The Lesson of Her Death

by Jeffery Deaver

  Business at the quad and HoJo's and Baskin-Robbins fell to nothing as parents refused to let their daughters go on dates after dark. Exam grades at Auden went up as students who would normally be outside groping under clothing or pledging fidelity over the long summer months stayed home and broke the spines of books. A number of students were taking incompletes and returning home three weeks early.

  A lot of town dogs were kept hungry.

  Corde's awkwardly phrased press statement, meant to reassure the people of New Lebanon, in short, had no effect on the hysteria.

  Bob Siebert came home late to his trailer on Route 302. He opened the door and in the dark kitchen found himself staring at his five-year-old son, who was aiming Siebert's Ruger .225 deer rifle more or less at his father's heart. Standing silhouetted in the moonlight, afraid to speak, Siebert froze. It was only after the short click of the firing pin that he began to breathe again. He lifted the gun away, laughing madly and thanking the Lord that his son had not known how to chamber a round. His smile faded when he opened the rifle's bolt and the misfired shell spiraled out. Siebert's legs went slack, his pants went wet and he dropped sobbing to the floor. The boy said, "I thought you was the Moon Man, Daddy."

  And on Tuesday, one day before the full moon, the first graffiti went up.

  No one saw who'd done it and in fact hardly anyone recognized the drawings at first. Clara and Harry Botwell were returning home in their 1976 Buick Electra from the Shrimp 'n' Salad Night at the Wrangler, Clara driving, being the less impaired. Harry pointed to the wall of the First Bank of New Lebanon and said, look, somebody had painted a big gumdrop on the side of the bank, and Clara studied the wall and asked, why was it on its side and anyway why would anybody paint a gumdrop?

  "Sweet Mary," she said, "that's no gumdrop, it's a half-moon." In panic she gunned the big engine and shot through a red light, broadsiding a Celica. The couple escaped unhurt, though the driver of the Toyota went to Memorial with a broken arm.

  The bank wasn't the only site of a half-moon. Three hundred citizens punched in 911 that night (most of them for the first time in their lives) to report a half dozen of the graffiti moons. The callers were all pretty shaken up; the paint the artist had used was blood.

  This evening, Randolph Sayles, professor and dean, student of Union economics and apologist for the noble Confederate States of America, sat in his backyard smoking a cigarette and staring at the evening sky bright with moonlight. He held a drooping fax in his hand. Sayles tapped an ash to the ground in front of him and looked at it. Beside his muddy boots a tree root had grown out of the earth and then, only a few inches away, had returned underground as if even this short excursion into the world was intolerable. He heard footsteps. He recognized them.

  Joan Sayles was an angular woman with short-cropped blond hair and abrupt hips and long breasts. Tonight she wore a white blouse, tied in the front a la Lana Turner, and skimpy, baggy shorts. She sat beside her husband. Dimpled bands of white flesh hung from her upper legs.

  A full professor of sociology at Auden, she was one year older than Sayles and had an IQ two points higher than his, though they both fell in the ninety-ninth percentile. When they met, their last year of undergraduate school (on this same campus), one of them had been a virgin and it hadn't been Joan. Even as a grad assistant she had professorial drive and an instinctive grasp of institutional politics. He appreciated these talents in her although he realized too late that she used these to pursue not only tenure but Sayles himself. She was successful on both fronts; they were married the day after he sat for his doctoral orals. And if he'd never felt a moment of resounding passion for her--nothing close in fact to what he felt when he stood at the lectern--that was all right. He loved her (he believed). Anyway he needed a wife (he was pretty sure), stability and a brainy spouse being Doric columns of Midwest university success.

  "What are you doing out here?" she asked, squinting in the violet moonlight. The gesture pulled the corners of her mouth up in a wet grotesque smile that Randy Sayles did not want to look at. She noticed a small muddy shovel next to him and her eyes dipped to his boots. "Moonlight gardening?"

  He imagined that her question, which sounded simply curious, was in fact laced with mockery.

  He thought: What does she know?

  "Taking in the air," he answered. "You had a meeting tonight?"

  "Completed." She was holding a batch of white, stapled papers rubber-banded together. She had made many notes and marks on the first page of the top paper. He noticed C/C+. She was a bitch of a grader.

  "What are you doing?" she repeated. When he did not respond she asked, "Are you ignoring me for a reason?"

  He apologized with a sincerity that surprised them both, then handed her the fax. The state had rejected Auden's application for an emergency loan.

  "Ah." She handed it back and lit a cigarette. It hung from the side of her lips and this made her mouth even sloppier and more lopsided. Joan inhaled then lifted a long finger to her tongue and touched away a fleck of something. "I'm sorry."

  Sayles squeezed her knee in response. She said, "Do you know what one of my students wrote? The issue was whether a population center like New Lebanon had an inner city. He wrote that it didn't. Rather, he said, it had a wrong side of the tracks. I gave him an A minus, solely for that."

  Sayles said, "Clever."

  "You know, if I had it to do all over again I'd pick something frivolous. Romance languages or art appreciation. No, I know. Russian literature."

  She touched the side of her tongue again, probing, as if she wanted to make sure it wasn't numb.

  He said, "The police want to see me."

  "About that girl in your class? The one who was killed?"

  Sayles nodded.

  "You were sleeping with her?"

  This was not truly a question. So she does know.

  His silence was an answer she could read. "Did you enjoy it?" she asked.

  "On occasion."

  "They don't think you had anything to do with it, do they?"

  "Of course not."

  How does she know?

  Joan finished her cigarette and dropped it on the ground. She did not step on it. After a moment she shuffled the papers in her hand and said, "You know, I'm astonished at how college sophomores cannot put sentences together," and walked back to the house along a narrow patch stained red and purple by droppings from a row of mulberry trees.

  Where T.T. Ebbans wanted to be: standing in the exact position of the man he was talking to, the man leaning on the bent branch beside the muddy Des Plaines and connected to a hook sunk in murky water by twenty feet of fishing line via a Sears rod and reel. The man in the red hat.

  "Those're some flies," Ebbans said, nodding at the hat.

  "Yessir."

  Ebbans leaned over and looked into the Rubbermaid bucket where three pale catfish floated motionless. "A fly fisherman doesn't get bored feeding stinkballs to suckers?"

  "I don't fly. S'only the hat. Was a present from the wife." A moment later he added, "I got a license. Only I left her at home."

  "Uh-huh," Ebbans said. "You by any chance fishing on Tuesday evening down at Blackfoot Pond?"

  "This is my evening."

  "How's that?" Ebbans asked.

  "I work owl at the container plant. Get off at seven in the A.M. Go to bed. Eat Fish. Go to work. That's my life. Your evening's my day."

  "Some fella there saw someone fits your description."

  He grunted.

  Ebbans said, "We had a girl killed over there on Tuesday."

  "That was there? Shitabrick. I didn't know. Yeah, I was there on Tuesday."

  "When did you leave?"

  "Must've been nine-thirty or ten. Got off to a late start because of the storm."

  "You see anybody else?"

  "When I was leaving I seen two kids come up. They had tackle but they weren't fishing. I figured they maybe had a Delco or a hand-crank and were just going to jolt up some worms."


  "They were kids?"

  "Looked to be teenagers."

  "You know them?"

  "Didn't see 'em up close. They were down at the foot of the dam, walking up to the pond. One of them was fat so they were going slow. The fat one was wearing something dark. The other one was thin and was wearing a jacket may've been gray."

  "How old?"

  "High school. I dunno."

  "Both white?" Ebbans asked.

  "What else 'round here?"

  "I'd like to have a talk with those boys or one of them. You see them I'd appreciate your letting us know."

  "You bet."

  "You do that I'll forget to tell Fish and Game about the license you left at home."

  "I've been meaning to get me one," he said. "You know how it is. One thing after another."

  The First Methodist Church of New Lebanon announced today that Sunday school classes will be canceled until further notice following the vandalism of the school by the man authorities are calling the "Moon Killer."

  "Authorities" are calling?

  A painting of a half-moon in blood was found on the door of the first-floor girls' room in the Sunday school building, located at 223 Maple Street, adjacent to the church.

  The blood matched that from a goat whose carcass was found several days ago in the New Lebanon Grade School.

  How do they know that? I didn't know that.

  Attendance at the town's schools has fallen dramatically since the Moon Killer began stalking the streets of New Lebanon....

  "Stalking" the streets?

  Tonight will be the first full moon since the murder of the Auden co-ed....

  Jennie. Her name is Jennie Gebben.

  ... and residents are urged to stay home from sunset to sunrise....

  Bill Corde, sitting in Room 121 of the Auden Student Union, stared at that morning's Register for five minutes before pitching it out. He opened an envelope he had picked up at the office on the way over here. It contained a report from the county lab about the match between the carcass blood and the graffiti blood.

  How did they know? I didn't.

  A man appeared in the doorway. Corde looked up at him.

  "Excuse me. I'm Professor Sayles. You wanted to see me?"

  "Come on in. Sit down." Corde shoved aside the lab report and motioned with his palm toward the chair across from his miniature desk.

  Sayles sat, folding his long legs slowly. He scooted the seat back. "This has to do with the Jennifer Gebben murder?"

  Corde asked, "She was in your class?"

  "Yes, she was." Sayles looked at his watch. A wrinkled, frayed shirt cuff appeared outside his blue blazer and stayed there. "And she worked part-time for me. In the Financial Aid Department."

  "Did you know her well?"

  "I try to know all my students."

  "But you knew her better than the others," Corde said.

  "The class she was in is large. The Civil War Centennial course is very popular. I try to know as many students as I can. I think it's important. Any personal attention in class can be very inspiring. Don't you remember?"

  Corde, who had spent most of his school years trying to avoid the attention of teachers, said, "Why was she working for you? I assume she didn't need the money."

  "Why do you assume that?" Sayles asked dourly.

  "She wasn't in the work-study program and didn't have any student loans or scholarships. Seems she would've followed those routes before she'd get a part-time job paying five-ten an hour."

  "There's something altruistic about disbursing money to needy students. Jennie helped organize last year's AIDS walkathon. And she was also a Meals on Wheels volunteer."

  "For a month or two," Corde said.

  "For a month or two."

  "But how did she come to work for you?"

  "We got to talking about how curious it was that I--a history professor--ended up in charge of financial aid and she asked if she could assist me."

  "What were the circumstances of this conversation?"

  "Officer." Sayles was riled. "I hardly recall."

  "Was there anybody in class she was particularly friendly with?"

  "I never paid any attention."

  "Did you ever see her with anyone who wasn't a student?"

  Sayles shrugged. "No."

  "How often did you work together?"

  "Several times a week."

  "You see her socially?"

  "No, not socially. We'd have dinner after work sometimes. Often with other people. That was all."

  "You don't consider that social?"

  "No, I don't,"

  Corde watched the man's dark eyes, which in turn studied three dirty fingernails on his right hand.

  "Professor, were you asked by Loyola College to stop teaching there?"

  Sayles started to reach for his red-and-blue striped tie. He stopped and tilted his head slightly, adjusting the needle valve on his indignation. "I was, yes."

  "That was because you'd been involved with a student?"

  "Involved with? Yes."

  "And you assaulted her?"

  "I did not. We had an affair. I broke it off. She wasn't happy about that and called the police to report that I'd assaulted her. It was a lie."

  "Were you having an affair with Jennie Gebben?"

  "No. And I believe I resent your asking me that."

  "I have my job to do," Corde said wearily.

  "And if you think anyone from the university had something to do with her death ..." Sayles's voice grew harsh. "... you're badly mistaken. There are enough unfounded rumors about the murder already. It's hard enough running a school and raising money for it without spooking parents and benefactors. Read the paper. Your department said it was a demonic killing."

  "We have to look at all possibilities."

  The watch was again gravely consulted. "I have a class in five minutes."

  "Where were you on the night she was killed, Professor?"

  He laughed. "Are you serious?" Corde lifted an eyebrow and Sayles said, "I was home."

  "Is there anyone who can verify that?" Corde glanced at the narrow gold ring. "Your wife maybe?"

  His voice grew soft in anger. "I was by myself. My wife was doing research at the library until midnight."

  "I understand that Brian Okun was seeing Jennie?"

  "Seeing her? I'd say he was seeing her. He was sleeping with her."

  In his Chinese handwriting Corde made a small notation on a three-by-five card. "Could you tell me who you heard that from?"

  "I can't recall."

  "What's your opinion of him?"

  "Of Brian? You can't suspect Brian of hurting Jennie."

  "Your opinion?"

  "He's brilliant. He needs to temper his intelligence somewhat. He's a little arrogant for his own good. But he'd never hurt Jennie." Sayles watched Corde slowly write. "May I go now?"

  Corde completed the card and looked up. "I--"

  "Look, I can't help you. I have nothing more to say." Sayles stood and his grim surliness was at a high pitch now.

  This anger seemed out of proportion to the circumstances of the questioning. At first this reinforced Corde's suspicion of the man. But one look into Sayles's face told another story. The source of the professor's indignation was contempt. Contempt at himself for loving Jennie Gebben. Whatever her talents in bed, which Corde guessed were pretty damn plentiful if both Sayles and Okun had risked their jobs to have her, Jennie was still nothing more than an average student, a suburban girl, fat at the throat, the daughter of a small-business man, a Meals on Wheels volunteer, a very ordinary young woman.

  And here was Randolph Sayles, Ph.D., just blistered with humiliation for the love he'd spent on this common girl.

  So Corde released him. And like a squirming cat escaping at last from his master's arms the professor stalked out of Room 121 neither dallying nor fast, absorbed with forgetting the prior moments of troubling captivity.

  Returning to the offi
ce Corde found on Slocum's desk the stack of fliers from Fast-Copy, which were supposed to be tacked up thick as litter along Route 116. Slocum was out, he learned, looking into reports of missing goats.

  The difficult night at home had now caught up with him--the second photo, his guilt at missing another of Jamie's wrestling matches tonight, a tempestuous dream that woke him at one. Unable to sleep he had sat for two hours in the back bathroom with the shotgun on his lap, scanning the forest for any sign of the intruder. Once, he was sure he'd seen a face looking at the house and had gone so far as to chamber a shell and walk outside, hands shaking in anticipation as much as from the predawn chill. But as he stood shoeless on the slab back porch the image became a moonlit tangle of trees and leaves.

  He'd turned to walk back into the house and Sarah had scared the utter hell out of him, bounding forward from the stairs. They stared at each other--Corde, shocked, the girl more disappointed than anything. She was headed for the back door and he'd thought for an instant that she was sleepwalking. But, no, she was only after a glass of water. "What's wrong with your bathroom?" Corde asked as his heart's gallop slowed. She had drunk the water, staring out the window, until he impatiently shooed her off to bed.

  He did not get to sleep till five.

  Then there'd been a fight at breakfast. Sarah had shrilly refused her mother's demand that she study before going to school. Corde had had to both comfort his wife and calm his daughter. He tried not to take sides and they both ended up mad at him.

  Now, in his office, the door closed, Corde sat at his desk for ten minutes, arranging and rearranging the tall stacks of his three-by-five cards, fat and limber from all the shuffling. He spread them out until they covered his desk.

  A dull bicentennial quarter appears in his hand and begins flopping over the backs of his fingers. He stares at the cards and after a few minutes Bill Corde is no longer in the Sheriff's Department but is on the Auden University campus and the day isn't today but is Tuesday, April 20. It is four-thirty P.M.

  Corde pictures Jennie Gebben leaving Professor Sayles's lecture hall and walking to the university bookstore three blocks away to cash a check for thirty-five dollars. Her picture is taken by the cashier's security camera and the film shows her wearing a white blouse with a button-down collar. Her dark hair is straight, a thick strand sloping over her forehead. The shutter catches her with eyelids half closed. The time on the film is 16:43:03. Jennie continues to the dorm and arrives there at about five. She and Emily Rossiter remain in their room with the door closed for about an hour. The girls on the floor can detect the roommates having what seems to be an argument though no one hears enough to know the substance of their discussion.