The Theory of Death

by Faye Kellerman

  “Do the police always delve so deeply in a suicide?”

  “I do what I think is necessary for my peace of mind,” Decker said.

  Rosser made a point of looking at his watch even though there was a wall clock in the room. “Anything else?”

  “Not at the moment. Thank you.” Decker gave the professor his card. “Call me anytime. My cell is on the back. And please let me know about your decision to share some of Eli’s research. It may prove invaluable to all of us.”

  Rosser flipped the card over a couple of times. “I’ll call you and let you know.”

  “I’m taking the hidden papers to our professor tomorrow,” McAdams said. “Just to let you know.”

  “What time?”

  “I’m leaving around two in the afternoon.” When Decker looked at him, McAdams just smiled.

  “Who is your professor? I don’t think you ever told me a name.”

  “Privileged information.”

  “There are only so many people in a math department.”

  “If you ask around, we can’t stop you,” McAdams said.

  Decker said, “Thank you for your time.”

  “Not a problem. You can see yourself out.”

  As soon as they walked into the hallway, Decker said, “I thought you were renting a car and leaving in the morning.”

  “Guess I’m not a morning person.”

  “You told me you didn’t want to go out in the afternoon. You told me that if you left in the morning, you’d be more on your game. You told me that the only reason you are staying tonight is to get a good sleep. Either you’re lying or stalling or all of the above.”

  “All of the above.”

  “Cool it with the snide talk. You’re beginning to piss me off.”

  “You know, Decker, no one except my nanny has ever given a damn about me. It’s way too late for me to develop a father figure now.”

  “I’m sure you can take care of yourself.” A pause. “But if you screw up and your dad finds out you were working with me, he’ll be major league pissed. And with some justification. You should be studying, Tyler. You should be concentrating on your tests, not running around trying to make sense out of a senseless act and being stalked by a crazy math girl in the process.”

  “She hasn’t called me once since our lunch, FYI.” McAdams looked at his phone. “Okay. She only called me once.”

  “Look, kiddo, if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not be on your own father’s shit list.”

  McAdams smiled. “I’ve been on it many times and I’m still here to tell the tale. Actually, I consider it a place of honor.”

  “Of course you do,” Decker said. “Pissing off one’s parents is a time-honored tradition. You seem to have extended the tradition to me. I don’t know whether to take it as an insult or a compliment.”

  McAdams gave him a small punch in his arm. “What the hell, Decker. Live large. Take it as a compliment. And I still expect my picture on your piano.”

  Decker said, “Get me a damn picture and I’ll put it up. Should I start calling you ‘son,’ McAdams?”

  “Only if you pay my tuition.”

  CHAPTER 12

  THE WINTRY NIGHT was long and quiet and McAdams was finally able to slip into the zone. Sitting at the desk in the Deckers’ living room, he focused his eyes and mind on the intricacies of first-year law. Outside, snowflakes were dancing under the porch light. Inside, it was warm even though the fire was almost out: just a hint of flame, a waft of pine wood, and the occasional crackle of a splitting log. The fireplace, like the radiator, was mostly for atmosphere anyway. The real heat was coming from an updated forced-air system. Rina and Peter had gone to sleep hours ago. They kept the house a tad on the chilly side, but he was comfortable with a sweater on his chest and some single-malt Scotch in his belly courtesy of a rare bottle he packed before leaving Cambridge. In the wee hours of the morning, having plowed through about a third of the material, he felt good enough to call it quits.

  He was in that drifting-off-to-sleep state when he heard his cell ring. At first he thought he was dreaming, but then the nasty intrusion refused to quit. Groping around, he found his phone, ripped it from the charger, and managed to croak out a hello, which was unusually civil for him at this ungodly hour. The voice on the other end was female and frantic. Her speech was way too fast for his brain to process. Even though he couldn’t understand the words, he had a pretty good idea who was speaking.

  “Mallon?”

  “Yes, of course. Have you been listening to me?”

  “It’s three in the morning and you woke me up. You want to go a little slower?”

  In a panicked voice, she said, “My . . . room . . . has . . . been . . . ransacked . . . can . . . you—”

  “I get it. What do you mean ransacked?”

  “Do you want an OED definition?” When the line went silent, she took a deep breath and said, “Tyler, you’ve got to come down here. I’m on the verge of hysteria.”

  He managed to suppress a sigh. First things first. “Where are you?”

  “Not in my room. I just got the hell out of there. I haven’t even called campus police yet. I just ran.”

  “Okay.” He began to pull on warm clothes. “I repeat. Where are you?”

  “I’m at a twenty-four-hour café about a block from campus. Do you think I’m safe here?” A gulp of air. “Please come rescue me. I’m . . .” She burst into tears.

  “Just hang on and stay put. I’m dressing as we speak.” He had on a sweatshirt, jeans, and socks and was lacing up his boots. “I’ll go wake up Detective Decker. We’ll be right down. What’s the name of the café?”

  “Insomnia.”

  “I know it. I’ll be right there.”

  “Can you stay on the line with me, Tyler? I’m petrified. And the worse thing is I don’t know who I should be scared of.”

  “I’ll stay on the line. Just yell if you need me to talk.”

  “If I’m yelling, it’s too late.”

  “Mallon, I can’t get ready holding a phone up to my ear. I’m going to put the phone in my pants pocket, so that’s why I said to yell. It’ll be about five minutes. Just hang, okay.” He slipped his phone into his pocket and gently knocked on Decker’s bedroom door. He knew that the detective was a light sleeper: years of responding to emergency situations. A moment later, Peter opened the door a crack. His hair was a mess but his eyes were alert.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Mallon Euler’s dorm room was ransacked. She’s at an all-night café. She’s on my cell line. She asked me to keep the line open until we get to the location.”

  “Okay. Tell her we’ll be right down.”

  “I heard that,” Mallon said from Tyler’s back pocket.

  “Good,” Decker answered.

  McAdams took his index finger and made circles around his temple. Then he shrugged.

  Decker shrugged back. “Give me a minute.”

  “If you toss me your keys, I’ll warm up the car.”

  “We’ll take Rina’s car. It’s in the driveway. Keys are in her purse.”

  “Got it.” McAdams grabbed his winter jacket and braced himself for the cold night air. It wasn’t as arctic as he thought: the high twenties according to the car’s external thermometer. By the time Decker arrived, the car was spitting out warm air and the windshield had been cleared of powdered snow. McAdams had already moved into the passenger seat.

  Decker shifted the car into drive, pulled it into the street, and took off slowly. It was cold enough to freeze water under the snow and that meant black ice. It was his second winter in upstate Greenbury and he was almost used to driving in inclement weather, but it did require more concentration.

  Within five minutes, they had parked outside the café. Mallon came out before they reached the door to the place. She was bundled in a pea-colored, quilted coat, her head covered by a hood rimmed with fake fur. Jeans covered her legs and boots on her feet. “It’s proba
bly easier to walk from here. I’m assuming you want to see my dorm room.”

  She stormed off. They were going at a very fast clip. Decker had on solid shoes but it was still slippery underfoot. He said, “Did you call campus police yet?”

  “I thought I’d leave that up to you.”

  “What time did you notice your room was disturbed?” Decker asked.

  “As soon as I came back. It was a little before three.”

  “Where had you been?”

  “Library.”

  “It’s open all night?”

  “Not Bennington. It closes at eleven. Pascal’s is open all night because it has the computer lab.” She was huffing and panting. “It’s a good place to work because it’s only open to upper division and it’s quiet.”

  “When did you leave your dorm room to go to the library?”

  “Around ten.”

  “Did you notice anything unusual when you left?”

  “No.”

  “No one who looked like he or she didn’t belong?”

  “No. But I’m not always aware of my surroundings.”

  “And you were gone between ten and three.”

  “Yes.”

  “But you can’t narrow it down further than that.”

  “No.”

  “Maybe someone on the floor saw or heard something.”

  “Maybe, but I didn’t stick around to ask questions.” She stopped by the door to her dorm building. Her breathing had quickened. Could have been the aerobic walk: more likely it was fear. She swiped her card and the three of them went up the stairs. With a gloved hand, Decker opened the door to her room.

  The place was a mess even by college dorm standards. Drawers pulled out, mattress lifted and shoved off her bed, closet emptied with most of her clothes lying on the floor. Decker stuffed his gloved hands into his coat pocket. “Look around. See if anything of value was taken.”

  “I don’t own anything valuable. I’m a starving student. The only valuable things I have are my phone, my laptop, and my research papers. And since Eli died, I keep everything with me at all times.”

  “No jewelry, no loose cash, no—”

  “Nothing!” She sat down on the floor and huddled into a corner, still swathed in her outerwear. Her eyes moistened but she didn’t say anything.

  Decker continued to look around without touching anything. “So what do you think the person was looking for?”

  “No idea.”

  “Take a guess.”

  “I can only surmise he was either looking for my research or for me, and both imply evil intent.”

  “You think it’s a he?”

  “He, she, I don’t know.”

  “Whoever it was, this wasn’t methodical.”

  “Meaning?”

  Decker shrugged. “When I see a mess like this, I think that someone is looking for drug money. In a petty theft, the perpetrators don’t usually commit crimes with people milling around. I don’t think it was kids.”

  “So who then?”

  “Like you said, someone looking for something you have.” He paused. “Don’t get offended, but to my eye, it looks staged.”

  Mallon glared at him. “You think I did it?” She turned to Tyler. “What about you?”

  “I came when you called,” McAdams said.

  “That doesn’t mean you believe me.”

  Decker said, “I didn’t say you staged it, Mallon, I said it looked staged.” He took off his gloves and hat. It was warm inside the room. And quiet. Decker had never been in a dorm when it was almost silent. “Could be someone was trying to scare you.” He turned to her. “Who’d want to scare you?”

  “I don’t know! Between Eli’s death and this mess, the asshole is doing a good job.”

  Decker glanced at his watch. “Do you have a twenty-four-hour emergency line for campus police?”

  Slowly, Mallon took her laptop out. Her hands were still gloved and were shaking. “I’ll look it up.” She recited the numbers. “Can you call . . . please?”

  “Of course. But first I’d like to poke around your floor and see if someone heard or saw anything. It would be easier to do that before I called campus police down.”

  Tears streamed down her cheek. “Whatever you think.”

  “I don’t know how much I’m going to get out of a bunch of college kids who probably just fell asleep. I suppose the good news is that most of them are probably in their rooms.” He looked at McAdams. “I can probably do this by myself. You can go back to the house.”

  “I’m too wired. How can I help?”

  “If that’s the case, you scour the rooms to the left and I’ll go right. Ask if they saw or heard anything going on in Mallon’s room.”

  “You’re leaving me alone?” Mallon asked.

  “Leave your door open,” Decker said. “Nothing’s going to happen.” He picked up a corner of her mattress and slid it back onto the bed frame. “Lie down and try to rest even if you can’t sleep.” He offered her his hand to help her up.

  From her corner, she stared upward. Then she clasped his hand and he pulled her to her feet. She bent down and picked up her covers. “I can’t stay here.”

  Decker said, “We’ll work that out later. But I need you to stay here right now. I’m sorry, Mallon. This must be very frightening for you.”

  More tears. “It would help if I knew who the bogeyman was.” She looked at McAdams. “Sorry for waking you up.”

  “No, no. You did the right thing,” he said. “It’s not a problem.”

  They walked out of the room. Decker took a survey of the hallway. Mallon’s room was smack in the middle, making it even a more unlikely candidate for a random break-in. There were eight to ten rooms on either side and twenty rooms on the other side of the hallway. The canvassing was compact and shouldn’t take that long. He said, “Did you bring a notepad, Tyler?”

  “Uh, no, but I have my phone.”

  Decker tore out several pages from his pad. He gave him a pencil. “It’s easier to write by hand than to type on a screen that small. Let’s start inward and work outward.”

  Tyler dropped his voice. “You think she’s being straight?”

  “She seems genuinely shaken.” Decker exhaled. “Let’s see what we can find out.”

  THE FIRST ROOM was occupied by a young man who returned to his dorm room at around one after a beer fest with his buddy in Goddard Hall. He didn’t see or hear anything.

  Going down one room to the left: it was occupied by a woman. Again, no see ’um, no hear ’um. By the fourth room, the constant knocking was bringing people to their doors, asking questions. Most of them were shocked by the ransacking as well as clueless. But Decker did hear a couple of reports that proved to be interesting.

  “The only person I saw going out of Mallon’s room was Mallon.” Decker was talking to Kelly Liu. She was twenty-one with short, clipped black hair and oval black eyes. She must have weighed around eighty pounds. She lived five doors down.

  “When was this?”

  “Around midnight.”

  “You’re sure about the time?”

  “No. It could have been later. I was coming back from a late study session and I saw her coming out of her room.”

  “And you’re sure it was Mallon?”

  She paused. “I think so.”

  “Did you see her face?”

  “Well, not really. I just assumed it was her because it was a woman.”

  “So you’re sure it was a woman?”

  “I think so.”

  “Did you talk to her?”

  “I don’t remember. I think I said hi. We didn’t have a conversation. She seemed like she was in a hurry.”

  “At midnight?”

  “She was walking fast. People are pretty wired right now. It’s the week before finals.”

  “What was the woman wearing?”

  “She had on a jacket. Jeans probably. I don’t remember her shoes.”

  “What color was the jack
et?”

  “Dark.” A pause. “I think it was a hoodie. You can talk to Jayden. He was with me.”

  “Where does he live?”

  Kelly pointed to a door.

  Decker nodded and handed her a card. “Call if you think of anything else.” He knocked on Jayden’s door. The young man who answered was dark-complexioned with a full dark beard and a turban. Jayden’s last name was Khalsa. He related the same story as Kelly Liu.

  “But you’re not positive it was Mallon.”

  “No, I am not.”

  “Was it definitely a woman?”

  “I would think. If it was a man, he was very slight. Mallon’s very slight. I assumed she was Mallon. But I didn’t see her directly.”

  “What was she wearing?”

  “A brown hoodie jacket. I thought that was odd . . . coming out of the room wearing the hood. A light jacket for the weather.”

  “Kelly told me that she appeared in a hurry.”

  “Yes. She was walking fast.”

  “Anything else?”

  He shook his head. “No.”

  Again, Decker gave the young man his card. After an hour of talking to the kids, he met up with McAdams and compared notes. Tyler also had heard a similar story of someone noticing Mallon going in and out of her room between twelve and one in the morning. He said, “So what do you think?”

  “The people I spoke to were pretty sure it was a woman because of the slight build.” Decker smoothed his mustache. “Mallon keeps insisting that she doesn’t have anything of value except her research. I don’t know why Mallon would stage a break-in, so I’m thinking maybe someone was after her research.”

  “Maybe Mallon staged it for attention.”

  “I don’t know, Tyler. Her reaction seemed real.” Decker turned to the kid. “You still should leave to go back to Boston. I’m going to call campus police now. Go back to her room. I’ll be there in a minute.”

  “What specifically do I tell her?”

  “Don’t tell her anything just yet.” When Decker had finished the call, he went back to Mallon’s room. “How are you feeling?” he asked her.

  “A little numb.”

  “I called campus police. Someone should be here soon. Are you comfortable staying in your room by yourself?”