He took out his laptop and swiftly compiled his lecture notes.
"Dr. Jackson?" a voice said at the door.
Taj looked up. "Yes, may I help you?"
"My name is Anne Carter," the lady said eagerly. "I am the secretary for these offices for this semester."
"Oh hello," Taj smiled at her, she was a neat lady in a navy suit. She was tall and slim. Her curly hair was caught up in one. She was devouring him with her eyes, a hint of tears in them.
"How may I help?" Taj asked her calmly. She seemed as if she was about to leap across the desk and kiss him or something.
She sighed and came further into the office. She laughed nervously. "Oh forgive me Taj, I mean Dr. Jackson." She sat in the seat across from him. "For a while you just seemed so familiar." She sat in the seat across from him. "You have class at eight this morning…I shouldn't be taking up your time."
"Oh, you know my schedule?" Taj asked.
"Yes," Anne was still looking at him with uncomfortable intensity, "I know the schedule of everybody in these offices. Don't hesitate to call me for anything. I am at your service anytime."
Taj nodded, opening back his laptop. "Mrs. Carter, I am told I need to hire a student worker to help me out."
Anne Carter was looking at him so long that he was raising his eyebrows in consternation.
She laughed uncomfortably again. "Oh, sorry Sir. Usually, choosing a student assistant is left up to the professor."
Taj nodded.
"You have such a beautiful voice," Anne Carter said.
Taj shifted in his chair uncomfortably. Was his secretary coming on to him? "Er...thank you."
Anne smiled and got up. "Do you want some tea? You left your house so early this morning."
"You know where I live?" Taj asked, his discomfort raising twofold. He had dealt with some patients while in internship who had become fixated on him to the point of stalking. He wondered if his own secretary had traces of the problem.
"Oh yes," Anne said shaking her head vigorously. "I live right across from you."
"Oh," Taj relaxed slightly, "I could do with some peppermint tea."
Anne looked at him again, her eyes softening perceptibly. "Coming right up."
***
Taj entered his Anatomy and Physiology class late. His fellow Psychiatry colleagues, who were eager to welcome him into the fold, had detained him. They were a happy bunch of people, he had to admit, and quite pleasant too. After chatting for some minutes, he had to practically run down the hallway and upstairs to his first class.
He walked to the front of the class. The class was very near his office and he felt a slight twinge of regret that he had not made the effort to reach there on time. He liked to start as he meant to go on, and he didn't want to have a reputation as the professor who was never on time.
"Good afternoon class."
There were thirty of them in the class. His eyes roamed over them and then widened a bit as he saw the girl in the front. She looked like a darker version of Alicia Keys, with a sleek bob haircut and exotically slanted brown eyes. She looked saucy. He could see it in her eyes. She was taking care not to gaze at him but he found her coyness intriguing.
His eyes kept roaming back to her and he hurriedly took out the register to mark their names, just so he could find out what her name was.
When he said, "Natasha Rowe," she raised her hand and looked at him fully. She had been avoiding looking at him directly and he smiled at her. She hurriedly lowered her eyes again and Taj almost forgot that he had the other names to mark.
It was almost a relief to start the class, to get the lesson out of the way so that he could assess his attraction to an undergrad student.
He felt ridiculous and mixed up at the same time. It had hit him out of nowhere, this attraction. He sat at his desk and waited until the students filed out. He deliberately took his time putting back his papers in his briefcase, waiting for her to walk by, but she sat packing up her books slowly. Her cellular phone was on vibrate and she ignored it. Ever so often, he saw it buzz and the lights flash on and off as it made that sound, like she was getting a text or a call.
He wondered if it was her boyfriend calling. What was her story? Everybody had a story and some amount of relationship baggage. She looked to be in her early twenties—no ring on her finger—very attractive. Usually these days that meant a whole lot of baggage.
He usually stayed far from 'baggage.' In fact, he hadn't dated anyone in the past two years. He was perennially single and a part of that had to do with his job. His job as psychiatrist was messing with his perception of people, especially women. He had the tendency these days to analyze everything about his dates.
He had already self-diagnosed himself as being on the verge of paranoia. So usually he admired women, appreciated their looks but a part of him was very wary to get involved.
That he found himself more curious about this one woman than most was a miracle. Then again, he was not even sure she was a woman—maybe she was a teenager. The thought made him get up hurriedly. His first day of school and he was attracted to an undergrad, teenager.
He needed to get a life.
"Dr. Jackson," she said ruefully. She was looking at him now. When she stood up he noted that she was tall, and shapely. She looked lean and toned like one of those native statues that were displayed at the front of the art's building.
He blinked, when her voice intruded on his thoughts.
"I was wondering, have you chosen a student worker yet?"
Taj shook his head. He found his gaze wandering to her cropped top. She had raised her hand and he had gotten a peek at her belly button. His lower anatomy instantly switched to red alert.
He cleared his throat. "Follow me to my office if you will, Miss...er..." he pretended that he couldn't remember her name.
"Natasha," she smiled, "Natasha Rowe."
"Okay," he spun around and walked briskly to his office with Natasha in tow. Anne Carter was at her desk, a phone to her ear. She glanced up at him and then to the girl behind him and a smile broke out on her face.
"I know you," she said.
"Yes Mrs. Carter we met this morning," Taj said.
She laughed at that. "Not you Dr. Jackson-- her." She pointed at Natasha. "What's your name again?"
"Natasha Rowe." Natasha was smiling at her.
"We'll talk later," she said to Natasha and went back to her phone conversation. Taj let himself into his office, leaving the door opened for Natasha to follow him.
"So you know my secretary?"
Natasha grinned. "Yes Sir. She used to live in my old district in Parottee."
Taj nodded. "I've heard of that place, that's near the sea, right."
Natasha nodded again. "Yes, mostly fisher folk are from that end of the island."
"So your parents are into fishing?" Taj asked interestedly. He sat at his desk and put down his briefcase.
"Yes Sir, my mother is a fish vendor and my father a fisherman. Well he was. He died three years ago."
Taj leaned back in his chair. "How old are you?"
"Er..." Natasha fidgeted a bit. She and Harry had agreed to be as honest as possible with their basic information; they were always better off that way. "Twenty-seven."
Taj's eyes widened. "You don't look it and usually I am a pretty good judge of ages. So, what are you doing here at Mount Faith University?
"Psychology." Natasha said easily. She had done Anatomy and Physiology when she did Forensic Psychology.
Taj grunted. "I am not sure this is the right place for you, Natasha." He steeled himself to say it because he found her extremely attractive. If she worked for him he would see her everyday, even when they didn't have classes together on Mondays and Wednesdays.
"You are probably better off over at Social Sciences. That's where you would most likely get the best out of assisting a professor."
Natasha shook her head. "Please Sir. It is only for the semester."
Taj looke
d into her big, limpid brown eyes and realized something. She was using her sex appeal on him.
She was playing with him. But why?
He decided to play along. "Okay. You got the job. We'll be spending quite a bit of time over at the new Psychiatry Center though. I hope that doesn't interfere with your class schedule."
"No." Natasha shook her head vigorously.
Taj's phone rang and he picked it up. It was Ryan Bancroft's secretary, Sarah Gnomes.
"Dr. Jackson, just calling to confirm your appointment with Dr. Bancroft at nine."
"Oh, yes," Taj said, "tell Dr. Bancroft I will be at his office, promptly at nine."
He hung up the phone and looked over at Natasha.
"Okay Miss Rowe, I guess the job is yours. I have a meeting with Dr. Bancroft tomorrow, which means if we get the official seal of approval we are going to have quite a bit of work laid out for us."
Natasha nodded eagerly. "I am looking forward to it. Are you by any chance related to Dr. Bancroft?" She asked innocently. "It's just that you two resemble quite a bit."
Taj raised his eyebrows and shook his head. "No, we are not. Then again, I am not sure. I was adopted."
"You were?" Natasha asked tempering her excitement at that piece of news.
Taj reclined in his chair. "You are particularly nosy Miss Rowe."
Natasha hung her head. "Sorry Sir."
"It's Taj." Taj looked at her profile. She had a really nice neck. If he were a painter, he'd paint it with pleasure. "Call me Taj. I'll call you Natasha. I see no need for us to stand on ceremony when no one is around."
Natasha looked at him again a small smile playing around her mouth. "Want to go out sometime, maybe have a drink?"
Taj gasped. He had never ever been asked out by a woman before. He could feel the attraction between the two of them, but he had been willing to suppress it. He had thought that he wasn't in the market for romance but that blunt invitation he could see blaring from her eyes was hard to resist.
"You are pretty bold, Natasha. You go from Sir to can we have a drink in the blink of an eye. May I remind you that I am your professor, and now boss?"
Natasha cleared her throat and pretended a brazenness she would never dare in her everyday life. "I am free tomorrow evening."
Taj burst out laughing. "I like this. A woman who knows what she wants and goes after it. Okay tomorrow evening it is. I will call you. Enter your number in my phone." He handed her his phone.
Natasha took it and entered her number. "It will be nice to get to know you better." She smiled at him. "I don't play games."
Taj looked at her hard. "Neither do I. You should check Anne for details on your new student worker post."
Natasha stood up. "Thank you for the position.
Taj nodded and watched as she walked away and headed to the outer office. He hated to admit it, but he was hooked. Whatever was going on here, he was too intrigued not to follow through now.
Chapter Four
When Natasha left Taj's office, she was shaking in her boots. She was shy around men by nature, so the girl who just propositioned Taj Jackson was not her. The guy was seriously good-looking and he had this way of staring at her, as if he could see the thoughts in her head.
At one point she was worried that he would call her bluff about the student job and then he just backed down. Then she had thought he would have laughed her out of the office on her impromptu drink invite, but he had taken it in stride.
She had asked not just because of professional curiosity but because she had genuinely wanted to spend some time with him. Mixing business with pleasure was never a good idea and she knew that, but where her attraction to Taj was concerned, she couldn't help herself.
She had done that once before and then found out that the guy she had been dating and looking forward to marrying was the brainchild of a lottery scam. That had wised her up big time. It had been the impetus that she had needed to become a detective.
She shook her head and stopped at Anne Carter's desk. Mrs. Carter was another person she needed to get close to as well. She had chosen Taj's office because she knew that Anne worked there. She was on Harry's long list of suspects and Natasha was eager to eliminate her. She remembered her as being a lovely Christian woman who had loved children. Anne was always the one that they chose to do the children's story at church and she had known all the children by name. Bless her heart, Natasha thought fondly. There was no rhyme or reason she should have killed Edward Carlisle.
"Hey, Anne." She grinned at Anne who was perusing a document. Anne looked up suddenly, her warm smile creeping over her face.
"Hi, Natasha. You have grown into a fine young woman. I almost didn't recognize you when you came through the door. If you didn't look so much like your mother, I would have missed you altogether."
Natasha grinned. "That's understandable. Last time I saw you I was around six or so, but I could never forget your voice."
Anne laughed. "Have a seat. I guess you are Dr. Jackson's new assistant."
"Yes." Natasha nodded. "He said you would brief me on student pay and all of that."
Anne handed her a sheet of paper. "This is a time sheet. Log the hours that you work for Dr. Jackson and at the end of two weeks take it up to the office of Student Affairs, after Dr. Jackson has signed off. The rate for assisting a professor is on there. And you get paid the day after that."
"That sounds pretty simple." Natasha perused the sheet of paper, her brain running— How could she approach the subject of Edward Carlisle?
Anne snatched the moment out of her hands. "So how is the old place? I haven't been back there since I left."
"It's the same old, same old." Natasha said. “Nothing really changes in Parottee. My dad died three years ago. And my little sister Leah, well, she got married last year."
Anne gasped. "She was a toddler when I left. I must be getting old. So sorry to hear about your Dad."
Natasha nodded. "And my Mom is still working at Black River market."
Anne's eyes clouded over. "My mother used to work in Black River market too. I remember those days. Life was tough for us. She had seven of us you know, and my Dad went missing at sea. His body was never found."
Natasha nodded. "I remember hearing that story. It happened long before I was born. Fisherman Fowler went missing at sea and only his boat was found washed up on the beach couple miles away, several weeks after."
"It was a terrible time for our family." Anne grimaced. "About seven years after this happened my mother got the opportunity to go overseas. I got married to Daryl and my other siblings scattered all over Jamaica…doing different things. Nobody wanted to have anything to do with the sea."
"Oh you are married to the banker Daryl Carter?" Natasha asked innocently, as if she hadn't thoroughly checked out this information before.
Anne laughed. "Almost twenty three years now."
"You should be living a life of leisure then, not slaving away at secretarial work," Natasha said, seizing the opportunity to talk about her case.
Anne shook her head. "I love being busy. I can't imagine my life without administration. I also live near here. When we were given the option to buy a place on Mount Faith Drive we took it. So, I live near here and work here…it works for me."
"You must feel extremely sad then," Natasha cleared her throat, "how your last boss just suddenly died like that."
Anne sighed. "I can't say I am sad about his passing."
Natasha's eyes widened, she wanted to jump up and down on her chair. She tempered her enthusiasm. "Why not?"
Anne lowered her voice. "Edward Carlisle had serious issues. He had a secret life that was not befitting the president of a Christian school. Outwardly he appeared like he was a gentleman, but the things he used to do were sickening."
Natasha actually jumped when the phone rang. She wanted to yell to Anne not to answer it, but the dratted phone jerked Anne out of her confidential stance.
She threw on the mantle of
secretary and started talking into the phone.
She got up after talking on the phone and gave Natasha an apologetic smile. "We'll talk some more Natasha, after all we have all the time in the world to catch up on the old place."
Natasha screamed internally. I don't want to catch up on the old place! I want to catch up on the here and now! Specifically Edward Carlisle and his secret life!
She wished for a minute that she wasn't undercover, but she was certain that Anne wouldn't have shared what she just did had she known she is a detective.
***
Natasha called Harry as soon as she stepped out of the office. Harry was working in the academic affairs office as a part time receptionist.
Natasha had laughed when she heard, because Harry could be so grumpy at times. He was definitely not suited to be a receptionist of any kind.
"Meet me at the student lounge in five minutes," she said in the phone when he answered.
"I get off this shift in an hour," Harry said wearily.
"Okay, an hour." Natasha hung up her phone and tried to assimilate the information she learned today.
What she learned so far was that Taj Jackson was adopted. Annette Fowler, now called Anne Carter, wasn't sorry that her boss was dead, but she said he was living a secret life.
She went to the student lounge and sat in a seat behind some potted palms. She could easily see the doorway to the building but the plants obscured her face. This place had potential as a meeting place to catch up on the case.
She laced her fingers through her hair and closed her eyes. Taj Jackson's chiseled features popped up behind her eyelids.
She was surprised when Harry sat across from her grunting. He sprawled out on the seat. "I hate school, but I have info."
He sat up and leaned towards her, "Anita Parkinson VP of academic affairs, is not a lesbian."
Saving Face (Mount Faith Series: Book 1) Page 3
