Final Exam: A Legal Thriller

by Terry Huebner

  “What’d you make of the girlfriend?” Dan asked.

  “I don’t know yet,” Ben replied. “At least we know she was there at the time of the murder. I’m going to have Disko look into it. I should know more this evening. All I can tell you right now is that it’s warm and sunny down here and I don’t miss Chicago a bit.”

  “Fuck you,” Dan said and hung up.

  Ben arrived at the restaurant first, greeted by the same hostess as the night before, who raised her eyebrows when he asked for a table for two. Ben thought he saw her exchange a knowing glance and accompanying grin with a co-worker when Nora Scott arrived ten minutes later and they were led to a booth in the back of the dining room. As the hostess walked away, Ben laughed.

  “What’s so funny?” Nora asked.

  “I think she thinks I got lucky.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I was in here last night by myself and now I’m in here tonight with you. I think she thinks I got lucky.”

  “In a sense, you did. Andrew wanted to come along, but I wouldn’t let him.”

  “Just as well. I don’t think Andrew and I hit it off very well this morning.”

  “No, you didn’t.”

  Ben shrugged, then he asked, “What made you change your mind?”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” she said. “I guess I thought about what you said and figured you could make it a lot worse for us if I didn’t talk to you.”

  The waitress came and they each ordered a beer. Nora looked a little more relaxed than earlier that morning. Ben figured her husband not being there took a little bit of the edge off. He still sensed a bit of nervousness and hoped that a less formal setting would help put her at ease. She looked around to make sure that no one could hear and then said in a low voice, “Do you really think I could have killed him?”

  Ben shrugged. “I don’t know? Why not? I think you’re probably as likely as anybody else. I think your husband probably could have done it too. Either of you two are at least as likely as my client is.” Ben paused as he saw the waitress approaching with their beers. After she left, he continued. “Look, I’m just getting into this case. I’m trying to figure out who all of the players are before I form any conclusions. You seem like a decent enough woman. I hope you didn’t kill him. Other than that, who knows?”

  “How did you find out about me anyway?”

  “The Missus.”

  “Sylvia told you? What did she say?”

  “She didn’t say much. She only knew your name was Nora and that you had a relationship with her husband for quite some time, one that apparently led to the break-up of their marriage.”

  “That’s what she said? That’s rich. I think the marriage had been broken long before I came onto the scene. It’s just that nobody decided to pick up the pieces and throw them away until Daniel and I were together.”

  “Well, she acted like she didn’t know who you were, just that your name was Nora and that you two had been fooling around for quite a while. She said that was the last straw. A bunch of conquests, as she put it, were one thing, but a long-term relationship with a student was another. She said that she couldn’t accept that and filed for divorce.”

  “I suppose that’s more or less true, although Daniel probably would have put a different spin on it. From what Daniel told me, Sylvia was very … well, very, very cold is how I’ll put it.”

  “I’ll take it he phrased it a little less delicately than that?”

  “You might say that. Daniel thought she was just trying to stick it to him, both financially and with his daughters. I don’t know whether that’s true. I only know about Sylvia through Daniel. I never actually met her myself.”

  “If it’s any consolation, I would agree that she’s quite a chilly woman indeed. I’m not sure if it was a façade, obviously I don’t know her that well, but warm and fuzzy she wasn’t.” Ben decided to get right to it. “So, how did you meet up with him?”

  “About like you’d expect. I had him for Crim Law and went to see him once or twice about questions I had and one thing led to another and as you might imagine, he wasn’t adverse to being with a student.”

  “That’s his reputation anyway,” Ben said.

  “And it’s probably well-deserved,” she said matter-of-factly. “That was during the middle of my first year and things gradually got more serious until I moved into an apartment right downtown by the law school my second year and we spent loads of time together there.”

  “What did he tell his wife?”

  “I have no idea. It’s probably not that hard if you think about it. He could just say he had another class or office hours or something.”

  Ben nodded in agreement. “That’s true. Plus he had all of those ball games to go to, right? He was a season ticket holder.”

  “Exactly. We missed quite a few ball games to go over to my apartment. That’s one of the reasons I thought he was really falling for me, you know, because he managed to miss a lot of games.”

  “Was he with anyone else while you two were together?”

  She closed her eyes and scrunched her nose as though recalling something unpleasant. Then she took a long drink of her beer. “Who knows? I don’t think so, but looking back on it, I suppose anything is possible.”

  “Well, that’s pretty definitive,” Ben said.

  “Sorry, that’s all I’ve got.”

  “No, that’s okay,” Ben said. “I understand. So how did Sylvia come to find out about the two of you?”

  Nora shrugged. “I’m not really sure. I think probably in the usual way. She had her suspicions and then confronted him, and then lo and behold, he didn’t deny it. That’s another way I thought we were serious, when he admitted to her that we were together and told her, at least he said he told her, that he wanted to be with me.”

  “But I thought he didn’t want the divorce.”

  “He said he wanted it at first and then he changed his mind.” She played with the coaster while she spoke. She appeared to be putting things into words that she had thought about for a long time, but never really discussed with anyone. Since she probably didn’t really discuss this stuff with her husband, Ben assumed that the act of telling him about it may have helped her get it out of her system. It had the quality of something that had been ruminated about for some time. They sat in silence for a moment and Ben thought about where he could take the conversation. Just at the point it was starting to get awkward, the waitress came back to take their order. It gave him time to re-group and re-think his approach. Around them, the other tables started to fill and the restaurant got much noisier, thus assuring the privacy of their conversation. Ben grabbed a warm roll out of the basket the waitress had brought and broke it in two, buttering each half.

  “Was the divorce difficult for you?” he asked, swallowing a bite of roll.

  She considered that. “Not at first. At first, it was what I wanted and what Daniel said he wanted. It only became clear later on that he didn’t want a divorce at all. Of course, he couldn’t say that to me because he had strung me along for such a long time and he didn’t want to run the risk of losing both of us, which he eventually did.”

  “How did that happen?”

  She got that far-off look again. “Well, it happened because it became obvious that he didn’t want to divorce his wife and he didn’t want to lose me either. He just wanted the status quo. He wanted both of us. But by that point, both of us wasn’t good enough anymore. At least not for me and from the sounds of it, not for her either. I stuck it out for awhile to see if he might change his mind once it became clear that they would never get back together, but he didn’t want me, at least not the way I wanted him to. So eventually I had to get out too.”

  “How did he take that?”

  “Not very well because he was losing me on top of her and on top of losing his daughters, I guess. So he felt like everything was crashing in around him. Then you had the thing with those other girls at school and I’m su
re he had a pretty hard time. I didn’t care very much at that point though. I just knew I had to leave.”

  “How’d you wind up down here?

  “Andrew and I dated for a long time while I was in college and we had sort of broken up when I started seeing Daniel. We were still reasonably close and Andrew wanted to get back together and he kept telling me that my relationship with Daniel was a bad idea whether he got back together with me or not. I didn’t listen at the time, although I suppose he was right. After my relationship with Daniel fell apart, he was there for me. I eventually came to realize that I wanted and needed him too.” She smiled. “And I probably loved him in some way all along.”

  “That doesn’t exactly feel like the movies, does it?”

  “No, but is there ever such a thing really? I mean, I’ve thought about that a lot and have always wondered if there really is a person out there just for me, or for you. When I was younger, I thought maybe there was and that all you had to do was look hard enough and long enough and eventually you would find that person out there somewhere. Now, I’m not so sure that’s true. At least not for everyone. Then I thought about what would happen if I let Andrew slip away. Now, I don’t know if Andrew is the love of my life or not.” She paused and then smiled. “I’ll deny all of this if you ever repeat it. But I’m not sure that there’s ever any such thing. Sure, for some people, maybe, but not for everyone. I know Andrew loves me very much and I love him too, and as you can tell, he’s very protective of me.”

  “No question about that,” Ben agreed.

  “So, yes I love Andrew very much.” She paused again, considering what she was about to say. “I know I may seem, what’s the word, melancholy?

  Ben nodded. “That would be a good description for it, I suppose.”

  “Okay, so I seem melancholy. But Daniel’s death hit me pretty hard. Of course I was shocked to find out about it. Not that I wanted him back or I’m still in love with him or anything like that. It’s just that I once cared for him so much that finding out that somebody murdered him was very difficult. I’ve been wondering what could’ve driven someone to do that. How could someone do such a thing? Daniel may not have been perfect, God knows that, but I don’t think he was really capable of doing anything that would have made him deserve that. But to answer your question, yes I’m happy here. I’m happy with Andrew. And he’s a very good father.”

  Ben was startled. “What do you mean?” he said.

  She laughed. “Didn’t you know? We have a son. His name is Brian and he’s about to turn three.” She could see Ben doing some calculations in his head. She leaned forward and whispered, “Yes, I was pregnant when I got married, but don’t tell anyone.” She laughed again. “It was just one of those things. Passion got the best of us and one thing led to another and … I’m sure you can figure out the rest. It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me though.”

  Ben nodded. He certainly could figure out the rest. They talked about kids for a little while and Ben found himself liking Nora Scott in a strange way. And he couldn’t quite convince himself that she was capable of murdering anyone. They sat there studying each other for several moments and Nora broke off a piece of roll and stuffed it into her mouth. “You never did answer my question,” she said.

  “Which one was that?”

  “Do you believe there is someone out there for everyone?”

  He exhaled. “Oh, I don’t know. I’m just amazed sometimes that there was anybody out there for me.” She laughed. “Really, I mean it,” he said. “It’s hard sometimes to imagine that somebody would want to spend the rest of their life with you. It’s kind of a big commitment, don’t you think?”

  She nodded.

  “No, I don’t think I’m that philosophic about things like this,” he continued. “I don’t spend much time dwelling on whether or not I have found Ms. Right or even if there is such a thing. I’m just not that philosophic. That’s just not concrete enough for me. I spend more time thinking about my own little section of the world and what I can do to influence it and shape it to my will. When I met my wife and got to know her, I knew I wanted her so I went about getting her and fortunately, she had more or less the same idea and everything seems to have worked out. The most I ever do is wonder sometimes when I meet a woman or get to know a woman whether or not she would have been fun to go out with. It never gets much further than that. At most, the whole exercise lasts about ten minutes until I decide to get back to getting what I want and I forget about the rest.”

  “So the whole thing for you is you see it, you want it and you take it?”

  “Crudely put, but probably true.” Ben took a long drink from his beer and then another, satisfied with his expression of his views on relationships. A moment later, the waitress came with dinner and they got caught up in their food for a little while before Ben turned back to Nora’s relationship with Daniel Greenfield. “When was the last time you saw Professor Greenfield?” Ben asked.

  “Oh, I don’t know. It’s been a long time now, probably almost two years. I think I only saw him once, maybe twice after we broke up. He tried calling for a while, but I made it clear that I didn’t want to have anything to do with him anymore and that the relationship was over. Eventually, I guess he got the message and stopped calling.”

  “Why did you come back to Chicago?”

  “Just for Christmas. Both Andrew and I have family in Chicago. We came back to see them. We flew in on the 23rd and left around noon time on New Year’s Eve.”

  “You didn’t see or hear from Professor Greenfield during this period?”

  “No, not at all. Daniel never crossed my mind, to tell you the truth. You may not believe this, but I’m very happy with Andrew and I’m happy here. This is a nice comfortable place to live. When Andrew got the opportunity to come down here and take over his uncle’s law practice, a law practice that once belonged to his grandfather and his great grandfather, I was a little reluctant at first, I’ll be honest. But after a while, I saw the opportunity in it and figured that we both needed to get away from Chicago. So we decided to come and we’re glad we did. It’s a more relaxed lifestyle down here and things are going very well. Not only do we have the law practice, but Andrew is involved with some real estate development as well.”

  “Yeah, I saw the lot in Ocala Waterways Estates. I wouldn’t plan on moving there anytime soon.”

  She gave him a puzzled laugh. “What would cause you to go there? Bad address?”

  “I guess.”

  “I’m not even sure I’ve been there. I take that back, I may have been there once with Andrew, but not more than that. I don’t think he actually wants to live there. It was more of an investment property.”

  They ate their dinner and talked about Florida for a while and the differences between the Sunshine State and living in the Land of Lincoln.

  “I’ll tell you this,” Nora said, “even being back there for Christmas, it’s awful easy to get used to the nice weather down here. Sure I like the snow and stuff right around Christmas, but that’s about it. Other than that, you can keep it. The weather down here suits me just fine.”

  Ben nodded in agreement as he put a nice piece of prime rib into his mouth. “I know what you’re saying. I’ve enjoyed the weather the last couple of days myself. I’m not looking forward to getting back to the deep freeze. Hey, let me ask you one other thing,” he said. “What do you know about Professor Greenfield and drugs? Did you ever know him to use drugs?”

  She paused and considered the question. “Never with me. I can’t say that I ever saw Daniel use drugs, but I know that he and Dorlund got high together periodically.”

  “What do you mean by high?”

  “You know, they just smoked some dope now and then.”

  “Anything stronger?” Ben asked tapping his nose.

  “Maybe. It’s possible, but I can’t say that I ever saw it myself. I suspected once or twice after he’d been with Dorlund that maybe they did more t
han just smoke a little pot, but I can’t swear to it. Why? What have you heard?”

  “Just a little rumor going around the law school that he may have been enjoying a little toot now and then.”

  “Hmmm,” she said, “part of me would say I’m surprised by that, but then again part of me would say that I’m not. Like I said, I never witnessed it myself.”

  They finished their meal and talked for a little while over one last beer. Ben couldn’t help but like her and wondered why a woman like this would be wasting her time with someone like Daniel Greenfield. He concluded that she was certainly better off without him even if part of her seemed to be settling for less than was possible. Ben walked her to her car, parked under a dark leafy tree in the back of the parking lot. The sun had set and the evening was pleasantly cool. It felt to Ben more like late-June or early-July in Chicago than mid-February in Florida.

  “Thank you for dinner,” she said. “It was good. It felt good to talk.”

  Ben noticed that she subconsciously played with her wedding ring as she spoke. This suddenly felt like the end of a strange date.

  “Well, thanks for agreeing to speak with me.”

  “You know,” she said, “you didn’t tell me how Daniel was killed. All I know from friends of mine and from what I’ve been able to gather from news reports is that he was somehow beaten to death. Is that right?”

  “Since you knew him as well as you did, you’re probably better off not thinking about it,” Ben said telling her the truth, but also not wanting to give away any details on the off-chance that she may have either been involved herself or known someone who was. “Let’s just say he was bludgeoned and leave it at that.”

  She cringed and closed her eyes. “Daniel didn’t deserve that,” she said in a soft voice.

  “No, I wouldn’t think that he did,” Ben agreed.

  “Who’s your client?”

  “Her name is Megan Rand Cavallaro. We went to law school together.”