Obstruction of Justice (15 page)

"People love you," Paul said. "Your wife, your kids. People who can achieve that, keep a family going in this day and age, they’re special. A car’s just a car, Bryan."

"Good-bye," Bright mumbled, patting the hood. Paul didn’t answer. Bright hadn’t been talking to him.

The last Paul saw of him was the rubber thong on his right foot, hooking the screen door and pulling it shut.

11

"ALL RISE," SAID DEPUTY KIMURA. "THE SUPERIOR Court of the County of El Dorado is now in session, the Honorable Curtis E. Milne presiding."

Nina stood up with everyone else in the bursting courtroom. Jeremy Stamp had not wanted to wait for a special setting of the hearing on Quentin de Beers’s motion, so they would have to wait their turn.

Sarah de Beers had chosen not to come. She had left a message for Nina saying she wanted to stay with Molly. Jason hadn’t made an appearance either, but he had come to Nina’s office the day before to sign the declaration she had prepared.

Nina didn’t mind their absences. When the clients weren’t in court to worry and fret and drive her crazy, the pressure eased up. Motions were decided on the paperwork and the arguments of the attorneys, not on testimony of witnesses, anyway.

Quentin de Beers walked in, sitting down near the front of the courtroom with Jeremy Stamp, his grand old head of white hair unmistakable.

"You may be seated," said the clerk, setting off a general rustle and stir.

Judge Milne sat down behind the bench and poured himself a glass of water from his brown plastic pitcher. A fresh haircut revealed his satellite-dish ears. Wiping his specs on his robe, he announced, "It’s going to be a long morning, ladies and gentlemen. We have a crowded docket. Therefore I am going to hold the attorneys strictly to the fifteen-minute rule. You have been warned. Case No. SLT 23748, Bowker versus Sullivan."

While the attorneys in the first case made their way to the counsel tables, Nina and several of the other lawyers went out. She didn’t need to sit through the other cases. Out in the hall she could make some calls, review her notes for the argument again, and maybe catch Collier on his rounds.

She went to the pay phones near the law library and pulled out the sheaf of pink message slips that had accumulated since the previous afternoon.

"Ms. Reilly." Jeremy Stamp had followed her out, followed by his client. "Could I have a word with you?"

"All right."

"In the library?" He held the door for her.

Earlier, Sandy had spent a few minutes painting a picture of Stamp for her. She knew him from her three years as a file clerk in the firm of Caplan, Stamp, Powell, and Riesner, though Jeff Riesner had been her direct supervisor. "A damned sight more dangerous than Riesner," she had said. Stamp played golf with Milne and hobnobbed with the local Republican politicians. He had made his reputation representing insurance companies defending claims, a lucrative and stable specialty. He looked well-groomed and confident. De Beers, behind him, smiled at her, tilting his head faintly as if to remind her of their previous encounter, and that all’s fair in war.

Nina waited for Stamp’s opening gambit. She and Stamp had never appeared against each other in court. How would he approach her?

This early in the morning the clerks hadn’t even turned on the lights. They sat down at one of the tables, and Stamp said, "A distressing situation," patting de Beers on the arm. "Hard on the whole family."

"Yes. Ray’s wife and kids didn’t need this," Nina said, her voice loaded with identical sympathy.

"Rest assured, Mr. de Beers is very upset about having to involve them. I understand he consulted with you. Naturally, that raises the issue of a potential conflict of interest in that you are now appearing against him." Stamp heaved a paternal sigh, meaning, My dear, you’ve let me down; you’ve disappointed a senior colleague; how embarrassed I am for you. But I’ll forgive you if you rush to make amends.

That attitude would have to be adjusted. Nina accepted only one role from her opposing counsel, equal to equal. Stamp was trying to place her on the moral defensive and she had learned the hard way that you make points only on the attack. "He talked to me about other matters," she answered curtly. "Didn’t you, Mr. de Beers? May I be candid with your attorney about our conversation?"

"Be my guest," de Beers rumbled.

"We talked about autopsies, and your client’s suspicion that his son didn’t die a natural death. And I had the clear impression that was the sole reason why Mr. de Beers wanted to disinter his son. So naturally when Sarah de Beers brought me the motion you filed on completely different grounds, I felt free to assist her. There could be a conflict or confidentiality problem only if this motion is disingenuous, just a ploy to let Mr. de Beers have the body of his son disinterred for those other reasons. And of course, with your sterling reputation, Mr. Stamp, I know that you would never knowingly file inaccurate or, to be blunt, perjurious paperwork."

"Certainly not," Stamp said, his expression never varying from polite concern. "We do have the ring in question, and Ray de Beers was in fact wearing it during the open viewing at the mortuary. The mortician is quite sure he saw it."

"Oh, yes, the ring. I’m sure you do have it," Nina said. "The question is, where did your client get it?"

"I’m not here to rehearse the argument we may make in front of Milne. I want to convey to you Mr. de Beers’s sincere desire to resolve this matter without going any further."

Nina sat back in her chair, crossed her legs, folded her arms, and said, "I’m listening."

De Beers gave Stamp an almost imperceptible nod of the head, and Nina thought, well, well, well. Look who’s in charge. She had heard Stamp usually managed to keep his clients roped closely behind him.

"Well," Stamp said. "Let’s step back from the, uh, personal differences within the family. Let’s just look at the situation. When his son, his only child, died, Mr. de Beers was out of the country. He returned after suffering the terrible blow of the loss of his son, only to learn his son had been rushed into his grave. He had no opportunity to mourn or say good-bye. You can understand how he might feel?"

"If that’s the true basis of this motion, why not come out and say so?"

"Because he wouldn’t win with that argument, at least so long as the rest of the family is opposed. He only wants to see him one last time."

"And then what? He’s made it clear that he is dissatisfied with the coroner’s examination," Nina said. "Once the body is disinterred, it’s my belief that he will find a way to have a medical examination performed. My client may not be aware of that. I can’t tell her because Mr. de Beers’s conversation with me was privileged. But I know it and you know it."

Stamp said, "The more they object, the more a medical exam does seem indicated. If there’s nothing wrong, why don’t we just have an independent exam?"

"Not for the reasons he’s insinuating, that’s for sure. Because there’s no basis for an exam. Because my clients accept the coroner’s ruling. Because they resent the insinuation. Because they don’t like being pushed around."

Nina turned back to de Beers, who had been listening with his half-smile. "Mr. de Beers, Sarah and Jason and Molly do not want to disinter Ray’s body. They need to put the past behind them. They need peace. Think about Molly. Think about how fragile she is right now. Please don’t go forward with this. I told you I saw what happened. Your son was struck by lightning. But don’t take my word for it, ask the expert, the coroner, Doc Clauson, who concluded the same thing. The cause of death was absolutely clear, do you understand?"

"Oh, I understand," de Beers said, contempt in his voice. "You’re right in it with them. Leo’s got you all flummoxed. You’re covering up something. You think you can take me on."

"He doesn’t mean that the way it sounds," Stamp said hurriedly, but Nina had already shouldered the briefcase strap.

"I’m getting rid of Leo tomorrow!" de Beers shouted. "I’ll ruin him for making them fight me! Sarah would never do this on her own! Ray always said Leo was after her!"

"I’m sorry, Jeremy," Nina said, ignoring de Beers. "But I can’t trust a man with an irrational obsession. After what you just heard, I think you and your client should have a talk about dropping the motion to exhume the body. I’ll be out in the hall and glad to talk to you if that’s what you want to do. But don’t bother me for any other reason."

The door swung shut and she expelled the breath she had been holding.

Stamp and de Beers came out after half an hour, ignoring her presence down the hall, and Stamp went into the clerk’s office while de Beers made a phone call. Then they both retired again to the library. For the next hour, while the judge waded through other cases, Nina made her calls and cooled her high heels. Finally Deputy Kimura came out and said, "Your case is next on the docket."

"Thanks." She went back to the library and said, "We’re up next," to the two men, not at all happy to see the eagerness with which they took themselves back to the court.

"De Beers versus de Beers et al.," Milne announced as they walked in, so the two lawyers went straight up to the tables in front. Nina took her seat.

"Mr. Stamp?" Milne said. He gave the lawyer a slight smile, an acknowledgment that outside court they were friends. Nina didn’t like seeing it. She knew very well that she wasn’t part of the small group of powerful men in Tahoe that welcomed Milne and Stamp and Quentin de Beers and would never welcome her.

But she had come to respect Milne. She had never caught him leaning unfairly toward one of his cronies. Milne had even helped her on occasion when she stumbled over evidentiary problems during trial. He was one reason she had been able to establish herself in a law practice at Tahoe. He was the only regularly sitting Superior Court judge, and he had always been fair to her.

Stamp was running through the facts of Ray’s death. He had a fine, old-fashioned way of declaiming: his posture very erect, no notes, his well-manicured hands effecting a calculated series of graceful gestures. "As the Court will see, Penal Code section 642 makes it a felony willfully or maliciously to remove and appropriate for his own use articles of value from a human body. Mr. de Beers has filed a criminal complaint against persons unknown and requested that the South Lake Tahoe police department take immediate action to investigate.

"Therefore, we have a possibility of a crime involving Mr. de Beers’s body. And if that body has been disturbed for the purpose of theft, who knows in what other respects it may have been disturbed? Have other items been taken? Has it been mutilated? Under the circumstances, Your Honor, my client felt that he had to do something. He begged Mrs. de Beers, his daughter-in-law, to have the body disinterred, but she inexplicably refuses to do anything to protect the body, while the South Lake Tahoe police department seems to think it has better things to do. This Court has discretion to order the disinterment when it will serve the ends of justice to do so.

"Mr. de Beers is already mourning the loss of his son, Your Honor. He shouldn’t have to experience the dread that he now suffers in addition to his mourning. What harm will be done to anyone by allowing him to satisfy himself that his son is resting in peace, if that is the case? And if the worst has happened, isn’t it in the interests of justice to determine that as soon as possible?"

Stamp sat down, smoothed his jacket and turned to de Beers, who sat behind him, patting his hand as he had done in the library.

Milne’s brow had furrowed. Nina hoped that he was puzzled and thought something more was behind the motion. He was no slouch.

"Ms. Reilly?" he said.

Nina did a one-minute recap of her version of the facts, and then said, "The Court has our Points and Authorities. It’s clear that a body should not be disinterred without some overriding public purpose. If this is such a red-hot criminal case, how come the Tahoe police aren’t here requesting the disinterment? On the contrary, we have filed a declaration indicating the police haven’t determined yet whether the ring actually was stolen. They’re looking into it. Let them come to the Court to talk about enforcing the law. They are the authorities, not Mr. de Beers. He has no standing to be here requesting this relief.

"Counsel for Mr. de Beers keeps telling us about Mr. de Beers’s grief, as if he’s the only one who’s lost a family member. What about Ray de Beers’s children, Molly and Jason? They’ve lost their father. What about Mrs. de Beers? As the surviving spouse she has the superior right here. She feels that the ring in question was previously removed and her husband was buried without it. The mortician who filed the declaration attesting otherwise is simply making a mistake. She doesn’t think the situation warrants digging up her husband.

"The immediate family’s desires take precedence here." Nina paused, then said very deliberately, "Perhaps Mrs. de Beers feels that there is more here than meets the eye, Your Honor. She has stated that she believes this motion is frivolous. Families become embroiled sometimes in strange games, Your Honor, particularly in times of stress...." She caught the judge’s eye, gave him a piercing look, trying to communicate that she knew much more she wanted to say but couldn’t.

"I really have to protest the impropriety of this argument, Judge," Stamp said, not bothering to get up, using his voice to command attention. "Counsel has left the realm of legal argument and moved into the land of irrelevance. She has to confine herself to facts, not insinuations—"

"May I finish, Your Honor?" Nina said over Stamp’s voice. Chalk one up for the clear, high female voice, she was thinking to herself as Milne’s head swung back her way.

She opened her mouth to insinuate a few more things before being shut down, but then she felt a nudge at her elbow. Deputy Kimura, the courtroom bailiff, stood there with a note in his hand.

"May I have just a second, Your Honor?" she said, irritated. She was about to lose her momentum.

The note said "Call your client. She wants to drop her opposition."

The floor beneath her feet dissolved and she sank through it. Her arguments drained from her head. Weakly, she said, "Uh, excuse me, Your Honor. I, uh, need to consult briefly with my client. I wonder if we could trail this matter to the end of the docket."

Milne said, "Mr. Stamp? Would you be agreeable?"

Stamp said from his table, "Certainly. If counsel has some emergency, we’re happy to accommodate."