Veritas

by Anne Laughlin

  Sally disconnected and cursed herself. Why did she say it was an armed robbery? There hadn’t been a single armed robbery in town since she arrived and she knew it sounded made up. And why did she say she’d talk to her later? She had no intention of doing that. Carrie Modenari wasn’t going to visit Mount Avery. She wasn’t even going to get a return call from Sally. The woman that Sally hoped would be in her future would be nothing like Carrie. She hadn’t found her yet in Mount Avery, but she was patient.

  *

  The Town Hall for Mount Avery was located at the very north end of Main Street, about a block and a half past the shopping area. The hall was built in the 1970s, and its single-story, cement-block sprawl was now not only ugly, but old as well. It housed the mayor’s office, the assessor and tax departments, city clerk, and a few other municipal departments. The biggest room in the building was the conference room where the town council met once a month. Here Mayor Rudy Blaise presided over the six brave citizens who volunteered to serve their town and ponder decisions as diverse as the rezoning of the old Hy-Vee grocery lot to lowering the eligibility age for the annual Pork Queen to fifteen, seeing as there were fewer and fewer high school juniors and seniors actually willing to be a Pork Queen.

  Beth trotted up Main, late for the lunch meeting that the town hosted once a year as a gesture of goodwill to the college. Her brain was racing from the multiplying problems that were finding their way to her desk. Problems multiplying on campus were like problems multiplying within Beth herself, white blood cells growing from an infection, making her ill. She knew she should maintain some kind of distance between her personal and professional life, but as they were essentially one and the same, she never could figure out how that was done.

  Generally the college and town enjoyed a peaceful relationship, but there were the expected troubles also. Grafton College students, like students everywhere, were hell-bent on getting drunk and acting stupid. Young people of Mount Avery liked to get drunk and act stupid too. Sometimes when this occurred in the same place, all hell broke loose. In a reenactment of an age-old class battle, the students and the working people chose to take sides against one another, usually when they were in a bar and three sheets to the wind. Luckily, none of these dust-ups had led to any real animosity. The college was the town’s largest employer outside of the corn sweetener plant, and it needed it in order to survive. The college needed the town to provide it with area services and shopping. The relationship worked fine, but the unspoken difference between the two cultures was always present. It was rare that there was any real social interaction.

  As she approached Town Hall, Sally Sullivan emerged from the opposite direction and arrived at the door at the same time as Beth. Sally Sullivan had been hired as chief of police two years before. Beth had seen her around and met her once briefly at a festival, but they were essentially strangers to one another, as much as that was possible in such a small town. Beth had heard a couple things about Sally—that she was an experienced cop, an ex-homicide detective in Chicago, and that she’d taken the job in Mount Avery because she’d grown up in the area and her parents were getting on in years. Beth always thought that sounded a little suspect. Surely there had to be a more complicated reason for moving back to your hometown.

  Beth shook herself into the present as Sally opened the door to the building and waited for Beth to walk through. She was dressed in uniform, a navy shirt and pants, black belt and shoes. Knowing that the cut of these uniforms were usually anything but flattering to women, Beth admired how the chief wore hers. Her slim hips allowed her trousers to drape as trousers should, rather than bulge from womanly curves. Beth loved womanly curves, just not in uniforms designed for men, and she blushed when she realized her gaze had lingered a moment too long before she said hello. Sally smiled and waved her hand for Beth to precede her.

  “I’m afraid I’ve forgotten your name, but I know you’re from the college,” Sally said. “I’m Sally Sullivan, the police chief.”

  “Yes, I remember. I think we met briefly at the Corn Festival last year. I’m Beth Ellis, the dean of the college.” Beth paused in the entry hall. “I’m glad to run into you, Chief. I’m wondering if you’ve gotten a call yet from our dean of students. It seems we have a student missing.”

  “I just got off the phone with Dean Taylor. I’ve put a couple officers to work tracking her down and we’ll see what we find out. Who should I be calling on this?” Sally was reaching for a notepad and pen.

  “That’s Dean Taylor’s area. I think she’ll just be more upset if I step into this. Thanks for asking, though.”

  “Is there anything you know about the student that might help us?” Sally glanced at her notepad. “It’s Jennifer Manos, correct?”

  “That’s right. Jennifer is a senior and was a student of mine when I was still teaching in the English department. I was also her advisor, so I got to know her pretty well. She’s really, really bright, but kind of a loner. She doesn’t make friends easily.”

  They walked down the hallway to the conference room, their shoes making a huge noise on the linoleum floor, the sound echoing off the concrete block walls. The city offices were closed for the lunch hour, most of the workers having headed home for their sandwiches and soap operas, or over to Lou’s Diner down the street.

  Sally and Beth entered the conference room to find they were the last to arrive for the luncheon meeting. The mayor and several of the council members had already helped themselves to sandwiches and chips set up on a table along a wall. A tent card with CATERED BY LOU’S DINER had been placed near the soft drinks. Beth happened to love Lou’s Diner and ate there frequently with faculty friends. She’d even conducted senior seminars at Lou’s, enjoying the intricate and sometimes heated conversations on literature while sitting around the long table in the front of the diner, the table that was occupied by local farmers every morning. She scooped up a sandwich, hesitated over the chips before picking up an apple instead, and took a seat at the conference table. Sally sat next to her a moment later and passed a bag of chips over with a smile. “Here, live a little. You’ll just run it off later.”

  “How do you know I run?” Beth asked.

  “Well, I wouldn’t be much of a police officer if I didn’t notice you running by the station practically every day for the past two years.”

  “Is that what the police do in this town? I’ve always wondered. You stare out the window during your shifts and what, compare notes?” Beth realized she sounded a little asinine.

  “We observe, Dean. And I’ve observed you running by the station.”

  Beth took the bag of chips and arranged her lunch in front of her, glancing once more at Sally. She was like a TV cop, good looking by any Hollywood standard. She appeared to be in her late thirties, tall and angular. Her dark hair was short and beautifully layered, a cut she almost certainly did not get in town at Betty’s Hair Salon. Sally seemed perfectly comfortable and sure of herself, which Beth found both intriguing and slightly irritating.

  Mayor Blaise sat at the head of the conference table with five of the town council members sitting on either side of him, most of them merchants or professionals in town. The sixth member was a veterinarian who, as usual, was out on an emergency call at a nearby farm. The mayor opened the meeting with a statement he read from an index card, welcoming Beth to their council meeting and noting how much he looked forward to breaking bread with the college representative once a year.

  “Now, we like to have these meetings so we can nurture the close relationship we’ve always enjoyed with the college. Usually we like to see the president attend, no insult intended, Dean. But that’s how serious we take this meeting.”

  Beth had a rather large mouthful of chips to contend with before she managed to reply. The town officials were all looking at her, most of them finished with their meals. “Mr. Mayor, let me just say that it is an honor for me to be here today, and I know the president would feel the same way had circumstances a
llowed him to attend this meeting. Unfortunately, he was called away on important business out of the country.”

  “I’m just a little disappointed. I think we all are. It may surprise you to know that since he’s been president of the college, no one in this room has had an opportunity to meet him.”

  “I didn’t know that,” Beth said. Everyone was still looking at her, except for Sally, who’d gotten up to pour herself a cup of coffee. “Mayor, I sense that you feel a little unhappy about that. Is there anything I can do to improve the situation?”

  “I don’t know if you can. Part of the reason we get together each year is to talk about how we can have the least division between our two communities. I’ve noticed that since your president has come on board, there has been a little rise in the friction between the two.”

  Again with the “your president” thing. It was beginning to feel like being collared by a drowning man in open water. He was threatening to bring her down too. “I’ve not been made aware of any incidents, Mr. Mayor. Tell me about them.”

  “Well, as an example, let me have the chief here tell us about some reports she’s been getting over the last couple of months.”

  Sally had just settled back into her seat next to Beth. She appeared a little startled when the mayor called on her.

  “You know, Chief, how I was asking you about the way the young people weren’t getting along in the taverns lately.”

  “Well, Mayor, if you’re referring to the scuffle outside Werni’s last week, I can’t say that it was much of a disturbance. We’ve only been called out about once a month to take care of any disputes over there or at Drexel’s bar. And not all of those involved students. I consider that to be a pretty acceptable rate, to speak truthfully.”

  “It might be an acceptable rate if you’re in Chicago,” Mayor Blaise said.

  “Mayor, if we were in Chicago, these wouldn’t even be called incidents.” Sally took a drink of her coffee.

  Beth could see that the mayor was annoyed. “Mr. Mayor, I feel like we should do something to show you how much we, as a college, value our relationship with the town. Clearly you’re concerned, and I would like to address the issue with you. What can we do?”

  They spent the next half hour discussing joint projects between town and college, including setting up a scholarship contest for a town student to attend the college.

  While Beth said her good-byes to the mayor and council members, she noticed Sally slipping out of the room. She excused herself as quickly as she could and hurried out of the building and onto Main Street where she found Sally talking on the phone and reading something off the notepad in her hand. When Beth reached her, Sally was just putting her phone back on her belt.

  “Do you have anything on Jennifer, Chief?” Beth asked.

  “No, not yet. We’ve got people working the phones, and I’ll be heading over to interview Jennifer’s housemates later.”

  “What do you think the chances of finding Jennifer are?”

  “You shouldn’t worry at this point. Your student is probably fine. It’s been my experience that when adults go missing, it’s more often than not because they don’t want to be found.” Sally turned her head as a squad car pulled up. “If there’s anything to find out, we’ll find it out, and I’ll keep the college informed.”

  “Thank you, Chief.”

  “Try not to worry,” Sally said, hesitating before getting in the car.

  “Well, I don’t think that will happen, but I’ll try.”

  Beth turned toward campus as Sally and the young officer at the wheel took off quickly down Main. She was worried about Jennifer, but the worry hadn’t yet moved into a position of prominence. It was being kept at arm’s length by worries about the tenure situation, Landscome’s reign of terror, the threat to her job, and the changing feel of the campus. She picked up her step and began the uphill climb to Old Main, thinking also about the other thing taking up space in her head—confident, problem-solving Sally Sullivan and how she looked in a uniform. Beth felt a little more out of breath than usual as she continued to climb back to campus.

  *

  At the end of the workday Beth picked up her car at home and drove over to the Hy-Vee. Her night stretched in front of her in a comforting way. She planned to buy her favorite foods to eat, watch her favorite movie, and then climb into a hot bath. These things were like pacifiers to her, tried and true methods for zoning out and halting the worry cycle, at least for a few hours. She had never learned to confide in others in the way that came so naturally to most women.

  For the most part, Beth’s only companions growing up were the young women working for her mother, or the young men who worked security, and though some were very kind to Beth, others were not. None of them stayed very long.

  Beth turned her isolation into an opportunity. She fell in love with reading and study and the worlds she could conjure up while she sat with her books. She learned she could leverage this one thing she had on her own, the one thing no one could take from her, into a career, a way of life, a way out of the life she knew in Nevada. She supplemented her mediocre public education with a thorough course of self-study in the classics of literature and philosophy. She aced her college entrance exams, wrote an exquisite application essay, and, of course, had a straight-A average. Her full four-year scholarship to Smith College had her mother sit up and take notice.

  “That’s an impressive moneymaker,” her mother had said, running down the list of scholarship benefits. “I’m glad your hobby paid off. Problem is, it’s not an asset you can use over and over, do you know what I mean?”

  “Yes, I think so, Mother. I’m idiotically throwing away my youth on academics instead of mindlessly fucking man after man at the Liaison Fantastique. I expect, however, that I’ll have a few more options than your girls do at thirty.”

  “You could take over this ranch someday. I’d never let one of those numbskulls take it over. It would be a damn shame to sell it.”

  It was true, Beth knew only too well, that her mother trusted no one to administer anything about the workings of the ranch but herself and Beth. Consequently, there was never a time that her mother was not working. She missed all of Beth’s graduations except for high school, where everyone in the gymnasium knew what Mae Ellis did for a living. It just seemed sometimes that if there was a way for her mother to make things harder on Beth, she intuitively fell to doing just that.

  Beth was just pulling out frozen egg rolls and pizza puffs when she felt the freezer door held open for her. She turned to see Mel, grinning as usual, holding a six-pack of beer under her arm.

  “Hello, sweetheart. You have anything to say for yourself tonight?”

  Beth laughed and slapped at Mel’s arm. “Yes, I do. I want to say thank you for the visit last night. I was entirely selfish, I took advantage of you, and I slept like a baby. So, thanks.”

  “No problem. You know it’s a standing offer.” Mel took the cart from Beth and they started walking toward the check-out. “What’s up this evening?”

  “Are you thinking of asking yourself over? You’ve never visited two nights in a row, Mel.”

  “So?” Mel kept pushing the cart, nodding her head at several women along the way. “It doesn’t mean anything.”

  “You’re sure? I know we’ve talked about this, so I don’t want to belabor the point, but I don’t want you to misunderstand anything.”

  Mel put her arm around Beth and squeezed her tight. “You’re worrying again. It’s just friendship with a little sex thrown in. I’m not looking for anything else.”

  Beth took back the cart and steered it into a check-out lane. “Okay then. If you want to come over for a movie and junk food, you’re welcome. The company would be nice.”

  “What’s the movie?”

  “ Top Gun. It’s my favorite.” Beth was loading her groceries with a perfectly straight face.

  “ Top Gun is your favorite movie? How is that even possible?”

&nb
sp; Beth laughed again. “I know. Yet another thing adding to my mystique.”

  *

  Sally pulled up to Hadley House, where Jennifer Manos lived with eleven other students. The immediate outer ring of the campus held a number of sturdy old frame houses that were once owned by the solidly middle class in town. As the campus grew and made its way to the edge of these properties, the college bought them up and started to house upper-class students in them. Placement in one of the houses was a privilege of good grades, and the students enjoyed unsupervised living for probably the first time in their lives.

  Despite the good academic reputation of the students living in the row of college houses, there was evidence everywhere that the eggheads could drink as much as the jocks. A couple of spent kegs were listing on the porch of the house, and overflowing garbage bins held empty beer cans. Sally knew that she had it easy compared to cops in towns housing the big universities, but still she was sick of corralling kids who were loud, obnoxious, drunker than lords, and constantly sick in her patrol cars and holding tanks. There were times she yearned for the paddy wagons that cleared away Chicago’s drunk and disorderly, but those were the only times she thought fondly back to cop life in Chicago. She was still in love with life in a town where the murder rate was zero, and had been for a very long time. The mayor of Chicago sang praise to his crime-reduction efforts when the murder rate fell into the six hundreds.

  Officer Ted Benson was in the squad car with Sally. “What do you want me to do while you’re inside, Chief?” Ted was in his first year in law enforcement and looked to Sally to be about eighteen years old, though she knew he was more like twenty-two. That still seemed ridiculously young, but he was eager and seemed to learn quickly. She enjoyed training young cops and making them part of her team. They were much easier to work with than some of the older cops she’d inherited from the previous chief, veterans who still had a hard time taking orders from a woman.