Textbook Murder

by Laina Turner

  “It’s my pleasure,” John said, taking Chloe’s hand and kissing it with a shallow bow. Not a surprising move for a man wearing linen, she thought.

  “Maybe you will stay on now that Bill’s position is vacant,” another man who had been in the group called out, and laughed. It caused everyone to turn and look at him, some rolling their eyes at his tasteless comment.

  “What? None of you liked Bill,” the man commented as the others in the group just looked at him, shaking their heads. They’d clearly been through this before. There was always one obnoxious person in the bunch, Chloe thought.

  “Ignore my callous friend, Chloe. There was no love lost between Paul and Bill, as I am sure you can tell.”

  “You better watch it, Paul,” John said, turning to him. “Too much talk like that and the police might think you are a suspect.” Turning his attention back to Chloe, he said, “I, for one, am glad you are here. It’s always good to have new faces in the faculty pool.”

  He said it in a manner that made her think he wasn’t talking as much about academics, as faces in general. He seemed a bit predatory to the female species, in her opinion. Exactly the kind of man she didn’t like. In fact, it always amazed her that anyone would like that type, but someone always did.

  “Thank you. I am happy to be here. This is a great school,” she said, keeping it professional.

  “Have you been teaching long?” asked a blonde woman. She was a bit older than Chloe, maybe in her early fifties.

  “I’ve been an adjunct at a law school back in Chicago for about five years. I love teaching, but so does everyone else there, it seems, so there are not a lot of full-time opportunities. Hence, I came here to find a full-time opportunity. Even if it is just temporary.”

  “Like I said, you now have a shot at Bill’s job,” said that Paul guy again, and Chloe made a mental note to steer clear of him. She was sure he was harmless, but she wasn’t a fan of the obnoxious.

  “You’ll find that many of us prefer teaching to actually practicing law. It’s not what it used to be. I’m Kate, by the way. Kate Shipley,” the woman said, holding out her hand. Chloe took it and appreciated her firm grip.

  Chloe started to reply when Mallory nudged her. “Look who just walked in,” she whispered, nodding toward the door. Chloe looked over to see Detective Rodriguez entering. “What’s he doing here?”

  “I would imagine he wants to meet others who worked with Bill,” Chloe said. “To get to know potential suspects.”

  “Really? You think he thinks one of us here killed Bill?” Mallory exclaimed a little too loudly, drawing attention from others in the room.

  “I don’t know, but he has to start somewhere,” Chloe said.

  “I think he’s coming over here.” Mallory smoothed down her skirt. She was really hot for this guy. Chloe didn’t blame her. He was extremely good-looking.

  “Hello, ladies.”

  “Hi there, Detective Rodriguez. Do you have a first name, or do you just go by detective?” said Mallory coyly.

  He smiled, showing a mouthful of beautiful white teeth. “You can call me Jack.”

  “What brings you to our mixer, Jack?” Mallory asked.

  “I thought I would just come and mingle with all the lawyerly types. Maybe learn something.”

  Chloe laughed.

  “What? You don’t believe me?”

  “Hey, if that’s your story, of course I will believe you.”

  “Would you like me to introduce you around?” asked Mallory.

  “That’s great for you to offer, but I think I’ll just mingle.”

  Mallory’s face fell, but she quickly recovered. “Okay. Let me know if I can help you with anything.”

  Chloe noticed a strange look cross John’s face, but then quickly forgot about it as Jack started talking again.

  “I will be sure to do that. Ms. Parsons, you still planning on coming by tomorrow?” he said, turning back to Chloe.

  “Yes. I will be there.”

  “Good. Ladies.” He nodded. “Until later.”

  “What a nice view,” Mallory said about his backside as Jack walked away. Chloe had to agree with that, and even Kate nodded her head.

  Chloe spent the next hour talking and getting to know people. She really liked the majority of the group, and found herself hoping that maybe there would be a full-time opportunity opening up. Even though the circumstances weren’t ideal, it had already happened, and someone would need to fill the position. Might as well be her.

  She walked away from the group to use the ladies’ room and was just about to go in when she heard loud voices from down the hall. She quietly stepped in the direction of the noise, drawn to it. She realized it was a bit nosy, but she couldn’t help herself.

  “You need to watch yourself! Bill’s murder is going to bring a lot more scrutiny to the university, and you need to fly below the radar.”

  “Don’t you see? People around here will be so focused on Bill’s murder that they won’t even notice.”

  Chloe tiptoed a little closer, until she could see it was John and Paul arguing in an empty room. She wondered what this was all about.

  “That’s the kind of attitude that will get you caught, Paul,” said John.

  “I know what I’m doing. You need to stop being such a worrywart.”

  “Paul, we can’t afford for things to go wrong at this point.”

  “Everything is going to be fine; you’ll see.”

  “I don’t know, Paul. Maybe we should put things on hold until this investigation blows over.”

  “Absolutely not.” Paul’s voice rose a few decibels. “We are going to keep moving forward. Don’t ruin this for me, John. This must happen,” Paul said, his voice sounding threatening.

  “Fine. I just hope you know what you’re doing. Now, let’s get back before people start wondering where we’ve gone.”

  Chloe could hear their footsteps moving toward the door, so she backed away quickly and headed to the ladies’ room. As she reached the door, she looked back over her shoulder and saw Paul looking at her intently. Probably wondering what she had heard, if anything. She quickly turned and walked the rest of the way into the ladies’ room, extremely curious about what they had been arguing about.

  The mixer lasted about another hour before people started to leave. Neither Paul nor John had approached her after she had overheard them. In fact, it seemed that they were purposely avoiding her. She would have to subtly ask Mallory if she knew what kind of relationship those two had. Their behavior had her curious. Chloe wasn’t sure when Jack had left, but when she looked around for him, he had already gone. Accosted by Mallory, no doubt; she smiled to herself. She walked back to her apartment thinking about the eventful day she’d had. She had thought the move to Spencer would be a quiet change. Boy had she been wrong.

  Chloe made herself a cup of coffee—caffeine never kept her awake. This had been a big problem in law school, when she’d drunk gallons of it while studying—and sat down on the couch with her laptop. Curious about Bill and the case necessitating his leave from the law school, she wanted to do some research and see what information there was beyond the headlines and what she already knew, which wasn’t much.

  Starting with the ever so helpful Google, she typed in the name Randall Whittier. The case was high enough profile that it had made the major news outlets. Involving millions of dollars made it quite newsworthy. According to what she was reading, it was the typical story of CFO dips into company funds, thinking he is too smart to get caught but gets caught anyway. Why these people never learned, Chloe couldn’t fathom. Eventually, you were going to get caught. The part that made this case stand out from all the others was the company Randall worked for, GlobE. It dealt in alternative energy and was very controversial for its alliances with certain companies in the Middle East and Japan, which many people felt was a threat the US. Randall, as CFO, had been a major player in these deals and wasn’t looked upon very favorably in certain c
ircles, accused of selling to the highest bidder and not being patriotic. This latest turn of events hadn’t endeared him to the pubic any further, and she was surprised he hadn’t been hunted down and stoned for all the hateful and scathing comments she was reading. So much of what was out there was very repetitive. She had to go to the second page of articles before she came across something new that caught her eye. This is why she preferred smaller news channels. It seemed like the big guys all reported exactly the same thing, just copy and paste from each other. She found the small outlets often approached things from a different angle in an attempt to set themselves apart, and that’s what she found here. The piece that caught her eye wasn’t even directly related to the crime, but went a long way to explaining why Bill Peterson was willing to represent Randall Whittier. This piece was more about the background of Randall, and mentioned how he lived in the historical district of Spencer and was next-door neighbors with famed lawyer turned professor, Bill Peterson. If they were neighbors, it would make sense that they were friends, and might explain why Bill was taking a hiatus from work, in order to run his defense case. She wondered how close they were.

  This was good information, but it didn’t give her any insight as to who might have killed Bill. Chloe went to her bag and pulled out one of her many legal pads to make some notes. She could use her computer, but she found the act of writing things down helped her to think through problems.

  She wanted to make a list of all the people and reasons someone might want Bill dead. That brought her back to John and Paul. What had they been discussing that seemed to have John so worried? Chloe looked at the clock and saw it was shortly after midnight. She stretched and yawned, standing up to walk into the kitchen to get a glass of water and get ready for bed. She was almost looking forward to her early-morning visit to the police station to see Detective Rodriguez. She had to agree with Mallory. He was very attractive.

  Chapter 5

  The next morning Chloe pushed open the doors of the Spencer police station, Precinct 2107 to be exact. Judging by the looks of the building, it was either new or recently remodeled. Spencer must have a better budget for this stuff than Chicago. Everything here was shiny and clean. A far cry from the police stations she had frequented in the past in her professional life.

  She’d taken extra care with her appearance, finding herself wanting to make a good impression on the handsome detective. She needed to be careful, or she would start chasing him like Mallory. She laughed to herself at the thought. The last thing she needed was to get involved with a guy while she was here. She was still trying to forget the last one or two. She needed to stay focused on doing a great job at the college because, let’s face it, as bad as it may sound, the murder of Bill Peterson had opened up the possible opportunity for a permanent full-time position. She would love a full-time position. It would be a dream come true.

  She shuddered at the recollection of finding Bill. She had dealt with many criminals over the years, but no dead bodies, and that was an experience she didn’t have any interest in reliving. Unfortunately, it was embedded in her brain, and she wouldn’t forget it anytime soon.

  Taking a final tug at her collar and her necklace to make sure they were in place, a nervous habit of hers, she walked up to the front desk.

  “Can I help you?” a young man, probably early twenties, asked her. He was clean-shaven, with close-cropped hair. A policeman in training, she surmised. Maybe waiting for a place in the police academy, or just one of those who wasn’t quite ready for full-on action but wanted to contribute to civil service. At least, that was the aura he gave off.

  “Yes, you can.” Chloe smiled brightly. “I’m here to see Detective Jack Rodriguez. He’s expecting me.”

  The young man smiled back at her. “Let me see if he’s at his desk,” he said, picking up the phone and punching in a few numbers. “Detective Rodriguez, there is someone here to see you.” He looked at her with an uh-oh expression. He hadn’t asked her name, and she assumed that was what he’d just been asked. As someone used to manning the phones, she knew that was the number one thing you needed to know.

  “Chloe Parsons,” she said with a smile.

  “Thank you,” he mouthed silently, and then repeated her name into the phone before hanging up. “He’ll be right up to get you, and thanks for being able to read my mind. That’s the second time today I’ve forgotten to get someone’s name, and both with Detective Rodriguez. This is only my second week on the job, and I want to make a good impression. The last person wasn’t as quick on the draw as you.”

  Chloe smiled. “I’m sure you will get the hang of it really soon.”

  “Chloe, thank you for coming in so early.” Jack walked up to her, holding out his hand to shake hers. He clearly hadn’t shaved this morning, which wasn’t a bad thing on him. His stubble made him even more attractive.

  “I wanted to get an early start on my day, and thought it would be more beneficial to you to have my statement sooner rather than later.”

  He started walking down the hallway, motioning her to follow him.

  “You and your colleagues think alike.” He stopped at a set of office doors, waving her inside, and then walked behind a desk, taking a seat and motioning for Chloe to do the same. Noticing her quizzical look, he continued, “Mallory just left about twenty minutes ago.”

  Chloe was surprised, since she thought she remembered the detective telling Mallory she didn’t need to come in. Jack must have read her mind because he said, “She said she was in the neighborhood and just wanted to see if there was any way she could help.”

  Chloe laughed. “She does want to be helpful.” She was pretty sure he understood Mallory was more interested in him than in helping solve Bill’s murder.

  “That she does,” he said with a smile.

  “Now, getting down to business. I need you to walk me back through every detail of what you did from the time you knocked on the office door to the time the police showed up. No detail is too insignificant. Which, as a lawyer, I’m sure you know.”

  She did know, and proceeded to recount her experience over the next thirty-five minutes. She gave him the same details she had given the day before, but she understood that sometimes more details came in telling the story over and over. It was also, as she knew, a method used to see if someone’s answers were too pat, too scripted. As a lawyer, she knew that when someone told the same story over and over exactly the same it could be a sign of just that—a story made up to cover what really happened. People who were just innocent observers didn’t usually remember every single detail in the same order each time. That usually took practice. She didn’t think it was his motive here to try to trip her up because he felt she was guilty, nor was she worried, even if it was, since she wasn’t trying to cover anything up. She wasn’t the one who killed Bill, that was the one thing she knew for sure.

  “I think that about does it,” he said when she finished, saving the document containing the notes of the conversation.

  “Sorry, I wasn’t much help,” she said ruefully.

  “Hey, I’m sorry you had to get wrapped up in this. Not a very good welcome to our town. Spencer is a really good city.”

  “It wasn’t the best first day on the job I’ve had, but things happen. Just a bad set of circumstances.”

  “Glad you see it that way. Is the school the best number to reach you?”

  “That or my cell,” she said, and rattled off the numbers as he wrote them down.

  “Thanks again,” Jack said, standing up. “Let me walk you out.”

  Chloe was surprised at how easy he was to talk to. They chitchatted all the way to the front of the station. Granted, the walk wasn’t very far, but it wasn’t the uncomfortable silence that one might expect with two strangers. Especially under the circumstances.

  “Thanks again for coming in,” he said, sticking out his hand once more.

  “No problem. Let me know if I can do anything else,” Chloe said.

&nb
sp; “I will. Take care.”

  “You too,” she said.

  She walked back out to her car. Opening the door, she slid in and set her purse on the passenger seat. She pulled out of the lot and headed to the university. She had some work to do to finish prepping for her first class, which would be starting tomorrow. The school hadn’t wanted a delay in summer session; they thought business as usual was the best course of action, and according to Jack, the police had finished with the crime scene late last night. Although Bill’s office was off limits, the rest of the school wasn’t.

  She was also curious to hear Mallory’s reasoning for stopping to see Jack. She could only imagine it was strictly a romantic one, rather than about Bill’s murder, and to give Mallory credit, she didn’t hide the fact she thought Jack was hot. Chloe had to admire her forthrightness. At least she went after what she wanted. Mallory seemed like someone she could have a friendship with, which would be nice in a new place.

  The university was a short drive from the station. Chloe was finding the town to be easy to navigate and appreciated how much less traffic and congestion there was than in Chicago. Parking in her assigned spot, she shut off the engine and grabbed her things. Walking up to the school, she felt a sense of trepidation building. She had made this same journey yesterday, and her excitement at starting this new phase of her life had been cut short by finding a dead body. While she knew that wouldn’t be the case today, it still put her a little on edge.

  Making her way down the hall, she saw Mallory at her desk, looking chipper in a yellow top.

  “Hi, Chloe,” she said as Chloe drew closer. “Good morning. Since you can’t use your office at the moment, I thought you could use the one next to it. That one belongs to Richard Sanborn, but he’s gone for the summer.”

  “Are you sure? I can just use the library for now.” Chloe knew firsthand how particular lawyers could be, and invading someone’s office without his knowledge was much like invading his home. As an adjunct back in Chicago, she was used to not having office space and grabbing whatever corner she could.