“Poison, but we don’t know the method of delivery. It could be that Roxie poisoned herself, either accidentally or on purpose. The detective working the case thinks it’s murder.”
“That’s a lot of drama for these students to handle. Is everyone doing okay?” Irving inquired, his counselor background showing through.
“As far as I can tell. What I wanted to ask you was how do I go about questioning people about adoption? I have some information that may or may not pertain to the Roxie Harper’s case and it involves an adoption shortly after birth. Are there any no-nos when asking people about their background?” Marlee asked. She knew she’d bungled the talk with Marcus about his adoption and didn’t want to make the same mistakes again when questioning other students in her class. Since Irving had two decades of experience as a counselor, she hoped he could impart some wisdom.
“Each individual is different. Some may want to talk about it and some may not. For many people, it’s a really complicated process involving abandonment issues dealing with the birth mother. There also might be some unrealistic fantasizing about what might have been if they hadn’t been given up for adoption. Then there are the issues surrounding finding out the identity of the birth mother and making contact. Some birth parents want to have contact with the child they gave up, while others will do whatever it takes to make sure their current families don’t find out about other children,” Irving said.
“So, I need to just be sensitive to what each person is saying. There’s no real rule of thumb when discussing adoption?”
“That’s right. A question that might offend or upset one person might be completely acceptable to another. You just have to play it by ear. Good luck finding what you’re looking for.” Irving waived as Marlee got into her car and pulled away from Helping Hands.
Irving Bladmore had a Master’s Degree in counseling and Marlee had hoped he could impart some secret counseling trick to elicit information from her students. She was disappointed that she only received common sense approaches to delving into her students’ backgrounds.
As Marlee drove she looked over at Marcus. “You know we were talking about adoption before and I asked you several prying questions. I’m sorry about that.”
Marcus turned his head toward her smiled. “It’s fine. It just got me thinking about some things I really don’t think about much anymore.”
“When I asked about adoption I really had more than a mild curiosity. I can’t tell you why, but I need to find out if any of the students in this class are adopted. Can you help me with that?” Marlee asked. Even though Marcus was adopted at birth, his story of a distant relative with a multitude of personal problems giving birth to him and his sister rang true. Unless, of course, he was lying.
“Sure. I can ask some of them today. It’s kind of hard subject to get in to, but I think I can probably chat up a few of them at lunch.”
“That would be great. Thanks, Marcus,” Marlee said as she parked the vehicle.
They walked into the enormous buffet restaurant lobby where all of the students were standing. After they paid for their meals in advance, Marlee talked to the hostess and she steered them to a long table in a back room. It was semi-private, as the majority of the other tables were empty. It was early yet, barely after 11:00 am, plus the room was the furthest from the food.
After helping themselves to massive amounts of meats, potatoes, pasta, soups, and dessert, the group settled in at the table. Marlee saw Marcus at the far end chatting up Johnny Marble and the Stone sisters. With any luck he could elicit information from each of them about their families of origin and then move on to talk to other students.
The hungry group wolfed down their first plates of food and returned for more. When everyone was back in the room following their second run to the buffet, Marlee began to speak.
“Well, gang, this has been a big week. Thanks to everyone for doing their part to make it run as smoothly as possible. I know we’re all upset about what happened to Roxie and that she isn’t with us today. I don’t have any new information on the investigation to tell you yet.” She lied because what she did know was not necessarily something she intended to share just yet. After a few more remarks about the class, Marlee reminded the students that they would meet the following Monday on the MSU campus to discuss what they observed during the week long tours and how that changed their previous impressions of the correctional system.
After a few more remarks and giving an assignment, Marlee let the students go. There was a huge uproar as everyone shoved back their chairs, anxious to be on their own time now. Some were on their way back to Elmwood, some were going to their home towns, a couple wanted to hit the mall and do some power-shopping, and the USD students were on their way back to Vermillion.
“Dr. M., I’m riding back to Elmwood with Donnie, Dom, and Jasper. I’ll talk to you on Monday morning to see if I find out anything. I didn’t get much from the Stone sisters and Johnny Marble. I don’t think any of them are adopted,” Marcus said as they approached her vehicle. He grabbed his duffle bag from the back of her car and waved over his shoulder as he went to join the students for the ride back to Elmwood.
Driving home, she had plenty of time to think. Marlee had no idea how Roxie and Dean Green being the parents of one of the students in the Criminal Justice To Go class fit into Roxie’s death investigation. Maybe there was no connection at all. Maybe none of the students were even related to Ira Green or Roxie. She had glanced around the table at lunch, looking for characteristics in the students similar to the former dean and the deceased non-traditional student. None of them bore a resemblance to either party, yet if she stared long enough, Marlee felt like she could find at least one similar feature or trait in each of them. Violet and Paula had Roxie’s curly, light brown hair. Katie Daniels was animated in her conversation, waiving her hands around and increasing her volume until Bart Lamont had to shush her. This was very similar to how Ira Green’s wife handled him when he became overly boisterous. Bart had a nose that was a bit too large for his face, just like Ira Green. Wait, Ramos said the student who was Roxie’s child was attending MSU. So, Katie, Bart, and Becca could not be her offspring since they’re students at USD.
If what Ramos and Ira Green said was accurate, there could only be seven students who could be the love child of Green and Roxie Harper; Johnny Marble, Donnie Stacks, Jasper Evans, Dominick Schmidt, Marcus Johansen, and the Stone sisters. Marlee ruled out Paula and Violet Stone because they were obviously sisters and looked very similar. Reportedly, Roxie had one child she put up for adoption, not two. Marlee knew Donnie, Jasper, and Dom very well and would be quite surprised to find out any of them were Roxie’s child. She had already talked to Marcus at length about his adoption and was satisfied that he was not the child of Roxie and Ira Green. Marlee’s best bet was on Johnny Marble.
The drive home went by in a flash. It was a three hour drive, but Marlee’s thoughts flitted from the death investigation, to her burgeoning relationship with Detective Ramos, and the infidelity of Vince Chipperton with his ex-girlfriend, Suzanne, who was now his new girlfriend. By the time she arrived home, it was late afternoon. She was tired to the point of not being able to relax. Pippa, her sixteen pound Persian sat on the dining room table glaring at her when she walked in the back door toting her suitcase and other belongings.
“Pippa! I’m so happy to see you!” Marlee called and approached the fluffy kitty in an attempt to hug and kiss her. Pippa was having none of it. She was pissed at having been left home alone for the better part of a week. Even though Marlee’s friend and colleague, Diane Frasier, checked in on her every day to give her food, clean water, kitty treats, and scoop her poop, Pippa was not to be consoled. The cat rose to all four feet and arched her back, her luxurious fur sticking out in all directions as she hissed at Marlee.
“Whoa! That’s not a very nice greeting,” Marlee said as she walked by Pippa, not attempting to touch her given the feline’s crabby mood. Marl
ee walked into her bedroom and found a little surprise Pippa left for her. On the new spring quilt, Pippa had yakked up a giant fur ball. Marlee knew her cat planted it on her bed on purpose. Usually when she barfed, it was on the floor. Fur balls in the bed were saved for special occasions, like when Marlee was gone for days at a time or people stayed at the house with their dogs and little children in tow.
Scraping up the dried fur ball remnants with a handful of Kleenex, Marlee sighed. It was good to be home. She threw her suitcase on the floor and went back into the living room. Grabbing her fleece blanket with cartoon kitty cats all over it, she flopped onto the overstuffed blue couch and attempted to take a nap. Caffeine overload, the death investigation, and Marlee’s crises of the heart prevented her from settling in and resting. Finally, she flung back the blanket and walked around her small house, unsure of what to do next. She went through her mail that Diane had stacked on the kitchen counter. Nothing but bills, sale advertisements, and charity solicitations accompanied by one hundred stick-on address labels.
Marlee looked at her home phone and saw there were four messages on her answering machine. The first was a hang up. The second and third were from her mother. The fourth was from Ira Green. He asked her to call him when no one else was around.
Grabbing the cordless home phone, Marlee dialed the number Ira Green had given her early that morning. On the second ring he answered, “Yeah?”
“This is Marlee. I got your message. What do you need?”
“I’m coming back to Elmwood to finish up a few things. I’d be willing to talk to your cop boyfriend about Roxie if he promises not to arrest me,” Ira Green growled.
“You know I can’t promise that,” Marlee said, disgusted that her former dean was trying to get her to smooth things over for him with the detective handling the case. “If you’d be willing to meet with Detective Ramos, I could sit in on the interview, if that would make you feel better.”
“It wouldn’t make me feel any better, but I guess it would be okay. Maybe you could help me make him understand why I was talking to Roxie in the first place and that I wouldn’t ever want to hurt her,” Green said, his voice softening somewhat.
“I’ll do what I can,” Marlee said even though she really didn’t mean it. If Ramos thought there was enough to arrest Ira Green for that, she had no objections, but she would not be voicing that thought to her former dean.
“Call your cop boyfriend and set up a meeting for tomorrow night. Call me when you have a time. I’ll let you know the location.” With that, the phone went dead.
Taking a deep breath, Marlee called Ramos on his cell phone. She was unsure if he was upset with her because he hadn’t revealed his feelings about her meeting with Ira Green that morning. He might be pissed, feel betrayed, or not care at all. Marlee had no type of reading on this guy when it came to the case.
“Ramos,” said the familiar deep voice.
Marlee stated her call to Ira Green and his message about wanting a meeting with the detective the following night.
“How do you keep getting yourself involved in this?” Ramos asked, still without a hint of emotion.
“Hey, he called me. It’s not like I’m forcing him to talk to me,” Marlee said with an air of indignation. Technically, she was correct, but deep down she knew her nosiness, her need to help others, and her quest for the truth were just as much to blame for her involvement in the investigation as was Ira Green’s call to her. Plus, finding out the secrets of others was just plain entertaining.
“Right.” Still no emotion, not even a hint of sarcasm.
Marlee didn’t answer. She realized Ramos was using an old investigative trick on her. It involved saying very little in hopes of making the other person uncomfortable so they would say more than they intended. Many cultures are comfortable with silence, but in America it causes discomfort and one party usually steps in to talk.
After an agonizing twenty seconds, Hector broke the silence. “I’ll get back to you on this. I have to go.” Then there was the click of silence.
Detective Ramos was charming and engaging one moment, then silent and unreadable the next. This back and forth behavior would drive her nuts. Marlee thought it might be best if she swore off dating altogether; for sanity’s sake.
Do you know what friendship is? Neither do I.
Chapter 16
After a few quick calls, Marlee was able to round up her four best friends who were also colleagues at Midwestern State University. The women were Diane Frasier, a professor in the Speech department who had started at the same time as Marlee, Gwen Gerken and Kathleen Zens, both professors in the music department, and Shelly McFarland, the director of the campus counseling center. Over the past few years, the five women gathered together on a semi-regular basis to eat, drink, and discuss the goings on at MSU.
The group members each agreed to come over to Marlee’s house that night for delivery pizza, margaritas, and gossip. Even though she just returned home from what felt like a week of boot camp, Marlee was ready for some time with people who didn’t want anything from her. As much as she liked her students, the constant questions and having to be “on” was emotionally and physically draining. Her friends would replenish her spirits and help put her back on her feet.
Shelly McFarland and Gwen Gerken were the first to arrive. They were in high spirits and the three chatted happily while waiting for the others to arrive. Kathleen Zens and Diane Frasier arrived separately, although only moments apart. Some of them were not fans of beer and Marlee didn’t have any wine on hand, so she blended up a pitcher of margaritas while they decided on what type of pizza to order and from what establishment. The group sat around the dining room table with the patio door opened to allow in fresh air. The screen was shut to keep out mosquitoes and to keep Pippa inside.
Kathleen and Diane were both finished teaching until the fall semester and were happily detailing what they would be doing in the four months they did not have to deal with students. “I’m doing some traveling,” Diane reported. She had been seeing a professor from Marymount, a private college in Elmwood. Diane and her new beau were attempting a trip together for the first time.
“What’s your destination?” asked Gwen.
“We’re driving to Maine. Spending time along the coast and then driving to New York. Keith has relatives living in Albany, so we’ll visit them while we’re there. We leave Monday and will be gone ten days.”
“Are you nervous about traveling with Keith for that long?” Marlee asked.
“A little, but we’ve already talked about how I need my own space and time to myself. If it all goes horribly wrong, then I’ll book a plane ticket and fly home,” Diane laughed as she revealed her plan for dealing with her new boyfriend.
Kathleen talked about spending time with her family in Wisconsin over the summer as well as attending a music conference in Portland in June.
Shelly was not faculty and thus worked year round. “One good thing about summer is that most of the students leave the area and I have time to catch up on my projects at work. Plus, I’ll take off a little time and go visit my sisters in Nebraska.”
Gwen had agreed to teach music classes over the summer, both on campus and for one of the local high schools in Elmwood. “It seemed like a good idea when I agreed to it, but now I’m thinking maybe I got in over my head. At least I’ll be done by mid-July and then I’ll have a whole month to recuperate and prep for fall classes.”
“I’m jealous of you guys. You all have exciting trips or new challenges going on. Other than finishing up this Criminal Justice To Go class, I don’t have any other summer plans,” Marlee said, wishing she had thought ahead and planned a trip to Europe to do some exploring and site seeing. “My life is so boring,” she lamented as she slugged down the last of her margarita and walked toward the kitchen to prepare another.
“Uh, hello? I seem to recall that a student died during your class. That seems pretty exciting to me,” said Kathleen.
“Yeah, it was exciting, but not in a good way.” Marlee walked back into the dining room with a full pitcher of margaritas and placed it on the table. She updated her friends on Roxie’s death and the ongoing investigation, including the former dean’s pleas for help in clearing him of any wrong doing.
“What are you going to do? Are you going to help him after he was so cruel to you?” Diane asked. She knew all the blow by blow details of how Ira Green attempted on more than one occasion to get Marlee fired.
“I don’t know. If he’s guilty, then he should be punished. If he’s not, then he shouldn’t have to go to prison for something he didn’t do. But I’d still like to see him suffer a little bit for all the trouble he caused me. Of course, he lost his job and his wife left him, so maybe that’s punishment enough,” Marlee said.
“Hey, what’s new with you and Vince? Aren’t you guys planning anything fun for the summer?” asked Kathleen.
“Well, that’s a whole other story,” Marlee said grabbing the pitcher and topping off her glass again. “Vince Chipperton is a first class asshole and he cheated on me with his old girlfriend!”
“What?” Gwen said. “How do you know?”
Marlee relayed her conversations with Vince’s brother and with Suzanne herself who stated she and Vince were back together. “And he didn’t even have the decency to tell me himself!” Marlee wailed, taking another gulp of her blended margarita which had the effect of giving her brain freeze.
Her friends provided the requisite sympathy to Marlee and outrage toward Vince and Suzanne as Marlee rubbed her forehead in an attempt to relieve the searing pain from the icy margarita. “I’m just so mad at him. If he’d broken up with me beforehand, I’d be upset and sad, but I wouldn’t be furious with him,” Marlee said, her anger growing as she told the story and drank alcohol.
“Well, don’t you worry. You’ll find another guy,” Shelly said comfortingly.
Murder to Go Page 15