Perri O'Shaughnessy - Unfit to Practice

“It could be worse,” Paul said. “It could be raining.”

“No sign of anyone,” Nina said. “Oh, God, Paul. What if nobody comes?”

Paul stood beside her, eyes narrowed, head turning from side to side. “Don’t these thousands of people have anything better to do on a March afternoon than wander the town? We should have chosen a spot with fewer than seven thousand people at a time.”

“They would want to meet in a public place. Somewhere close to the court.” The letters had been short and to the point. To recipients Scholl and Riesner, Mrs. Gleb had happily, chuckling and drinking tea all the while, forged two separate notes that said, “I changed my mind. I won’t testify. I’ll meet you down in the plaza right outside the state bar building at the Spear Street entrance at twelve-fifteen today if you want to know why.” The signature at the bottom, KC, had all the small crabbed character of Kevin’s real signature, which Nina had brought her.

To Kevin, she had sent another note: “You won’t be testifying. Meet me at twelve-fifteen where the plaza outside the state bar building opens onto Spear Street.” She hadn’t signed it.

If there was no conspiracy, there was no reason for anyone to show up, including Kevin. They would all be mystified, and would continue with the process of bringing Nina to her knees.

“Nina, look.” Paul thrashed back and ducked down, pushing her down beside him.

“Ow. I don’t see anyone.” She poked her head around the fountain. Leading with his finger, he pointed the way.

“What?”

“Can’t you see? It’s Jean Scholl, right by that wall, keeping out of sight.”

So it was Scholl. She had responded to their forged note. Scholl was behind the whole thing. Nina’s thoughts made her shiver. All this because she had crossed the wrong cop in the ordinary course of her business. It seemed incredible, impossible, but here was the living proof.

Simply doing her job was dangerous. Her brother, Matt, had said that more than once.

“See her now?”

“No.”

“Her back is to us, but I’d recognize that rear end anywhere.”

“But, Paul, why is she hiding? Isn’t she supposed to be meeting Kevin?”

“Don’t know,” he said shortly. She noticed his hand.

“There’ll be no shooting here!” she said. “There are too many people! Someone could get hurt!”

“Nina. Nobody gets hurt if they behave. That goes double for you. Now what have we here?”

Kevin Cruz came walking up and looked around. He put his hands in his pockets.

“What’s Scholl doing?” Nina asked, rubbing her ankle with her hand.

“Watching. Waiting.”

Kevin checked his watch.

“He came, Paul. That means he expects to meet her. So why is she hanging back?”

Paul started to laugh. He laughed so hard for so long, Nina got worried. “What’s the matter with you?” she said.

“It’s Scholl,” he finally gasped out. “She’s-she’s-”

“She’s what?”

Suddenly, Kevin shifted his body so that he was facing toward the street, away from them. He tensed with anticipation.

“Someone else is coming,” Nina said.

Jeffrey Riesner strolled into view. Kevin stood up to meet him.

“I don’t understand,” Nina said, pulling back. “I thought we were going to pin down who’s who in this. They all came. Are they in this together? I’m confused. What do we do now?”

“Nina, take a good long look at Scholl. Look at how she’s hiding. Check out the piece she’s holding.”

“It’s weird all right. She’s watching.”

“Nina, she’s investigating! She’s being a cop!”

“What?”

“She got a suspicious message and decided to check it out. Thatta girl.”

Nina’s attention dodged toward the two men, who were engaged in heated debate. She scooched in close to Paul. He took the tiny receiver out of his ear, and they both listened.

“You told me you had that judge in the bag!” they heard Kevin say, his voice rising clearly above the dull background roar of the city. “You said you could get me the kids!”

Riesner’s voice was lower, but in intermittent pieces they caught the gist. He wanted to know what the hell Kevin thought he was pulling, switching allegiance at the last minute. “I promise you won’t see your kids again until you’re drooling and senile, asshole.”

So Riesner was behind it all after all, Nina thought. He was the poison, the thin red snake slithering behind all of them, but the realization gave her no relief, no pleasure.

Apparently, Scholl had heard enough. Stepping out from behind the doorway on Spear Street where she had been hiding, she tucked her gun into a pocket and, holding it out of sight, faced the two men.

“She’ll arrest them,” Nina said. “My God, Paul. It’s finally over.”

“Maybe.”

“Hello, boys,” Officer Scholl said to Riesner and Cruz. She stood directly in front of them, looking at ease in the middle of a seething crowd of city folk.

“You?” Jeffrey Riesner said. “What brings you here?”

“Curiosity,” she said. “Then I couldn’t help overhearing,” Scholl said. “Excuse me for crashing your party, but you two have sure been cooking, and whew, does it smell.”

A hole opened around the three where they stood next to the sculpture. They looked like everyone else, but they were not. They were connected, a unit, and the air around them seemed particularly charged. Those passing drifted uneasily around their fringes.

“I’ve worked out this much.” Holding her hand very near her body she exposed her gun to Riesner, who reacted with a jump back. “You,” she said to him, “got him”-she pointed at Cruz-“to lie, with the ultimate goal of pulverizing our favorite lady lawyer in return for the custody of his kids. I also have a gnawing suspicion that you stole yourself a key one fine day in court and made immediate use of it. And-” She thought, then put a finger to her chin. “The forgery. Your case last fall-the counterfeiter you defended. I’ll bet he could tell me a few things about how he paid a hotshot like you. Tinkering with Reilly’s paperwork? Or did he just show you a few tricks of the trade?”

Kevin Cruz stared at Riesner. “You did all that?”

Riesner said, “Why don’t you run on back home to Tahoe and write a few tickets, investigate a couple of nasty fender benders. Try to salvage something before you make a complete fool of yourself, Scholl. You have nothing on me. I’ve got a position in that town and powerful friends. Don’t do anything you’ll regret later.”

“And you, Kevin,” Scholl said, ignoring him. “What a shame. I’m deeply disappointed in you. He has an excuse. He’s a lawyer. It’s his business to lie and cheat to get what he wants. But you’re an officer of the law. Didn’t you tell me after that last time you’d walk a straight line? Didn’t you promise me that?”

“Welcome to real life, Jeanie,” Kevin Cruz said.

“What did he tell you? That Judge Milne was an old golf buddy who just needed a little whisper from his pal to give you what you want? Because that’s a laugh, let me tell you. Milne’s straight.”

“Why did you come here? What is this?” Riesner asked. “Some kind of lame shakedown?”

“Not exactly,” Scholl said.

“What do you want?”

“Right this minute, to get out of here. I don’t think it’s a very good idea, us sharing our feelings like this in such a public forum. We need to talk privately. You up for that? A little talk in a private place, and a lot less trouble all around?”

A smile played around Riesner’s thin lips. Talk? He was an expert. Sure, he would talk.

Tipping her sunglasses so that she could see better through the fog, Scholl’s eyes darted around, suddenly narrower. “Tell me something. You got letters?” she asked the two men.