Read Final Exam: A Legal Thriller for Free Online Page B

shaking.   “I’m just so upset about this.   I’ve never been questioned by the police before.   This is unbelievable.”  
    “Look, Meg, just relax.   I’m sure they weren’t trying to upset you or anything like that.   They were just trying to gather information.   I’m sure it was nothing more than that.”   Ben tried to get the focus off of Meg.   He needed to talk her off the ledge.   “So they didn’t tell you how he died?”  
    “No, in fact, I asked, but they didn’t answer.   They kind of changed the subject.”  
    “Hmmm, that’s interesting.   It doesn’t sound like anything.   But the thing you’ve got to remember, you can’t tell them anything that isn’t true.   They always seem to find out in the end. Now, tell me, do you know of any other reason, any reason at all, why they would be questioning you about this other than what you’ve told me?”  
    “No, of course not.”  
    Ben sighed.   “Okay, then.   Look, you’ve got to remember, if we find out that Greenfield didn’t just drop dead at his desk, if you really and truly believe they think you’re involved somehow, you shouldn’t talk to them again without an attorney present.   If you want, call me, and I’ll be there when they talk to you.   But remember, you don’t want to say anything, even inadvertently, that may unduly cast suspicion on you, okay?   I’m not trying to upset you.   I just want you to know how these things work.”   There was a long pause.   “Meg?   Do you understand?”  
    “Yes.”  
    “I’m sure it will turn out to be nothing.”
    “I hope you’re right.”
    “Again, I don’t think it means anything, but still, be careful.   These guys build cases through people saying the wrong things at the wrong time.”  
    They talked for a few more minutes.   Ben could sense that she was calming down a little bit and really needed to get this out of her system more than anything else.   Nevertheless, he couldn’t believe that she could really be a suspect in a murder, assuming it was a murder.   It just didn’t make any sense.  
    “Ben,” she finally said, “if it came to that and I needed a lawyer to represent me in this, would you help me?   Would you represent me if I needed help?”  
    Ben flushed.   “Of course I would,” he said, “but I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think you’re going to need anyone’s help.   I think you just misunderstood what they were trying to find out.   I’m sure it’s going to be nothing.”  
    A moment later they hung up and Ben sat in his office for a minute staring silently at the phone.   Scott Nelson.   That had to mean something.   His secretary, Nancy Schulte, poked her head in the door.   She must have heard him hang up the phone.   “So, what was that all about?” she asked.   Nancy had been with the firm for more than twenty years, and had more or less been Ben’s secretary since he arrived several years before.   Something of a refugee from the Sixties, who only became a legal secretary when she didn’t know what else to do, Nancy was fast, efficient and almost never made mistakes.   Ben considered her the best legal secretary he’d ever known and he liked working with her.  
    She also served as the unofficial gatekeeper for the firm.   She often had the task of breaking in the new people to ascertain whether or not they were truly competent to practice law with the firm.   Once they had passed this threshold and thereby earned her respect, a woman who at first glance appeared very difficult, suddenly became very easy to work with.   Ben crossed over that bridge fairly early in their relationship so that any hazing period he had experienced with her was relatively short.  
    The only problem with Nancy from Ben’s perspective was that Nancy also worked for Phil Luckenbill , the firm’s managing partner.   That occasionally put her in an awkward position and necessarily tended to divide her