Joanne Dobson - Karen Pelletier 06 - Death without Tenure (24 page)

Earlene breached the awkward conversational gap. “And what about Ned?”

I turned to her. “What about him?”

“He seemed to bear the whole guilty history of white oppression on his narrow shoulders. He
meant
well—it’s just that he was so damn…reductive and sanctimonious.”

Fareed spoke up. “And when McCutcheon found out Hilton was mistakenly favoring a lily-white charlatan for the only tenured department position, he told Ned about Joe’s true identity.”

Miles grasped his head with both hands. “I didn’t know that. So—Hilton put his professional credibility on the line to support the minority tenure candidate, only to find out Lone Wolf was bogus? The poor sap.”

Greg jumped in. “Not bogus, Jewell.” He winked at me, again. “Joe lived within a self-constructed identity fantasy.”

“Humph,” Miles said, “no wonder Hilton freaked out. He’d taken Joe on as a holy cause. And then that blackjack dealer showing up with
her
story…Hilton was always a bit…tenuous of sanity. I wonder if he’ll be able to come back to work next semester?”

Nobody seemed to care much. The party was winding down, my mom was back in her daze, and Felicity was becoming increasingly restless, watching the clock, pacing, muttering into her cell phone. Poor thing, I thought, she must be uncomfortable—time for her to get home to that baby.

When I’d been out talking to Ayesha, someone had appropriated my seat, so I was now sitting with my back to the door. Belatedly, Sergeant Lombardi joined the party, taking the seat upon which Felicity had piled her coat and bag. She gave him a questioning look, and he nodded.

Taking a second bite of espresso cake, I felt what little was left of my energy evaporate. “I’m so looped,” I said, putting down my fork, “I don’t even know if I can drive home.”

There was some sort of mild commotion behind me, but I was too tired to turn around. Everyone was looking at me with big grins on their faces.

“What?” I asked. “None of you ever drank a little too much?”

Behind me, I heard a familiar deep, warm laugh, and I suddenly stopped breathing. Could it be? No, not possible. I jumped up and spun around. Oh. My. God. “Charlie!” I screeched, bursting into tears. The love of my life swept me up and held me tight in his strong embrace.

Emergency family leave
. Somehow, Lieutenant Charles Piotrowski, United States National Guard, stationed in Iraq, had managed to get himself home for two weeks emergency family leave.

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