Killing Kirshner (A Psychological Suspense Thriller) (3 page)

“I’m not sure. I guess I did not want to miss any of your lecture,” Will said, praying that this satisfied Kirshner.

“Very good, Mr. James, you’re a good bullshitter. Just what the world needs – another bullshitting lawyer. Well, how about giving me so much more of your bullshit and briefing State v. Earp,” Professor Kirshner directed.

“The defendant in this case was charged with attempted murder …” Will began reading his brief. As he said each word, Will felt more confident and comfortable with the case he was briefing. Every few seconds, Will would quickly look to see the expression on Kirshner’s face to make sure he was heading in the right direction, but Kirshner’s face remained blank. Will finished briefing the case and looked up at Kirshner for some feedback. Professor Kirshner stood to the side of the podium. “Mr. James. How are you paying for your education here at Miami Law?”

“My parents are helping me,” Will said trembling.

Kirshner walked over to Will’s desk and ripped the brief out of Will’s notebook and crumbled it up. “Tell them they’re wasting their money,” he said, throwing the crumbled brief into the wastebasket.

Will turned beet red and slumped down into his chair. The class sat stunned. It was worse than any student had thought. Jack thought about making a run for the door, but did not want to look like the biggest chicken in the class. Sean sat up high in his chair, sticking his chest out, almost daring Professor Kirshner to call on him. Amanda’s heart raced, as she looked at her textbook in front of her. Abrams sat completely still and did not move a muscle. He hoped that Professor Kirshner would assume that he had died from nervousness. Unfortunately, none of their tactics would save them from Kirshner.

Chapter 9

By the time Professor Kirshner’s first class was over, everyone in Will’s row was called upon – Amanda, Abrams, Jack, and Sean. They were all devastated by Kirshner’s verbal assaults. Professor Kirshner advised Amanda to drop out of law school immediately and marry a rich man. He threw Abrams out of the classroom, and instructed him not to come back until he bought a brain. He told Jack that it was a good thing his daddy was rich because he did not have a chance in hell of graduating from law school. And, Professor Kirshner compared Sean to a retarded boy that he used to attend school with when he was a child.

The five victims immediately bonded in the hallway after class. They stood in a circle trying to comfort each other the best they could. “Well, at least one good thing came out of this,” Will said.

“What’s that?” Amanda asked, not being able to imagine anything good about what just happened.

“Jack here owes me $100,” Will said, slapping Jack on the shoulder.

“I need a drink,” Jack said. “First round is on me.”

They all hopped into Jack’s Escalade and headed to the nearest bar – Lucky’s. Lucky’s was a popular bar with Miami University students. It was very common to find Lucky’s packed on a Friday afternoon with law students drinking their stress away.

“That was brutal, man,” Sean said.

“I’m not sure who got it worse,” Amanda said.

“Well, I’m the only retard in the group – so I vote me,” Sean said, sipping on a nice, tall, mug of beer.

“It was so much worse than I ever imagined. What’s the matter with that guy?” Will asked.

“Maybe his mother used to beat him – who knows? He’s just an asshole – it’s as simple as that,” Abrams mumbled.

“Well, I don’t know how we are going to get through this guy’s class. It’s been one class and I am ready to drop out,” Jack said, slamming down a raw oyster.

“We’ll do it together. I was planning on forming a study group. So, here we are – a study group of five,” Amanda suggested, smiling.

“How do I know any of you are smart? I don’t want to be in a study group with a bunch of dummies,” Sean said.

“We all made it into Miami University, so nobody here is a dummy. I think it is a great idea – strength in numbers,” Will smiled at Amanda. Amanda immediately smiled back. She was definitely attracted to Will, but she wanted to get to know him a little better before she would pursue any kind of romantic relationship. Besides, romance was not on the top of her list – school was number one.

“So, let’s do it. Let’s set up a schedule to meet every night or afternoon,” Abrams said. Any group that had Amanda in it, he was going to be a part of.

“Cool. I know Will, Sean, and I live on campus. Where you at, Amanda?” Jack asked.

“Dawson Hall; just a hop, skip and a jump away from the school.”

“Great, we are in Dawson too. How about you, Abrams?”

“I live about ten minutes away – so whatever time you guys decide is fine with me.”

“Perfect, so this is the group. We will eat, sleep, and drink Property, Torts, Legal Writing and Criminal Law for the next few months. Now, let’s celebrate with another round,” Jack cheered.

Chapter 10

The study group decided it would meet four times a week for two hours each session. They all decided they would write their own outlines for each class and exchange them with each other. This way, if one missed something, someone else would probably cover it.

The five spent most of Saturday and Sunday preparing for next week’s classes. While the Legal Writing class was only one credit, it required a lot of time and work. Professor Dunlap-Elliott wanted her students to use books instead of
LexisNexis, a computer-assisted legal research service. This required an extraordinary amount of time searching through the enormous library. The group decided to split up the week’s assignment – each would research their part.

Amanda was very uneasy about this because she had always studied by herself and never had trusted others to do her work for her. But she knew that law school was a whole different game, and every preparation book said to get into a study group. She needed to accept a different approach to studying. This would be the only way she could maintain a high grade point average.

Will ran down the stairs to the bottom floor of the library; the librarian had helped him narrow down his search to the bottom floor. He stood in front of rows and rows of books trying to figure out where to get started. He walked down the long hallway and realized he was heading the wrong way. He was frustrated because he did not want to take too much time looking for one case. He knew he had to get back to his dorm room and read Kirshner’s assignments. He was still shaken from his embarrassment and wanted to make sure Kirshner would not tear up his brief again. Will was just about to give up when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

“Hey there.” Will turned around to see Amanda with a big smile on her face.

“Hey, you, working on Legal Writing?” Will asked.

“Yeah, I have two more cases to find. How about you?” Amanda questioned.

“I got one more. The librarian sent me down here – I hope she knows what she’s doing.”

“Yeah, she sent me down here too. I tell you what, you help me find my cases and I’ll help you with yours. Then, we’ll both be finished,” Amanda suggested.

“Sounds like a plan.”

Will and Amanda giggled quietly as they walked up and down the aisles. On the other side of the room, Abrams sat in the corner watching Will and Amanda get close.

“That little prick,” Abrams mumbled to himself.

Chapter 11

Professor Wilson was the students’ favorite teacher because he did not believe in the Socratic Method and would never try and humiliate one of his students. He was the “fun professor” that every student hoped that they would get. His review class before an examination was legendary. He would dress up like Alex Tribec and play Jeopardy – the Torts Edition. This review class was standing room only, with the lecture hall packed with students lined up standing in the back and sitting on the ground up front. Unfortunately, it was only the second week of the semester and the students would have to wait many weeks before Wilson would sport his fake mustache and blue suit.

“Morning, everybody, how was your first week?” Professor Wilson asked.

The class mumbled and sighed as a whole. “Oh boy, that doesn’t sound very good. Let me guess – Kirshner. Don’t sweat it. I survived. Of course, I blocked most of that year out.” The class laughed.

“Just hang in there. He’s just trying to weed some of you out. Don’t you guys let him win. And if you need to talk, you know my office hours. Feel free to stop by,” Wilson said.

“Alright, enough of Professor Kirshner, let’s get back into Torts.”

“Negligence is a lawyer’s best friend. Can anyone tell me the four elements of Negligence?”

Amanda quickly raised her hand high in the air. Just to the left of Amanda, another student raised their hand even higher.

“Okay, Todd, give me the four elements,” Professor Wilson said.

“First the plaintiff must have a duty, then there must be a breach of that duty, the breach must have caused harm, and there must be some kind of damage,” Todd said.

“Nicely done, Todd. The case of
Donoghue v. Stevenson
is a great illustration of the law of negligence. Mrs. Donoghue was given ginger beer by her friend, who bought it from a shop, supplied by Mr. Stevenson in Scotland. Mr. Stevenson did not know Mrs. Donoghue, but the ginger beer he made had a decomposed snail in it, which made Mrs. Donoghue ill. There was no relationship of contract, as signified by payment, between the person injured and the shopkeeper, as the friend had made the payment, and so no legal cause of action in contract was possible. Nor was there a contract or ‘privity’ with the manufacturer, Mr. David Stevenson. More importantly, there was no case before about manufacturers harming people through opaque bottles. Lord MacMillan said that we should recognize this new category of tort because it was analogous to previous cases about people hurting each other. Lord Atkin interpreted the biblical passages to ‘love thy neighbor’ as the legal requirement to ‘not harm thy neighbor.’ Reasonably foreseeable harm must be compensated. This is the first principle of negligence.”

Will enjoyed Professor Wilson’s relaxed lecture on negligence, but he could not stop thinking that Professor Kirshner’s class was less than 24 hours away.

C
hapter 12

Todd Garner never received less than an “A” in any subject, played varsity in three different sports, and was on a full scholarship to Miami University. Todd never really had to struggle in school to get good grades, but for the first time in his life, he was not confident about getting an “A.”

He had heard many stories from his brother, who attended Miami University several years earlier, about Kirshner’s Criminal Law class. The rumor was that he only handed out one “A” per semester, which would give Todd a one in thirty chance of getting one. He was not comfortable with these odds.

Todd spent much of his time in class sizing up his competition for that “A.” He was focused on one particular threat for him – Amanda Martin. She had a similar obsession to be the best but he could not let her succeed – that “A” was his and he would do whatever it took to keep it.

Following along the lines of Machiavelli’s principles, Todd decided he needed to keep his friends close and his enemies closer. When he realized that Amanda had already formed a study group, he knew it would be difficult to penetrate, but he would stop at nothing until he was a part of it.

Later that night, the study group sat in a conference room in the library discussing the case assignments for Property and Criminal Law. Amanda was relaxed, with her feet up on the table and her Criminal Law textbook resting on her lap. Sean was leaning onto the table taking notes. Jack sat on the floor sipping a Coke and eating Cheetos while Abrams sat looking at Amanda’s long legs. Will was pacing back and forth in the small conference room briefing the first case for the group; they would interrupt each other trying to make sure they covered all the issues in the case. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Will yanked the door open to find Todd Garner.

“Hey, guys, do you have a pen I could borrow? Mine just ran out,” Todd said.

“Sure, here you go,” Sean handed Todd a pen.

“Thanks. You guys studying Criminal Law?” Todd asked.

“Yeah, we’re getting ready for tomorrow,” Will said.

“Me too. Lucky, my brother had Kirshner a few years ago and he saved all his notes. You guys want a copy of them?” Todd said.

“Heck, yeah,” Amanda said. “That would be awesome.”

“Okay, I’ll be right back with five copies,” Todd said.

“Why did you say yes to that?” Abrams asked.

“Why? What are you talking about?” Amanda said.

“He obviously wants into our group, and I don’t like the little prick,” Abrams said, grinning.

“Yeah, that was my take too,” Will said.

“If he asks, we will just tell him we want to keep it to five people. That’s all,” Jack said.

“Fine,” Amanda said angrily.

A few minutes later, Todd returned with five copies of his brother’s Criminal Law notes. As Abrams had guessed, Todd hinted at wanting to join the group. Jack sighed heavily and Amanda pulled her legs off the table and sat up.

“Sorry, dude, we decided to keep it to just the five of us,” Abrams said.

“Oh, okay. I understand. It was just that I have a lot of stuff from my brother, including old exams,” Todd mumbled.

“Wait,” Amanda yelled. “Can’t we have just one more person? Please!” Amanda begged.

“I guess those old exams could really help; fine with me,” Will said, seeing Amanda really wanted what Todd had to offer.

“Sure,” Jack added, just wanting to get back to studying.

“Alright, that’s the majority. You’re in. Grab a chair,” Amanda said to Todd.

Todd’s plan had worked. He was in the group and closer to his biggest competition.

Chapter 13

“Are you crazy, letting that creep in?” Sean said.

“We don’t have to tell him every time we’re studying,” Amanda suggested.

“Like he’s not going to see us gathered at the library,” Jack said.