Old Friends and New, Another Murder

by Christa Nardi

A s awkward as the night time routine was, the morning was worse. First maneuvering in the shower, though Brett’s assistance was much appreciated. Then getting dressed. None of my pants had wide enough legs to go over the brace and it was too late in the season for capris or at least that was my thought. As we looked at my dresses and the scooter, Maddie pulled out a pair of black capris and a jacket to match.

  “Black is always dressier, Sheridan. And it’s not supposed to be too cold. And this is a suit, right?”

  I nodded and smiled. It was not the norm for her to be up early or helping me get dressed. And she was very helpful. She left for school and I pulled together what I needed.

  “You sure you don’t mind driving me? I could call in sick, you know.”

  He smiled. “Nope. This gives me an excuse to be in the area and casually stop and talk to the folks in Lynchburg. See if they’re having an influx of these drugs over there. Put them on alert.”

  “Be sure to check at the Health Center and see if Craig Sims is working. My colleague Leah said he had some concerns.”

  He shook his head and continued. “Given what Mitch shared and the ER in Cold Creek, a stop at the ER also will be on my list. When do you get done?”

  “No one wants to hang around on Friday afternoon. My classes are over at noon. I usually try to get grading done there, but I can leave any time after that.”

  “That’ll work.” He nodded. “I’ll let you know when I’m on my way to pick you up.”

  It was a pleasant drive and we talked mostly about the changing colors. Hiking over the weekend was definitely out of the question. We pulled into the parking lot and Brett parked as close as he could. I got the scooter and he carried my backpack. I groaned when I spotted Dr. Addison as he waited for us at the doors.

  “Good morning, Dr. Addison. This is my husband, Brett McMann.”

  “Pleasure to meet you. Dr. Hendley what happened? I’ll have you know we are a fully accessible building. There is a handicapped restroom in the wing with my office if you need it.”

  His smile was forced and he kept glancing between Brett and me.

  “Thank you, Dr. Addison. It’s just a sprain. And whoever invented this scooter has my thanks. Much easier than a wheel chair.”

  The traffic in the parking lot was picking up and I looked to Brett for a way out of this conversation. “We better get you to your office, with a cup of coffee, before the halls get too busy. It was good to meet you, Dr. Addison.”

  “Good thought. Good thought. Let me get the door.”

  I was surprised when Dr. Addison didn’t walk with us or offer to help me so Brett could leave. Maybe he was waiting for someone.

  My office wasn’t far and we made the stop to get coffee on the way. Leah’s door was closed with a note about a faculty meeting. I pointed to the note. “That’s why Dr. Addison was at the front door and didn’t go to his office.”

  I opened the door and gasped. My office was in shambles. File drawers emptied, desk cleared off onto the floor. Brett immediately went into police mode and made me wait in the hall. I pulled out my phone and called the main office so someone could make the report to security. Dr. Addison would not be happy. In the meantime, Brett took pictures and pulled my chair out to the hall so I could sit down.

  “Nice office. Very cozy.”

  I chuckled. “An oversized walk-in closet, but I don’t really spend much time here. I think some of the offices are bigger. Leah’s…” I pointed next door. “…is maybe two feet wider. She can fit a chair at the end of her desk.”

  Security arrived. An older man, a bit portly, he lumbered to the door and looked in. His name badge read “Altuner” and he had a clipboard. He turned to Brett. “Dr. Handley, what can you tell me?”

  “I’m not Dr. Hendley, she is.”

  He turned back to me and looked at the chair, the scooter, and then back to Brett. He cleared his throat. “No one indicated an injury when they called.”

  “It happened yesterday. You were called about the office. Someone made a mess.” I got his attention and he turned back to me.

  “I see.” He slowly entered the office and made notes on his clipboard. “The inventory, other than the chair you’re sitting in, matches what I can see. Is anything missing?”

  “Not that I can tell. I’ll have to check when I re-file everything. But yes, the furniture is all still there.”

  “Glad we can agree on that. When were you last here? When did you first notice this problem?”

  Brett’s face had gone from flushed to pale and flushed again.

  “Brett, can you help me up and to the scooter, please? Then I think I’ll be okay with Mr. Altuner here. I’ll see if one of my students can help get the office back in order.”

  His mouth twitched and I leaned up for a kiss. Then he smiled. “Call me when you’re ready to leave. Later.”

  He left with only one backward glance and a shake of his head, almost colliding with Leah. Leah joined Altuner and me.

  “Who was that hunk? He’s hero material. And what happened to you? And your office?”

  I laughed. “That was my husband. If you’re around when he comes back to get me, I’ll introduce you. The sprained ankle, yesterday’s news. The office? This is what greeted me today. And it looks like I have about 10 minutes to get my stuff together and go teach.” I exhaled, no longer laughing.

  “Hold on.” Leah opened her office and returned. She started to pick up the stuff off the floor and looked at Altuner. “Don’t just stand there, she needs to get to the desk. She at least needs a clear path.” When he hesitated, she added, “Think OSHA violation.”

  He stood a little straighter, his eyes wide. I’d no clue an OSHA violation was that big of a deal, but it certainly motivated him to pick up stuff off the floor amidst grunts and groans. In no time, there was a path to my desk and I scooted in, backpack in tow. I opened it and pulled out my thumb drive and two papers.

  “You need copies of those?”

  I nodded. Leah took the papers from my hand. “What room are you in? How many students? I’ll get someone in the office to make the copies and bring them to you. Lock the door, but I’d suggest you keep the backpack with you. Locks didn’t stop that mess from happening.”

  “Thanks, Leah. I appreciate it.” I gave her the information.

  “No problem. I teach two classes back to back and then a break. I’ll grab coffees and meet you back here to see what we can put back together before we teach at 11 o’clock.”

  I nodded and she took off in one direction, and me in another. The class got silent as I scooted in. By the time I got the computer on and my lecture slides projected, a student worker came in with my copies.

  CHAPTER 19

  A fter class, one of the students offered to help me and I took her up on it. Lindsey was in both of my classes and a good student. She gasped when she saw my office and together we got the rest of the stuff off the floor and on the desk. I thanked her and began the process of putting things away, using the office chair to move stuff over to the file cabinet.

  Dr. Addison showed up, not very happy. “How did this happen?” He looked at the lock on the door. He fiddled with the outside and the door unlocked.

  “I think you just answered that question. On the plus side, I don’t keep my grades or tests in here, if that’s what the person was looking for. Just my lectures and handouts, articles on the topics, and granola bars. They did take the granola bars.”

  “You’re not involved in that mystery are you? That’s not what this is about? Why would someone steal granola bars?”

  My jaw dropped and I had no response for him. Leah made her appearance with coffee and a dish of something yummy. “I got you a piece of the cake from the faculty lounge and a cup of coffee. Probably not as healthy as your granola bars, but…” She smiled and shrugged.

  Dr. Addison cleared his throat. “Thank you, Leah, for being helpful here. Dr. Hendley, I’ll have maintenance replace the lock by the end of the day
. The key will be in your mailbox if you’re not here to receive it.” With that he turned and walked away.

  “He must have been sucking on lemons. Did you get your copies okay?”

  “Yes, and thanks for taking care of that and for the cake and coffee.” I switched from the scooter to the chair, on top of the papers I’d set there, to enjoy my treats.

  “Anything new on the investigation?”

  “Not really. I’m sure you heard on the news about some leads and Dr. Addison’s thoughts on the matter. They’ve pretty much decided this had to do with drugs.” I shrugged. “Now they need to figure out who all the players are.”

  She stuck her head out my door before she spoke again. “Did Austin say anything to you after you met him Wednesday morning? He’s been asking about you – a lot.”

  “That’s odd. He stopped me in the hall before lunch. Introduced himself to me and checked me out with his eyes. Highly inappropriate. I mentioned my husband. Figured that might be a hint in case he was on the prowl. I mean really. I’m at least ten, maybe fifteen years older than him.”

  “And, obviously he thinks every woman will fall for his charms, but your husband? He’s got Austin beat in the looks department and has more class besides.”

  “So what was Austin asking?”

  “So what was Austin asking?”

  “Who you were… how long you’d worked here… where you live. Lots of personal questions. He also asked about the murder you were involved in and drug issues here and how you got involved. I was sorry I mentioned it. No one, including me, knew the answers to those questions. That was when you interviewed and no one has said anything since. Well, except Addison.”

  I chuckled. “And just what did Dr. Addison share?”

  “Just what you said the other day. That you were told to not be involved in any more mysteries. As if he thought we’d all be running to you with mysteries to be solved. The biggest mystery here is usually how students could mess up in so many ways.”

  She hesitated and when I didn’t say anything, she added, “But you are involved, aren’t you? I can help. Do I need to spy on someone? Preferably not Austin, though. His office has a revolving door.”

  Having already dealt with one faculty member at Cold Creek College whose behavior violated every sexual harassment component and a few other laws as well, I cringed.

  “If students had concerns, is there a counseling center or health center they could go to? I’m afraid I haven’t really paid attention to stuff like that.”

  “You mean like to complain about someone? Like Austin? I don’t think he messes with the students, only the faculty. If you rebuked him, he might be responsible for this mess. He’s not used to being turned down if he shows interest.”

  “And you?” I watched for her reaction. Leah was on the short side with shoulder-length blonde hair. She dressed conservatively relative to younger faculty. Today she wore pants and a rust colored sweater.

  “He has never indicated an interest and that’s okay by me. Honestly, I’m fifty years old, with two grandkids and attitude. I’m one of the few women who actually questions what he’s peddling on a regular basis. He steers clear of me most of the time. That’s why I thought it was odd that he sought me out to ask about you.”

  “Definitely.” I hesitated and then decided to go ahead and ask the question. “Anyway, that wasn’t why I asked about services. When I was in Cold Creek, someone mentioned Roofies and how available they were. Frequently showing up at parties. Murder aside, I take issue with drugging someone without their knowledge.”

  “Wow. I haven’t heard anything about parties or Roofies in particular. Kiera said something a few months back about clubbing and admitted she’d had too much to drink. She didn’t remember getting home, but she had an Uber receipt. Her aunt, Claudia, lit into her about the need to be careful when she went out, you know, go in groups or at least with one other person, and so on.”

  “Scary to not remember and not know what you did. I hope she pays attention to her aunt’s advice. Any idea where a student in that situation would go?”

  She shrugged. “I guess they’d go to the Health Center – I mean that’s how Craig would have seen any drug use. I’ll find out. There may be some other places to go. It’s never come up. Well, other than that one student earlier this year who flipped out. Hallucinating. That was a 9-1-1 call. They put him in an ambulance and took him away. Come to think of it, no one ever said what caused it or what happened to him. He wasn’t in any of my classes.”

  As we talked, I had sorted more papers and pulled out the stuff I needed for my next class. I texted Brett to check on the student who left in an ambulance. And on one Austin Antos. My next text was to tell him I would be ready to leave a little after noon. He responded with a thumbs-up emoji.

  CHAPTER 20

  B rett found me in my office, with the mess almost cleaned up. Now it just looked like I had a messy desk. And other than the granola bars, I couldn’t tell anything was missing. I’d packed up my backpack with what I needed for Monday’s lectures. It didn’t make any sense – what did the person think was in my office?

  After I closed the door, he jiggled it much as Dr. Addison had, with the same result.

  “Dr. Addison said they will replace the lock by the end of the day and leave me a key.”

  He shook his head. “And where is he leaving the key?”

  “In my mailbox in the main office. Hopefully, in an envelope that’s not too obvious. I imagine though he will write ‘key’ on the envelope. They won’t find anything anyway.”

  He nodded. “Let’s go. We have time and I fancy a quiet ride in the hills with my wife. I even picked up lunch and located a park nearby where we can eat.” His eyes twinkled as he smiled.

  “Playing hooky are you?”

  “Not quite. Taking a longer than usual break. I don’t have to meet Fabry for a couple of hours. And we need to talk about your texts.”

  “Did you find out about the young man they had taken to the hospital?”

  “I did and I talked to him and his parents. A freshman. He and his parents decided he needed some time so he withdrew. He was sheltered and stressed at starting college. He was hanging out with some other students and one of them – he says he can’t remember the guy’s name – gave him a capsule with comic characters on it. Told him to chill out and not be so stressed and the capsule would help. He obviously had a bad reaction to what was in it – ecstasy and other stuff. The drug screen came back with traces of multiple drugs. This was a homemade combo.”

  “From your grimace, I gather nothing else happened after that. No leads.”

  “That sums it up. His parents had him withdraw. He’s scared to death and won’t even take aspirin now. And he won’t leave the house except to run. I gave them the names of some counselors to help him. Sad situation.”

  “Anyone else show up at the ER?”

  “None with confirmed drugs in their system. I did stop at a women’s clinic the other side of Lynchburg. One of the ER nurses mentioned it. Hush, hush since all the issues with Planned Parenthood. Not sure how anyone at Millicent would know about it honestly. They weren’t particularly open in sharing any information until I made it very clear all I wanted to know was if they had any indication of drugs involved in what brought the women to the center, not their identities.”

  He hesitated. “They finally acknowledged there were suspicions among the staff but no way to prove it. The women ranged in age and all came in suspecting something and not remembering much after a certain point, in a public place or party. That’s as far as it went.”

  I shuddered. I could not imagine waking up somewhere and not remembering what I’d done or said or where I’d been for a block of time. Obviously, black outs are not uncommon in conjunction with alcoholism, but this seemed much more personal.

  “Did you talk to Sims at the Health Center?”

  “I did. He was very careful to not quite answer my questions. Appare
ntly, it isn’t just Dr. Addison watching out for the public image of the institution. He answered in generalities, with a little more. ‘It is not uncommon for students to come in after a big weekend with a range of concerns, which could be construed as drug use.’ He clarified he was not able to discuss them as related from a statistical perspective. Coincidence, not causality.” He shrugged as I grimaced.

  “Now a question for you. What prompted the query about Austin Antos?”

  I shook my head, still grimacing. “The first time I met him was earlier this week in the faculty lounge. When I made a comment about drugs involved with the murder, he blanched. Remember, I mentioned it before. Later, he made a point of stopping me in the hall with a comment on how we all had to stick together. He made my skin crawl. My take? He’s a womanizer – a younger version of Adam and why he was killed. Today, Leah told me he was asking questions about me and my involvement with the murder and drug bust in the past.”

  “Reasonable explanation. Dr. Antos has never been arrested. No record. He was mentioned in a death notice. His wife overdosed. She had cancer. The coroner questioned if it was suicide. Antos didn’t argue with that conclusion. He had been out of town at a conference and the cleaning lady found her.”

  “I guess that could explain his reaction to the mention of drugs.”

  “It could. On the other hand, his background was a little sketchy. In particular, what was listed on the college webpages didn’t quite match with what the quick background check found. That is cause for doing more digging.”

  He nodded as we pulled into a park. I wasn’t too sure how my scooter was going to work on uneven ground and hesitated getting out of the car.

  Brett winked. “I checked it out in advance. You’ll see.”

  He picked me up and carried me just inside the tree line where there were picnic tables. He sat me down and with a “Be right back” he was gone. He returned a few minutes later with a box filled with take-out bags, coffees, and waters.

  “How nice. Thanks for thinking of this. It’s beautiful out here.” I leaned over and kissed him. Who says romance has to end after the wedding?