Murder is Academic (17 page)

“What action did you have in mind?” I was curious, but not really threatened by Rudolf.

“I’ll talk to Jim Evans, and we’ll ask the campus police to take the matter in hand.”

“Oooh, how scary.”

Rudolf walked so close to me I could smell garlic on his breath. “Your time will come. Just wait.”

This pronouncement was threatening enough for me take a step backwards. Pruitt smiled and turned back to Nancy. “Just let me know if she bothers you again, dear, and I’ll take care of it.”

I took this as my cue to leave. Nancy closed the office door after me, and I paused outside in the hall. I heard Rudolf warn Nancy, “Don’t talk to that woman any more. I’ll take care of her myself.”

Okay, so Rudolf frightened me a little. Maybe I should steer clear of him and Nancy for a while. He told me some things I found interesting, things that said I should visit Bunny again, soon. Right now I was curious to catch up on the campus gossip.

*

At the student center I found Ivan
Dewar holding court with some of his cronies. I got myself a cup of coffee and pulled up a chair.

“What’s shaking?” I knew my slang would annoy Dewar.

“What is shaking, as you so inadequately put it, are the foundations of this fine old college. Are you aware that we now have a woman as our vice president, a gender disruption that you, Murphy, probably find tolerable. I, for one, am considering resigning as chair of my department as a form of protest.”

“Don’t you think that’s kind of dumb? If you resign, I doubt that Rachel will step down as vice president, but I’m certain she will appoint someone else in your place, someone like Marie Hollander. She’s tenured, an Associate Professor, and has numerous contacts in the community. I think she’d be a great choice for chair.”

My pronouncement seemed to unsettle some of the group. There was some shuffling of feet, stroking of mustaches and slurping of near empty coffee cups.

Most of the crowd decided to leave, probably because my arrival and my words made them feel a bit uncomfortable, although they couldn’t figure out just why. The one remaining faculty member was Brian Forbes, head of the Chemistry Department, who tried his best to be fair about issues pertaining to women and minorities.

“Marie would make a great department head,” Brian said once the others were out of earshot.

“What do you hear about the administrative changes around here? Now that Rachel is becoming vice president, I wonder who will be appointed as acting dean of arts and sciences in her place.”

“You’re not going to like this, Laura, but I heard rumors Rudolf Pruitt will be named acting dean. Actually, considering how difficult he can be to work with, I’m not sure any of us will benefit from having him in that position.”

I was too stunned to speak. I could hardly imagine what life would be like on the campus if that man took over as dean.

I was muttering to myself as I left the building. There were other department chairs with leadership experience, liked by faculty and respected by most on campus, who could have taken on the dean’s position. I was far from alone in my dislike of the man. Rudolf was either thick-skinned enough not to care that many found him odious or oblivious to their negative feelings. An egocentric barracuda with an attitude. Stop it, I told myself.
It’s only a rumor. I hope.

I stopped by my campus mailbox to check it and found a memo from Jim Evans announcing a campus-wide meeting scheduled for the next afternoon to “discuss changes in upper administration.” I snorted, knowing that little discussing and a lot of announcing would occur at the meeting. I decided I’d better hurry home to finish cleaning up in my yard and to turn my attentions to the inside of my house as well. I couldn’t tell my son I was too busy working to get around to preparing for his visit.

David, who still lived with his father and his stepmother in a co-op on the Upper East Side of the city, expected things to be neat and tidy. Of course, his father could afford a live-in maid who cleaned David’s room and the rest of the house daily. I was the live-in help at my place.

I was excited at David’s visit and the unexpected news of his impending marriage and anxious to meet his prospective bride. Although David had warned me not to plan anything food-wise, I thought a light lunch or snack would be in order. I turned into the supermarket parking lot to shop for the upcoming weekend.

As I wheeled my shopping cart around the end of the soda aisle, I almost ran into Bunny Talbot coming from the other direction.

“Hi, Bunny. Sorry I almost hit you. I guess I was in too much of a hurry.”

Hearing that I was short of time, Bunny probably thought I wouldn’t try to pump her for more information about Rudolf, the condos or her husband’s murder. She couldn’t have been more wrong.

“Say, I heard from Rudolf he’s the newly appointed chair of the condo board and he was asking you about some misplaced papers from the years you were selling those condos.”

Bunny looked as if she was swallowing something too large for her throat because she seemed unable to get any words out of her mouth. She sputtered and tried to wheel her cart beyond mine as if to make a quick getaway. While I enjoyed her discomfort—it meant I’d hit something sensitive and, perhaps, important—I couldn’t let her retreat without yet another try for information.

“Bunny.” I had a firm grip on her arm. “This is serious now. There’s something going on with you, Rudolf and that condo board, and I’m going to have to tell Detective Pasquis I suspect you and Rudolf are in cahoots over something to do with your husband’s death. Between you and me, I believe you’re an innocent party and Rudolf is threatening you or blackmailing you. Come clean with me, Bunny, or you may find yourself sitting downtown at police headquarters in a poorly decorated interrogation room.”

Bunny looked terrified and jerked her arm out of my grasp. “Stay away from me, you bitch!” She turned and fled the store, leaving her shopping cart abandoned in the aisle. Everyone within earshot was staring at me, so I merely shrugged. “Maybe she left something on the stove.”

Confident I exhausted the well of information Bunny, Rudolf and Nancy were willing to divulge to me, I decided I would spend the morning tomorrow doing a little research on the condos. My mention of them seemed to jangle everyone’s nerves. Delving into their history had to be the next logical step. Meanwhile I rededicated myself to grocery shopping. Bunny’s little episode in the store couldn’t put me off the need to get food for Guy’s and my picnic tonight and for my son’s visit this weekend.

On my way home, my car’s back seat overflowing with supplies, I thought of what Der said about dropping Ron off at Annie’s last night. I forgot to call her and ask what was going on between the two of them. We’re best friends, and we do not keep secrets from one another. By not intruding into her new love affair, I was running the risk she might conclude I didn’t care about her.

I loaded the groceries into the fridge, tossing out the old food there. I headed for the phone, when it rang.

“Hey. Everything okay there?” Annie sounded her usual perky self.

“Just fine, little-miss-Ron-came-to-my-house-last-night-and-I-didn’t-tell-you.”

“You haven’t been home all day and, besides, this is the first chance I’ve had to get in touch. Der dropped Ron off at my house, and he stayed the night. His car was in the shop, so he had no transportation home. Since he lives so far out of town, I thought it might be better if he stayed the night with me, and I could drop him by to get his car today before work.”

“Why didn’t you say so when I left you last night?”

“He called after you’d gone. I only found out then he had no car. So, since Der was at the station, we decided that Ron would ask him for a ride to my house.”

“Well, I just wanted to make sure you weren’t trying to hide anything important from me. We’re best friends, right? We tell each other all, right?”

“Sure, and that’s why you called me immediately this morning to tell me you and Guy were back together, right?”

“How do you know that?” My voice conveyed annoyance.

“Ron just called me and told me. I guess Der mentioned it to him at when they ran into one another today.”

“You mean it’s going around police headquarter and the trooper station that Guy and I are back together?” I was very close to yelling into the phone.

“No, of course not.” Now she sounded annoyed. “Der told Ron he had talked with Guy last night at your house. I just put two and two together and assumed the two of you were an item again.”

“Why would you assume that?”

“Oh, come on. It was clear that despite your anger, you still thought he was the best thing since chocolate-covered donuts.”

Once we settled our debate over who should have contacted whom first—it was a draw—we hunkered down to a little mutual exchange of girl talk about our respective guys. She told me Ron slept on the couch last night. She was determined to keep it at that level for a time. I confided to her Guy and I also slowed things down, but that I couldn’t trust myself or him enough to allow him to stay over and be confident he would remain on the couch throughout the night.

“My hormones are about at the level of maturity one could expect with a teenager. Parents are right when they worry once you go all the way, you really can’t go back.”

Annie laughed and told me she thought Guy and I would work it all out somehow. Meantime she was getting ready for a real date with Ron as he was getting off work early and had no classes tonight. We promised to talk early the next morning when she dropped by.

She suggested we spend the day together at the lake and even offered to help me clean the house. Outdoor work, she announced, was out of her realm of expertise. I suspected she preferred to stay away from the insects and other crawling things that inhabited my yard. I accepted her offer to help inside, and told her I preferred doing the outside work myself. I can make nice with friends.

Chapter 16

I hopped into the shower after talking with Annie and just managed to towel off and dress before I heard Guy’s bike in the driveway.

“Come on in. The door’s open,” I called through the bedroom window.

He was waiting for me when I entered the kitchen. He took me into his arms, and kissed me warmly. Too warmly, we found as we reluctantly disengaged ourselves from one another’s embrace.

“So, what did you fix for our dinner on the road?” he asked.

“I didn’t ‘fix’ anything, but I did buy cheese, bread, apples, cucumber salad, and root beer. Sound good?”

“Sounds great. Let’s hit the highway.”

The state park was only fifteen miles up the lake road. Since it closed at dusk, we wanted to get there to enjoy our picnic and the first part of the sunset before the park rangers threw us out. Guy brought his swim trunks and planned to take a dip in the lake before our feast. I was stuck with wading in knee deep water because of my ear problems. When we arrived at the beach, we were disappointed to see “no swimming” signs posted in the swimming area.

“What’s going on?” asked Guy of a park ranger walking the beach area.

“Just a temporary shutdown of the swimming area. We usually get regular reports from the Biological Field Station on the water quality, but since Dr. Stanford has, uh, departed, no one has been authorized by the college to send the reports to us. We should be back in operation as soon as the field station gets things sorted out.”

Guy and I were disappointed he couldn’t swim. Even wading would have provided a cooling effect. Since Guy had an early lunch, he tucked into the food with gusto. I was more restrained.

“Boy, talk about a screw up.” Guy spoke through a mouthful of bread and cheese. “The college better get its act together soon or this park’s revenue will be adversely affected. People come here to picnic, hike, but especially to swim in this weather.”

“Things might get easier. I understand the college will be helped by the assignment of a state official to help monitor water quality out of the station. State and federal regulations require that an environmental impact statement be issued on water quality before the commercial boat ramp is built on this lake. To do that requires state involvement in the research for the statement. The college’s monitoring of the water alone will not suffice. Bureaucracy and all, you know.” I stuffed another piece of cheese in my mouth.

Talking about the functions of the BFS reminded me of what was happening with Beth and also with the musical chairs being played in the upper echelons of the college administration. I filled Guy in on the day’s events including my encounters with Rudolf, Nancy and Bunny.

“So I’ve got to find some time to do some checking at the local paper on the background of those condos. It wouldn’t hurt to research building codes and requirements at the county courthouse also. The trouble is I’ve arranged with Annie to do housecleaning and yard work tomorrow, so I’ve got the day tied up and no time to do any background research on the condos.”

“Tell you what. I’ll do the yard work tomorrow after I get off work. I’ll have a few hours of light before sunset. That should give me ample time to complete cutting up those limbs the storm took down and hauling off any brush left in the yard.”

I was touched that Guy would make such an offer, but I had to refuse.