Death of the Ayn Rand Scholar by Gray Cavender (red scrolls of magic TXT) 📗

SkySong and she and Miriam are colleagues, and, I believe, good friends. And David and Nelda are also friends and colleagues. He had a courtesy affiliation with Rand Studies, so…” he made a motion as if to say, “so it follows.”

“Anyone else come to mind,” Jillian asked.

“Well, obviously Nelda knows…” he stopped mid-sentence and exhaled “…she knew a lot of people…in Business and I would guess in English, too. And for that matter, across campus. But, I think Miriam and David are your best bets in terms of a real connection. I mean, they’re friends.” He looked down and pursued his lips.

As the interview drew to a close, Wes and Jillian exchanged cards with Seay. They promised they’d be in contact as they learned more, he promised to call if he thought of anything important, and he provided campus phone numbers for Miriam Moser and David Roberts. Wes and Jillian again offered their condolences.

Wes and Jillian re-entered the BAC to check if Forensics had arrived at that office. They found another room full of people. They’d been there about ten minutes.

Wes asked Jaime Lopez who was in charge, “Anything so far?”

“Not so far, Wes. We’ll follow our protocol, but everything looks OK, at least on the surface.”

“Appreciate it,” Wes answered. “Anything on the office over in the English Department?”

“There was a dead woman in there,” Jaime said in his usual drole manner. “But, I expect you mean beyond the obvious.”

Wes canted his head, but said nothing.

Jaime smiled and said, “OK, Detective Sergeant Webb…there were blood smears on the floor, and some of the furniture, although not a lot...probably due to the nature of the head wounds…I saw more trauma than laceration. Also, blood smears on the victim’s blouse. And, I don’t know if you guys noticed, but there was blood on that paperweight thing. Given those smears and its shape…could have been the murder weapon…but don‘t hold me to that.”

“Thanks Gil,” Jillian laughed.

“No worries,” Wes assured him. “But, you’re done over there?”

“Yes, everything is logged and bagged and on its way to the lab. Angel took charge of all of it herself. You know Angel. By now, she’s already running tests on everything.”

Wes looked around the office again, then said, “OK, guys, we’re heading out. Let us know when you know.”

Jaime said, “Will do, and by the way, we released the ASU campus cop guy. I hope that was OK.”

“We’re good, Jaime.”

Back out at the golf cart, Jillian said, “It’s a pretty big deal that Angel is working this.”

“Well sure, she manages the lab, but she still gets out into the field now and then. You know, on really high profile cases…I guess like this one. Or on cases that are near and dear…like when children are victims. But yes, you’re right. Her being all ‘hands-on’ says a lot. But…because it is so high profile, she’ll make us the lab’s top priority.”

Jillian nodded, “Hope so.” They were seated in the cart now, but she didn’t start it yet. “OK, so what next?”

“Well, I was thinking about that. OK, why don’t you cart me to the edge of campus and I’ll walk back to Headquarters from there. I want to check-in, mainly to start the ball rolling about getting you assigned to the case. I’ll check with Chief McCaslin first, on the Tempe PD side of things…then call Al, and clear it with him since he’s your boss.”

“OK, sounds good. And what do you want me to do?”

“I thought about that, too, Jilly. You go ahead and interview the woman who’s the Assistant Chair in English. When I finish with our chiefs, maybe I’ll call that student, the one who missed her appointment with the Professor, and talk with her. Or, I may just wait and you can talk with her. You were an ASU student not so long ago and I’m thinking that might put her more at ease.”

Wes bit his lip, paused, and said, “I think that’s about it. When you finish-up in the English Department, why don’t you come over to Tempe and we’ll see what’s what.”

Jillian started the cart. As they moved forward, they saw the Tempe PD Forensics Van parked on their right.

She set out…a straight shot across the campus. As they passed MU and then the original building of Hayden Library on their right, she maneuvered between students and traffic cones and small orange and red and white stripped barricades. The students had noticeably thinned although there were still some. Jillian assumed they were heading to nearby parking structures or to the edge of campus on University.

Jillian said, “In about fifteen minutes, the campus is going to look as empty as it does during Christmas.”

Wes nodded, then said, ”Geez, you can tell this is ASU’s Tempe campus though…there’s as much construction here as there is on Tempe’s city streets.”

“Tell me about it. This construction is all over the campus. And as for Tempe, there’s so much construction over around College Avenue where I live that sometimes I wonder if I’ll be able to get home. And, what’s even crazier, you never know from day to day what streets will be closed, so you can’t even plan your route. It’s a secret…like a Rave.”

“Same in our neighborhood, Jilly. Yeah, Tempe needs new water pipes, but this is insane. I was kidding Marilyn the other day that pretty soon the only way in or out of our street will be by chopper.”

They passed the Social Sciences Building on the right, and then, as they neared the Language and Literature Building, also on the right, Jillian slowed the cart. “So, this is where the English Department was when I was a student. They just recently moved to where we were earlier…like I said, that used to the library for ASU’s law school.”

“What’s that building called again? Some sort of hyphenated name, right?”

“Yes, it’s Ross-Blakely Hall.”

And the one we just past isn’t just Language and Literature. Says, Dunham Language and Literature. What’s with all the names?”

As she braked to