Dexter 3 - Dexter in the Dark (17 page)

contract allows him to do
whatever he wants.“ ”And he wants to raise the price a wee bit?"
Vince was definitely blushing now. He mumbled a few syllables and tried to look
away even further.

“What?” I asked him. “What did you
say?” “About double,” he said, very quietly, but at least
audible. “Double,” I said. “Yes.” “That's $500 a
plate,” I said. “I'm sure it will be very nice,” said bright-red
Vince. "For $500 a plate it had better be more than nice. It had better
park the cars, mop the floor, and give all

the guests a back rub.“ ”This is
cutting-edge stuff, Dexter. You'll probably get your wedding in a
magazine.“ ”Yes, and it will probably be Bankruptcy Today. We have to
talk to him, Vince.“ He shook his head and continued to look at the grass.
”I can't," he said. Humans are wonderful combinations of silly,
ignorant, and dumb, aren't they? Even the ones who are

pretending most of the time, like Vince. Here he was,
a fearless forensic tech, actually within inches of a gruesomely murdered body
that had no more effect on him than a tree stump, and yet he was paralyzed with
terror at the thought of facing a tiny man who sculpted chocolate for a living.

“All right,” I
said. “I'll talk to him myself.” He looked up at me at last. “Be
careful, Dexter,” he said.

I CAUGHT UP WITH DEBORAH AS SHE WAS TURNING HER CAR around, and
happily, she paused long enough for me to climb in for a ride to the
registrar's office. She had nothing to say on the short drive over, and I was
too preoccupied with my own problems to care.

A quick search of the records with my new friend at
the registrar's office turned up no Tammy in any of Halpern's classes. But
Deborah, who had been pacing back and forth while she waited, was ready for
that. “Try last semester,” she said. I did; again nothing.

“All right,” she said with a frown.
“Then try Wilkins's classes.”

It was a lovely idea, and to prove it, I got an
immediate hit: Ms. Connor was in Wilkins's seminar on situational ethics.

“Right,” Deborah
said. “Get her address.” Tammy Connor lived in a residential hall
that was only moments away, and Deborah wasted no time in

getting us over there and
parking illegally in front of it. She was out of the car and marching toward the
front door before I could even get my door open, but I followed along as
quickly as I could. The room was on the third floor. Deborah chose to vault up
the stairs two at a time rather than waste time

pushing the button for an
elevator, and since this left me with not enough breath to complain about it, I

didn't. I got there just in
time to see the door to Tammy's room swing open to reveal a stocky girl with

dark hair and glasses. “Yes?” she said,
frowning at Deborah.

Debs showed her badge and said, “Tammy
Connor?”

The girl gasped and put a hand to her throat.
“Oh, God, I knew it,” she said.

Deborah nodded. “Are you Tammy Connor,
miss?”

“No. No, of course not,” the girl said.
“Allison, her roommate.”

“Do you know where Tammy is, Allison?”

The girl inhaled her lower lip and chewed it while
shaking her head vigorously. “No,” she said.

“How long has she been gone?” Deborah asked.

“Two days.”

“Two days?”
Deborah said, raising her eyebrows. “Is that unusual?”

Allison looked like she was
going to chew her lip off, but she kept gnawing on it, pausing only long

enough to blurt out, “I'm not supposed to say
anything.”

Deborah stared at her for a
long moment before finally saying, “I think you're going to have to say
something, Allison. We think Tammy may be in a lot of trouble.” That
seemed to me a very understated way of saying that we thought she was dead, but
I let it go by,

since it was obviously
having a profound effect on Allison. “Oh,” she said, and started
jiggling up and down. “Oh, oh, I just knew this would happen.”
“What is it that you think happened?” I asked her. “They got
caught,” she said. “I told her.” “I'm sure you did,” I
said. “So why not tell us, too?” She hopped a little faster for a
moment. “Oh,” she said again and then warbled, "she's having an
affair

with a professor. Oh, God, she'll kill me for
this!“ Personally, I didn't think Tammy would be killing anybody, but just
to be sure I said, ”Did Tammy wear

any jewelry?"

She looked at me like I was
crazy. “Jewelry?” she said, as if the word was in some foreign
language- Aramaic, perhaps. “Yes, that's right,” I said
encouragingly. “Rings, bracelets-anything like that?” “You mean
like her platinum anklet?” Allison said, very obligingly, I thought.
“Yes, exactly like that,” I said. “Did it have any markings on
it?” “Uh-huh, her name,” she said. “Oh, God, she'll be so
pissed at me.” “Do you know which professor she was having an affair
with, Allison?” Deborah said. Allison went back to shaking her head.
“I really shouldn't tell,” she said. “Was it Professor
Wilkins?” I said, and even though Deborah glared at me, Allison's reaction
was much

more gratifying. “Oh God,” she said. “I swear I never
said.”

image

One call on the cell phone got us the address in
Coconut Grove where Dr. Wilkins made his humble home. It was in a section
called The Moorings, which meant that either my alma mater was paying
professors a great deal more than they used to, or else Professor Wilkins had
independent means. As we turned onto the street, the afternoon rain started,
blowing across the road in slanted sheets, then slowing to a trickle, then
picking up again.

We found the house easily. The number was on the
yellow seven-foot wall that surrounded the house. A wrought-iron gate blocked
off the driveway. Deborah pulled up in front and parked in the street, and we
climbed out and looked through the gate. It was a rather modest home, no more
than 4,000 square feet, and situated at least seventy-five yards from the
water, so perhaps Wilkins wasn't really all that wealthy.

As we peeked in, looking for some way to signal the house that we had
arrived and wished to enter, the front door swung open and a man came out,
wearing a bright yellow rain suit. He headed for the car parked in the drive, a
blue Lexus.

Deborah raised her voice and called out,
“Professor? Professor Wilkins?”

The man looked up at us from under the hood of his
rain suit. “Yes?”

“Can we speak to you for a moment, please?”
Deborah said.

He walked toward us slowly, head cocked at Deborah on
a slight angle. “That depends. Who is us?”

Deborah reached into her pocket for her badge and
Professor Wilkins paused cautiously, no doubt worried that she might pull out a
hand grenade.

“Us is the police,” I reassured him.

“Is we?” he said, and he turned toward me
with a half smile that froze when he saw me, flickered, and then resumed as a
very poor fake smile. Since I am an expert on faking emotions and expressions I
was in absolutely no doubt about it-the sight of little old me had startled him
somehow, and he was covering it by pretending to smile. But why? If he was
guilty, surely the thought of police at the gate would be worse than Dexter at
the door. But instead he looked at Deborah and said, “Oh, yes, we met once
before, outside my office.”

“That's right,” said Deborah as she finally
fished out her badge.

“I'm sorry, will this take long? I'm kind of in a
hurry,” he said.

“We have just a couple of questions,
Professor,” Deborah said. “It will take only a minute.”

“Well,” he said, looking from the badge to my face and then
quickly away again. “All right.” He opened the gate and held it wide.
“Would you like to come in?”

Even though we were already soaked to the skin, it seemed like a pretty
good idea to get out of the rain, and we followed Wilkins through the gate, up
the driveway, and into his house.

The interior of the house was done in a style I
recognized as classic Coconut Grove Rich Person Casual. I had not seen an example
like this since I was a boy, when Miami Vice Modern took over as the area's
dominant decorative pattern. But this was old school, bringing back the memory
of when the area was called Nut Grove because of its loose, Bohemian flavor.

The floors were reddish-brown tile and shiny enough to
shave in, and there was a conversation area consisting of a leather couch and
two matching chairs off to the right beside a large picture window. Next to the
window was a wet bar with a large, glassed-in, temperature-controlled wine
cabinet and an abstract painting of a nude on the wall next to it.

Wilkins led us past a pair of potted plants and over to the couch, and
hesitated a couple of steps in front of it. “Ah,” he said, pushing
back the hood from his rain jacket, “we're kind of wet for the leather
furniture. Can I offer you a barstool?” He gestured toward the bar.

I looked at Deborah, who shrugged. “We can
stand,” she said. “This will only take a minute.”

“All right,” Wilkins said. He folded his arms and smiled at
Deborah. “What's so important that they send someone like you, in this
weather?” he said.

Deborah flushed slightly, whether from irritation or something else I
couldn't tell. “How long have you been sleeping with Tammy Connor?”
Deborah said.

Wilkins lost his happy expression and for a moment there was a very
cold, unpleasant look on his face. “Where did you hear that?” he
said.

I could see that Deborah was trying to push him off-balance just a bit,
and since that is one of my specialties I chimed in. “Will you have to
sell this place if you don't get tenure?” I said.

His eyes snapped to mine,
and there was nothing at all pleasant about the look he gave me. He kept his

tongue in his mouth, too. “I should have known,” he said.
“So this was Halpern's jailhouse confession, was it? Wilkins did it.”

“So you didn't have an affair with Tammy
Connor?” Deborah said. Wilkins looked back to her again and, with a
visible effort, regained his relaxed smile. He shook his head. “I'm
sorry,” he said. “I can't get used to you as the tough one. I guess
that's a pretty successful technique for you two, hmm?”

“Not so far,” I said. “You haven't
answered any of the questions.”

He nodded. “All
right,” he said. “And did Halpern tell you he broke into my office? I
found him hiding under my desk. God knows what he was doing there.”
“Why do you think he broke into your office?” Deborah asked. Wilkins
shrugged. “He said I sabotaged his paper.” “Did you?” He
looked at her, and then over to me for an unpleasant moment, then back to
Deborah. “Officer,” he

said, “I am trying very hard to cooperate here. But you've accused
me of so many different things I'm not sure which one I'm supposed to
answer.”

“Is that why you haven't answered any of
them?” I asked. Wilkins ignored me. “If you can tell me how Halpern's
paper and Tammy Connor fit together, I'll be happy to help any way I can. But
otherwise, I've got to get going.”

Deborah looked at me, whether for advice or because she was tired of
looking at Wilkins, I couldn't tell, so I gave her my very best shrug, and she
looked back at Wilkins. “Tammy Connor is dead,” she said. “Oh,
my,” Wilkins said. “How did it happen?” “The same way as
Ariel Goldman,” Debs said. “And you knew them both,” I added
helpfully.

“I imagine that dozens of people knew them both.
Including Jerry Halpern,” he said. “Did Professor Halpern kill Tammy
Connor, Professor Wilkins?” Deborah asked him. “From the detention
center?”

He shrugged. “I'm only
saying that he knew them, too.” “And did he have an affair with her,
too?” I asked. Wilkins smirked. “Probably not. Not with Tammy,
anyway.” “What does that mean, Professor?” Deborah asked.

Wilkins shrugged. “Just
rumors, you know. The kids talk. Some of them think Halpern is gay.”
“Less competition for you,” I said. “Like with Tammy
Connor.” Wilkins scowled at me and I'm sure I would have been intimidated
if I was a university sophomore. "You

need to make up your mind whether I killed my students
or screwed them,“ he said. ”Why not both?“ ”Did you go to
college?“ he demanded. ”Why yes, I did,“ I said. ”Then you
ought to know that a certain type of girl sexually pursues her professors.
Tammy was over

eighteen, and I'm not married.“ ”Isn't it a
little bit unethical to have sex with a student?“ I said.
”Ex-student,“ he snapped. ”I dated her after the class last
semester. There's no law against dating an ex-

student. Especially if she throws herself at
you.“ ”Nice catch,“ I said. ”Did you sabotage Professor
Halpern's paper?" Deborah said. Wilkins looked back at Deborah and smiled
again. It was wonderful to watch somebody almost as good

as I am at switching emotions so quickly.
“Detective, do you see a pattern here?” he said. “Listen, Jerry
Halpern is a brilliant guy, but…not exactly stable? And with all the pressure
on him right now, he's just decided that I am a whole conspiracy to get him,
all by myself.” He shrugged. “I don't think I'm quite that
good,” he said with a little smile. “At least, not at
conspiracy.”

“So you think Halpern killed Tammy Connor and the
others?” Deborah said.

“I didn't say
that,” he said. “But hey, he's the psycho. Not me.” He made a
step toward the door and raised an eyebrow at Deborah. “And now, if you
don't mind, I really have to get going.” Deborah handed him a business
card. “Thank you for your time, Professor,” she said. "If you
think of

anything that might help, please give me a call."

“I certainly will,” he said, giving her the
kind of smile that killed disco and placing a hand on her shoulder. She managed
not to flinch. “I really hate to throw you back out into the rain,
but…” Deborah moved, very willingly I thought, out from under his hand and
toward the door. I followed.

Wilkins herded us out the door and through the gate, and then climbed
into his car, backed out of the driveway, and drove away. Debs stood in the
rain and watched him go, which I am sure she intended to make Wilkins nervous
enough to leap from the car and confess, but considering the weather it struck
me as excessive zeal. I got into the car and waited for her.

When the blue Lexus had vanished Deborah finally got
in beside me. “Guy gives me the fucking creeps,” she said.

“Do you think he's the killer?” I asked. It was a strange
feeling for me, not knowing, and wondering if somebody else had seen behind the
predator's mask.

She shook her head with irritation. Water flew off her hair and hit me.
“I think he's a fucking creep,” she said. “What do you
think?”

“I'm pretty sure you're right,” I said.

“He didn't mind admitting his affair with Tammy Connor,” she
said. “So why lie and say she was in his class last semester?”

“Reflex?” I said. “Because he's up for
tenure?”

She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel, and then leaned forward
decisively and started the car. “I'm putting a tail on him,” she
said.