird, some kid’s car was trashed or stolen by one of your clients.”

“I know the case.”

“Did you know he was paralyzed in a car crash a few weeks after you got your client off?”

“No. How awful.”

“She blames you.”

“What?”

“She got to know the kid really well, became close to the family. They kind of adopted her. She felt like an older sister to the boy. When your client wrecked his car, he cadged lifts with friends to get to and from his job. One of them drove drunk.”

“I never even heard about it.”

“Why would you? Nothing to do with you. Unless we’re dealing in the old philosophical idea: Anytime you walk across the street you ripple the air and change the weather off the China coast. There’s that, if you’re dying to blame yourself.”

“I like to think I’m doing some good,” Nina said. “According to them, I’m just a one-woman wrecking ball!”

“You are doing good,” Paul said. “On the whole. Unfortunately, everyone’s talking about Scholl, her vendetta against you.”

“Just another day in court for me, and a life-changing experience for her.”

“Getting a lot of attention on the road lately?”

“Three speeding tickets in the last month. Can that really be what you mean?”

“My advice: slow down. Scholl’s calling in chits. Sorry to tell you, she hates your guts. She tells everyone she’s waiting for her big chance to get back at you. Ring any bells?”

Nina didn’t know what to say, as the bells tintinnabulated.

“Know what else I think? I think Scholl’s jealous.”

“No.”

“Yep. Envious of your success. Thinks you grew up with a silver spoon.”

“Ha.”

“Yeah, funny. But she doesn’t know that. You’re the success she wants to be. Respected in the community. Getting lots of positive press.”

“Yes, they love me. Until they hate me.”

“So we come to Jeffrey Riesner.”

“No, we don’t.” She had heard enough. She knew every case rattled the status quo, affecting many lives. She did her small bit, nothing more, serving a society that kept its peace by agreeing to abide by rules. But human order was so thinly imposed over disorder.

What good am I doing? she thought.

“We need to talk about ol’ Jeffy,” he insisted. “Let’s start with a little personal history. You know anything about his family?”

“No.”

“Turns out Riesner’s mom is the old-fashioned salt of the earth. Stayed home with her kids, gave them stability, loved them to death, built up their egos. His father’s an alpha male who fought his way to the top of one of the biggest firms in San Francisco. When Riesner got married to the girl next door, he went to work for Pops and was riding high. Mom was happy. Everyone was happy. Then his wife decided she had to live in the mountains so she could pursue her dream to become an Olympic skier. With his parents’ encouragement, he said no. But she’s not loyal like Mom. She left him, and he followed her up here.”

Nina remembered his blond wife, glimpsed once on a boat, model-pretty.

“Must’ve given him quite the headache. Mom’s disappointed, not having her darling son in town to spoil. Pops is disappointed he’s such a loser he’d give in to a woman. So he needed to show them. His goal became becoming the biggest fish. Impress the folks in the way they really understood, by making money and being a huge success. That worked for a while. He made partner, got lots of press, won a few biggies that even got reported in San Francisco. Something for the folks to brag about. Convinced his wife to give up her ridiculous hopes and start working on a family. By then he didn’t want to leave. And the spotlight was back where it belonged, on him.”

“And then I come along-”

“You waltz in, fresh from San Francisco, cute as a button, getting all the attention, dancing your way into all the best cases. He’s floundering lately. Everyone cites your last coup as the reason why.”