Failure is Fatal (31 page)

*

The road that led up to the College Camp facility wouldn't have been passable with another vehicle, and I mentally patted myself on the back for buying this SUV. The camp operation stood atop a hill overlooking the college itself, making its position one of the highest in the area. The views were spectacular in every season. A small cottage on the property served as an alternative meeting facility for administrative retreats and could be rented for private functions also. Classes in the environmental sciences and biology still used the camp for field trips, but, for the most part, the land was underutilized, the cottage all but abandoned, especially in the winter. The road certainly was not plowed, and no other vehicle's tracks appeared in the deep snow ahead of me. I began to have doubts about whether or not this was where they would be, but the wind was blowing so fiercely and the snow coming down so fast that any tracks could have been quickly swept away. Or, they could have walked here.

I really meant to call Der. I thought he might have decided to look for David in the most likely place, the fraternity house where his stepbrother Adam was president. But Der didn't have two pieces of the puzzle that I had. I realized that Adam made a serious error when he and I were speaking in his room about Chancey's arrest. How could Adam know that the name “Charles Darwin” was signed to the consent form attached to the murder description in the research? Unless, of course, he himself signed it. Unless Adam murdered Marie, planted conflicting trails of evidence pointing at Chancey, and now, at his own stepbrother. I found out just this morning what David discovered earlier last night; the knife in the box in Campus Security was not the knife from the stash of weapons collected for the disciplinary hearing. The picture I found in the subbasement of the library confirmed what I thought I remembered. The knife had a long crack in its bone handle and was identical to that used to kill Marie. David somehow knew his stepbrother was intimately involved in the murder, and he wanted some time in his own kind of setting to get to the truth of Marie's murder. What better place for a member of the mountain rangers than a secluded cottage in the middle of a snow storm? No one would bother him and his guest while they were having their heart-to-heart.

I could dimly make out the cottage ahead of me. I wasn't worried that I would be seen or heard. The howling wind and whiteout from the snow made me invisible. Still, I left the SUV in a parking area off to the side of the building and made my way on foot to the door of the small house. My single crutch was little help in the snow, but I carried it with me for use once inside. I could see the flicker of a dim light through the window next to the door. I pushed the door open and entered. Two figures seated in chairs around a table turned their faces toward me. One was David, the other his stepbrother, Adam.

“Well, well, Dr. Murphy, come to join our little party, I see,” Adam said, the usual sneering tone in his voice. This was not the scenario I expected. I hoped to see Adam more subdued, especially in the presence of David, whose military training made him a more dangerous opponent than college coeds or faculty such as I. The reason for his arrogance became readily apparent as I neared the table. Adam held a gun in his hand, and he was pointing it at David. The two men kept their eyes on each other as I thumped across the room. From the clothes that they wore and their heavy boots, I surmised they walked to the camp, and somehow Adam turned the tables on David. Where I thought David would have the upper hand, I saw Adam's devious nature won again.

“Have a seat. Looks like you could use one. Back on those crutches again. I guess that injury really put you down and continues to do so.” Adam gestured for me to take the chair next to David's.

“I'm really sorry about all of this, Dr. Murphy. I didn't mean to bring you into this. Somehow that lie about you flunking me out has caused more trouble than I could have imagined,” David said.

“What happened?” I said.

“He willingly walked up here with me, even admitted he killed Marie, but that it was a terrible accident, that he took the knife to return it to me, and that he accidentally stabbed her when she asked to see it. I thought he was scared and that he could use my help, that I could get him to turn himself in, and we could get him a good lawyer. Then he pulled a gun on me.”

“Shut up,” Adam said. “Dr. Murphy doesn't want to hear your weak excuses. I didn't do any of this for you. You just gave me a convenient reason for playing a prank on Dr. Murphy.”

“It became more than a prank, Adam. It got out of hand. For someone who likes to believe he's in complete control, you messed up.” I shifted my crutch to the side of my chair. “I know you didn't intend to kill Marie, otherwise you wouldn't have thrown the knife into the dumpster.” The moment the words escaped from my mouth, I knew I was wrong. Adam planned on killing Marie and blaming his brother for her murder. The knife was the clue I should have picked up on much earlier. I mentally kicked myself. Boy, was I stupid.

“Knife, what knife?” Adam said. “The only knife I know about is the one that David's father gave to him, the one he got thrown out of college for having in his position. Now, if that's the knife you mean, it links David to the murder, not me. And, more important, David was here the weekend of the murder, visiting me, his dear stepbrother.”

“You borrowed one of my army shirts that weekend. You came back to the frat house after dinner and said you had to change out of my shirt because you'd had a nosebleed down the front of it. Then you threw the shirt into the laundry to be washed the next day with my other clothes. The shirt was ruined. It still had a stain on the front, but I packed it up with my laundry and took it all with me back to camp. You never had a nosebleed, Adam! You killed that girl and now you're trying to lay the blame on me.”

“Like I said, the knife was yours, you were here visiting me, and the shirt is yours. I'll bet they can still pull DNA off that shirt, and it will be Marie's. You're in a real jam, buddy boy,” Adam said.

“And now, you're going to make it even worse, because you're going to be responsible for the murder of Dr. Murphy, the woman you've hated for so long, the person you convinced me had done you real dirty by flunking you out of college. I'm just a pawn here, played by you. You even talked me and the fraternity into inserting those awful stories into her research. But that just wasn't enough for you, was it? You had to murder her, too. You just don't like women, do you, David?” Adam smiled his smug, arrogant smile, obviously pleased with what he believed to be the brilliance and creativity of his story

“I don't know how or when you removed that knife from the box in Campus Security, but I know you did it sometime before I came to visit that weekend. What I don't understand is why you replaced it with another knife,” David said.

“Another knife?” Adam looked genuinely surprised. “Not my doing. Maybe you broke in there and took it and put another knife in its place. How should I know?”

“I know how Adam got the knife. He simply had a key made to the basement door in Campus Security. When the opportunity presented itself, he took it and removed the knife. And no, Adam, I don't think you put another knife in its place. I think Captain Rodgers did that when he found the knife missing and couldn't explain its absence. The replacement was to cover his ass, I'll bet,” I said.

“That stupid fat pig, leaving his keys around where anyone can take them.” Adam smiled.

“I don't understand why you set me up this way,” David said.

“And I don't understand why, having taken the time and effort to set him up, you didn't just play it cool and let him take the fall,” I said.

The smile faded from Adam's face.

“It's because of you, Dr. Murphy. You're relentless. Everywhere I turn, you're there, pursuing me. You're sneaky. You get into things you shouldn't. I just knew that you would find out the truth, somehow. Not because you're so smart. But because you're a snoop. You'd just keep on looking and looking and looking. I couldn't stand it anymore. I never knew when you'd show up with your pal Der. You and your trained bulldog.”

I knew Der would hate that description. I caught the flicker of a movement out of the corner of my eye as David leaned forward a fraction of an inch. Adam saw it too.

“No, no, no, buddy boy. Don't try it. Oh, yeah, you'll both be dead in the end, but the manner in which I accomplish that could be very painful for her especially unless you cooperate with me. Now let's all stand up so I can work out this little scenario to my satisfaction. First, you shoot Dr. Murphy. Then we struggle, and I take the gun away from you and shoot you, David.”

Chapter 26

Adam came around the table toward me, gesturing for David and me to get up and walk toward him. I arose slowly and attempted a step toward Adam, but my crutch stuck in the rungs of the chair leg. I tried to yank it free. I disentangled the crutch successfully, but when I pulled it up and under my arm and put weight on it, it slid out sideways, striking Adam's foot, throwing him onto the tabletop. The gun flew out of his hand and clattered to the floor, missing my head by inches, a bullet discharging into the fireplace across the room. I looked at the weapon just inches from my nose.

“Grab it!” yelled David.

I did.

“Now point it at him, not me.”

I did.

Both Adam and David grabbed to take the gun from my hand. The weapon discharged again, the bullet striking David in the leg. I held onto the weapon, swinging it back around to point at Adam.

“I said point it at him, not shoot me.” David's face was white with pain. “Keep the gun on him and hand me your scarf. I need something to use so I can stop this bleeding.”

The amount of blood pouring from his wound soaked his pants leg and began to drip onto the floor. He slumped into a chair and wound the scarf around the wound. The blood flow lessened.

“I didn't mean to shoot you.” I realized that we were now in real trouble.

“I know that. I'd like to say it's okay, but I think I'll reserve judgment on that until I find out how serious this wound is. If I die, you're certainly not forgiven.”

The color drained from my face.

“I'm just kidding, Dr. Murphy. I think the bullet was a ricochet. The police probably won't even press charges.” David paused, shifted uncomfortably in the chair, and let out a low moan. His eyelids fluttered, closed, then opened again.

“We need to get you to the hospital,” I said.

“You're right.” David shifted his weight uneasily in the chair.

Adam watched the two of us carefully. I knew he was waiting for David to pass out or for my attention to waver so he could grab the gun. I was afraid it was only a few minutes before that would happen.

“Adam,” I said in what I hoped was a voice filled with confidence. He looked at me and at the gun in my hand.

“Dr. Murphy, why don't you just give me the gun now and the keys to your car. I promise not to shoot either of you. I just need to get out of here.”

“I don't think you understand the meaning of the word ‘promise.' I give you the gun, and even if you don't shoot the two of us, you leave us here to freeze. Your brother needs a hospital. Get him on his feet. We're getting out of here.” I waved the gun at him in what I hoped was a masterful manner. Adam hesitated.

“Help him up or you'll be the one left here to freeze.” Instead of helping David to his feet, Adam advanced on me.

“I'm not too steady with this gun, as you've seen. Don't tempt me into another accidental shooting.”

Adam paused, and believing the desperation he must have seen on my face, he turned and pulled David to his feet.

“Here.” I handed my crutch to David. “This might help.” He shifted it under his arm, and slipping his other arm around Adam's shoulder, he managed to make it to the door.

Once out of the cottage the going was more difficult. The crutch was no longer any help, and David placed his entire weight on Adam. I followed slowly behind the pair, keeping close in their tracks. The snow was a blinding white. Sheets of it came at us horizontally, wind pulling the breath from our lungs. Without my scarf, the snow rushed down the front of my coat and coated my hair. I briefly looked back and found that I could no longer find the cottage we stepped out of only minutes before. My car appeared only a misty figure several feet before us. I knew that if we became separated before we got to the car, we'd never find one another again.

“Get him in the back seat.”

Adam did as I asked, but none too gently, shoving David onto the seat. This whole thing made me uneasy. I knew Adam was looking for any opening to get the weapon away from me. I tried to stay out of his range of contact but close enough that I could still see him through the snow and fire the weapon if I needed to. My range of accuracy was about five feet when the sun was out, no wind blowing, and luck was with me. How was I going to work this? David appeared on the verge of losing consciousness, and I couldn't drive and keep the gun on Adam. I only had a few options. I could leave Adam here to make his getaway or to freeze. Neither seemed appealing to me. My other choice was to let Adam drive, trusting he wanted to stay alive as much as David and I did.