‘Whatever,’ the younger woman said.
‘I have concerns about the purported Ex-Lax brownies and the keying of the victim’s car,’ Luna said.
Gretchen sighed. ‘I already told him,’ she said, pointing at Champion. ‘I didn’t do it. I think he was allergic to the nuts I put in the brownies. There certainly was no laxative in them, for heaven’s sake! And as for keying his car, it was an accident.’ She looked up quickly and said, ‘I only did it once. If it happened again, it was somebody else. Maybe him!’ she said, pointing at Graham.
‘I nev—’
Luna shot him a look and Graham clamped his mouth shut. But then he moved forward and whispered something in Luna’s ear. Luna nodded her head and looked back at Gretchen.
‘According to his roommate, there were no nuts in those brownies,’ she said.
‘Well, he would lie, wouldn’t he?’
‘I understand someone actually saw you purposely key the victim’s car,’ Luna said.
Gretchen Morley jumped up from her bed. ‘Did he say that?’ she asked, pointing at Graham. ‘Because it’s a lie! He wasn’t even in town when I—’ She stopped herself, then said, ‘When that happened.’
‘No, Graham Pugh is not the witness,’ Luna said.
The young woman fell back on the bed, crossing her arms over her chest. Champion decided the pout on her face was definitely losing its appeal. ‘Well, whoever! They’re lying!’
‘Seems everybody but you lies, is that it, Miss Morley?’ Champion cut in.
‘Well, I don’t know about everybody,’ she said, sitting up straight with her hands on her hips, ‘but somebody sure as shit is!’
Champion looked at Luna. ‘Do you have any more questions, Detective?’ he asked.
‘No, I think I’m through with this one for the moment, Detective,’ she said. ‘But I may need to talk with you again, Miss Morley, after I’ve had time to confer with Detective Champion and the other witnesses.’
‘What other witnesses?’ Gretchen yelled, jumping up.
‘Thank you for your time, Miss Morley,’ Luna said and ushered the kid and his mom out of the room, Champion following behind.
Once outside the sorority house, Champion asked, ‘OK, so who said they saw her key the vic’s car?’
Luna shrugged. ‘Me. I lied.’
‘Damn,’ he said. ‘I was hoping …’
‘We did talk to the vic’s bestie, Bobby—’
‘Dunston,’ Graham supplied with a sigh.
‘Right. Bobby Dunston,’ Luna said. ‘And he reported that some girl named …?’ She looked at Graham to fill in the blank.
Again, he sighed. ‘Lexie Thurgood. Why don’t you write these things down?’
‘Hush,’ Luna said to him and turned to Champion. ‘What he said.’
‘Yeah, Lexie Thurgood. I already talked to her. Lives in his’ – he said, pointing at Graham – ‘building. Tall chick. Overheard a fight between him’ – again pointing at Graham – ‘and the vic.’
‘So she’s the—’ Graham started but Luna interrupted.
‘Shut up,’ she said.
‘So what did this Bobby say about Lexie?’ Champion asked.
‘That she came onto the vic repeatedly and the vic shot her down in public.’
Champion and Luna both noticed at the same time that Graham’s arm was in the air and he was waving it about.
‘What?’ Luna said.
Graham lowered his arm. ‘I wouldn’t put a lot of stock in anything Bobby says. He was so far up Bishop’s ass he couldn’t see daylight. And there’s Fuchs!’ he said, obviously getting excited.
‘Fuchs?’ Champion said, raising an eyebrow.
‘Gaylord Fuchs,’ the mom said. ‘Bishop’s student adviser. There was some drama with Fuchs’ wife and he took a swing at Bishop.’
‘And missed!’ the kid added.
Champion drew Luna away from the mother and son and said softly, ‘You know, Elena, I’m not real comfortable having these two tag along. The kid’s my prime suspect, you know.’
‘I know you think so,’ Luna said, also speaking softly, ‘but it’s crap. Looks to me like that little twat we just talked to had more reason than anybody to do in the vic.’
‘I’m not saying you’re wrong on that count but I need to follow-up on the information you just gave me about Lexie Thurgood and that Fuchs guy. I don’t mind you coming along. But not them.’
Luna nodded her head. ‘OK, we can deal with that,’ she said, left him and walked over to mother and son.
SEVEN
‘Did you ever hear Lexie come on to Bishop?’ I asked my son. As we’d come on this mission in Luna’s car, we took the U.T. shuttle back to the motel and were now in his room discussing things.
He shook his head. ‘No. Like I said, anything Bobby Dunston says is probably a load of crap.’
‘How well do you know Lexie?’ I asked.
Graham shrugged. ‘I see her around. She lives just down the hall. I mean, we say hey and crap but that’s about it.’
‘What do you think she told Champion about your fight with Bishop?’
Again, the shrug. ‘Hell if I know. I don’t even know which fight she supposedly witnessed. I mean, the way we’d go off on each other, it could have been anything.’
‘Did you ever strike him?’ I asked.
‘Jeez, Mom! No! I told you that already! We yelled at each other but mainly because he kept accusing me of shit! The guy was an asshole.’
‘I think we’ve already determined that,’ I said. ‘But did you ever fight in the hall or anywhere else public about anything that could be construed as threatening?’
‘Construed as threatening.’ He grinned. ‘Nice turn of phrase, Mom.’
‘Hey, I’m a writer. Words are my life. Answer the question.’
He shrugged again and I wanted to put my hand firmly on his shoulder to keep him from doing it, but I restrained myself. ‘We fought. About crap, mostly. I mean, did I ever threaten his life? Not that I recall. Did I ever threaten to punch his lights out? Probably.’
I sighed. ‘I wonder what Lexie Thurgood is telling them now,’ I said, mostly to myself.
Luna noted that Lexie Thurgood was not seven feet tall. She was, however, several inches above Luna’s own five eleven and a half. After introductions were made, Luna smiled at the young woman and asked, ‘You play for the Lady Horns?’
‘No, not me. I tried out for basketball in middle school and got cut from the team.’ She raised one very large foot. ‘I have a tendency to trip over these,’ she said. ‘Even walking, much less running.’ She grinned. ‘I’m a fairly amazing klutz.’
‘Why don’t we all take a seat?’ Champion said, shooting Luna a disapproving look. She wondered if the Austin PD wasn’t into putting witnesses and suspects at ease as a way to ferret out information. She’d have to tell him how to do it. Obviously he didn’t watch cop shows on TV.
They all took seats, Lexie on the bed and Champion and Luna in the two desk chairs. ‘We’ve got some rather personal questions, Miss Thurgood,’ Champion said. ‘I hope you don’t mind.’
The young woman spread her arms wide. ‘Hey, I’m an open book. Ask away.’
‘We’ve been told by reliable sources that Bishop Alexander embarrassed you in front of other people,’ Champion said. ‘Is that true?’
‘Probably,’ she said. ‘Bish was always doing something to humiliate or embarrass somebody. He was a real shit.’
‘We heard from our source that you came onto him and he shot you down,’ Luna said, going for shock value.
‘Oh, yeah! I forgot about that. Early last semester I asked him if he’d like to go to a dance with me. It was the old Sadie Hawkins crap. Can’t believe they still do that. But the girls are supposed to ask the guys and I thought he was cute.’ She laughed. ‘And he said, “With you, Gigantor?” Pissed me off at the time but I got over it. I’ve been called worse. Besides, I’m in a relationship now and whether or not Bisho
p Alexander found me attractive is beside the point. My guy thinks I’m hot.’ She grinned.
‘Was that the only time he made fun of you?’ Luna asked.
‘Oh, God, no. He’d see me in the hall – here or in a building on campus, or even walking the mall – and if somebody was with him, and there usually was, he’d say something really original like, “How’s the weather up there?” or something equally asinine.’
‘And if he was alone?’ Champion prodded.
‘Not a word,’ Lexie said. ‘He needed an audience. Actually, he avoided eye contact when he was alone. I think I scared him,’ she said and grinned again.
Luna couldn’t help thinking about the men in her life who’d seemed threatened by her. There’s just something about a big woman that many men found intimidating. She, obviously like Lexie Thurgood, had often used it to her own advantage.
‘I shared with Detective Luna your account of the fight between Graham Pugh and Bishop Alexander that you witnessed,’ Champion said. ‘Have you thought of anything you could add to that?’
Lexie shook her head. ‘Not really. I mean, I don’t know Graham well but he seems like a nice guy. Can’t imagine him doing anything like what happened to Bishop, but who else could have done it? I mean, he was killed in the middle of the night, right? And Graham just slept through it?’ She shook her head. ‘Weird. But, you know, Bishop was a creep to me and I barely knew him. I can only imagine how bad Graham had it, living in the same room with him. You know, you could ask that ass-kissing sycophant who was always trailing after Bishop. Bobby—’
‘Dunston,’ Luna supplied.
‘Right. Bobby Dunston. He’d know more about the relationship between Graham and Bishop than me. Of course, he’d be a good suspect, too!’ she said, seeming to get excited. ‘I mean, Bishop treated him horribly! Made fun of him in front of anyone at any time! Someone even told me that Bishop called him a name in front of Bobby’s parents! Can you believe that?’
‘Who told you that?’ Champion asked.
Lexie Thurgood stopped for a moment, obviously lost in thought. Finally, she said, ‘I dunno, where did I hear that?’ She shrugged. ‘It was right before the winter break, I know that. ’Cause I wondered if Bobby’s parents would make him stop running with Bishop after that. But who?’ Lost in thought again, she finally snapped her fingers. ‘Brittany! I don’t know her last name. She was in my economics class. She told me about it because she was around once when Bishop said something he thought was funny to me. She thought I’d like to know.’ She grinned. ‘And of course I did!’
‘Where can we find this Brittany?’ Champion asked, writing the name down in his notebook.
‘Like I said, she was in my economics class last semester. Tuesday nights, six-thirty to nine o’clock with Professor Winston, but he was never there. We always had a T.A. But if you need to ask the registrar about it, you need to say Professor Winston.’
Champion stood up and Luna followed his lead. ‘Thanks, Miss Thurgood, we appreciate your help.’
Both detectives shook the girl’s hand before leaving the room. Once in the elevator on the way down to the first floor, Champion asked Luna, ‘So, what did you think?’
‘I think she was believable. Didn’t seem to be hiding anything,’ Luna said.
‘Yeah, that’s what I thought about Morley the first time I interviewed her.’
Luna grinned. ‘You sure you weren’t just swayed by her pouty mouth and perky breasts?’
‘I resent that remark,’ Champion said, looking at Luna with a tiny bit of lust in his heart.
The minute Graham’s mom left his room he grabbed his keys and headed to his car, and then straight to the B&B dorm and Miranda Wisher’s room. She wasn’t there. Coming back down the stairs, he looked into the living room of the dorm where Miranda was standing with another girl, talking. He gingerly went up to her.
‘Hey, Miranda,’ he said. ‘Got a minute?’
She turned slowly and looked at him. ‘I’m sort of in the middle of something right now.’
‘Then I’ll just wait over here,’ he said and headed to a gold-embroidered sofa where he flung himself down. Both the young women, Miranda and the one she was talking to, looked at him, then away, continuing their conversation. Graham got the distinct impression it was going on a lot longer than it would have had he not been sitting there waiting.
Finally, the woman Miranda was talking to looked over at him, then back at Miranda, smiled at her, patted her arm, turned and left. Graham stood up from the sofa but didn’t move toward Miranda. She glanced over at him, sighed deeply then walked toward him.
‘What do you want? I told you to give the police my number, but I haven’t heard from them.’
‘I don’t care about the police or if they talk to you. Probably won’t make much of a difference. The guy in charge seems to like me a lot for it.’ Graham shook his head. ‘But that’s not why I’m here.’ He cleared his throat and said, ‘I’m sorry. Really sorry. I should have looked for you, I know that. But the whole thing was like a fog. I knew it had happened but I didn’t know who with or where we met and – and I’m sorry. I’m an asshole.’
‘Yeah, you are that,’ Miranda said. She cocked her head and looked him over. ‘But a very cute asshole. And,’ she said, still studying him intently, ‘I wasn’t so drunk that I couldn’t make a rational decision. I knew you were drunk but I guess I didn’t realize how drunk. Besides, I liked you. I liked the things you said when we talked, and, like I said,’ she added with a grin, ‘you are a cute asshole.’
‘So you’re not mad at me anymore?’ Graham asked.
‘Would it matter if I was?’ she asked.
Graham nodded. ‘Yeah, for some reason it really would matter.’
‘Don’t worry. I’m not going to talk you down to other girls or anything. Your rep should still be solid – if it ever was.’
‘Yeah, I don’t know about that. Now that I’m being accused of murder—’
She laughed. ‘There are girls around campus who will find that immensely attractive.’
‘Yeah, well, they’re not the girls I want to impress,’ Graham said.
She cocked her head. ‘Are you flirting with me?’ she asked.
‘Jeez, you don’t let up, do you?’
‘Well, are you?’
Graham sighed. ‘I’m trying to. How’m I doing?’
She held a thumb in the ‘up’ position. ‘Better than earlier.’
‘So, you know, maybe,’ Graham started, clearing his throat again, ‘you know, if I don’t get arrested any time soon, we could, ah—’
‘Are you asking me out on a date or do you just want to get laid? I mean, either’s OK, I just need to know.’
Graham could feel himself turning red. ‘A date,’ he said quickly. ‘Just a date.’
She nodded. ‘I think that would be best. But I don’t want to wait to see if you get arrested. Tell me first – did you kill your roommate?’
‘God, no!’
‘Good,’ Miranda said. ‘Then let’s you and me prove it, OK?’
I wasn’t used to sitting around twiddling my thumbs. I should have been with Luna, asking questions, but no, here I was, stuck in a godforsaken motel room doing nothing but staring at the door, waiting for Luna to show up. Graham was in his room next door and I could hear the TV. He obviously wasn’t studying, which I was pretty sure meant bye-bye to this semester. While I was pondering all this, my phone rang. Hoping it was Luna with some news, I grabbed the phone but the screen informed me it was my husband. I tried to sound interested.
‘Hey,’ I said.
‘What’s wrong?’ he asked. Obviously my try at sounding interested hadn’t worked.
‘What’s not wrong?’ I sighed. ‘I’m stuck in this stinking motel room, Graham’s wasting away watching TV – probably cartoons if I know my son – and Luna’s out and about with that Champion guy interviewing suspects and asking questions and—’
‘And she won’t
let you come along,’ Willis finished for me.
‘Not so much her, I think, as that asshole Champion. He still thinks Graham is his best suspect!’
‘They don’t have any others?’
‘Well, Bishop’s ex-girlfriend looks good – to me, at least, and to Luna, too, I think. And then there’s Bishop’s BFF and his student adviser. It seems like Graham’s roommate was a real piece of work, as bad as Graham said he was. He put down this boy Bobby in front of other people all the time and hit on the adviser’s wife. But,’ I said and sighed, remembering how Bobby Dunston seemed so smitten with Bishop, ‘I doubt the kid would have had the balls to stab Bishop over and over.’
‘What about the student adviser?’ Willis asked.
‘We haven’t met him yet. I don’t know if Luna and Champion are going to interview him today or not.’
‘Well, don’t go letting people off the hook like the BFF,’ Willis said. ‘Every port in a storm.’
‘I agree. Bobby gave Luna and Champion another name, a girl who Bishop put down in public. They went to see her but told Graham and me, essentially, to get lost.’
‘Keep me posted – on anything. Anything at all,’ Willis said.
‘I will, honey, I promise. Meanwhile, what’s going on at home?’
‘Oh, hey, I got that contract with Weaver!’
‘Weaver?’
‘The guy I had breakfast with the morning this shit-storm started,’ he said.
‘I thought he said no.’
‘He did. But when Weaver did his due diligence, the lowest bidder turned out to be a flake who’d screwed up a couple of high-profile projects. So I was next lowest.’
‘Not too low, I hope.’
‘We won’t be eating beans for the foreseeable future but filet mignon’s not in our future either.’
‘Right smack dab in the middle, huh?’ I said.
‘As usual.’
‘I’ll make sure my next book is twice as long.’
‘Think they’ll pay twice as much?’ he asked, and I could hear the grin in his voice. It was a good thing to hear at this point in time.
‘No, but I’m thinking of a real bodice ripper. Maybe my agent can take it to another publisher.’
Student Body Page 7