Divine: A Novel (25 page)

“I... I’m not sure I should answer that
question.” I know this guy’s a lawyer and I don’t like this one bit. Not one
bit.

He smirks and puts his arm around his
daughter, pulling her closer to him. “Well, I’m thankful my Hannah wasn’t out
biking with Luke that night. Mr. Keller may have killed both of them.”

“Dan didn’t
kill
anyone. And I’d like to know what happened to Hannah that
night.” I turn and stare directly into her eyes. “I saw you early the next
morning covered in mud.”

Her father gives her an inquisitive look.

“I don’t have anything to hide. My
sisters and I had a midnight drunken volleyball tournament in the backyard.”

“Of course,” I whisper.

“I was in a frat on this campus back in
the day and we played drunken volleyball all the time. What are you getting at,
Professor Hallowell? You think my daughter was out rolling around in the mud
with some guy while her boyfriend was dead in a ditch?”

Jesus, he’s just like her, or she’s just
like him.

“N- n-no,” I stutter.

“I still think she’s involved somehow,”
Hannah says to her dad. “Bridgette said the two of them were together that
night. And why is that monster here? Shouldn’t he be in jail? I’m calling
Bridgette to find out what’s going on. Her brother needs to be punished and put
away in a straight jacket like Hannibal Lector.”

“Don’t worry sweetheart, he’ll be behind
bars after the trial,” her father says.

“I don’t need to listen to this shit.”

“Gee, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize a
discussion about a hit and run that cost a man his life would be considered
shit,” her father states as if I’m being cross-examined on the stand. “Is that what
you would like to call this conversation? Luke’s life is meaningless shit?”

My lips twitch in anger. “Listen,” I
point to his face. “I’m sure this was an accident and it sucks balls that
everyone keeps saying...”

With a quick tug I’m yanked backward and
away from the conversation of emotional abuse.

“Did I just hear the words
‘sucks balls’
come from your mouth?”
Richard whispers as he guides me toward the buffet table. He picks up his plate
and motions for me to get some food.

“I don’t want to hear you defend yourself
or anything else about what just occurred. Hannah’s family is one of the
wealthiest in town, and that’s all I’m going to say. Next time just walk away.”

“Fine,” I mutter with my head down. Easy
for him to say. Men will never understand how a woman feels to be verbally
attacked by a man. “But, you know...”

“Div, stop,” Richard says. “I’ve been
speaking with a few of the Trustees and we’ll get our answer tomorrow about the
future of your department, for now, nothing else gets said about the students,
Daniel Keller, Luke Barnes, or Margaret Cole. I’m through babysitting and
taking the fall for the bad behavior of everyone around me.”

Wow, does that include me? Is he serious?
I’m the one who deals with all of this crap. What is he talking about, taking
the fall? Wait; his tone, his comments, none of this sounds good.

“Do you have a sense of the Trustees
decision?” I ask, trying to keep my composure.

“To be honest, I would say pack your
bags, that’s my gut feeling. But, I have a thought about something that may
change their minds.”

Is this for real or is he trying to scare
me? I might lose my job? I was worried about it, for sure, and I know I thought
of resigning, running away, and prayed my novels would take off so I could call
myself an author and not a professor, but deep down inside, this place is
starting to grow on me. Not necessarily all of the people here, but the
environment’s seeping into my veins.

Plus, everything’s gonna be better now.
The Trustees should wait and see what happens now that Margaret’s gone. What
college would dump a department that’s been around longer than sliced bread?
The Home Economics program began in the early ‘20s. Originally called
Homemaking, it thrived for close to a century. And Design was added in the ‘90s
and is doing fairly well, considering the ongoing feuds. Gone? Just like that?
He’s kidding.

“Are you going to ask about my idea?” he
stares with a raised brow.

“Sorry, your comment took me off guard.”

Richard laughs and shoves two pieces of
shrimp into his mouth, dripping cocktail sauce down the front of his shirt. It
goes unnoticed for now. “Off guard? We’ve only been discussing the possibility
for weeks.”

“Sorry, what are your thoughts?”

I let him finish chewing while I snack on
carrots and scan the room for Dan, who I see speaking to Hannah by the back
door. Crap, that can’t be good.

“I’d like you to do me a favor.” He takes
a set of keys out of his pocket and places them in my hand. “Go over to
Margaret’s building.”

“Now?”

“Yes, I need this information today.”

Dan shakes his head and puts up his hand
in defense of whatever’s spewing out of Hannah’s mouth.

“You listening?”

“Yeah, go ahead,” I say, still watching
the conversation taking place behind Richard’s back.

“Div, look at me for a moment.”

My eyes move from Dan and Hannah to the
seriousness in Richard’s face.

“I think this department has lot more
money than anyone realizes,” he whispers.

“What do you mean? Like, Margaret has a
will leaving her estate to us?” I laugh, knowing she always spent her money frivolously
on things like summer trips to Sydney, Australia and cruises over winter break
along the Florida Coast. The woman didn’t have any savings, which is why she
never retired.

“You see that man over there?” he nods in
the direction of an older guy chuckling with other alumni. “He asked me what we
did with the twenty grand he donated to us last year.”

“Whoa. I didn’t hear of any money coming
in.”

“Me either,” he smiles suspiciously.

Okay, that woman is still haunting this
department. “Let me guess, the donor made the check out to Margaret?”

“A
few
checks made out to Margaret. And I can’t for the life of me figure out why. She
was Chair years ago and back then Chairs
did
handle many of the donations for their departments, but even so, that would
mean it’s been going on for decades.”

“Ah,” I slide my hand down my face while
shaking my head. “Why don’t you just ask him to give this information to the
Trustees?”

He gives me a look like I’m an idiot. “I
could, but then we’ll probably never see another dime from him, and personally,
if the department does continue on, it would be nice to have funding coming in
from somewhere.”

“Good point,” I say, concealing my
disgust with him. What a load of horse pucky. “Alright, I’ll head over and see
if I come across anything.”

And if I do, the information’s going to
the cops, not Richard. I’m not about to become a member of this man’s
peon-sneaky-dishonest-asinine-Jesus in khaki’s club.

“All I’m asking is for you to bring me
any information you come across from donors, no matter the date. I need those
records anyway, so even if you don’t find anything out of the ordinary, the old
records are still important. It’s on my mind since it’s the hot topic of
discussion today.” Richard takes a handful of shrimp and walks away. God, at
this point a root canal would actually be more pleasant than any of this.

I look around and Dan’s no longer in the
room or the malicious swine, Hannah, either. But on my way outside I spot her
and a few of her sorority friends on the sidewalk in front of the building.

Great, the worst part of my job is always
walking past students I despise. I imagine one day they’ll throw rotten eggs at
my head and then Richard will tell me to walk away and let it go.

“Hey bitch,” Hannah fumes.

“What did you say to me?”

“You wanna know what I just heard,
bitch
?”

She ignores my authority, what little I
have around these kids, and continues to assail my heart and my mind with her
wickedness.

“Daniel Keller’s sister took the fall for
him! I hate him and I HATE you!” she screams. “Both of you are fucking morons
if you think I’m going to let Bridgey do this!”

“What?”

“He’s a murderer and like all murderers
he’s glad to let someone else take the blame! Bridgette’s in jail!” Her voice
echoes across campus as her friends herd around her like cattle. “How could he
do this to his own sister!”

I take a step back. And another. I’m not
dumb, Dan wouldn’t do that to his sister, but what that means is that Bridgette
really was the one. What the fuck happened? Why
that
night? The poor girl must be scared to death.

“You bitch!” Hannah picks up a rock and
motions as if it’s about to be pitched at my face.

“Don’t even try it. Put the goddamn rock
down, Hannah.” I say as calmly as I can to a crazy person.

“Put it down,” one of her friends whispers
while another holds her hand so she can’t toss it.

“He’s such a dick!” She calls after me as
I slip out of my heels and run toward the back parking lot.

I can’t believe his sister’s responsible
for this. How could she not come forward sooner, when Dan was first arrested?

I
bet she was terrified.

And at the ice cream parlor she played it
off as if I had something to do with Luke’s death. Me! I bet the sorority was
her hideout. She was probably there for days drunk off her ass while her
brother was in jail and his parents were in agony.

As I round the corner of the building I
see Dan leaning against one of the vans talking on his cell. He hangs up and I
find myself in the same scene as when I first arrived, only this time I don’t
stand around and contemplate running into his arms, I actually do it.

Wow,
it IS a Lifetime movie. The only thing missing is the tagline that mentions
it’s based on actual events. Go hug that man!

I drop my shoes and sprint across the
pavement, pulling him into a deep embrace.

“It was your sister?” I whisper.

He sighs and places a hand on the back of
my head. “Yeah. She came home last night and my parents went with her to the
station this morning.”

“God, I’m so sorry,” I say, gripping him
tighter.

“I can’t even imagine all she went
through to do this. It must have been deliberate. But why? Why ruin her entire
life over Luke Barnes?”

“You think it was deliberate?”

“She would’ve had to bike or walk the two
miles from campus to my place to get my truck. That’s definitely premeditated.”

“Does she have a key?”

“To my place, not my car,” he covers his
eyes. “My entire family has a key to my front door, but the car keys aren’t
difficult to find once you walk inside,” he exhales. “I don’t know what to do.”

“I don’t think there’s anything you can
do except be supportive.”

He nods at my unhelpful answer. “And my
parents are a wreck. I’ve never seen either one of them cry as much as they did
when I was arrested and now with her... they’re so fucked up. Everything’s so
fucked up.” He takes a deep breath. “I told the detective I didn’t know what
happened or how the dent and marks got on my truck besides the incident at the
hotel. I was telling the truth. I really
don’t
know any of the details. But as you can imagine, I’m sure he thought I was
lying. And now Bridgette’s coming forward. I don’t know what’s going to
happen.”

“I’m sorry,” I say again. “What do you
think went wrong that night? Something must have ignited all of this.”

“She won’t say. She’s not saying much of
anything except that she’s responsible.”

He lifts my chin with his fingers so he
can see my face. I smile for a split second, relieved to have an answer to this
mess, but understand this is hell for him.

“Fuck, I know it’s hard to tell right
now, but you make me so damn happy,” he offers a weak smile back, putting a
spell back on my heart.

Yeah,
like it ever left.

A Keller employee walks outside with an
empty tray and interrupts before our behind the alumni center afternoon kiss
has a chance to emerge.

“Come over tonight so we can talk a few
things out.” he says. “Maybe even start over?”

“No,” I shake my head. “I don’t want to
start over, let’s just continue where we left off.”

“Thank you,” he whispers. “I’ve really
missed you.”

Okay,
I admit, his words are endearing and heartfelt. He’s good, the type of guy
impossible to stay angry at.

The things I’m upset about now are minor
compared to what was in my head the other day.

Dan gets back to work and I head over to
Margaret’s building, walking under budding trees, past blooming tulips and
daisies, listening to the chirping birds (they’re everywhere), and inhaling the
freshly cut lawn. I know he’s down, but I feel incredible. Hannah and her
friends are no longer in sight and this side of campus is like a ghost town on
a Sunday afternoon. It’s a private sanctuary all to myself.