Her Own Drum

by Ali Franklin

  Trainor looked at her as she answered. “Ms. McCabe, please trust us do our job.”

  “It just doesn’t feel like you’re being fair to Grace.” Ryan paused and considered the detective. “Are you persecuting Grace because she’s the first suspect you had, or do you have a problem with her because she’s a lesbian?”

  Trainor pulled back in her chair, sitting up straight. She looked at Ryan and took a deep breath. “My only concern is getting justice for Cora DeLuca.” She stood. “I’m going up for a refill. Can I get you anything?”

  Ryan declined. The detective went to the counter and returned with fresh coffee. She noticed Ryan rubbing a forefinger along the uneven top of her nose.

  “Ms. McCabe, it is important that you leave this to us. It is dangerous for you to try to investigate a murder. Keep out of it — for your own good.”

  Ryan stared at her. She chose her next words carefully.

  “I am not doing anything wrong.”

  “Hi, Ryan,” said a new voice. Ryan and Maddie had been staring at each other so hard they had not seen Grace arrive and place her order.

  “Grace,” Ryan said, relieved. She stood and wrapped her arms around the newcomer. They kissed each other on the cheek.

  Trainor’s lips were pressed into a tight line.

  “Detective,” said Grace.

  “Ms. Loh.”

  “I’ll get a chair,” said Grace.

  “No need,” said Trainor, “I’m just leaving.” She picked up her cup and walked away.

  Grace and Ryan sat.

  “How was it?” asked Ryan.

  “Brutal. But just as I expected,” said Grace. “The same batch of questions over and over.”

  “I’ll be glad when they find another suspect.”

  The two women watched the cafe’s patrons come and go. Ryan thought that, if not for the circumstances, this might be a coffee shop she would visit again. But there were the circumstances. She was not likely to return to this quaint little cop hangout.

  Trainor had been watching Ryan ever since she had offered Grace her chair. The detective now sat a table near the door of the shop from which she could see the whole interior. Ryan looked up and caught her eye. Trainor looked away.

  Grace scrutinized the detective. “Do you think she’s going to sit there and watch us the whole time?”

  “Maybe we should go.”

  “I don’t want to give her the satisfaction of knowing she ran us off.”

  The women lapsed back into silence. Ryan noticed Trainor raising her phone to her ear. A pleased smile came to the detective’s lips. Trainor put away her phone and stretched to toss her coffee cup. Then she stood near the glass door of the shop, alternately looking out toward the street and looking back at Ryan and Grace.

  Ryan shifted in her seat. “I’m telling you, I do not like that woman.”

  “Try being her prime suspect,” said Grace.

  The detective finally walked out the door and Ryan exhaled in relief. Looking again, Ryan saw that Trainor had not actually walked away, but was now talking with someone just outside the door. The detective glanced back inside and shook her head in agreement with what this someone said.

  Ryan stood. “Are you ready to go?”

  “Sure,” said Grace. “You want to go do something else?”

  “Yes. Anyplace but here.” She glanced back out toward the detective.

  At that moment, Trainor came back into the cafe. She was followed by Prieto and two sheriff’s deputies. Prieto looked grim, Trainor triumphant. All conversation in the little cafe stopped as the foursome walked over to the table where the two women stood.

  “Grace Loh,” said Detective Prieto, “you are under arrest for the murder of Cora DeLuca.”

  14

  Ryan paced the floor of her little living room. On a normal summer Sunday morning she would be working in her garden or headed to a nearby state park for a long hike. Today she was racking her brain to find some way to help a friend who had been arrested.

  How was it that Grace had been interrogated, released, and arrested in less than three hours? It just didn’t make sense. What had happened?

  “Sammy!” she said, rushing to the kitchen to grab her phone. She found Sam’s number and dialed.

  “Hi, Ryan,” said the lawyer. “Are you calling about your friend Grace?”

  “I am. What happened?”

  “She’s a client, so normally I wouldn’t be able to tell you anything. But she told me I could share everything about her case with you,” he said.

  “So what happened?” Ryan could hardly keep the frustration out of her voice.

  “The coroner found traces of Grace’s DNA beneath Cora’s fingernails.” Ryan’s vision swam and she shook her head to clear it.

  “What? Why would…?” Ryan was having a hard time putting her thoughts together. Sam continued.

  “They know Grace and Cora were together the day Cora died, so that’s a point in our favor. But the police are going to concentrate on Grace until there is someone else to focus on. The best thing you can do for Grace right now is find someone else who had a reason to want Cora dead.”

  They ended the call and Ryan resumed her pacing. She stopped near the piano and looked at the picture of the music faculty. Without thinking, she rubbed the uneven bridge of her nose. She had not been in the right place at the right time to prevent Cora’s murder, but she was going to do her best to show that self-satisfied detective that she had arrested the wrong person.

  Ryan called Nicki next.

  “Nick, did you hear that Grace was arrested?” she asked.

  “No, what happened?” said Nicki.

  “Apparently they found Grace’s DNA under Cora’s fingernails."

  “That’s serious,” said Nicki. “What does Grace say?”

  “They won’t let me talk to her yet. But I’m trying to figure out the best way to help her. Could you send me those pictures you took of the rehearsal room that night? I’m going to Teddy and Summer’s house this afternoon. We're going to see if we can spot anything helpful.”

  “Ryan, you really should leave this up to the detectives," said Nicki.

  “But they’re fixated on their first suspect. I like this girl, and I don’t think she did it. I need to find something else for them to focus on. Something that will lead to the real killer.”

  Nicki looked at her friend. “What do you think you'll find that the detectives didn’t?”

  “I don’t know. I just feel like everyone missed something that night. I had the same feeling after dinner at Teddy and Summer’s last week. I went by the rehearsal room again to look around, but Trainor came in and told me to stay out of it.”

  “She’s just doing her job, Ryan.”

  “You sound like her. I have as much right to look into this case as anybody. She acted like I would do something stupid and get hurt.”

  “She might have a point — not about the stupid thing," said Nicki, "but there’s a reason people leave it up to the cops. When investigators start getting close to the truth, they sometimes tip off the bad guy. If that happens, cops are better able to defend themselves than amateurs.”

  “Nick, I’m not going to go around accusing people. I just want to look at the photos and see if there are any clues we didn’t notice.”

  “Tell you what,” said the chief. “I’ll go over the photos with you. If we find something the detectives should look into, I’ll take it to them — cop to cop.”

  Ryan snorted. “I didn’t get the idea that they thought of you as a cop the other night."

  “Actually, they did ask me to run out for coffee,” said Nicki.

  “You have got to be kidding. What did you do?”

  “I told them I am responsible for the safety of the campus and I wasn’t leaving. They had to send one of the deputies. Come to think of it, I’d love to find a clue they missed,” said Nicki.

  “Have you told them you were LAPD yet?”

  “No, bu
t just like my pop used to say, ’The truth never stays hidden.’”

  “I bet you never thought you’d have a murder on a small college campus."

  “True,” said Nicki. “I figured I'd left all of that behind me. In fact, that’s one of the reasons I came back to Texas. Being a cop in the big city was a lot of murders and a lot bad guys. After losing my mom, my dad started worrying about me more than usual. I wanted him to feel better about my job, and I wanted to be closer to him. And I figured a college was a good place to help young people choose the right path — before they got into real trouble.”

  “Are you still happy with your decision to come here?”

  “You bet. I run across students who are considering bad decisions every day,” said Nicki. “I help them understand the consequences.” She paused. “What time are you going to Summer and Teddy's?"

  “About four. You'll come help us?” asked Ryan.

  “See you then,” said Nicki.

  At four thirty, the four women sat in front of two large computer monitors and started combing through the crime scene photos. They had arranged themselves around the desk in Summer’s study, a cozy room with deep chairs and floor-to-ceiling bookcases.

  “Wow, Nicki, you took a lot of pictures,” said Teddy, staring at screens full of thumbnails images.

  “You never know what’s going to turn out to be important,” replied the chief.

  They started with the earliest shots, the ones that showed the room, the chairs, and the timpani configuration. They looked carefully at each image, scouring it for anything that seemed out of place. Then they came to the photos that included close-ups of Cora’s body.

  “Oh,” said Teddy, pulling back from the desk. Summer made a small noise in her throat. Ryan put her hand on Summer’s shoulder and Summer covered it with her own.

  Ryan surveyed the image. This one was more flat than the one in her memory. On Monday, there had been hope that Cora could be revived, even if only for a moment. In the picture, it was obvious she was gone. It was final. There was no way to tell if it had been taken moments or hours after Cora died.

  There was a long pause while no one spoke.

  Finally, Nicki asked, “Ryan, is this how you remember it?”

  “Yes.” Her heart, which seemed to have stopped for a moment, started beating again.

  They moved on, photo by photo. Summer whispered, “This is so sad."

  A new set of pictures came on the screen. These scenes were new to Ryan. “What are these?” she asked.

  “I took some pictures as the deputies and detectives arrived," said Nicki. "I didn’t know a lot of them, so I thought I’d make a record of who was there."

  The women saw pictures of each deputy and each detective, some alone and some in groups of two or three. Most were taken from waist level.

  “Were you hiding your phone?” asked Ryan.

  “Yep,” said Nicki. “Didn’t want Trainor to know I was taking pictures. She would’ve confiscated my phone.”

  They continued through the camera roll.

  “Wait,” said Ryan, pointing, “is that Abby Strimple?”

  “Yes. She came by for a few minutes while you were in your office.”

  “What was she doing there?” asked Ryan.

  “She said she was driving home, saw the lights on in the building, and wanted to make sure everything was all right,” said Nicki. Ryan frowned.

  “Weren’t the sheriff’s department cars in front of the building by then?” asked Summer.

  “I’m sure they were,” said Nicki. “I didn’t think anything of it at the time.”

  “If she thought something might be wrong, why didn’t she call your office?” asked Teddy.

  “Good question,” said Nicki.

  “She is a nosy little thing,” said Teddy. “And quite the gossip.”

  “Did she see Cora’s body?” asked Ryan.

  “No, I didn’t give her access to the room,” said Nicki. “I just told her someone had been hurt.”

  “Did she seem shocked or sad or anything?” asked Ryan.

  “Just nosy. Kept trying to see around me into the room.”

  The women fell silent again. Photo after photo went by on the screen. Finally they reached the end.

  Ryan sighed. “Nothing.”

  “We can go through them again,” offered Nicki.

  “No need,” said Ryan. She straightened up and raised her hands above her head in a stretch.

  “Ladies, it’s time for a break,” said Teddy. “I can throw together a snack and my lovely and talented partner can mix some cocktails.” She beamed at said partner.

  “Count me in,” said Nicki.

  “Me too,” said Ryan.

  The hostesses moved toward the kitchen and their guests to the living room.

  “I hate this,” said Ryan, plopping onto the couch. “I feel so helpless.”

  “We can keep looking for clues,” said Nicki. “I can go down to the station tomorrow and see what Prieto will tell me. He seems like a decent guy.”

  “That would be great,” said Nicki. “And maybe they’ll let me see Grace tomorrow.”

  Ryan’s heart jumped at the thought of Nicki seeing Grace. No need to be jealous, she told herself. But it didn’t help. She wanted to be the one who was there for Grace.

  The snacks and drinks were distributed and the women sat quietly, either reviewing the pictures in their minds or trying to forget what they had seen.

  “Teddy,” Ryan said, “where was Cora working before she came to Haverwood?”

  “I think she said she was in Ohio somewhere,” said Teddy. “Wherever it was, it didn’t stick with me. Why do you ask?”

  “I’m just trying to think of anything that might help,” said Ryan.

  “You could check with OPIS,” said Nicki.

  “Opus?” asked Summer. “Who’s that?”

  Teddy smiled at her partner. “OPIS, O-P-I-S, is the Online Personnel Information System. It’s where all the faculty records are kept.”

  “We can’t get into the system from here. We’ll have to wait until we’re on campus tomorrow,” said Nicki.

  “If you think Cora's last job might be important, we could call Olivia,” said Teddy.

  “I wonder if she would remember,” said Ryan. “It’s been a couple years since she hired her.”

  “A good department chairperson always remembers her faculty members’ backgrounds,” said Teddy. “She’ll remember. Besides, it’s just a quick phone call.” She was already dialing

  The other three women waited, practically holding their breath as they listened to Teddy's side of the conversation.

  “Oh, I see. Aah. Mm-hmm. That’s interesting. Yes, it’s a terrible tragedy. Thank you so much.” Teddy ended the call and looked around the room.

  “You are not going to believe this,” she said. “When we had an opening for a faculty member to teach percussion, Olivia got a tip from an administrator on campus. “

  “Who?” asked Nicki.

  “You’re seriously not going to believe this,” said Teddy.

  “Teddy, who?” said Ryan.

  “It was Abby.”

  “What?” all three women said in unison.

  “It was Abby,” said Teddy. “Apparently Abby and Cora went to college together and Abby said Cora would fit in well at Haverwood.”

  “Wow,” breathed Ryan.

  “Yeah,” said Nicki. “I never thought of Abby as the type to have friends from college.”

  “Or to help someone get a job,” said Summer. “She’s always seems too focused on herself. Remember how she tried to cut the dean of students budget when Oscar didn’t give her the job?” They all nodded.

  “Oh, that reminds me,” said Teddy. “Olivia said she didn’t come right out and say it at the time, but Abby hinted that some money from the college’s discretionary fund might find its way to the music department if Olivia interviewed Cora.”

  “Whoa,” breathed Nicki.
>
  The women all looked at each other. Then Ryan practically jumped out of her chair.

  “Teddy,” she said, pointing at her friend, “do you remember Monday afternoon at O’Leary’s? I was late, and Abby came in after me.”

  "I remember,” said Teddy.

  Nicki blew out a breath between pursed lips. “I think that’s worth telling Trainor about,” said the chief. “I’ll call her first thing in the morning."

  Ryan sat back and played with her swizzle stick. Things might be looking up for Grace.

  15

  Ryan spent the better part of Monday morning combing through OPIS. She was sure she would find more connections between Cora and others on the faculty or staff. She just had to be persistent. Before she had found anything useful, Kyle Petrowski called from the campus IT department.

  “Hi, Dean McCabe,” he said. “I just wanted to let you know that our hacker tried to get in again.” Ryan’s heart skipped a beat.

  “When?”

  “Hard to tell. He’s very good at hiding his tracks, but we think it was within the last two days.”

  “What did he get?”

  “Nothing,” said Kyle “Our added security protocols stopped him.”

  “That is great." Ryan leaned back in her chair, letting her shoulders relax. “Do you think he’ll stop now, move on to some other target?”

  “Couldn't say. Some hackers might take this as a challenge. We’ll have to wait and see. But we’re ready for him.”

  Ryan thanked Kyle for the information and ended the call. She laid her head back on the headrest of her chair. At least something was going right.

  After an uneventful lunch at the cafeteria with Teddy, Ryan returned to her office to find Detective Trainor chatting with Helen. Ryan could tell from the look on Helen’s face that her admin was completely charmed by the detective.

  What do you know? she thought. The woman has a warm side.

  The detective turned around.

  “Hello, Doctor McCabe.”

  Doctor? What got into her? Ryan thought. Aloud, she said, “Hello, Detective. Are you here to see me?”

  “I am, but I have enjoyed getting to know your colleague here.” She winked at Helen, who tittered. Actually tittered.