Failure is Fatal (17 page)

The light on my answering machine indicated a message was recorded while I was away. I punched the Play button and waited, tapping a pencil rhythmically on the desk while I propped up my head in my other hand.

“Dr. Murphy, it's Ryan, Ryan Cleates.” I leaned forward, shocked to hear his voice. “I thought about our conversation yesterday, and I know I should talk with the police, but I just can't. I know some stuff about the murder that I'm afraid to tell, so I think it's better if I just get lost for a while until this whole thing settles down. I cleaned the important stuff out of my room, and I'm leaving it with a friend. The other stuff is just junk, so I left it.” There was a pause in the recording. “Gotta go. I'm really sorry about everything.” I heard the line go dead.

He must have called soon after I left the office earlier today. There were noises in the background that sounded as if he were calling from his room in the fraternity house, which meant, I was afraid, that anyone could have overheard his call. He cleared all the important stuff from his room and left the rest? Hmmm. Then someone finished the job of removing items for him and probably searching through everything before we got there. Who? And what did he consider important stuff that he left with a friend, and what friend? I picked up the phone and dialed Der's number, but he didn't pick up. I decided not to leave a message. I felt as if Der and I were in the middle of a maze—too many paths that might lead us out, but no clue as to what was the better turn to take. I shook my head and tried to start at the beginning with the murder. An attractive and intelligent college woman, no boyfriend though. Why not?

There could have been a number of other reasons why she had no boyfriend. I would be the first to admit that a relationship was not absolutely necessary for success in a young woman's life. But I was curious about the life of this particular woman. It might provide the string to lead us out of the maze.

I called Der from my office and again got no answer. Momentarily baffled as to how I could get the information I needed, I considered abandoning the project until the next morning. A knock on my door changed my mind. As usual, the building was relatively deserted this time of the evening. Most of the classes scheduled let out at nine o'clock. It was after that now.

“Who's there?” I said.

“It's me, Dr. Murphy. Paula.”

“C'mon in.” I was glad for some friendly company.

“Hi! I just got out of class where I heard about Ryan Cleates' disappearing. I took a chance you might be in and saw a light under your door as I was coming down the hall.” She dropped her book bag on the floor and wearily dropped into the chair opposite my desk.

“We don't know where Ryan is or why he left. I came back here to do some work and think. Maybe you can help me.”

At this suggestion Paula perked up, straightening in her chair and leaning forward. “Sure. What can I do?”

“How well did you know Marie Becca?”

“Not well. I'm not certain anyone knew her very well. She was a good student, that I know, and she spent most of her time in the library studying. Didn't socialize much, although she often drove people downtown to the bars or to the mall because she had a car and most of us don't.”

“What about her roommate?”

“Not real close, I guess, but she did have a friend in Bates Hall. I guess you would call them best friends. She might know more.”

Paula gave me the name of the friend, and we talked for a bit longer, Paula reviewing with me some of the issues surrounding the research she was designing.

“I've got to run,” Paula said. “Jeff and I are studying together for a test tomorrow.” She and I shared a smile as she left my office.

I skimmed through the student directory and found the name Paula gave me—Lainie Kost. I glanced at my watch. Nine-thirty. Not too late to give her a call. Lainie picked up and sounded as if she had a cold. She registered little enthusiasm for a visit from anyone, certainly not a faculty member she didn't know well.

“I talked with that detective already. It's been weeks now since Marie's death. I'd really like to move on.” She sniffled into the receiver. I waited. “Alright, come on over. I'm in room four fifteen.”

I chose to drive my car across campus to the residence hall area to avoid the cold wind that swept through the center of campus this evening. Now I had the problem of finding a place to park. All the slots were designated student parking places, and I knew that if I parked in one of those I would have a ticket when I returned. Unfortunately, the nearest faculty parking places were halfway back across the campus near the library. Driving past an empty student-parking place, I swung my car into it and decided to take a chance I could talk my way out of a ticket.

I surveyed the lot to look for a Campus Security car cruising the area. Seeing none in the vicinity, I locked up the SUV and made my way to the entrance of the residence hall. Hoping that the weather would dissuade a patrolling officer from leaving the warmth of his car, I was betting a ticket wasn't in my future this night. Another car was circling the lot also, but appeared to give up the search as it pulled away and headed down the hill.

I entered the residence hall and paused just inside the door. Several people sat in front of a television, looking hypnotized by the images on the screen. Some of the students, recognizing me, called greetings as I punched the Up button. The elevator shrugged its way upward, depositing me with a whump! at the fourth floor, its doors groaning as they opened to a hallway bathed in institutional yellow lights. This was one of the residence halls up for refurbishing this summer, and it desperately needed a visit from the folks at the HGTV station.

The door to room 415 stood open. I looked into the room and saw, seated cross-legged on the bed, a young woman with chin-length brown hair, a heart-shaped face, and large brown eyes. Her nose was very red and a box of tissues sat beside her on the bed. The used ones were thrown in a wastebasket at the foot of the bed. She missed the basket on some of her throws, and tissues littered the floor beside it. She wore a long terry cloth robe of faded blue pulled tightly around her, and she leaned back against the wall with a book beside her on the bed and a notebook in her lap.

I tapped lightly on the open door.

“Lainie? Hi, I'm Dr. Murphy. May I come in?”

Lainie removed the glasses she was wearing and nodded her consent. The other bed in the room was neatly made up, but there was no sign of another person.

“Your roommate out for the evening?”

“Gone for a few days. She's staying with her boyfriend. He has an apartment downtown. She wasn't real happy about my cold. She left so she wouldn't catch it.” I thought about this statement and what it revealed about the roommates' relationship. Not good, I concluded. Everyone had a cold this time of the year, it seemed. Her roommate was as likely to catch it from someone in class or her boyfriend as she was from Lainie.

“I can get a lot of studying done,” Lainie said, as if to confirm that her roommate's absence was to her liking anyway.

“Would you mind if we closed the door?”

Lainie nodded. I closed the door, sat down on the roommate's bed, and took in the small room. There was little evidence that anyone other than Lainie lived here. She picked up on my examination of the room.

“She's really not here a lot. She likes to be with her boyfriend most.” Lainie shifted uncomfortably on the bed. “So what do you want to talk with me about? I already told everything to the police.”

“I know. I work with Detective Pasquis, and this case really puzzles us. I just wanted to review everything with you again. You were her best friend, right?”

“I guess so. We met during summer orientation here and liked each other immediately. If we could have arranged it, we would have roomed together this semester, but we already were assigned roommates by the college. She didn't have a lot of friends, not that people didn't like her. She was like me, I guess. She took school seriously and studied a lot. We had some classes together so we studied together for tests for those. Otherwise, I like to be here working, and she liked the library. It's funny but we hit it off immediately even though we're both real shy.” She hesitated to regain her composure. “I mean, she was shy and I am shy.”

“What about her roommate? Were they pretty good friends?”

“These are smoke-free residence halls, you know, but her roommate was always sneaking cigarettes in the room. It drove Marie crazy. She couldn't stand the smell.”

“So I guess they didn't see eye-to-eye on that one, right?”

“They didn't see eye-to-eye on much. We were talking about getting a room together this coming semester, maybe, but…”

“Something happen? I mean, did you decide not to for some reason?”

“She seemed to want to for a while, and then she said she'd prefer to have a single. She said she was worried about her grades. That she needed to spend more time studying, and if we shared a room, she might be distracted.”

“But you don't think that was the reason, do you?”

“I don't know. Her grades were great. She really never had any problems in her classes. I guess she decided she didn't want me around or something.” Lainie looked hurt and confused. “I thought she really liked me.”

“I'm sure she did. Maybe she thought rooming together would ruin your friendship. That's a lot of strain, living in the same room.”

Lainie seemed to brighten at this suggestion. “Yeah, maybe. Anyway it's kind of selfish of me to be worrying about myself. Marie is gone.” Tears welled in her eyes and she grabbed a handful of tissues.

I left the bed and crossed the room to put my arm around her.

“Marie had a wonderful friend in you. You must miss her very much. Maybe you'd like to tell me a little about her.” I handed Lainie several more tissues.

“Well, she was a good student like I said. She was quiet and thoughtful. She gave me this stuffed bunny for my birthday.” Lainie picked up a pink-and-white rabbit from her bed and wrapped her arm around it, cuddling it to her like a baby. “And I gave her a tiny stuffed teddy bear on a key chain, for her car, you know. She was always giving me and others rides somewhere. She was so considerate, never forgot appointments, called if she was going to be late, but then…”

“Then what?”

“Only a short while into the semester, she started forgetting study dates with me. When I called her to remind her, she said she was working on several papers and she just forgot about our arrangements. That didn't sound like her. I thought she seemed distracted. That's when I began to wonder if she didn't like me anymore, so I brought up our rooming together in the spring. She said it might not be a good idea, that she needed to get a single. It bothered me a lot. I decided to try and talk with her again. She told her roommate she was going to the library to study as usual, so I went looking for her there. I couldn't find her that night, or any of the other nights I went to the library to look for her. I guess she found someplace else to study.”

“You told Detective Pasquis she didn't have a boyfriend.”

“She said the guys here were not serious enough about the future for her. All they wanted to do was party and drink. She was right about a lot of them.”

“And she wasn't seeing anyone recently?”

“Not that I know of, but, you know, when I couldn't find her at the library those nights I began to wonder. The next week she was back at the library as usual. When I asked about her absence, she said she was working in the language lab that last week, but I was at the lab several times and never saw her. She was lying to me, but I didn't think it was any of my business. I kind of forgot about the whole thing because we started studying together again off and on, just not as often as before.”

“She never mentioned any guy?”

“No, and I think she would have told me. I thought we got pretty close even though we hadn't known each other very long.”

“Where did she spend her freshman year?”

“Some private college over on the Hudson River. I can't remember the name of it.”

I considered all of this for a moment and then said, “Well, thanks for the information. I may get back to you again if you don't mind.”

“No, that's okay, and thanks for being so understanding.” She again reached for a tissue only to find the box empty. I reached into my purse and extracted a pocket-size tissue packet and handed it to her.

“Plenty of liquids and sleep for that cold.” On my way to the door, I paused to look more closely at a photo I noticed on the desk near the door. It showed two young women, arms around each other, broad grins on their faces. One was obviously Lainie. Without the cold and in robust health, her skin was flawless and her brown eyes twinkled. The other woman had an abundance of dark hair and startlingly blue eyes.

“That was taken the beginning of this semester at the all-college picnic. Marie was really beautiful.”

“You're both beautiful,” I said. “And it's clear from the picture that you were really close. Good times. It's important to remember good times.” Lainie nodded in agreement as I walked out the door and into the hallway.

I punched the Down button and waited for the groaning elevator to make its way back up from the ground floor to the fourth floor, and then finally deposit me with a bang in the lobby. Next time I visited a residence hall, I would take the stairs. Those elevators were not only slow, but the noises emanating from them made me worry I needed to lose weight or risk a plunge to the basement.