A Body In My Office (The Charles Bentley Mysteries Book 1)

by Glen Ebisch

  “Sounded to me more like he gave you orders.” Charles paused, aware that he was getting close to saying too much, then doing it anyway. “I don’t know what you see in him, Amy.”

  “I see a man who loves his family and isn’t afraid to take responsibility for them.”

  Charles listened carefully to her tone of voice. “Do you mean unlike me? Do you really doubt that I loved you and your mother?”

  “No. It’s the second part that was always a problem for you—the taking responsibility. You liked having a family there and loved us, but you always avoided getting too involved.”

  “How can you say that? I did my share of childcare from the time you were an infant, and I was always there when you needed anything.”

  Amy smiled. “You were always there, Dad, for all the little things. And don’t think I didn’t appreciate it. But whenever there were big decisions to be made, I always knew that it would be up to Mom. Where we lived, where I would go to school, whether we would travel on vacation: they were all decided by Mom.”

  Charles frowned, trying to remember exactly what things had been like.

  “I always expressed an opinion.”

  “Yes. You were always good at leading a discussion, just like it was in a classroom, but when it came right down to brass tacks, the final decision was made by Mom. You always disappeared into you teaching and research.”

  “Maybe that’s true,” Charles admitted. “Some people like making decisions more than others. Your mother was always a very decisive person.”

  “You make it sound like it was easy for her. It wasn’t. She even told me that she wished you’d do more of it.”

  “Did she really tell you that?”

  Amy nodded. “More than once.”

  Charles sat there thinking about how one could be so wrong about a person you were so close to.

  “I wonder why she didn’t tell me?”

  “She probably accepted that as part of who you were that would never change. I guess the good parts outweighed the bad parts. Isn’t that always the way? After all, I like Jack’s willingness to do the lion’s share of the decision-making, and in exchange, I sometimes have to accept decisions I may not like.”

  “I don’t think that sounds like a fair exchange. You’re letting him run your life. Twenty years from now are you really going to be happy that instead of doing what you wanted to do, you did what he demanded you do?”

  “I don’t know how I’ll feel in twenty years, but right now, I’m pretty happy being a wife and mother. I know, I said yesterday that I might want more, but who doesn’t have some dissatisfaction with her life.”

  Charles sighed. “Maybe I’m wrong, but yours sounds relatively major, sacrificing your chance to develop your abilities to their fullest.”

  “Maybe I’ll get around to that at some time in the future.”

  “Do you think they’ll ever be a time when Jack will give you permission to do that?”

  “He’s not a monster. If the time comes when I want it enough, he’ll be happy for me to get a job.”

  “Just like his mother never did.”

  “Maybe she didn’t want to.”

  “Maybe you should have a long talk with her some time and find out,” Charles said, getting to his feet.

  “So you are leaving?”

  “It would be awkward to stay.”

  “Look, you and Jack are never going to be the best of friends, but for the sake of your grandsons, you both have to make an effort to get along. You only live a few hours away. You could visit much more frequently than you do.”

  Touched by the concern on Amy’s face, Charles reached over and grasped her arm.

  “I’ll certainly make the effort. And I’m certain that Jack and I can reach a truce.”

  Amy nodded and smiled. “And don’t worry. I am thinking about what is best for me.”

  “Make sure you do.” Charles paused for a moment as an unrelated thought occurred to him. “From your time as a student at Opal, do you remember there being a faculty member with the name Marie?”

  “Where did that question come from?”

  “Just something I’m working on.”

  “Well, I didn’t really know that faculty by their first names, except for the ones that were friends of yours. But I can’t think of anyone named Marie.”

  Charles nodded. “Neither can I. But let me know if someone occurs to you.”

  He leaned over and gave Amy a kiss on the cheek, then went to the doorway and picked up his bag. Amy joined him there and gave him a hug.

  “Make sure you come back soon, Dad.”

  “I will,” he said, wondering if it was really true.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  By the time Charles got home, he was tired. It was a combination of the travel and not having slept well last night. As he walked from the garage to the front door, he realized that although he had only been away one day, it seemed much longer. He no longer felt anxious that someone might be out there with a rifle ready to shoot him. Although he was not realistically any safer, his time with Amy and the boys had broken the spell of fear that the shooting of the other night had put him under. But he still felt guilty about Karen.

  He dropped his bag in the hall, and called Lieutenant Thorndike to find out about Karen’s condition.

  “It looks like she’s going to be fine. They’re keeping her in the hospital through tomorrow to run a few more tests, but then they should release her.”

  “I’d like to visit her if I could.”

  “I don’t see why not. It might be best to see her during the day. She gets pretty tired by night time. How about tomorrow afternoon? I’m going to stop by myself then.” Thorndike paused. “But I thought you were going to make yourself scarce for a few days.”

  “I spent yesterday at my daughter’s, but I thought it was time to come home.”

  There was a delay that Charles figured was the Lieutenant trying to decide whether to ask any questions. She decided not to.

  “Okay. But stay on the alert, especially when you’re around your house. The shooter might set up outside somewhere waiting for you to come out.”

  “I’ll be careful. Does Karen blame me for what happened?”

  “I explained to her why I think she got shot. At first she was angry that you hadn’t warned her about your situation, but I tried to make it clear to her that neither you nor I had taken the threat as seriously as we should have. I think she’s pretty much forgiven you. She even said she was having a wonderful time until she got shot.”

  “Yeah, I can see where that might have put a damper on the evening.”

  “She seems to be a pretty good sport, and I think she really likes you.”

  Charles felt his heart sink. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “The feeling isn’t mutual?”

  “She’s a very nice woman, but I don’t think there’s any chemistry there for me.”

  “Why did you go out with her, then?”

  “She asked me, and I didn’t know how to say no.”

  “Sometimes it’s better to hurt someone a little, right away, when waiting means hurting the person worse.”

  “I know you’re right.”

  “And that’s the end of the lesson. Anything more from your friend at Yale?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Okay, well I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Charles immediately made two more calls. The first was to the woman in charge of the soup kitchen to let her know that he had come back early and would be there tomorrow. She sounded a bit surprised, but said she’d be happy to see him. He toyed with the idea of calling Greg Wasserman and arranging to run with him tomorrow morning, but finally decided that he would be putting Greg in a far too risky situation. If he really wanted to run, he could do so by himself.

  Fortunately there was enough food in the house that he didn’t have to go out again, so he curled up in the living room with the novel he’d started at Amy’s and began
to read. The phone rang, and this time it was Amy.

  “I just wanted to check to see that you got home all right.”

  “No problems. And thanks again for putting me up for the night.”

  “Sorry it didn’t go better. I just brought the boys home, and they’re disappointed that grandpa isn’t here.”

  Charles chuckled. “Tell them I’ll be back to see them soon.”

  “I hope that turns out to be the case. Jack really shouldn’t have made you feel so uncomfortable.”

  “I’m sure I disturbed him as much as he did me.”

  Amy was silent for a moment. “And you disturbed me, too.”

  “I’m sorry, Sweetheart, I should haves kept my opinions to myself.”

  “I think I needed to be disturbed. I’m like you in that I can get comfortable with the way things are and cruise along without considering whether they could be better. You’ve sort of broken down some psychological boundaries that I’d set for myself. Now I’m starting to see more opportunities.”

  “Just remember to take baby steps because you have to bring Jack along on this if you want your marriage to work.”

  “I know. I can be pretty good at compromise when I have to be.”

  “Let’s hope Jack shares that skill,” Charles said, although he had his doubts. He suspected that Jack was too much like his father to be malleable, but hoped he was wrong.

  Charles hung up and sat back for a moment reflecting on Amy’s situation. He certainly didn’t want his interference to bring an end to her marriage. Barbara had always warned him not to express his reservations about Jack when he and Amy were first going out. She said the decision had to be Amy’s. Charles had listened, but he’d never been convinced that his silence hadn’t been a mistake. Jack had been head over heels in love with Amy, and Charles had always felt that Amy suffered from some of his own inability to say no to those who are obviously taken with her. He thought of Lieutenant Thorndike’s advice, and wondered if Amy shouldn’t have broken the relationship off at the beginning when the disappointment would have been less severe.

  Thinking of the Lieutenant, he recalled her question about his contact at Yale, and he decided it was time to give Adam Sussman a wake-up call. He got right through to him.

  “I was wondering if you’d had an opportunity to pursue that matter we spoke about,” Charles said, knowing he sounded like the stereotype of a secret agent.

  “I’ve been working on it, Charles. The fly in the ointment has been that Christian Geller, the guy who I think would know the most, has been away for a few days. I finally managed to reach him, and we’re scheduled to have dinner here in New Haven tomorrow night. It was the soonest he could see me.”

  “That sounds promising.”

  “It all depends on how much he knows. I think he’ll be willing enough to talk to me and his memory seems great, but it will be a matter of how close he was to the scandal in the first place.”

  “Hopefully we’ll end up knowing more than we do now.”

  “Do you really think Garrison’s death traces back ten years to Yale?”

  “If I’m wrong, then we really have no clue who the killer might be, and this person has already killed twice.”

  “Do you think he’d kill again?”

  “If he had to in order to protect himself.”

  “I guess it always comes down to survival, doesn’t it?”

  “Yes,” Charles said, thinking about the risk to his own life, “it definitely does.”

  *****

  The next morning Charles waited until he was certain Greg would have left on his run, and then decided to go on his own. Just in case the shooter was waiting outside the front door, Charles went out the back. He quickly ran around the house, and went up the street zigzagging wildly from one side to the other to prevent a possible gunman from getting a good shot. He was sure that to anyone watching, he looked ridiculous, but as Adam had suggested, you did what you needed to do for self-survival.

  He could easily imagine the shock of the bullet hitting his spine, tearing it apart. And he was only able to relax once he was over the hill and out of sight of home. At first he felt awkward, like his feet were hitting the ground too hard, and his glasses danced up and down on his nose. But soon his stride lengthened out, his muscles stretched, and he began to relax into a rhythm. This was the first that he had run by himself in over forty-five years, and he found it relaxing. Although he had appreciated having Greg along for silent encouragement, he had often found himself trying to match him stride for stride, which forced him into a faster pace than he was comfortable keeping. Having another person along was also a distraction to his mind, which wanted to go off on its own tangents before eventually coming into harmony with his body.

  Sooner than he would have believed possible, Charles had reached the half-mile point. He was tempted to go farther, but recalled that he hadn’t be able to make it quite all the way home the last time. Deciding he’d better keep something in the tank, he turned around and headed back. When he was about three blocks from home and still feeling pretty good, Charles began to put on speed, imagining he was in a race and could hear the roar of a cheering crowd.

  Suddenly a car pulled up beside him. He glanced over as his heart rate jumped, half expecting to see the ugly muzzle of a revolver staring out at him.

  “Charles,” Andrea Boyd called out, “what are you doing?”

  “Running,” he managed to answer breathlessly.

  “I can see that. But should you be out running when someone tied to shoot you at the movie theatre just the other night?”

  Charles stopped. “How do you know about that?”

  Andrea brought the car to a halt. “One of your former students who’s working on campus saw you there bending over the body. I just assumed because of what’s been happening recently that the shot was meant for you. When I couldn’t get you on your home phone yesterday and your cell went to voice mail, I got worried. I thought I’d stop by early and see how you were.”

  “Look, that’s very nice of you, but could we talk about this back at my house?”

  “Sure. Do you want a ride?”

  Charles gave the offer the look of contempt it deserved. “I’ll meet you there.”

  As Charles ran the rest of the way, he realized that despite his dislike of being called on his cell phone, he should really turn it on more. Otherwise what was the point of having one?

  He met Andrea in the driveway. They went into the house. He poured them each a cup of coffee. He offered her some cereal, but she said she’d already had breakfast. They sat down at the table and faced each other. She studied him as if checking for hidden wounds.

  “Are you sure you’re all right?”

  He nodded. “Why do you ask?”

  “Well, I never thought you were one for physical exercise.”

  “I’ve picked up running since my retirement. I think I’m going to stay with it.”

  She nodded and sipped her coffee.

  “So everyone at school knows I was involved in that shooting the other night?”

  “There was an article in the Opalsville Gazette about it. You weren’t mentioned there. But your student’s rumour has pretty much spread all around the school. Exactly what happened?”

  Charles explained to her how his date had gone bad.

  “And if she hadn’t stepped in front of you, you would have been killed?”

  Charles nodded, feeling a familiar shiver down his spine.

  “The police think this ties in with Garrison’s murder?”

  “Right. They think whoever killed Garrison and his wife is behind the attempts on my life.”

  “But why?”

  “Because I’ve been looking into the case. The police think I’ve gotten the killer worried, so now he or she is coming after me.”

  “What could you have done to make the killer nervous?”

  “Like I told you last time, I’ve figured out that she must be someone who knew Ga
rrison Underwood ten years ago at Yale, and I’ve been checking around to see who on campus was at Yale ten years ago. The only two people I found were Jessica Rhyser in theatre arts and Deborah Gould in biology. But they both claimed not to have known Underwood very well. Although it seemed to me that Gould might have been holding back something.”

  “Do you think one of them is the killer?”

  Charles paused and stared across the kitchen.

  “If I were to go by my intuition, I’d have to say no. Neither one of them liked Garrison from what they knew about him, but I didn’t get the impression that they hated him enough to kill him. And now I’ve started to think that our killer may have left Yale and gotten her degree someplace else, so it could be any female faculty member in her thirties.”

  “But how do you know it was a woman from ten years ago?”

  “There’s this story running around Yale that he had some student as his sex slave. I figure she might have motive enough to kill him.”

  Andre shook her head in bewilderment. “Seems like quite a reach to me. From what I’ve heard about Garrison, he made enemies wherever he went, and he’s probably gotten around a lot in the last ten years. And why would this woman you suspect have killed Sylvia Underwood?”

  “I’ve been giving that some thought, and I believe it was because Sylvia recognized her on campus. She was with Garrison at Yale, and may have known who this woman was. She probably hated her if she was Underwood’s sex slave. When she saw her here at Opal, she would no doubt have taken her suspicions to the police.”

  “But you have no idea as to this woman’s identity?”

  He shook his head. “But I’ve got Adam Sussman looking into it. Do you remember Adam?”

  She shook her head.

  “Yeah, he might have graduated a year or two before you arrived. Well, he teaches at Yale now, and he’s asking around to see if he can find out her identity.”

  “Ten years is a long time.”

  “Not so long at a place like Yale. People who get tenure tend to stay around. Somebody is bound to remember the Underwood case, and he or she just might remember the students involved.”

  Andrea reached across the table and put her hand on Charles’ arm.