Final Exam: A Legal Thriller (26 page)

“I’ll do that.
 
What about some of these students?
 
I understand there were some complaints made from students.”

“You’ll find most of that stuff in the files.
 
I think there were a couple of others previously that may have been purged from his files.”

“Purged from his files?
 
When?”

“Not recently.
 
Things were just sort of swept under the rug at the time and kept out of his files.
 
You know, Daniel was here a long time and the Administration didn’t want to see anything happen to him, or to the school for that matter, on their watch.”

“I understand.”

Beileck
appeared nervous and was looking over his shoulder constantly to make sure no one was coming in the door.
 
“I don’t want to be seen talking privately to you.
 
That way I could be of more help to you.
 
Sometimes I hear things.
 
Look, I’ve
gotta
go.
 
I’ll be in touch.”

23

Ben spent an uneventful weekend with the family, while Meg’s case percolated in the back of his mind, never far from the surface.
 
Ben spent all day Monday trying to catch up on the work he had neglected and preparing for a Forest Preserve District meeting the following day.
 
When he returned to the office from that meeting at about eleven-thirty on Tuesday morning, Ben ran into Dianne Reynolds by the fax machine.
 
“You’ll never guess who called,” she said.
 
Ben shrugged.
 
“The wife.”
 
Ben had been trying to get in touch with her for days, without success.

“Really,” Ben said.
 
“What’d she say?”

“I don’t know.
 
Nancy talked to her.”
 

Ben went upstairs and into Nancy’s office before even taking off his coat.
 
“So what’d she say?” he asked.
  

Nancy spun around in her chair to face him.
 
“Well, she wasn’t very friendly, for starters.
 
She said that she understood that you wanted to talk to her and she wanted you to call her back as soon as you got back to the office.
 
She said she was free this afternoon if you wanted to meet with her.”

“This afternoon?
 
That’s quick.”

“Yeah, I thought so too.”

“Did she say anything else?”

Nancy shook her head.
 
“Not really.
 
I don’t think she wanted to talk to a lowly secretary.”

“Can’t blame her for that,” Ben said.
 
Nancy scowled.
 
“Any other calls?” he asked.

“Tons, but isn’t that enough?”

“Maybe too much.”
 

Ben went to his office, hung up his overcoat and suit jacket and dialed the number on the piece of paper Nancy had just given him.
 

“Hello,” a woman’s voice answered.

“Hello, is this Sylvia Greenfield?”

“Yes it is.”

“Hello Mrs. Greenfield, this is Benjamin
Lohmeier
.
 
Thank you for calling me back.”

“I understand that you want to speak to me.
 
Would this be better in person, or can we do it over the telephone?”

“I would prefer if we did it in person, if you don’t mind.”

“I suppose that would be okay.”
 

“Are you free this afternoon?

“Yes, I suppose so.”

“What time is good for you?”

“How long do you think this will take?”

“Oh, probably less than an hour.”

“Okay then, can you meet me here at one-thirty?”

“That will be fine.”

“Do you know where I live?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Do you need directions?”

“No, I think I can find it okay.”

“Okay, then, I’ll see you later.
 
Goodbye.”
 
She hung up.

That was a strange conversation, Ben thought.
 
It had all the impersonal charm of scheduling a dental appointment.
 
Ben decided to skip lunch and prepare a brief outline of subjects he needed to cover.
 
With the help of directions he got off the internet, Ben found her house without difficulty.
 
As Ben pulled onto her street, he thought that her neighborhood reminded him somewhat of his own; gracious older homes situated on mature, tree-lined streets.
 
Evanston was decidedly more urban than Clarendon Hills to be sure, and Ben knew that Evanston was a much larger and more racially and ethnically diverse community.
 
Ben parked across the street and walked up to the front door.
   

Ben didn’t know what to expect as Sylvia Greenfield answered the door wearing a white blouse and tan twill pants.
 
Ben found her surprisingly attractive, in a princess sort of way, much more attractive than he figured Greenfield deserved.

“Mr.
Lohmeier
?” she said in a business-like voice.
 
Ben nodded and she said, “Please come in,” stepping aside to allow him to pass.
 
She didn’t extend her hand and Ben didn’t offer
his own
.
 
She led him through a center hallway to the back of the house and into a family room.
 
“Can I get you anything to drink, Mr.
Lohmeier
?”

“No thanks, I’m fine.”

“Okay then, why don’t we sit down.”
 
She took a seat on the couch and Ben sat in a leather club chair.
 

“First of all,” he began, “I want to thank you for agreeing to meet with me.
 
I can imagine that this has been a very difficult experience for you and particularly for your daughters.
 
Although I don’t want to intrude on your privacy, there’s certain information that I do need in order to provide an adequate defense for my client.”

Sylvia Greenfield sat very upright and still, her hands folded across her lap.
 
“I understand, Mr.
Lohmeier
,” she said.
 
“Obviously, Daniel was involved in criminal law from the time I met him in school, so I believe I have naturally become more sensitive to the needs and protections afforded criminal defendants in our system.”

“I hadn’t thought of that, but I’m sure that’s true,” he said.
 

“The police obviously think your client killed Daniel.”

“Yes, I suppose they do, but I don’t know what causes them to think that way.”

“Do you consider me a suspect, Mr.
Lohmeier
?”

The question took Ben completely off-guard.
 
And he was sure that he looked quite startled hearing it.
 
He looked closely into her eyes before answering, trying to get behind the question to ascertain what her true motives were.
 
He figured she had planned that broadside in advance.
 
“I don’t really know, to tell you the truth,” he said finally.
 
“I don’t know enough about you or your relationship with your ex-husband to know whether that theory is reasonable or possible.
 
I certainly wouldn’t rule it in or out at this point.”

“Fair enough.
 
I wouldn’t expect that you would.
 
In case you were wondering though, I didn’t kill my husband.”
 
Her features remained impassive as though she were telling him where she took her dry cleaning.
 

“Could you tell me a little bit about your marriage?”

“For a long time, we had a good marriage.
 
Everything was good in the beginning.
 
Daniel was, at least as far as I know, a good husband and a good father.
 
He loved his girls very much.
 
I can never take that away from him.
 
But as he grew older, I think spending so much time in the presence of attractive young women became too tempting.
 
I don’t know when he began having relationships with students, but I suspect it was some time ago.
 
I got suspicious, but tried not to think about it.”

“What made you suspicious?”

“Little things mostly.
 
He wasn’t where he was supposed to be.
 
He would disappear and I wouldn’t know where he was or when he would be back.
 
And I would begin to notice that he smelled of perfume.
 
As I said, I tried not to think about it and when I confronted him with it, his denials were quite plausible.
 
I mostly tried to put it out of my mind.
 
He still treated me and girls very well and I just hoped it was something that he would get over and stop doing.”

“What brought about the end of the marriage?”

“More of the same.”
 
She looked down at her hands and appeared to consider her words carefully.
 
Ben waited patiently trying not to put words into her mouth.
 
It would be better to just let her talk.
 
Although dredging up these memories couldn’t be pleasant, she still maintained a certain detached civility that Ben found interesting.
 
“I think what hurt the most was when he seemed to lose interest.
 
Before, his little conquests didn’t seem to affect our relationship that much except for the fact that it was obviously quite demeaning.”
 
Ben sensed that she didn’t want to make eye contact with him.
 
Perhaps she didn’t want to see pity in his eyes.
 
“Eventually though,” she continued, “he seemed to be just going through the motions.”

“Did the accusations by students at the law school affect it in any way?”

“Of course.
 
That was very embarrassing, both for Daniel and for me, but that didn’t tell me anything that I hadn’t already known for a long time.
 
He denied it at first, but that was no good.”

“So, are you familiar with the students involved?”

“Familiar?
 
No, not terribly.
 
One of them was named Hinkle, I think.
 
I remember the name Hinkle.
 
I don’t remember her first name, nor do I remember the name of the other student.
 
I don’t think the school wanted to pursue the matter, to be honest, so Daniel wasn’t seriously disciplined, at least not as seriously as you might expect.”

“So, you’re saying that really wasn’t the cause of the end of the marriage?”

“No, not totally.”
 
She looked up at him now.
 
“What really hurt the most was when I found out that he had been having a long-term relationship with one of his students even after she graduated.
 
Apparently they had been together for almost three years.”

“Do you know the name of the student?”

“Nora.
 
I believe her name was Nora.
 
I don’t remember her last name.”

“When did this take place?”

“I found out about four years ago.
 
I found a strange note in Daniel’s pants in the laundry and I confronted him with it and he more or less admitted it.
 
That was pretty much the beginning of the end.
 
It was one thing when he had these little conquests.
 
It was quite another when he was carrying on a long-term relationship with another woman probably half his age.”

Ben had not heard of any of this.
 
He couldn’t quite understand the difference between a one-night stand and a long-term affair and didn’t think Libby would either.
 
“What happened then?” he asked when it became clear she wasn’t going to continue.
 

“I basically threw him out.”

“How did he react to that?”

“He didn’t want to leave.
 
He didn’t want to lose the image of his family and especially his girls.
 
They took it rather hard.”

“Of course,” Ben said not knowing what else to say.
 
He searched for the right question before asking, “What happened with your husband and this Nora?”

“I have no idea,” she said.
 
“I got the impression that it was over sooner rather than later.
 
Perhaps she threw him out too.”

Sounds like wishful thinking, Ben thought.
 
“Was he living with her?”

She shook her head.
 
“No, not that I know of.”

“Do you know where she lives now?”

“I have no idea.”