Murder at Cold Creek College

by Christa Nardi

  She was hysterical, and she continued to sob while Hirsch cuffed her husband and took him out the back door. The Chief went with them. Brett took over the escort of Heather. As he proceeded to leave out the back door, he told me he would meet me in my office as soon as he had transported her to the station. He gave me a brushing kiss and they were gone.

  I left through the front door and walked back to the building. The sun was shining, and the air had a touch of fall. I realized I hadn’t eaten and I was starving. I stopped at Georg’s to get a sandwich and realized I didn’t have a wallet. They let me charge it and I went up to my office. Then I remembered I didn’t have keys and went to the front office. Terra and Ali were on me in no time. They asked if I was okay, told me how worried they were, and related how Kim had lit into Brett when it was suspected I had been abducted.

  A master key opened my office and I fell into my chair. I was exhausted and hungry. The sandwich and another cup of coffee took care of the hunger. Thankfully, with the gas leak ruse, my afternoon class had been cancelled. I sat there for what seemed like forever. I went over the whole morning in my head. I didn’t want to be alone, so I went back to the main office to sit with Terra and Ali.

  Mitch came by and gave me a hug. He kept shaking his head as I gave them all a condensed version of Adam’s blackmail and how it had gotten him killed. While I told my story, Kim and Katie joined us in the office area.

  I left out all the details of how he was blackmailing everyone and the photos. I didn’t say what Heather looked for in Adam’s office. Surprisingly, nobody was bold enough to ask. When I finished the story, Kim gave me a hug. She was teary eyed. Katie, other than looking a bit relieved, didn’t seem to have any reaction.

  I wasn’t sure she even knew she had been recorded or that Adam had immodest photos of her. I made a promise to myself to come back up over the weekend to finish cleaning out Adam’s office. I wanted to dispose of all those pictures and the ledger, after clearing it with Chief Pfeiffe and Brett of course.

  In the meantime, I went to Adam’s office, and reclaimed the key and the clipboard. I closed and locked the door behind me. I walked back to the main office and let Ali know I was going to hang onto Adam’s key until I could finish with his office. Back in my office, I seriously considered closing my door.

  I wasn’t sure how fast the grapevine worked or if the rest of the faculty knew that Chancellor Oakland had been arrested for Adam’s murder. I hadn’t seen Jim yet, and didn’t know how much more flack he would be getting from this. I pulled up the KCCX website to see if it was on there yet. Within in a few minutes, there it was in the late breaking news box:

  Word just in that Kenneth Oakland, Chancellor of Cold Creek College, has been taken into custody and charged with the murder of Adam Millberg. Additional charges are indicated as pending. An unexpected conclusion to the tragedy that shook Cold Creek early last week, Chief Pfeiffe will be giving a statement later this afternoon.

  It was about an hour later when Brett came by. We went out to the parking lot. Surprisingly, my car was there as well as his. He explained Hirsch had arranged to drive it there and Kim had my bag and my keys. Brett and I stood by his car, and he took me in his arms and held me tight. It felt good, not only because he was big and strong, and my hero, but because there was a promise of more to come.

  He kissed me thoroughly and the tingle went to my toes, warmth to my core. But then he stopped, and stepped away. He said he would call me over the weekend, and he would be back down on Tuesday for dinner. He got in his car and drove away. I went back up to find Kim and my bag and my keys. Besides, I wasn’t ready to head back home and be alone.

  Kim came to my office to bring me my bag and find out more details about what happened. I filled her in on the fact that Oakland’s wife had been Adam’s first wife. It was their relationship that led to the altercation between the two men. She looked at me and wondered aloud if it was because they had renewed their relationship. I could tell from her expression she realized that would mean he had been seeing her and Heather at the same time. Somehow I sensed she’d decided any student relationships happened in the spring, before they had hooked up again. She asked more questions, and I answered as well as I could without mentioning the photos or the blackmail.

  Before long, Terra and Ali also came by. They both seemed glad it was settled. Misty must have called them, because they mentioned she asked if I was okay. When they asked why Heather and Oakland came after me, I had to explain that somehow Oakland thought I was on to him. I also explained how he and Heather had been in the process of spiriting me away. I verbalized that I didn’t see myself as very threatening. Mitch showed up in the midst of the story and shook his head. Then he added, “Students sure see you as threatening!”

  Despite Mitch’s attempt at humor, we were all pretty subdued. Mitch again tried to shift the tenor of the conversation. Needless to say, my budding relationship with Brett was the fodder for the shift. It was all in fun and they all teased me and we all laughed in no time.

  Max bounded in, all excited, and said, “You missed all the excitement!! A gas leak in the building and now the Chancellor has been arrested. Can you believe it?”

  We all looked at each other, and then I said, “I sure can, Max. And I sure hope the rest of the semester is a whole lot less exciting.” None of us even thought about explaining the gas leak to him. For my part, I was as glad he didn’t seem to have a clue as to my part in the whole thing. After a bit, everyone gradually left my office except Kim. Kim suggested we get dinner at the Grill and catch the press conference to see what else they had to say, and we headed out.

  We took our favorite booth at the Grill, with our favorite waitress. We had a great view of the television and the restaurant got pretty quiet once the news came on. The press conference began with a restatement of the arrest. Chief Pfeiffe spoke about how the Cold Creek police and State police worked together to bring this dreadful matter to a close. He said all of the College administration and trustees were quite surprised and dismayed at the results of the investigation. The lead trustee, Matthew von Kroner, then announced that, at the behest of the board, he would be taking the position as interim Chancellor until someone could be vetted by the board on a permanent basis.

  President Cramer then spoke in support of von Kroner. He also spoke of the need for the College community to be more vigilant and proactive with regard to monitoring each other’s behaviors. The Provost then announced that one initiative in this regard would be a series of talks on sexual harassment, a problem only identified through this investigation. He went on to say that while they were sure this was a limited problem, a task force was being formed. He also announced that Dr. Sheridan Hendley of the Psychology Department would be asked to head this group.

  I threw up my arms, eyes wide as Kim looked at me, almost as dumbfounded as I was. She wasn’t the only person in the Grill looking at me all of sudden. I shook my head, and tried to sink under the table to no avail. Kim chuckled and shook her head until I threatened to put her on the task force as well. As we got up to leave, a few of the other patrons congratulated me and wished me well on the task force. I shook my head and decided that somehow a self-defense class was going to be included as an outcome of the task force.

  Chapter 15

  I slept well, and woke up Saturday morning a bit sore. Instead of prompting me to take it easy or relax, it motivated me to get the incriminating ‘stuff’ out of Adam’s office. I realized that at some point the previous afternoon I had opted to ask for forgiveness rather than permission. I wasn’t taking the chance of being told no when it came to destroying “revealing” photographs.

  I grabbed a pair of heavy duty scissors to make cutting the DVDs a little easier and I was ready to go. I took Charlie with me for the company and drove to campus. It was pretty empty as I expected. I used my keys to get in the building and into my office. Then I took the key to Adam’s office and went to work. I found an empty trash can and dragg
ed it along with me. I left my door and Adam’s open, and Charlie took up position closest to me.

  I put aside any of the portrait style photos, along with the ledger on the side of the desk. The ledger should be all they needed to substantiate a blackmail plot. At least that was my rationale. I put the pictures that were the object of blackmail into an envelope. I picked up all the DVD pieces, cut them up some more and added them to the trash bin. I picked up loose papers and they went into the trash bin as well. I filled the boxes with books from the floor after carefully shaking each one. It wouldn’t do for something to be left in one of them. Getting the books off the floor, and finishing the books that had been left on the shelf was important. A few more DVDs and photos fell out.

  I opened the cabinet and there wasn’t much in there except some boxes for his speakers, and stacks of papers. I almost just left the boxes there, but thought better of it. I opened them, and there were more pictures and more DVDs. I emptied them and tossed the boxes. I carefully filtered through the stacks of papers, tossed the papers and sorted any pictures that fell out.

  I almost had the office cleaned out, the trash bin was full, and I had run out of boxes. It was all I could do. I was at least sure I had found anything worth killing for. I took the envelope of incriminating pictures to the office and using the cross-hatch shredder made quick work of them. I then shredded some other papers as well.

  Charlie was getting impatient and I was tired. I closed up all the offices. I left the key for Adam’s office in my office. I felt better, and though I suspected I would catch hell from Chief Pfeiffe and Brett for destroying possible evidence, I figured that was better than the alternative. I intentionally didn’t access College email from home, so I decided to at least check and see if there was anything important.

  I had an email from Jim that had gone out to everyone Friday morning. I looked at the time stamp and had a little trouble comprehending that so much had happened in the past 24 hours. The email was short, but included an attachment. Jim had assigned all of Adam’s advisees. I pulled up the list and looked for Rachel’s name first. She had been assigned to Mitch. That would be good. I scanned the list and it looked like I had been assigned three students.

  I started to get a little miffed when I realized that Kim had also been assigned three, but Max and Priscilla had managed to only be assigned one each. So much for random and equal assignment. I reminded myself that given the circumstances of the past two weeks, Jim’s approach to things was not anything to get in a tither about. I sighed and shut down the computer. I could wait until Tuesday to contact the students to set up advising appointments.

  I took Charlie for a walk in the arboretum and then we went home. I no sooner got home and Kim texted me about the carnival. I agreed to meet her there and have dinner. In the meantime, I took a nice, hot bath to help with my aches and a short nap. Showered and in jeans and t-shirt, I was off to the carnival. I was meeting Kim at the Grill and we were walking to the town center. It took a while to park but I finally found a space. I walked toward the Grill and waved to Kim. When I got to her she gave me a hug and told me I looked better. I laughed and we walked toward the crowds. She rambled for a while about her morning and then asked about mine.

  “I took care of some stuff in Adam’s office. I wanted that chore behind me,” I answered. She looked at me with a questioning expression.

  “Worse than the box of condoms, huh?” she asked. When I nodded, she said, “Never mind, I don’t want to know. Even my ex wasn’t as sleazy as Adam turned out to be.”

  The carnival was the usual corny stuff. There were rides for kids of all ages, and some crafts and such. There were a couple of food tents. We grabbed a couple of burgers, fries and soft drinks and sat down on a bench to eat. There were lots of people walking around, including Wayne. He spotted us and came toward us a like a magnet. I made a show of eating.

  “Sheridan, Kim, good to see you. I am so glad they finally made an arrest. Chancellor Oakland didn’t think I was a good enough dentist for him. He and his wife used a dentist in Richmond. Guess they won’t have a choice of dentists now,” he said with a self-righteous expression. I just nodded and reflected on how quickly we are able to accept the dark side of the same people who the day before were our leaders.

  “So are you enjoying the carnival?” he continued.

  “Yes, Wayne, we are. Having a bite to eat obviously.” I purposely kept my mouth full, so Kim carried the conversation.

  “You know, Sheridan, there is a live band later on. We could sit together,” he offered.

  I looked at Kim who about choked, and I explained, “You know, Wayne, Kim and I planned on spending time together tonight. But thanks, anyway.”

  Kim nodded, and said, “It’s been a real hard week Wayne, and we need to decompress. Girl stuff, you know.”

  Wayne’s face paled, though I am not sure what he thought ‘girl stuff’ was. We smiled and told him we hoped he enjoyed the carnival and the concert. He shuffled his feet and didn’t move.

  “Um, Mitch said you were becoming friends with that detective. Is that over now the investigation is over?” he asked, looking a bit too hopeful.

  “Mitch was correct. We are seeing each other, and will probably see more of each other now the investigation is over.” I smiled and waited to see what would come next.

  He nodded, looked at Kim as if evaluating her as a possibility, and wished us a good evening. Kim and I just looked at each other and then at him as he walked away, head down.

  Once we finished eating, Kim and I walked around a bit and located the staging where the band would be playing tonight. It was a local band and neither of us had heard of them. We sat down and rehashed some of what hadn’t come out. I shared a little of how much Oakland had been protecting his wife and his likening Adam to an addiction or a cancer.

  Kim sighed and responded, “He got that right. There is something addictive about someone who is so charismatic and is constantly attentive and noticing the little things. He would mention when I got a haircut, or if I frosted my hair, or a new blouse. He complimented me in a way that didn’t seem like it was exaggerated, but felt good. It wasn’t a hard sell, you know? I can see through that.”

  “It was just his way, I guess. He somehow had mastered the technique. Probably used a lot of subliminal messages and figured out what your weaknesses were,” I suggested. “He used his knowledge of psychology to shape your behavior with consistent reinforcement,” I added with a smile.

  She nodded, and said, “Yeah, and there is no other person or setting that provides that level of consistent positive feedback.” She looked off into space. A minute later, she hit my leg and tilted her head to the side. I followed the direction and there were Max and his wife walking toward us.

  They stopped, and Max said, “It’s finally safe with the murderer behind bars, so Stella and I decided to stop by for a few minutes. I have the rest of the weekend to work on a grant I heard about.”

  He continued to ramble about his research and his grant, while the three of us nodded our heads. Max was back to his normal self. He told us to have a good weekend, and they walked off. Stella hadn’t said a word. Kim and I just smiled at each other. One of these days, he was going to get that job, and we wouldn’t have him to make us crazy. We would probably miss him when he was gone.

  As we sat there, other faculty members came by and said hello. The general theme was the same. It was so surprising it was Oakland. It was so good not to have this hanging over the college now. I guessed none of them considered there might be a trial and a lot of dirty linen aired. I suspected Oakland had a good attorney who would easily get his confession thrown out. If we were lucky, his attorney would ask the trial to be held far away. Then again, the man had been so deflated in the face of his wife’s anger, he might just throw in the towel. I hoped he was being kept on suicide watch.

  Katie was the only other faculty member from our department who came by. She was civil enough and seemed
to be hedging, working hard to find out something. She finally just came out and asked, “Uh, did you find anything, uh, interesting when you cleaned out Adam’s office?”

  I half-smiled, and said, “There were some photos. A portrait of you from a few years ago.”

  Kim nodded and Katie said, “That’s all?”

  “No, Katie, there were lots of photos. I destroyed all but the portrait, professional type photos,” I said pointedly. I looked her in the eye and hoped she got my message. She must have because she looked away and seemed to relax a bit. It occurred to me that even if her initials weren’t on the ledger, she knew what he was up to. I didn’t mention DVDs and neither did she.

  “Thank you, Sheridan. That was very thoughtful of you,” she said and she walked off.

  Kim looked at me and said, “What other kind of photos were there, Sher?”

  I hesitated. Then I looked her straight on and shook my head. She put her head in her hands and stayed that way for a few minutes. I wasn’t sure how public the blackmail aspect of the case was. I wasn’t going to be the one to make it public. She did now have a sense that he had taken pictures that wouldn’t be available for public viewing.

  After a few minutes of letting her digest the inference in her own way, I prompted her we needed to move on. I felt some dessert calling. Chocolate may not be the answer to all things unpleasant, but problems sure seem to get smaller with it. We stopped at a couple of vendors until we found the frozen yogurt and loaded up with yogurt and fudge topping. That changed the tenor of the night back to the light.