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

”How do you know that? The great Google detective?”

“No, I actually had to read a novel by Ayn Rand in freshman English—Atlas Shrugged—and I still have the book. Her photo’s on the back cover…I checked it out last night.”

“Really, so what’s it about…this novel?”

She grimaced and said, “It was a long time ago that I read it. But, as best I can remember, it was about a time in the future when businesses are complaining about being overly regulated, and business leaders form kind of secret organization. But, Wes, like I said, this was freshman English.

“That bit about over-regulation…you can see why the business types would love her.”

“Well, that’s what Professor Gilroy said…that her novels are read these days more for their economic perspective than for their literary merit.” She had to remember to ask her dad about Professor Gilroy’s comment. Then, “What else did Angel have?”

“Let’s see…OK, she puts the tentative time of death at between 11:30pm and 1:30am. Obviously, the coroner will narrow-down the time frame. And as far as we can tell, there was no one else working on her floor at that time.”

“Makes sense, and it’s why no one heard anything, why no one knew anything till yesterday morning when the Professor didn’t show for the appointment with her student.”

“Right, Carla Nagel. By the way, let’s call her in a few minutes. I’d like you to be on the line—recent student, closer in age, and all that. I’m thinking that we’re probably not going to learn a whole bunch from her, but we’ll call just to be sure.”

“OK. And, Wes, if you want, I can call her on my own…whatever you think.”

“You know, I think I’ll take you up on that. And while you call Ms. Nagel, I’ll follow-up on that other prof—Roberts—and also on the Director out at SkySong. I’ll try to arrange meetings with them today.”

“Sounds good.” Wes gave her the student’s phone number, and Jillian walked over to her desk (Lin’s desk) to make the call.

“Hello?”

“Ms. Nagel?”

“Yah?”

“Ms. Nagel, I’m Jillian Warne, and I’m a Detective Sergeant with ASU Campus Police Department. “

“Oh. Hi.”

“Ms. Nagel, I’m following-up on Professor Siemens’ death. Could we talk a bit?”

“Yah. I’ve been expecting that someone would call. I’m afraid I don’t know much, Detective...but I’ll tell you what I can?” She ended the sentence as if it was a question. From just these few words, Jillian thought that she sounded a little out of it, maybe depressed, which was totally understandable.

“Thanks, Ms. Nagel. OK, so you were working with the Professor on your honors thesis. Is that right?”

“Yah, I’m in the Honors College. And, Professor Siemens was my thesis advisor?”

“If I may, can I ask a couple of personal questions?”

“Sure, I guess?”

“These won’t be anything extreme, I promise. So, first of all, what year are you?” Jillian started with basic questions, thinking it would be a good idea to ease-into the interview.

“I’m just starting my senior year; I’m an English major?” A question again.

“So, how’s your honors thesis coming?”

“It’s going OK…at least it was…before…you know? The honors advisors always tell us to pick our thesis director during our junior year, have a topic, and start working on it during the summer between your junior and senior years. And I did all that.”

“What’s your topic?” As she asked, Jillian remembered her own process. She recalled that the advisors try to prepare you, but it’s a very different experience than writing the usual term paper…lots of revisions.

“Well, Professor Siemens, she’s is an Ayn Rand scholar, and won’t really work with anyone who isn’t writing a paper on her? I’d come-up with a couple of topics that I thought of when I took one of her classes last fall. I thought they were, like OK topics…I even wrote an abstract for both of them to show her, you know, like the advisors tell us? But, she didn’t like my topics so much, and she suggested something else. She, like wanted me to do an analysis of references to Rand’s novels in other places, like book reviews for other authors…stuff like that?“

“How do you do that?”

“It’s all, like web-based, you know, on the net…whatever. As it turns out, it’s an OK topic. There’s a lot of references to her novels. I think the reason Professor Siemens wanted me to study this is because she wants to present the results at a conference she’s putting together during Spring Semester. She has a couple of other students also doing projects that she thought of, too? ‘Course, now…I don’t know. About the conference, or about my thesis. It’s too late to start something new, so I’m a little freaked-out?”

“Well, as it happens, I graduated from ASU also with an honors certificate.”

“Really?”

“Yes, several years ago. And I remember this one student whose thesis director left for a job at another university, right before her senior year. She was really sweating it.”

“What happened?” Jillian could hear that Ms. Nagel had perked-up.

“OK, so the student was a Poly Sci major. And what happened is that the person who initially was her second reader agreed to direct it. And either another professor…or maybe it was someone in the Honors College…came on as the new second reader. Anyway, it worked out OK.”

“That’s great.”

“Main thing, I’d make an appointment and talk to your advisor in the Honors College. Let them know what’s going on, and I’m sure they’ll help.”

“OK, I will.

“Ms. Nagel, can you tell me anything about how it was to work with Professor Siemens?”

“Yah, well, she’s OK. Maybe not the friendliest professor I’ve ever had…she’s not someone you’d, like describe as pro-student, but, she’s OK.”

“May I ask…why’d you decide to work with her, then? Are you a big Ayn Rand fan?”

“Not really. Honestly, I’d never heard of Ayn Rand. It was my dad, actually.”

“Your dad?”

“Yah, like, he’s a businessman…OK, I’m from Kansas, and my dad owns a chain of groceries…they’re mostly in Kansas. He’s also in the Kansas state legislature. And he’s the one who likes