Murder in the Dorm (3 page)

“Could they have been at odds about her?”

“Maybe, but from what I’ve heard it didn’t sound like there was a lot going on between McDermott and Kline. I’m going to talk to her, though, and to McDermott.”

“You should. McDermott might let something slip he wouldn’t tell the police.”

Charlie was pleasantly surprised how Kate had responded. She seemed less bothered by his interest in the case and even showed some interest of her own. That was all to the good as Charlie thought she might have some worthwhile suggestions to make. When the pizza arrived Kate further surprised Charlie by returning to the case.

“How are you going to approach Kline and McDermott?”

“Not sure. I need to get them to talk and not sure how to best go about it.”

“You have to milk your involvement in the Wilson case. You have to intrigue them, and that starts with impressing them with what you did for DeVries, which was considerable. Otherwise you’re just another prof and they might not be too willing to tell you anything. Tell them how you helped the police and they’ve asked you to help again. Throw in something about the police not understanding the university milieu and not asking the right questions or not paying enough attention to some things they’re told.”

“You’re right. I want to engage them, and what you’re suggesting will make them feel like they’re being let in on something and contributing, too.”

 
Dropping off that night Charlie realized, or perhaps admitted to himself, that even if he knew next to nothing about Kelsey, he was involved in the case. It was very different from the Barrett Wilson case, but it was still challenging. In any case, the killing of a student on campus demanded quick solution and DeVries and Matson didn’t seem to be doing terribly well.

Thinking of DeVries, Charlie hoped that even though she intended to be more circumspect than she’d been in the Wilson case, she wouldn’t cut him out entirely. He didn’t want simply to feed her information and hear nothing in return. The only thing he could do to insure she didn’t cut him off was to come up with something she and Matson not only didn’t know but might not learn without his help.

The obvious place to start was with Lawrie McDermott and Barbara Kline. And Kate was right. He had to present himself as someone helping the police and with a track record in doing so. Talking to Kline and McDermott would have to wait till Monday, but on Monday he’d find both of them and learn what he could.

Chapter 4

The First Weekend

Saturday morning was overcast and gloomy. Over his morning coffee Charlie decided it wasn’t a good day to do what he’d planned, which was to have a look at a couple of new cars. Kate drifted into the kitchen and after a cup of coffee she was ready to talk. They decided to stay in. They had enough food and the wine supply was more than adequate.

After a second cup Charlie went to his computer and searched the social media for Kelsey and McDermott. He went first to Facebook and Twitter, but had no luck. He then tried the LinkedIn site and found McDermott, who seemed to be starting early on making connections and finding a job. His profile, though, offered only his name and computing-science affiliation. The only address given was the Meredith computing department. There were very few connections. Charlie ignored a couple at St. Andrews and copied the names of three at Meredith. Kevin Kelsey wasn’t listed.

Charlie had no luck at all with Barbara Kline. She was on neither Facebook nor Twitter. She wasn’t on LinkedIn. The Barbara Klines he did find were too old to be the right one and had nothing to do with Meredith. In any case, none were in Kingsford. He’d have to wait until he talked to her himself.

Charlie felt he’d done a good morning’s sleuthing and put the list of McDermott’s three connections in his briefcase. For now he put the case aside and started on his email, deciding to pass on a third cup of coffee.

The rest of the day passed pleasantly. Charlie and Kate had a late lunch marred only by a mediocre bottle of Chilean malbec that Charlie hadn’t tried before and wouldn’t buy again. Neither brought up the matter of Kelsey’s killing.

Sunday morning was very different from Saturday. The sun was out and it looked like it was going to be unseasonably warm. Over a leisurely breakfast Kate and Charlie decided they’d go out for lunch after visiting a couple of the dealers whose cars Charlie wanted to check out. The dealerships would be closed on Sunday, so he could get an undisturbed look at the two cars that interested him.

Charlie had just showered and shaved when he heard Kate calling him. She sounded odd, so he quickly put on his bathrobe and went downstairs. Kate was standing in the entryway. With her were DeVries and Matson.

Apologizing for not being dressed, Charlie ushered the detectives into the living room. Kate stood in the doorway, undecided about sitting down and clearly not happy.

“Charlie, we’re sorry to bother you both on a Sunday morning, but this is important. Did you by any chance make contact with Lawrence McDermott after we spoke?”

“No; I looked him up and am going to track him down tomorrow. I thought he might tell me something about Kelsey that he wouldn’t tell you. Did you get much from him on Thursday?”

“Ah, as I told you, we have to be careful how much we tell you, but you’d know this soon enough. McDermott was killed between one and four o’clock on Thursday afternoon, which is why he didn’t show up for our scheduled meeting and we couldn’t contact him. His body was found behind a dumpster in an alleyway next to a bistro where he had lunch on Thursday. The officers who responded canvassed the area and two servers in the bistro recognized his picture. He was something of a regular. The trouble is that his body wasn’t found until Friday during a garbage pickup in the area. To make things worse, neither the responding officers nor the homicide detective who was assigned the case knew we were interested in McDermott. No one made the connection to the Kelsey case until this morning.”

By this time Kate had sat down. Matson had yet to say a word.

“I assume you believe McDermott’s death is connected to Kelsey’s?”

“It’d be a very odd coincidence otherwise. It’s difficult not to conclude that Kelsey and McDermott were involved in something serious. It seems to us that whatever prompted Kelsey’s death directly or indirectly prompted McDermott’s.”

“Any indication that McDermott was on guard after Kelsey’s death?”

“When we got hold of him on Wednesday he said he couldn’t go to headquarters till Thursday afternoon. He had credible reasons and we had no grounds to force him to go earlier, so arranged to have him come in to see us Thursday at two o’clock. No one we’ve spoken to seems to have seen McDermott on Wednesday or Thursday morning. Both servers were clear that he lunched alone on Thursday.”

“That sounds like he was making himself scarce. Maybe that’s why he went downtown for lunch on Thursday, in order to avoid people at the university.”

“That could be, but we have no idea whether his killer is or isn’t involved with the university. We should be going; we wouldn’t have bothered you except that you might have spoken with McDermott. You will appreciate that with McDermott out of the picture, it’s that much more important to see if you can learn anything from colleagues and students.”

On that note DeVries rose, as did Matson, and the detectives left.

“It’s like last time; one death on campus leads to another off-campus.”

“Kate, all I’m doing is seeing if someone knows something useful.”

“No; I’m not fussing about you being involved. I can see DeVries and Matson need whatever information you might get. It’s just that I was thinking about something.”

“What?”

“Well, what you said about height. Do you know how tall McDermott was?”

“Oh, you think he might have killed Kelsey?”

“It makes sense. If Kelsey and McDermott were involved in something and had a falling out, McDermott killed Kelsey, and someone else killed McDermott.”

“That would explain why McDermott seems to have kept a low profile for a couple of days but didn’t leave Kingsford or go to the police when Kelsey was killed. It even explains access; McDermott would certainly know how to get in and out of Kelsey’s dorm room without being spotted. Maybe he’s even got a room in the same dorm.”

“I wouldn’t usually say this, but I think you should call DeVries right now.”

Charlie had only DeVries’s office number, but when he called and explained to the receptionist that DeVries and Matson had just been to their house, the receptionist said she’d contact DeVries and ask her to call Charlie. It didn’t take long.

“Charlie, was there something you wanted to add? And please excuse the background noise. We’re in the car.”

“No, not add; something to ask. How tall was McDermott?”

“Six one. Yes, I see. You think he may have killed Kelsey and then been killed himself. We did think of that, but we still haven’t gotten the results on the fingerprints found on the bookend, so we’ll have to wait. Thank you for making the point, though.”

“Not me; Kate. She thinks McDermott killed Kelsey over a fight about whatever they were into and that someone else then killed McDermott.”

“Thank Kate. I might as well tell you this since it’ll soon be common knowledge. McDermott was shot, so it was likely premeditated.”

Eventually Kate and Charlie went out. They drove to one car dealership and Charlie looked over one of his potential choices. The other dealership was further out and Charlie decided he wasn’t that interested, so they went to lunch. Later that afternoon Charlie was reading but his mind kept straying to Kelsey and McDermott.

Now totally ignoring his book, Charlie drew a tentative conclusion. It looked as if Kelsey and McDermott had seriously disagreed on something and, assuming McDermott had struck and killed Kelsey, a third party decided McDermott had to go, too. If McDermott killed Kelsey, he likely ruined whatever they were doing and prompted his own murder. Suppose that McDermott had been cheating on their arrangement and Kelsey found out and confronted him, or the other way around. In either case, the mysterious third party shot the survivor, probably to cut his or her losses and because he’d attracted police attention. What was clear was there was a third party involved. If Charlie was to get anywhere he had to learn what it was that Kelsey and McDermott had been doing. He had to track down Barbara Kline and ask about McDermott. He also had to track down the other names on his list.

Charlie decided not to wait till the next day. He went to his briefcase and got out the list. Aside from Barbara Kline, he needed to contact Andrew Ford, Miguel Garcia, and Siobhan McLachlan. Before searching the Internet Charlie did the no longer obvious; he checked the phonebook. There he found numbers for Kline and Garcia, but not for Ford or McLachlan. He jotted down the numbers and went to his laptop.

Ford and Garcia were both on Facebook. McLachlan was on neither Facebook nor Twitter. Facebook provided Charlie with a picture of Ford but also told him McDermott’s LinkedIn profile was out of date because Ford was now in California. He wouldn’t be of much use. Charlie would phone him, but that could wait. Garcia’s page lacked a picture and had a bare-bones profile saying he was from Costa Rica and was studying information technology. Charlie went to LinkedIn and looked up both Garcia and McLachlan. Her profile was as skimpy as Garcia’s Facebook one and no picture. It said only that she was in Computing Science, was an exchange student from Glasgow, and was interested in an intern position. The next day he’d contact Kline, Garcia, and McLachlan.

Chapter 5

The First Monday

Charlie’s morning was devoted to a weekly seminar that had only four students. They started at nine and went to noon. For those three hours Charlie was totally absorbed in discussion with the students, all of whom were very bright, hard workers, and invariably came up with good questions and ideas. As usual on Mondays, he was a bit late for lunch; but again as usual on Mondays, the Club table was under-populated. There was some talk about the murders, but no one had anything new to add, so conversation was mostly about the president’s vague and anemic remarks to the press. Charlie did ask if anyone knew Barbara Kline, but no one did.

Back in his office, Charlie first tried Kline’s home phone but got voice-mail. He then called Computing and asked for her, hoping she was accessible by phone. The secretary told him she was in class but would be in one of the student offices after two-thirty. He then asked for McLachlan. She was also in class but unlike Kline had no access to office space. He got the same story about Garcia. Charlie would try to meet Kline and tackle McLachlan and Garcia later. He busied himself with his paper and at two-thirty set out for Computing Science.

Charlie immediately understood McDermott’s interest when he found Kline in the office the secretary had indicated. She was an attractive blond with a charming smile. Charlie went into his prepared explanation of why he wanted to talk to her and offered to buy her a coffee at the Club. Probably curious, she readily agreed and they walked over.

“This is great; I’ve never been here before.”

They sat in one of the lounges with their coffees and Charlie explained that he’d been told she knew Lawrie McDermott.

“Oh no; not really. He was always hitting on me. I wasn’t interested, but he never got the message. I was polite, you know, but just listened and left as soon as I could.”