by Carol Cox
A memory flashed in Kate’s head. Martin had told her he’d heard about Casey being hospitalized from Melanie McLaughlin. On Monday night, Melanie had seemed willing enough to help in any way she could. Maybe she wouldn’t mind talking to Kate again.
Kate started toward the phone, then turned back to the cooling rack. She needed to concentrate on her baking right now. She could wait and contact Melanie after supper.
Kate lifted one of the snickerdoodles from the rack and took a bite. She chewed slowly, frowned, then chewed some more. With a sense of déjà vu, she swallowed the bite and washed it down with a gulp of milk.
What was wrong this time? This cookie didn’t set her teeth on edge like the one from the first batch, but something still wasn’t right. This time it tasted more like a sugar-coated biscuit. It didn’t have its usual sweet flavor at all. Why, it was almost like it didn’t have any . . .
Kate’s shoulders sagged as the realization hit home. She had mixed the cinnamon and sugar together before starting on the dough, but she’d left the sugar out of the main recipe. No wonder the cookies tasted bland!
How could I mess up this recipe twice in a row? Thoroughly disgusted with herself, Kate lifted the cooling rack and dumped the batch into the wastebasket for the second time that day.
Grimly, she set about the dinner preparations, taking care to keep her mind focused on the task at hand. By the time Paul got home, the baked rigatoni bubbled in the oven, filling the house with a mouth-watering aroma.
Kate dished up their meal quickly, wanting to have time to eat and contact Melanie before she had to leave for choir practice. Paul appeared to be far more upbeat than Kate felt, and she made an effort to match her mood to his. There was no point in dragging him down because she had made a mistake. Or two, she reminded herself.
“How was your day?” she asked when they sat down at the table.
“Good! I visited a couple of new families who just moved to Copper Mill, and I think at least one of them will be coming to Faith Briar soon.”
“That’s great.” Kate shook out her napkin and tried to sound casual when she said, “I saw Millie this afternoon.”
“Oh?” Paul picked up his fork. “How did she seem this time?”
“Bristly, but I didn’t see any signs of illness.” Kate filled him in on their encounter at the SuperMart. “At least she went to work there today.” She watched Paul pick up his fork and held her breath. “How is it?” she asked when he had taken a bite.
“It’s terrific, as usual.” Paul sent a quizzical glance her way. “Is anything wrong?”
Kate smiled. “No, I’m just fine.” Relieved to know at least one culinary venture had gone right that day, she joined him in eating the rigatoni. During the meal, she gave him a condensed update on what she had learned during her visit with Casey.
When they had finished their dinner, Kate rose to clear away the dishes. Paul remained in his seat, waiting expectantly. “No dessert?” he asked after a moment or two.
Kate’s mouth tightened. “Not tonight.”
“But it smells like you’ve been baking.”
Kate felt warmth spread up her neck and into her cheeks. “Sort of,” she muttered.
“What do you mean?”
Instead of launching into an explanation, Kate merely sighed and pointed to the wastebasket.
Paul rose and peered into the final resting place of the snickerdoodles, then turned to her with a mystified expression. “I don’t get it. What’s going on?”
“I think I have baker’s block,” Kate admitted.
Paul shook his head. “Come again?”
Kate folded her arms across her waist and leaned back against the kitchen counter. “You know how they call it writer’s block when a writer gets stuck? Well, I started baking today to try to work through some things on this mystery. First I put in too much baking soda, then I left out the sugar. I ruined two batches of snickerdoodles, Paul. Two of them! And remember those brownies we had the other day?”
Paul’s eyes widened, and he gave a little start. “You mean it wasn’t my imagination that they seemed a little salty?”
Kate shook her head sadly. She raised both her hands, then let them drop down to her sides. “See? Baker’s block.”
One corner of Paul’s mouth quirked upward, then he crossed the kitchen and folded Kate in his arms. “No wonder you looked so concerned when you asked how the rigatoni tasted. You were afraid you were going for strike three, weren’t you?”
Kate rested her cheek against the front of his shirt and nodded miserably. She felt a chuckle rumble in his chest, then he said, “Don’t you worry, Katie. I still love you, even if you do make a mistake every now and then.”
He laughed, and Kate joined in. She gave him a quick squeeze and stacked the dishes in the sink, then hurried off to get ready for choir practice. While she was brushing her hair, she remembered that she still hadn’t called Melanie.
A few moments later, she had Melanie on the line. She told Kate she wouldn’t be back in Pine Ridge for a couple of weeks. She had finals coming up, papers to write, and a group project she was working on. But when Kate suggested meeting on the campus the next morning, she readily agreed.
“I have some time between classes, and I can meet you then, if you could be here around ten o’clock. Do you know where the library is?”
“I sure do. I’ll see you then.” And while she was on the campus, Kate reflected, she could also stop by Dr. White’s office. After her talk with Livvy and LuAnne, she felt the need to speak with him again face-to-face. Perhaps that way she would be able to put her lingering doubts to rest and come to some conclusion as to his guilt or innocence in Casey’s assault.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Kate saw Melanie waiting for her under the spreading branches of an elm tree when she arrived at the campus library the following morning.
After a quick greeting, she said, “I know you don’t have much time this morning, so I’ll jump right into asking what I need to know. Is that all right?”
When the girl nodded, Kate went on, “What can you tell me about Casey’s boyfriend?”
Melanie only looked at her with a blank expression.
“Martin Chandler?” Kate prompted.
Melanie’s face cleared. “Oh, him. I wouldn’t have called him her boyfriend exactly, but I guess that’s how he sees himself. He and Casey were kind of going around together last fall, but I always thought it was more a case of him being interested in Casey than the other way around.”
“Oh?” Kate tried to reconcile that news with what Martin had told her the day before.
Melanie nodded. “I thought Casey was kind of excited about all the attention he was giving her at first. But that seemed to wear off pretty quickly. And it looked to me like she’d been trying to cool things off, especially lately.”
“That’s interesting. I ran into him yesterday while I was visiting Casey. He said you told him she was in the hospital.”
“Well, yeah. He came up to me while I was walking to my first class and said he’d been trying to get in touch with Casey, so I told him where she was.” Melanie’s brow crinkled. “I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?”
“No, I don’t think so.” Kate paused a moment, then asked, “If Casey has been trying to avoid Martin, do you think it’s possible that he could be the one who’s been following her?”
“Martin?” Melanie giggled. “I don’t think so.” When Kate gave her a puzzled look, she added, “You’ve seen him, right? Then you know he’s not exactly the type to worry about. My grandma could probably pin him in a wrestling match.”
Kate nodded slowly, but she wasn’t entirely convinced. Melanie was a bright young lady, the key word being young. She didn’t yet have enough life experience to be aware of the distorted thoughts and passions that could lurk beneath the surface.
“He seems to have a bit of a temper,” she continued. “Does he fly off the handle easily?”
Melan
ie shrugged. “Yeah, I’ve seen him get mad before, but I think it’s just a safety valve kind of thing with him. He cools off right away, so it’s no big deal. We all get upset every now and then.”
Kate decided to probe further. “How well do you know Martin?”
“Just enough to know that I don’t want to know him any better.” Melanie gave an embarrassed laugh. “That didn’t sound very nice, did it? I guess he’s okay; he’s just not my type. He’s a real bookworm, always studying when he isn’t hanging around Casey.”
A startled look crossed her face. “Oh, yeah. There was that one time when his chemistry partner messed up an experiment they were doing that was a big part of their semester grade. Martin threw their lab book on the floor and started screaming at him. He threatened to punch his lights out. We all thought it was pretty funny at the time, but it was a little scary too. Especially when the other guy fell down some stairs the next day and tried to tell everyone that Martin had pushed him.”
Kate’s eyes widened. “Didn’t anyone take that seriously?”
“Not really.” Melanie shrugged, looking slightly shamefaced. “But you’d need to have been there to understand. Steve Kelly—that’s Martin’s lab partner—is a football player, and Martin’s such a wimp. It was like worrying about a terrier that was threatening a Saint Bernard. Nobody thought much about it, and I think Steve was too embarrassed to take it any further. Now that you’re bringing all this up, though, it makes me wonder.”
She frowned and gave Kate a quizzical glance. “My dad told me that Casey’s awake now. She’d be able to tell you more about Martin than anybody. Maybe you should ask her.”
“I started to, but she didn’t seem to be in the mood to discuss him,” Kate hedged, not wanting Melanie to know that she suspected Martin of intimidating Casey into accusing Dr. White.
Two other girls emerged from the library at that moment, and Melanie waved them over. “This is Rachel and Ashley,” she told Kate when the others drew near. “They live in the same dorm as Casey and me.”
Turning to the girls, she said, “This is Mrs. Hanlon, the one I was telling you about who’s solved all those mysteries in Copper Mill.”
The two girls looked suitably impressed.
“She’s trying to find out what happened to Casey,” Melanie added.
Both girls assumed identical outraged expressions.
“That is so wrong,” Ashley said. “How could anyone do something like that?”
“You know what I just heard?” Rachel said. She lowered her voice to a whisper, as if enjoying the drama of the situation. “There’s a rumor going around that someone from Haywood might have done it. Maybe even one of the professors.”
Melanie’s jaw dropped, and she stared at Kate with a horrified expression. “Is that why you were asking me about Dr. White the other day?”
The other girls gasped. “Dr. White?” Ashley said. “No way! I had him last year, and he’s one of the coolest professors ever.”
“You never know.” Rachel spoke in a knowing voice. “In mysteries, it’s always the one you don’t suspect who turns out to be the villain. Isn’t that right, Mrs. Hanlon?”
“We don’t know anything for certain at this point,” Kate said firmly. “And I hope you all will remember that. In an investigation, you simply can’t jump to conclusions willy-nilly. Everyone needs to be considered impartially. We need to be sure the right person is charged, and that’s what I’m trying to do...find out the truth.”
All three girls’ eyes widened, and they seemed as if they could barely contain their excitement at being this close to something so sensational.
“How can we help?” Ashley asked.
“Tell me what you know about Casey,” Kate said.
“She’s a wonderful person,” Ashley said without hesitation.
Rachel’s head bobbed up and down. “Yeah, she’s great. She’s always willing to help anyone whenever she can, and she’s ready to listen anytime we have problems and need to talk about them.”
Kate pursed her lips. “That’s nice to hear, but nobody is perfect, you know. We all have our flaws. Please, tell me everything. I promise I won’t hold it against Casey if it turns out that she’s human like the rest of us.” She smiled to soften her words and hoped it would encourage them to open up more.
The girls looked at one another. “But that’s what she’s like,” Ashley protested. “Really.”
“Yeah,” Rachel agreed. “She’s always smiling, always helping, always listening.”
Uneasiness prickled along Kate’s spine. “But there has to be more to her than that. What is she like? What music does she enjoy? What are her favorite books?”
The three girls exchanged blank looks, and Kate’s heart sank.
After a moment, Melanie turned to Kate with a sad expression and said, “When you’re around somebody a lot, you feel like you know them, but like I told you the other night, we really don’t know as much about Casey as we should. I’m sorry, Mrs. Hanlon.”
Kate felt a wave of sorrow sweep over her. “Thanks for being willing to talk with me. I appreciate your help. And there’s one other thing you can do.”
They looked at her eagerly.
“What’s that?” Melanie asked.
Kate held their gazes and waited until she had their full attention. “You can keep what you’ve heard about this whole incident to yourselves.”
Rachel’s lower lip edged out into a pout. “What good is that going to do? Won’t it help Casey more if we let people know what’s going on?”
“It might if we truly knew what the situation is,” Kate told her. “But we don’t. Spreading unfounded rumors is like tossing a handful of feathers into the wind. Once they’re loose, there’s no way of gathering them back up again.”
Rachel’s disappointment showed, but she said, “Okay, I guess I see what you mean.”
“Good.” Kate gave the girls a warm smile. “Remember that the truth is what we’re looking for. Falsehoods, even when they’re spread with the best of intentions, can cause untold harm for a long time to come. We already have one innocent victim in this case. Let’s not create any more.”
A clock chimed, and the girls jumped. “We need to get to our next class,” Melanie told her. “Is there anything else you need to know?”
Kate turned to Ashley and Rachel. “Is there anything you can tell me about Martin Chandler?”
The girls looked at each other and shrugged. “I’ve seen him around, but I don’t really know him,” Rachel said. “What about you, Ash?”
“Same here. He and I don’t exactly travel in the same circles, if you know what I mean.”
“Then I guess that’s it,” Kate said. “Thanks for taking the time to talk to me.”
“Sure,” Ashley said. “I just hope it helps you catch this guy, whoever he is.”
Rachel and Melanie nodded agreement, and the three of them hurried away.
Whoever he is. Ashley’s parting words played through Kate’s mind as she watched them leave.
Standing at Casey’s bedside the day before, Kate had been absolutely convinced of the girl’s truthfulness. But talking to Livvy and LuAnne had reminded her that one other possible suspect was at least as plausible as Dr. White: Martin Chandler, who maintained that he hadn’t known where Casey was until Melanie told him. Was that the truth or a clever way to direct attention away from himself as a suspect?
He’d been convincing enough about his relationship with Casey, but according to Melanie, that version was far from the truth. Melanie might not find it easy to think that the young man she’d termed a “bookworm” was capable of violence—although recalling Martin’s threat to punch Steve’s lights out had seemed to alter her perceptions somewhat—but Kate had seen a lot more of human nature than the college sophomore had. Casey wouldn’t be the first victim of domestic violence to try to protect the person who’d hurt her.
Then again, if Martin and Casey weren’t all that close, there see
med to be no reason that she would cover for him.
But did Melanie truly know what Casey felt about Martin? She and the other girls had just admitted they didn’t know Casey as well as they’d assumed.
Who was Casey, really? Kate felt an overpowering sense of compassion for this girl whom everyone seemed to like but never took the time to know.
A LIGHT SPRING BREEZE played across Kate’s face as she made her way back across the quiet campus toward the Fleming Building where the faculty offices were located.
While she walked, she tried to make sense of what she had learned so far. She often thought that solving mysteries was a lot like putting a jigsaw puzzle together, turning pieces of information this way and that until they all fit to make a clear, complete picture. But in this case, it seemed more like someone had dumped pieces from several puzzles into one pile, and she had to examine each piece closely to determine which puzzle it belonged to.
Where did the information she’d gotten from Melanie and her friends fit in? Kate pondered that question while she crossed the broad cement apron that stretched across the front of the Fleming Building. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed another person walking her way. Her heart skipped a beat when she recognized Roger White. Apparently, she wouldn’t have to go to the trouble of seeking him out after all.
Their eyes met, and for one uncomfortable moment, Kate thought he was going to turn around and leave without even acknowledging her presence. To her surprise, he picked up his pace and walked toward her as if he was glad to see her.
When he drew near, he lifted his hand in greeting. “Mrs. Hanlon, right?” Seen up close, his face looked haggard in the sunlight. “You just might be an answer to prayer.”
Kate stared. That wasn’t exactly the kind of opening she’d expected. She kept silent and waited for him to go on.
“I believe you implied that you were something of an amateur detective, is that right?” At Kate’s hesitant nod, he continued. “I need some help, and you may be the person to provide it. Do you have time to discuss something right now? Perhaps we could go to my office. What I need to talk about is best said in private.”