The Scholarship

by Jaime Maddox

  It was a soft kiss, a gentle touch of their lips meant to say more than any words ever could. It lasted only a second but gave a hint of something more to come, something Reese sensed could last for a lifetime.

  How had this happened? She’d never really been against relationships. They just never seemed to work for her. Her job and her family took up too much of her time, so much so that she never seemed to have enough for anyone else. But she’d never met anyone who made her want to change that situation. In Ella, she sensed she’d found someone who wouldn’t ask her to change. Ella fit into her world perfectly. She also had a demanding career, one she’d sacrificed for and had succeeded in, so she could understand Reese’s dedication to her job. And she fit into her family. Reese had never met anyone—well, except for Steph—who adored Cass and could be a part of her family, instead of a separate piece of it.

  With Ella, new, strange things seemed to be possible. As Reese opened the door for Ella and walked back to her own side, she began to hum.

  Chapter 17: A Suspect

  As she began the short drive home from Reese’s house, her skin still tingling where Reese had kissed her neck and her lips, Ella was happy she lived so close by. She was too agitated to concentrate on the drive.

  Part of her wanted Reese to ask her in, and part of her wanted to invite herself in, but an even bigger part of her was enjoying this little dance of seduction they’d started. It was fun, the flirting. And the more time she spent with Reese, the more she liked her. It was no longer a question of if they were going to end up in bed, but when. And three days before she had to leave for a long trip didn’t seem like the ideal when. So, she’d dropped Reese off, and before she could ask, Ella had told her she’d call her the next day. The car was too dark for her to tell if Reese looked disappointed, but she suspected Reese was enjoying this buildup as much as she was, and so she kissed her softly on the lips and climbed out of the car without another word.

  It was after eleven o’clock and dark when she pulled into the driveway at Pip’s, and she stopped the car as soon as she realized every light in the houses was on. She was sure she’d turned them off before she left. And wouldn’t Sharon have called her if she hadn’t? Sharon had a key, but why would she be at Pip’s place now, so late at night? And if she did decide to pay Ella a visit, why all the lights? Something was going on, and whatever it was couldn’t be good.

  Not bothering to pull into the garage, Ella found her house key and hurried to the back door. It had grown cold as well as dark, and she shivered. Her reaction was due just as much to nerves as the temperature.

  Before she could put her key in the lock, the door opened, and waiting there to greet her she found a smiling Pip, holding a squirming Bijou in her arms.

  “Hi!” she said.

  Ella was stunned. “Pip, hi. What’s going on? Is everything okay? Why are you home so soon?”

  “Oh, everything’s fine. I was just homesick, and it wasn’t working out in California, so I decided to come home.”

  “For good?”

  Ella had thought about house hunting, and she wanted to meet Reese’s friend Doug but hadn’t set that up yet. If Pip was home and Ella had to move now…she couldn’t even think about it.

  Pip nodded, and then, sensing Ella’s angst for seemingly the first time, she quickly shook her head as she wrestled to control the dog. “Don’t worry. You don’t have to leave. The house is plenty big enough for both of us.”

  Relieved, Ella nodded and reached out to pet Bijou. “Hi, buddy, I’m back. It’s so good to see you.” She looked at Pip.

  “You’re sweet. And I mean it. You’re not going anywhere.”

  “That’s good. Because right now, I’m too tired to walk up the steps, let alone to a hotel.”

  Pip laughed. “Well, come in, and we’ll have some tea and talk.”

  “I was startled by the lights, so I parked in the driveway. I’ll pull the car into the garage. Then we can catch up.”

  Pip smiled. “I’ll put the kettle on.”

  “Be back in a minute,” Ella said before returning to the car. This was certainly a wrench in the works. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Pip, but she was used to living alone, and no matter how big the house, it was still Pip’s, and she was the guest. She didn’t want to be anyone’s guest for more than a few hours at a time.

  “Just let me change my clothes, Pip, and I’ll be down soon,” she said when she came back. She’d worn a casual skirt with a cardigan duo and swapped them for a baggy T-shirt and sweats. As she pulled her phone out of her bag to plug it into the charger, she saw a text from Sharon.

  I just want to give you a heads-up. Pip’s home. She didn’t say why, but she popped over a little while ago to let me know she’s back, and she picked up the dog. See you soon.

  The text had come in an hour before, so Pip hadn’t arrived much before Ella. Hmm. It was so strange, this sudden homecoming. Fortunately, she’d be leaving in a few days for a week-long business trip, so she would have a little time to think about her next move. At the moment, her mind was still spinning from Reese, and it was difficult to concentrate on the fact that she might soon be homeless.

  She found Pip in the den, sitting on the couch before a fire and sipping from her mug. Bijou was curled up next to her, and he barely looked in her direction as he basked in the warmth of his mom. Ella took a seat on the other end of the couch and reached for the mug Pip had set on the coffee table.

  “Thanks for the tea,” she said.

  “I didn’t know what you like, so I just made plain decaf tea with honey.”

  “Perfect,” Ella said, and as she took a sip, she realized that it was. “Mmm.”

  “You were out to dinner? With whom? Where’d you go?”

  Ella wasn’t sure how much she wanted to disclose, but she wasn’t up for keeping secrets. “I was out with Reese Ryan.”

  Pip’s eyebrow shot up. “Good choice.”

  Ella choked on her tea. She would have defended herself, told her they were just friends, but she would have been lying. They’d barely kissed, but much more was going on than friendship.

  “Did you bring me anything?”

  “I have dessert. If I’d known you were coming, I would have brought you a feast.”

  Pip looked down into her mug and shook her head. “It was a sort of sudden decision.”

  “I know you weren’t fond of Miles, but the last time I talked to you, you said you loved your class. What happened?”

  “I did love it. I do. I love filmmaking. It wasn’t that. It was Miles. At first, I thought he was just a little hyper. You know—high energy. Then I started to suspect he was using drugs. Now I don’t know what to think. He’s one very strange guy, I’ll say that, and I knew I couldn’t stay there anymore. I thought of renting a place, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to get as far away from him as I could.”

  The look on Pip’s face was blank, and Ella was concerned. “Pip, what happened? Did he do something to you? Did he hurt you?”

  “Not me…but I’m wondering.”

  “Wondering what?”

  Pip sat up, startling Bijou. She leaned forward and rested her arms on her elbows. “He told me I could have the run of the house, whatever I needed, what was his was mine. It was much as I said to you, so I felt his offer was genuine. Of course, I didn’t take advantage of him. I was in the guest house, so I wasn’t underfoot. I bought my own food and cleaned up the place. He’s a slob, by the way. I cooked a little, too. You know, I was trying to show my appreciation for his hospitality. I treated him to dinner a few times, even met some of his friends. He took me on the set with him, and I got to meet a ton of people. It was all going well, until last week.”

  “What happened last week?”

  “Well, as I said, he’s strange. He gets right in your face when he talks to you. He has no appreciation for personal space. Ditto for the guest house. His house has twenty rooms, and he was always walking in unannounced. L
ike we were bosom buddies. And he’d walk around naked. Now that was a scary sight. The man is in the wrong kind of movies—could be a porn star. And he plays this strange, strange music. Movie themes. It’s like you’re on the set of Star Wars, or Schindler’s List. Wacky. Just crazy.”

  Ella nodded. Reese had told her Miles was a little different, but what Pip was describing sounded worse. She was no psychiatrist, but Miles sounded crazy.

  “That’s not the worst of it. You should see the scrapbooks.”

  “The scrapbooks?”

  Pip nodded. “I had a project for class. We had to set a series of pictures to music, for dramatic effect. Wouldn’t you know I bought a new camera card before I left? I didn’t want to risk losing my pictures, so I had none to draw from. I figured everyone would be using the California coastline, so I wanted something different. Miles told me to help myself to any pictures I found. I started looking around his scrapbook room. Can you believe it? Famous movie star and film producer, and his favorite hobby is scrapbooking?”

  Ella shrugged. It was something she’d never gotten into, but she understood it was quite popular.

  “He doesn’t document normal things, Ella. Not parties and vacations. He preserves death. Plane crashes. Fires. Earthquakes. Murdered women. And the strangest one of all—he has a scrapbook, an entire, huge book about Stephanie Gates.”

  Ella felt as if she’d been slapped. “What?”

  “It’s so weird. I hadn’t even thought of Stephanie for years until you asked about her that day. Then I fly across the country to find this amazing chronicle of her life and death. He has photos of her, hundreds of them. Her high school yearbooks. Newspaper articles from swim meets and school activities. And, of course, the murder. He has every article about her murder, with words highlighted and underlined. And the worst part, Ella, made me want to throw up. He has a mutilated picture of her, with blood dripping from her head. It’s the centerfold of the book.”

  Ella was speechless, felt her head spinning and her mouth go dry. No wonder Pip had left. She would have wanted to get as far away from Miles Jones as she could, too.

  “Holy shit, Pip. He sounds scary. It’s good that you left.”

  Pip shook her head. “I know, Ella. I had to get out of there. I’ve never been so petrified.”

  “Do you think he’s dangerous?”

  Pip nodded. “I do, Ella. More than that, though—I think he murdered Stephanie.”

  Chapter 18: Business and Pleasure

  With an adrenaline rush born of facing a new challenge, Ella hopped out of bed on Monday morning, showered, dressed, and walked out the door by eight o’clock. The first leg of her trip was a short one—across the yard, to say good-bye to the Ryans.

  Cass answered the door with an enthusiasm that suggested she’d been up for hours, her mother close behind and not looking nearly as alert.

  “How’s the new roommate?” Sharon asked.

  Ella felt her eyes fly open wide. She’d still not absorbed the information Pip had told her, and she wasn’t sure what to do with it. She’d suggested Pip call Reese’s friend Karen in the DA’s office, and Pip had agreed to do that this morning. As far as having a roommate, though—that had been pretty benign. Pip had slept through most of Saturday and had spent Sunday visiting relatives she hadn’t seen in a month. Ella had hardly seen her for five minutes since she’d been back and told Sharon so.

  “I wouldn’t be in a hurry to find a place,” Sharon said. “Pip’s likely to be on a plane to Europe next week.”

  Ella shrugged. She simply couldn’t worry about it now.

  “So, you’re all set for the trip?” Sharon asked.

  Ella nodded. “My first road trip for PMU. How do I look?” She’d worn a simple brown cardigan over a bold-pattern dress, with flecks of orange and green. It had seemed strong and sophisticated in the dressing room at Boscov’s, but now she wondered if it was the right look.

  Sharon’s smile told her that first instinct was right. “I’d write you a check. How much do you want?”

  “Thanks,” she said, stepping around Cass to give Sharon a hug. “I’m a little nervous.”

  “It sounds like you won’t have time for nerves,” she said.

  “True.” Over Sunday dinner, Ella had shared her itinerary with the Ryans. They’d become like family to her, and she felt comfortable spending time with them, even giving details about her job.

  She’d grown fond of them, all of them, but especially Reese. When she’d received the invitation to dinner on Sunday, Reese had called this time, instead of Sharon or Cass. And though the question was asked and answered in thirty seconds, they’d lingered on the phone for thirty minutes, talking about their dinner the night before, and the dog, and the weather, and a bunch of other things. It was only her sense of decorum that forced her to end the conversation. If she didn’t care that Reese knew she was sitting home on a Saturday night with nothing to do, she would have talked to her for hours.

  “I think Reese will miss you,” Sharon said. Her eyes bored into Ella’s in a manner that suggested she knew how’d they’d spent Friday evening, even though neither of them had told her. They’d agreed not to talk about it with Sharon and Cass until they figured out what IT was. Yet here she was, on the spot, searching for a rejoinder that wouldn’t be telling or deceitful.

  “I’ll miss her, too. I’ll miss all of you. You’ve been so kind to me—I could never have imagined meeting such wonderful neighbors.”

  “I guess my job will be easy, now that Pip’s back. I’ll call you if she leaves again.”

  “I’m thinking she’ll stay put for a while,” Ella said and nearly shuddered as she thought of Miles Jones and his macabre scrapbook of Steph.

  Sharon laughed. “Maybe I’ll call just to chat.”

  “I’d like that,” Ella said, and hugged her again.

  A minute later, she was in her SUV, heading north into New England. She’d had a light breakfast, since she was meeting a potential donor for lunch, and another for dinner, and if she wasn’t careful, the schedule of meetings over food would soon make her obese. She hadn’t sacrificed her coffee, though, and an hour into the trip, she made her first stop, to use the restroom. Two hours later, she arrived at the restaurant where she was meeting a retired anesthesiologist, and even though it was early, she found a table and pulled out her iPad while she waited. Though she’d reviewed the doctor’s file the night before, she pulled it up again to refresh her memory.

  He was seventy-nine years old, had majored in chemistry at PMU, and went to medical school after serving in the army. He’d used his background to help develop new drugs for a pharmaceutical company and had made a fortune. He’d already donated money to PMU, and Ella wasn’t looking for anything further than to meet him, thank him, and find out what they could do for each other. She often worried about older donors, who, like this gentleman, were giving their money to worthy causes because they had no children who would benefit from the inheritance. Who took care of them, helped with shopping and household chores that had become too difficult to manage? She’d helped many of her donors over the years in handling similar issues, and it gave her as much satisfaction as the million-dollar gifts. More, perhaps.

  Loud voices interrupted her studies, and she looked up to see the waiter who’d seated her earlier escorting an elderly gentleman toward her table. By the looks of things, she didn’t have to worry about the doctor. On his arm, wearing a much-too-tight sweater, was a buxom redhead half his age.

  Ella stood as they approached. “Dr. Adler?” she asked, as she reached for his hand. “I’m Elizabeth Townes.”

  “A pleasure, Miss Townes. Call me Dr. Joe. Everybody does. And this is my wife, Candy.”

  She sure is, Ella thought as she tried hard not to stare at the huge breasts threatening the fabric that contained them.

  “What brings you to Stamford?” he asked as he settled back in the cozy club chair.

  “You do, Dr. Joe. You’re a major ben
efactor for the university, and as the new vice president of development, I wanted to reach out to you and show you our appreciation, let you know what your money’s doing for the school, and see if we can do anything for you.”

  “What you can do for me? What could the school possibly do for me?”

  Ella sat back as the waiter appeared to take their drink orders. She opted for coffee, while the Adlers chose something a little stronger.

  “Well, that depends. As you know, our alumni base stretches well into New England, so there are always people around to help each other. I’m sure you don’t have to worry about medical care, since you know a ton of doctors, but for some people that’s an issue. We can help connect you with lawyers, accountants, other alumni for social gatherings. That sort of thing.”

  He suddenly sat forward and pointed a finger at her. “Do you know what I need?” he asked.

  “What?” Ella asked, as she thought a penile implant.

  “A new set of dentures. Do we have anyone who does that?”

  Ella swallowed her smile as she reached for her tablet. “Let me check.” She punched in her codes and accessed the alumni database. “In New Haven, we have a husband and wife team of prosthodontists. I can connect you with them, if you’d like.”

  “Swell. It’s very nice of you to think of me.”

  “Tell me your story, Dr. Joe. How’d you go from PMU to the military to Yale and beyond? You’ve had quite a journey.”

  Dr. Joe began talking, and Ella wasn’t surprised when she couldn’t get him to stop. She’d allowed two hours on her schedule for lunch, figuring she could check into her hotel and relax for a few hours before dinner with another alum. It was nearly three o’clock, though, by the time she got back to her car, and she wasn’t surprised when Dr. Joe wrapped his arms around her and gave her a big hug. Ella liked him, and she even liked Candy, who seemed genuinely sweet and attentive to Dr. Joe. And although she hadn’t solicited a penny, by the time they’d finished their fourth and final cocktail of the afternoon, Dr. Joe had suggested he might reconsider the multimillion-dollar gift he’d given the university, in favor of something even more generous.