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

just that we have procedures that everyone is supposed to follow. They’re for your safety…that guy tried to kill you down there. But, the procedures are also designed to protect the case. Don’t forget, he argued that you attacked him. If you’d waited, you would have had a witness.”

She suddenly felt like she was back in Chief McCaslin’s office after she captured Clay Neeley. She would not let herself cry…she just sighed.

Al waited for her to gather herself and look up at him. “You’re a good detective, Jillian…I know it, Wes knows it…and you know it.”

“Does Wes think I messed-up…have you two talked?”

Al kept his mouth closed, but ran his tongue across his upper teeth…she’d seen him do this move many times when he was thinking.

“No, Wes and I haven’t talked about this, but maybe you should talk with him…get his take. It’s just that I don’t want you taking actions like this alone. So, no mas…huh?”

Jillian sat, motionless. Finally, she bit her lip and said, “OK, Chief. I’ll do better…I promise.”

He smiled. “Just so you know, Jillian, this is NOT a formal reprimand. And, I don’t intend to rain on your parade…you deserve all the praise that you’re getting…you captured a killer. You really are a good detective…I’m glad you came over here. Just…watch it…is all I’m saying.”

When Jillian nodded yes, but continued to sit, he said, “Go on, get out of here, go do some more good police work,” and made a sweeping motion with his right hand.

Later, after work, Jillian met Wes at Postinos. When she told him about Al’s comments, he said, ““Yeah, well, Al’s right of course, but, at least you did call for back-up…that’s by the book.”

“Wes, do you think I did wrong?”

Wes sipped his beer, then said, “I can’t tell you how to be a good detective, Jilly. Actually, I can…and do…all the time,” he laughed. “What I mean is that you have to find your own way in this business...and you are. Think how much you’ve learned over the last year or two. And, like I’m always saying, you’re smart and you have good instincts.”

“Thanks, but specifically, should I have gone after Roberts or should I have waited for back-up?”

“At the risk of contradicting Al, I’m not sure there’s an obvious right or wrong here. You did call for back-up, two places actually, and to me, it’s important that you did that. As to whether you should have gone to Roberts’ office, much less followed him down into the tunnels…that’s a tougher question.”

“But what do you think?”

“OK, on the one hand, you didn’t have to do that all by your lonesome, especially going down into the tunnels. I mean, what was Roberts going to do…make a run for it, and where…is he going to seek asylum in Russia?” He laughed again. Then said, “Jilly, I’m kidding, but I’m also trying to get you to lighten-up. OK?”

“OK.”

“So, if you hadn’t gone after him, he might not have run for it at all. And if he had, we would have picked him up somewhere…at the airport or on the way to LA. On the other hand, you did first-rate detective work…figuring everything out like you did. And, it’s human nature to want to finish it up.”

Jillian sat quietly, looking at her untouched wine glass.

“Say something, Jilly.”

“I was excited, Wes. I figured it out…OK, I should have figured it out even earlier, but once I did, I wanted to arrest him…because of what he’d done. I thought I’d covered all the bases by calling you, and leaving that message for you with Doc…and by calling ASU PD. I really did. And then, it seemed like the right thing to do to go get him. I knew someone would be right behind me.”

Wes smiled. “Well then, that’s that. Main thing, think it through…take some time…and ask yourself if something like this happens again, what’s the right play? You’ve got good instincts, Jilly, but you’ve also got a lot of smarts. You know what I think…I think the longer you’re at this, the smarter you’ll be about it.”

“Like you?”

“Yeah, well….” he said, and toasted her and smiled.

Other things went more smoothly. She and Ersula completed their work on the sexual assault task force report. It was modified and approved by the City of Tempe. A companion rule was passed, after a lengthy debate, by the ASU Faculty Senate.

A time or two, she saw some of the key players from the case on campus. Jillian was meeting Grace Wilson in Ross-Blakely Hall when she saw Professor Keefer. He acted like he hadn’t seen her…just looked in a different direction and kept walking.

She and Grace got together now and then. Once, Grace gave her a personal tour through Old Main, ASU’s oldest building, and recounted stories about it being haunted. She said that a janitor who worked in the building late at night told her about hearing the indistinct voices of students, but when he went looking, floor to floor, the building was empty. Grace’s delivery made it a scary ghost story, but then she winked.

Another time, Jillian was having lunch with Carolyn Patek upstairs in the MU, and walked by Professor Gilroy who was seated at a table with companions. When she spoke to him, he preened, and as she walked on, heard him say “that’s Detective Sergeant Jillian Warne,” and preened some more.

Jillian was having lunch with Carolyn to celebrate…she’d gotten on a serious roll and finished her book ahead of schedule. She’d submitted it to the University of Illinois Press, the manuscript had been accepted and was already in production. On the strength of this, Carolyn had put her papers forward to go up for promotion to full professor during the next academic year. No one wanted to jinx her, but most of her colleagues thought she was a shoe-in.

Jillian had also arranged a meeting with Carolyn and Wes, and she shared some of her data from the police academy women she’d interviewed. Wes was still