“No, I guess we don’t.”
“Did you consider giving her the grade at all?”
“No, not really.”
“Why not? It would have been much easier. It would have decreased the potential of exposing the University to adverse publicity,” Richards said.
“Wait a minute. Are you saying I should have given in to her demands?” Terry said.
“It would have eliminated your involvement and made it easier on the school. Now it will look like a cover-up of some kind.”
“Incredible. Here I am, thinking I stood up for the integrity of the school and you are telling me I created problems,” Terry said.
“No, I didn’t say that. I’m just saying that…”
“I fully understand what you’re saying. Sorry to disappoint the University but I have my integrity to look out for as well.”
“Sometimes we have to look at the greater good. Have the police eliminated you in the matter?”
“According to them, they are just getting started and are not ruling out anyone at this point.”
“But you are confident they will, given time.”
“I am,” Terry said flatly.
“Good. Good. Well, this is a messy business. I do hope she turns up and is all right. It would be great for the University and you too. You know how the President is. Anything that sheds a bad light on the University sends him into a tizzy.”
“Is President Winegardner asking me to give her the grade?” Terry asked.
“Of course not. He is concerned about the adverse publicity that could come from this.”
“Do you want me to give her the grade?”
“Well, I would never ask you to just give her a grade. However, if you did, I don’t think anyone would raise much of a fuss about it. In fact I’m sure of it,” Richards said.
“That’s what you all want isn’t it? For this to just go away. Give her the grade and sweep all of this under the table.”
“Good heavens, no. I was just making a comment. You have it all wrong. I was just rambling,” he said quickly.
“I didn’t proposition her and I am not going to give her an A.”
“Yes. You said that. Alright. Well, thank you for coming by. Hope you enjoyed the lunch. It was nice to see you again,” Richards said, indicating the meeting was over.
Terry headed back to his office. He was fuming and he certainly didn’t like the tone of that meeting. It was obvious that Richards had not made up his mind about the whole thing. It was not the start of a very good summer. It could only get better. Or so he thought.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“Wow dude. This is like, the real thing. Way cool.”
“Just take a seat Mike,” Detective Nelson said. Mike had on a dirty pair of jeans, a plaid shirt that had a ripped pocket, no belt and a scruffy pair of tennis shoes. He had a pierced eyebrow and a tattoo of a skull on his forearm. His hair looked like it hadn’t been washed in a month.
“Cool. Are you going to, you know, like handcuff me to the table?”
“No. I just wanted to ask you some questions.”
“I can dig that dude. You just fire away and I’ll lay it on you,”
“Alright,” Randy said, taking a seat cross the table from Mike. It was a typical interrogation room. Gray walls, steel table bolted to the floor a large one-way observation glass and various recording devices. There were no pictures on the walls and it was totally devoid of any real character.
“Hey man. Are you like, you know, the good cop? You know, like on TV man. They always have a good cop and a sinister dude. Which are you? You gonna be the good guy for now?”
“Mike. This is real. Not television. We aren’t here to play games. I just need to know some things. You are acting like a 14 carrot asshole.”
“I’m with you dude. What do you want to know?”
“First. Drop the dude crap. I looked up your GPA and it’s a 3.85. Trying to act dumb isn’t going to cut it with me. I checked your classes and you have taken some of the hardest math courses at the University. You have a straight A in all you English classes. How about dropping the act?” Randy said.
Mike just looked at him for a few seconds, “Right. Ask whatever you want. I’ll give you straight answers.”
“Thanks, I would appreciate that. You said you didn’t realize Sharon was missing until Friday. Then you reported it to the police.”
“Correct.”
“Why did it take you so long to realize she was gone?”
“Well, she is my girlfriend, sort of. She’s pretty wild. She likes girls as well as boys. Sometimes she takes off with one of her girlfriends for a night or two.”
“That’s a fairly strange relationship.”
“I’m not going to marry her. She is just an amusement. Sometimes she brings home another chick and we all end up in bed. It’s not so bad from my perspective,” Mike said smiling.
“What did you do after you reported her missing?”
“I called a few of her better friends and asked around if they knew where she was. No one seemed to have a clue. I even called her mom, and that was no easy task. I thought she might have gone home to see her because she is dying. Bone cancer or something like that. I doubt she will be around much longer.”
“When she takes off, does she go to any one place?”
“No. Not really. She is more than a free spirit. She gets a bug and off she goes. Sometimes she takes off alone, sometimes with someone else. I never really know when she is going to be around”
“Is anyone mad at her? Enough to do serious damage?”
“Well, that one chick, Andy something, she was really hot for a while. But I haven’t seen her around in a few weeks.”
“Andy is a girl?”
“Adriane I think is her real name, but she goes by Andy. She’s a dike,” he said.
“How did you know this Andy?”
“She used to show up about once a week when Sharon first moved in with me. She was real sweet on Sharon. They had been together for some time I guess. He was really pissed off when she came the last time. She even tried to kick my ass. I had to punch her in the stomach to get her to back off.”
“She attacked you?”
“Actually, she attacked Sharon and I tried to separate them. Then she started throwing punches at me. Tried to knee me in the crotch. That was when I decided enough was enough and I punched her.”
“Did she make any threats?”
“Not really threats. It was more like just a stream of cuss words as she left. Why? Do you think she had something to do with this?”
“We don’t know at this point. Like I said, we really are just getting information. At this point we could be looking at a missing person or at someone that just took off like you suggested. One thing I don’t quite understand. If she has done this in the past, why did you report her missing this time?”
“We were going to throw this big end of the semester bash. She had done all of the planning and made sure everyone we knew was invited. She wanted it to be a really cool end of the year event. She even had…ah…recreational items lined up,” he said.
“Recreational items…drugs?”
“I didn’t say that,” Mike replied.
“Doesn’t matter. That’s not our department anyway. We have enough on our plate without worrying about who is smoking what,” Randy told him.
“Here,” Mike said, taking a folded piece of paper out of his shirt pocket. He handed it across the table, “It’s where I’ve been for the past week, as far as I can remember. I can’t say it's one hundred percent accurate but I did the best I could. I partake of a little weed upon occasion.”
“Thanks Mike. I appreciate this.”
“How does that help exactly?” Mike said, indicating the paper he had given the detective.
“To be honest, right now it doesn’t much. This will come in to play if Sharon doesn’t turn up. We have to think about the worst case. This can help eliminate you as a suspect,
” Randy said.
“Or make me a prime one,” Mike added.
“There is that too,” Randy agreed.
“Well, all I can say is that I liked Sharon. She was a lot of fun and a good source for other chicks. She was a wild woman. I sure wouldn’t want to marry someone like that, but for now she is just fine,” Mike said.
“You’re young. Enjoy it while you can,” Randy replied.
After a few more background questions, he cut Mike lose. He wasn’t such a bad kid once he cut the B.S. and got down to business. He was just a college boy getting the most out of a good situation. At least for him. He certainly didn’t seem to be the jealous type who would fly off in a rage over Sharon’s extra activities. In fact, it didn’t seem like much would get him worked up.
C HAPTER THIRTEEN
“What have we got?”
“White female, young, throat slit and pretty beaten up, from the looks of it”
“All right. Keep everyone back. How many people have been walking over the scene?”
“The two kids that found the body and me. I kept everyone well back,” the patrol officer said.
“Good work. Thanks. Call crime scene and the Medical Examiner,” Logan said.
“I already called it in. They should be here any minute”
“Nice job,” Logan said, jotting down the officer's badge number. It was just as he had said. Her head was almost completely severed. It looked like someone had spent a considerable amount of time beating her with some sort of a blunt instrument. From the looks of it, Logan guessed a baseball bat. She was a mass of bruises from her ankles to her breasts. Someone had methodically set about to break as many bones as possible. Her face was frozen in a look of terror. She wasn’t wearing much. Shorts, halter top, and that’s about it. Not even a ring or bracelet.
There wasn’t enough blood at the scene either Logan noted. She had been dumped here. From the smell and looks of the body, she had been dead at least three or four days. There were maggots in the cavity of her throat. Something had been eating on her left cheek as well. Logan began a methodical box search for any items that were out of place. He was two boxes out from the body when he heard a familiar voice.
“We have to stop meeting like this.”
“Yeah. People will start to talk,” Logan replied back to his old friend. They had been greeting each other that way for ten years.
“Let 'em. I’m too old to care,” Doctor Myler, the chief medical examiner for the state, replied.
“What have you got?”
“Young white female. Beaten and throat slit. Must have been dumped a few days ago. My best guess is that it will turn out to be a missing person we have been looking for. She is about the right height and physical description.”
“A lot of rage. Someone really worked her over. Looks like they started with her ankles. Probably wanted to make sure she couldn’t run away,” Myler said, examining her legs.
Both ankles were broken as well as both knee caps. The pain must have been excruciating.
“She really ticked someone off,” Myler said softly.
“Ya think?”
“Wiseass. This was done to inflict the maximum pain. The rest was done more slowly. My guess is, just enough to keep her alive and in pain for as long as possible.”
“Someone is very demented,” Logan said.
“Yeah and very mad as well. They sexually assaulted her too. I'd say they used a stick or something similar,” Myler told him.
“Like this one over here?” Logan said, pointing to a tree branch that seemed to be out of place.
“Could well be. I’ll have it analyzed as well. Won’t get any prints off it but maybe a hair and body fluids, if we are lucky.”
“What about this?” Logan said, pointing to a bruise and scrape marks on her face.
“Maybe when she was dumped and dragged. I’m not really sure. It’s not like the other bruises,”
Logan stood up and looked around one more time but noticed nothing that seemed out of place except for the tree branch.
“Look, I’m finished. You have the crime scene. This is going to be another one of those cases that make me sick,” Logan said.
“Ah, you’re just getting old. Old and soft. You used to come up with a joke right about now or say it was time to go to lunch,” Myler reminded him.
“Not any more. There is too much sickness in this world today,” Logan said, waving as he headed back to his car.
He sat in his car and dug out the picture of Sharon Lewis from the Missing Person file. He was sure it was Sharon Lewis but Myler would be able to confirm the identity in a few hours if all went well.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“We no longer have a missing person’s case. The ME just confirmed that the body found was Sharon Lewis. Logan, you’re the primary on this one. How would you feel about using Randy and his team since they are already familiar with the background?” the captain asked.
“Sure, I guess that would be okay. It’s kind of up to Randy as well. Since the Missing Person is now a homicide and they are already familiar with the case that would be fine with me. It would give them a chance to see how real detectives work,” Logan said.
“We’ve seen how you operate but we can’t eat as many donuts as you,” Bull said, getting a laugh from everyone.
“All right, you win” Logan said.
He thought it might end up this way, changing from a missing person to a murder victim. He was sorry that he was right.
“I expect this will hit the fan when it goes on the air tonight so I want you guys to already be working on it. Clear everything through me before talking to any of the media,” the captain said.
“One question. Once we start on this, it will be really hard if they have to drop out to go back to Missing Persons,” Logan said.
“Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it,” the Captain replied as he walked off.
“Okay, now you are the head honcho,” Randy said, “What do you want us to do next?”
“Let’s find out for sure how many people this kid had been blackmailing or threatening. Jonas, I want you to take on this Adriane Thompson girl, her former lover. Find out what she has been doing and bring her in and grill her if necessary.”
“Will do.”
“Bull. I would like you to go through the list and eliminate as many of the people as you can. I want to get down to six or seven good prospects if at all possible,” Logan said.
“The swami will look into his crystal ball and make the rest disappear,” Bull kidded.
“How about if the swami gets his rear in gear?”
“Poof, I am now gone,” Bull said, heading down the stairs.
“Let’s you and I go visit the University one more time before they all take off for the summer. I want to get Keller and Ryan together with their department heads. So far they know nothing about the others involvement. I think it would be good to hash it all out.”
“Collectively? Are you sure you don’t want to do it one at a time?”
“I’m sure it won’t stop with just these two professors. When we start checking I’ll bet you a buck this has been her pattern ever since she started at the University.”
“Good God. She is a senior. Do you realize how many that could be?”
“Better reserve the gym,” Logan said, only half kidding.
Logan called the University and after a lot of run around was finally able to set a time for them to all get together. He spent the time waiting for the meeting, clearing up the overdue paper work and passing on information to the other detectives who would be taking over some of his workload.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
When Logan and Nelson arrived at the School of Business, Dean Richards was seated behind his desk and the rest were in chairs around a coffee table.
“Please come in. It will be a little crowed in here but we can make room. Please take a seat,” he said pointing to the only two chairs left unoccupied.
“We seem to have some extra people. I wasn’t expecting your attorneys to be here today,” Logan said.
“Yes. Well, this is about University involvement and I felt it would be better if they were present to advise us. Let me introduce you to Dr. Melanie Sorensen. She is the Department Chair for the Political Science Studies. She nodded to each but didn’t offer to shake hands. Logan introduced Detective Randy Nelson to the group. Logan knew the rest of the people seated around the table.
“Now, Detectives, what can we do for you?”
“First, thank you all for coming. I know you would like to get this unfortunate business cleared up and so would we. Unfortunately, this is no longer a missing person’s case. Sharon Lewis was found murdered earlier today. It will be on the news by the time you get home,” Logan informed them.
It was totally silent in the room. Melanie Sorensen put her hands to her mouth but said nothing.
“Secondly, we need to clear up some disturbing items. Dr. Keller and Dr. Ryan were both being blackmailed by Sharon Lewis, or that is the way it appears at this time. She was using the threat of ruining their reputations as leverage to get A’s in the classes. From what we have learned so far, Dr. Ryan did not go along with her demands and Dr. Keller did.”
They all turned to look at Keller.
“Wait a minute,” Keller said, standing up quickly.
“Sit down Dr. Keller,” Melanie said.
“I did not give her an unearned grade,” he insisted.
“Yes. I’m afraid you did. But that is not the real problem. We are now checking to see how many other instructors may be involved in her scheme. So far, she has A’s from every male instructor she taken classes from,” Logan said, letting it sink in.
“Are you implying that the staff at the University has been subject to blackmail by this one student?” Markham, the University's attorney asked.
“I am saying it appears that way at present. She was a C student at very best and yet she always got A’s when in the male instructors’ classes. It certainly appears that we need to check it out,” Logan said.
BLONDE DECEPTION - The Logan Files Page 6