“Have you both been selling other papers to paper mills?” asked Marlee.
Jeremy nodded while Zack continued to stare at the carpeted floor. “I needed the money. My mom has cancer and I needed to help her with her bills. I was already working two work-study jobs and couldn’t put in any more hours working and keep up with my classes. I didn’t know what to do. Zack told me about selling papers to the paper mills and how much money I could make from it, so I did it. I told myself I would only do it a few times, but my mom needed more and more medical help. We had to pay for someone to care for her at home. The insurance wouldn’t cover it. I didn’t know what else to do.” Jeremy said, as he broke down in sobs that made his whole body heave. He held his head in his hands as tears ran down his face.
“When did you first access his computer?” Marlee asked.
“The week before he died,” Jeremy said between sobs. “We didn’t think he would ever find out that we copied one of his short stories and sold it. Somehow he found out and said he was going to the dean with the information. I knew we would probably be kicked out of school, so we waited for him one night outside his office. I knew he worked really late into the night most days, so we waited and waited for him to come out. When he didn’t come out, I called his office from my dorm room and said we wanted to talk right away. He came running out of the building, and Zack pulled the gun on him and told him not to tell a soul about what we did. Dr. LeCroix grabbed for Zack’s arm and the gun went off. We didn’t know what to do, so we threw the gun in the dumpster and ran off. A few minutes later, we decided we needed to make it look like a robbery, so we came back and took out his wallet to make it look like we took his cash. Then we got the gun from the dumpster, wiped off our finger prints and put it back in there under a pile of garbage.”
“How did his death mirror his short story?” asked Marlee.
“I didn’t realize it did until after the accident,” said Jeremy.
“It’s seems very coincidental that the story basically matches up with the crime scene and the manner of death,” said Marlee. “And I don’t believe in coincidences.”
“Zack grabbed Dr. LeCroix’s keys and got back into Scobey Hall and then into his office. He accessed the computer and changed Dr. LeCroix’s story around to match the death. He tried to make the story look like it was a suicide note. Then Zack wiped the keys off and left them on Dr. LeCroix’s desk and came back outside. Then we got out of there because we knew Dr. Dole came into the office really early.”
“Where did the gun come from?” asked Marlee.
“It belonged to Zack’s grandpa. He has an antique gun collection and Zack didn’t think he would notice it was gone. It was so old that we didn’t even think it would work and Zack told me there weren’t any bullets in it anyway,” said Jeremy.
“So, you two are the ones who have been leaving threatening notes on my car?” asked Marlee.
Jeremy nodded. “We knew you were going to figure it out eventually, so Zack tried to scare you away from asking so many questions by leaving a message on your home phone. I put the notes on your car when I was writing out parking tickets for my other job. I put the note under your door when I was out hanging up flyers. We were never really going to hurt you.”
“Kind of like you never meant to hurt Logan LeCroix?” Marlee asked looking Jeremy straight in the eye.
“We never meant to hurt him!” Jeremy shrieked, the sobs overtaking his body again.
A knock at the door interrupted further conversation in Marlee’s office. She pulled open the door to find Bettina Crawford and Sean Yellow Tail from the Elmwood Police Department. Marlee had alerted Bettina to her belief that Jeremy and Zack had killed Logan LeCroix and asked that she come over with backup. The two police officers crowded into the already packed office. Bettina and Sean read both Zack and Jeremy their rights and handcuffed them before leading them out of the office and down to the police station. Jeremy was still sobbing, but Zack continued to look down at the floor, stone-faced.
After the two students were taken from campus, Marlee tended to the first and most important order of business. She called Joe Tisdale at the hotel and said with a quivering voice, “We got ‘em, Joe. We got ‘em.” Joe broke down in sobs as she relayed the details of the murder as the story had just unfolded in her office. They both wept as they discussed the senselessness of Logan’s death.
After a long, heartfelt conversation, Joe said, “I guess this now means your career is safe at MSU.”
“Whoa, I hadn’t even thought about that. I hope it does. After all, the reason the dean said I was not going to have my contract renewed was because I disobeyed him and asked questions about the investigation. Since my questions helped bring about the arrest of those who killed Logan, he should think twice about firing me,” said Marlee before hanging up the phone.
Marlee then marched down to Dean Green’s office. Louise said he was on a phone call, but Marlee didn’t care. She barged into the dean’s office and hit the receiver on his telephone, cutting off his call.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” bellowed the dean, leaping out of his chair.
“Sit down and listen for once!” Marlee yelled, adrenalin coursing through her system and giving her super powers. “For your information, two students were just arrested in the murder of Logan LeCroix. They killed him because he was going to turn them in for stealing his written work and selling it to online paper mills. I suspect you know some of this already and that’s why you threatened my career!”
“How would I know anything about it? Why would I want it covered up?” the dean shouted, with an air of righteous indignation as he sat back down in his swivel chair.
“Because MSU had cameras that captured part, if not all, of the murder. You and others in administration destroyed the tape because you didn’t want it to tarnish MSU’s reputation any further. A suicide on campus can be easily explained away and quickly forgotten, but two students killing a professor would seriously impact MSU’s current and future enrollment. You and others in administration did it to protect your asses!” Marlee yelled, banging her fist on the dean’s desk.
“Not true! None of this is true!” yelled Dean Green, standing from his chair in an attempt to use his height and girth to intimidate Marlee. As much as the dean protested, Marlee could see in his eyes that she had hit upon the truth.
“How much did you know about the cheating scandal on campus? Did you know that was part of the reason for the murder?” asked Marlee, unfazed by the dean’s attempts to shut her down.
“Get your ass out of here now before I call campus security!” yelled Dean Green, banging his fist against the bookcase near his desk for effect.
“I assume my career here is in good standing and that I won’t need to find a teaching position elsewhere,” Marlee said smugly over her shoulder as she left the office.
“Don’t fucking count on it,” sneered the Dean.
Afterword
Jeremy admitted everything to the police as soon as he was questioned at the station. Zack remained silent and requested an attorney right away. After conferring with his lawyer, Zack realized that pleading guilty was his only option, given Jeremy’s admission. The two pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and were sentenced in Sheehan County Court in Elmwood, South Dakota, on February 5th, 2005. In exchange for their guilty pleas, the charges against them for threatening Marlee through the telephone and notes were dismissed.
Zack was held more culpable than Jeremy, since he was the one who provided the firearm and actually shot Logan LeCroix. The judge sentenced Zack to twenty years in the South Dakota State Penitentiary. Jeremy’s sentencing hearing was particularly heart wrenching, as his terminally ill mother testified on his behalf and pleaded with the court to let her only child remain out on bond until she died. Although moved by her pleas, the judge sentenced Jeremy to fourteen years in prison with the term to begin immediately. Jeremy was dragged from the court room in handcuff
s while his mother shrieked his name over and over. Jeremy’s aunt grabbed his mother’s small frame in an embrace before she could collapse to the floor. She died less than a month later. Jeremy was not allowed to attend the funeral.
The buying and selling of papers at MSU seemed to decline after Jeremy and Zack’s involvement was disclosed. Whether it actually declined was anyone’s guess, since students may have just moved on to other forms of cheating and plagiarism that had not yet come under fire. It came out during the sentencing hearing that Zack was making $2,000 per month by selling papers to online paper mills. Much of his money was spent on alcohol, hard drugs and online gambling. Jeremy became involved in stealing and selling papers when he became financially desperate due to his mother’s cancer.
After Zack and Jeremy’s arrests and convictions for the murder of Logan LeCroix, Dean Green was forced to backtrack on his previous threat that this would be Marlee’s last year teaching at MSU. Relieved that she would not have to leave MSU and Elmwood to look for a new career, she knew her position was far from secure. Marlee needed the recommendation of her dean to earn tenure and she knew that Dean Green would like nothing better than to see her fail. She wasn’t sure how far he would go to make that happen. Her relationship with the dean, who was supposed to be her advocate for the tenure process, was on very shaky ground. The video footage from outside Scobey Hall on the early morning of Logan’s murder was never found. MSU’s statement was that the video tape was accidentally destroyed before anyone could view it to see what it contained. Administrators from MSU, including Dean Green, swore this in written statements to the Elmwood Police.
Much to Marlee’s surprise, Chief Langdon did not have anything to do with the cover-up of Logan’s murder. She thought that perhaps the chief and the dean were in cahoots, but later came to realize that was not the case. The chief sincerely thought the matter was a suicide and was satisfied with a quick resolution to the case. When Jeremy and Zack confessed, the chief immediately backtracked by indicating that the investigation was still ongoing, but that the PD needed the real killers to let down their guard. Bettina Crawford and Sean Yellow Tail both received commendations for arresting Jeremy and Zack. Bettina was promoted to detective, and Sean Yellow Tail was given the coveted special project of working to develop a diversity committee in Elmwood.
Alan Haskell left MSU two weeks after the incident in his office with Marlee. The official reason given for his departure was that he had found a job closer to his home in Alabama. Unofficially, Al was terminated due to his racist, sexist and homophobic comments both on- and off-campus.
After the real perpetrators were identified, suspicion was lifted from Nate Krause. To his credit, he did not hold a grudge and even seemed to blossom after the investigation. He continued with counseling and became actively involved in campus activities. Nate re-enrolled in Intro to French and passed with a B. He later decided to add French as his minor.
Even without her dean’s support, Marlee started a Criminal Justice Club. The founding members were Dominic Schmidt, Donnie Stacks and Jasper Evans, but the membership grew to over twenty within a short time. Since the club was not sanctioned, Marlee could not hold meetings on campus, but that did not prevent her from holding the meetings at various eating establishments in Elmwood. She was also not allowed to advertise the Criminal Justice Club on campus, but she announced the upcoming meetings in her classes anyway. She made good on her deal to go on a date with Sanjay, as promised. They went to dinner at Apollo’s. Marlee ordered a garlicky pasta dish with extra garlic and spent most of the time talking about her cat. There was no second date.
Joe returned to California. He drove Logan’s car, packed full of Logan’s belongings from campus and his apartment. Joe sold the large home where he and Logan had lived for the past several years. There were just too many memories. He and the dogs moved to a small house with a big back yard in the nearby city of Petaluma when he found employment in the engineering field. Joe spread Logan’s ashes near the Mendocino National Forest where they used to go camping with their dogs.
Midwestern State University returned to normal, at least as normal as it could get after a murder, following Zack and Jeremy’s sentencing hearings in February. Students went to classes, and professors continued to teach them. Spring came early with warm days that melted the snow. The early arrival of spring brought hope to a campus that had experienced a dismal fall and winter. Joe Tisdale donated money for an annual scholarship in Logan LeCroix’s name. The stipulations of the scholarship were that the student must be minoring in French and have dealt with some type of barrier in his or her life.
The first recipient of that scholarship was Nate Krause.
The Day of the Dead, celebrated on November 1st, is a time for the living to remember and pay tribute to the deceased. It is believed that on November 1st, the spirits of the dead return to earth to be with their loved ones for 24 hours. For Joe and my friends in both California and South Dakota, November 1st will forever remind them of me. It was the day I died.
The End
About The Author
Brenda Donelan is a life-long resident of South Dakota. She grew up on a cattle ranch in Stanley County, attended college in Brookings, and worked in Aberdeen as a probation officer and later as a college professor. Currently, she resides in Sioux Falls. Day of the Dead is the first book in the University Mystery Series.
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