Obstruction of Justice by Perri O'Shaughnessy

purse strap in her teeth as they started down the stairs.
    "Can’t I take that for you?" he said, indicating the briefcase.
    "I wish you could," Nina said. "But it’s hard-wired to me." She finally got the strap back onto her shoulder.
    "I’d like to talk to you."
    "What about?"
    "I’d like to retain your services."
    At the foot of the stairway Nina stopped and said, "I’d be happy to talk to you, sir. Here’s my card. Please call and set up an appointment. Unfortunately, I have to—"
    "You saw my son die," Quentin de Beers said. He spoke without any heat. "Least you can do is make some time for me in your busy schedule."
    "Oh, of course. I’m sorry. I’m just so busy, I wasn’t thinking. You’re Ray de Beers’s father."
    "Ray was my only child."
    "I see." She did see the son in the father, the same vitality, the same mouth with its thin smile and the same fixed stare. Quentin de Beers must be nearly seventy, but he looked younger. "Is there some legal matter you want to consult me about, or did you want to ask me about—"
    "Both." He held the outer door for her and they went out onto the patio in front of the court building. As soon as they were outside, he put on a tweed hat with a brown hat band. "I would like to know what you saw. And there is an urgent legal problem, otherwise I wouldn’t have taken time out of my own busy day to hunt you down at the courthouse, now, would I ? "
    "Well," Nina said, stalling. She had planned to leave the office early, to take advantage of her precious time without Bob to do a little previewing of properties with a realtor named Mrs. Wendover who Sandy had found for her. She wanted to tell him to see her the following day, but she saw his hands were trembling. He was either nervous or ill. His son was dead. "Okay," she said. "Can you follow me back? I can free up a half hour in my office."
    "Thank you. I will." His Mercedes was parked not far from her dusty Bronco. Nina drove, watching the sleek new car from her rearview mirror.
    At the Starlake Building, de Beers followed her inside. In the outer office, Nina said, "Sandy, this is Mr. de Beers." De Beers appeared bemused at having the secretary introduced to him, but nodded politely. "We’ll dispense with the usual forms for this initial consultation, Mr. de Beers," Nina said for Sandy’s benefit. She led him into her office and pushed the door shut.
    He paid no attention to the surroundings and attempted no small talk. "Sarah and the kids told me their story," he said. "But I can’t help noticing how damn fast she had my boy in the ground and buried. I was in Singapore, getting over a bout of flu. Couldn’t get back until the day after the funeral. I’m not satisfied with how this whole thing has been handled. I called the DA’s office and got nowhere. Jeremy Stamp usually handles my legal work, but he’s in L.A. at the moment. I hear you know how to get things done, and, of course, you were there when Ray died. I came looking for you."
    "What do you want to know, Mr. de Beers?" So this was the father-in-law Sarah had talked about at the casino, moving in to take care of the family and its fortunes now that Ray was gone.
    "For starters, why was Ray alone when he died?" de Beers said. "He hiked up with four other people."
    "My understanding is that the rest of the group became separated from your son."
    "So they say."
    "Do you think they are lying?"
    Ignoring her question, de Beers said, "And why didn’t he take shelter? Ray could have taught mountaineering. He climbed in the Cascades, the Alps. He climbed Kilimanjaro last year. No way a hill like Tallac, which any kid in tennis shoes can go up, could catch him like that."
    "I think I can help there," Nina said. "The storm blew up very quickly and caught everyone up there off guard."
    De Beers shook his head. "If your son had died on that mountain, wouldn’t you demand a better explanation than ’a storm blew up’? I’m not getting the full picture." He had the