by Laina Turner
Killer Classes
A Spencer University Cozy Mystery
Laina Turner
Laina Turner Media
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Laina
Copyright © 2019 by Laina Turner
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
About the Author
Thanks for Reading
Also by Laina Turner Website
Chapter 1
“Can you believe it? The start of another fall semester?” I said to my best friend, Polly, not able to contain my excitement or the grin on my face. We were both professors at Spencer University, a small, private, liberal arts college located in Spencer, Ohio, about an hour or so outside of Columbus.
“Sometimes it feels like the school year will never end, but then summer goes way too fast,” she replied. “As much as I hate to see summer end, I do enjoy coming back to the school year.”
“Summer did seem to fly by, but nothing beats the start of school.”
“How’s Don?” Polly asked, changing the subject from work to my personal life.
I knew she’d probably been biting her tongue to let this much time go by before asking. We’d both been gone the last couple weeks, each of us out of town visiting family and we hadn’t had much time to chat. Polly loved the play-by-play commentary of my love life, which I admit had been pretty good lately. Don was a great guy, a far cry from my last boyfriend. Though Don wasn’t officially my boyfriend, we were taking it slow and considered ourselves good friends who enjoyed spending time together. I felt we both wanted it to go further at some point, but neither of us were in a hurry. We were happy with where things were.
“He’s good,” I said. “He extended his leave another week, but he will be back next week for sure.” Don, a former homicide detective, was head of campus security, but came to the university by way of Columbus, Ohio. An injury during his career as a detective left him with the choice of desk duty or retiring early and he’d chosen to retire early and start a new career here at Spencer University. However, he’d taken a leave of absence a month ago to go back to Columbus when a break on a case he’d worked on for years came up and he felt compelled to see if it led anywhere. Not only had I not seen him, but he’d been so busy we’d rarely even texted. I knew how important this case was to him, so I didn’t mind.
“So, what do you think the big initiative will be this year?” I asked, referring to the meeting due to start in a few minutes.
Polly shrugged. “I heard President Stoddard went to some conference this summer about growth mindset. I know there have been years where he seems to live in a different reality than the rest of us thinking what is feasible but really isn’t. But I’ve been reading about growth mindset and it really makes sense. This is one initiative I could get behind.”
“I saw an article about it a few months back and I agree it does sound good. I’m all for giving students confidence instead of penalizing them in areas that don’t warrant it. Education is a slow process that continues to build. We don’t want to discourage them.”
“Have you met the new law professor yet?” Polly asked again, changing subjects. Don often teased that being around Polly and I was like watching a ping pong match the way we constantly hopped around to different conversations, yet we always knew what each other was talking about.
“The one who found poor Bill Peterson dead?”
“Have we hired any other law professors?” Polly teased.
“Good point. No, not yet.”
A new professor wasn’t uncommon at the university, but they made such a big deal about everything in the law school. Law school faculty were the flashy ones—or what some here called pretentious—on campus. Everything that happened in that school was usually preceded by a big press release when the same thing in the School of Psychology or Engineering was deemed business as usual.
“She’s right over there. Let’s go say hi while we’re waiting,” Polly said, heading in that direction. We made our way across the auditorium where she stood with the rest of the law school faculty.
“Do you know her name?” Polly whispered to me when we got close to the group.
“I think it’s Chloe.”
“Yeah,” she nodded. “That sounds right.”
“Hi, Mallory,” I said to the law school administrative assistant when we reached the group. Mallory used to work as the admin for the School of Psychology before she defected to the dark side, as we liked to teased her. So, we both knew her well.
“Hi, Olivia, Polly.” She gave us both hugs. “I’m so glad you came over here. I want you to meet our newest member, Chloe Parsons You guys are going to love her.”
Chloe looked a little embarrassed that Mallory was being so enthusiastic, but that was Mallory. She was enthusiastic about everything. She was one of those chronically happy people.
“Great to meet you both,” Chloe said, holding out her hand. “Mallory has told me so many good things about you two.”
“I told her she must come out to margarita night with us,” said Mallory.
“That would be so fun. You must,” I said.
“In fact, tonight is margarita night at Tiny’s Tacos,” Mallory said. “I’m free. What about you guys?”
“I’m in,” I said. Polly and Chloe nodded their agreement.
“Great! Then let’s all meet at five-thirty. Provost Thomas just walked on stage. I’m sure he’s going to open this meeting up, so we better take our seats,” Mallory said.
Polly and I hurried over to our side of the auditorium and took a seat. Not that we had assigned seats, but working at a university was a lot like high school. Us psychology profs didn’t hang much with the math profs, who kept with the engineering profs. That kind of thing.
Provost Thomas came out on stage and looked uncharacteristically nervous. He was usually the epitome of calm, cool, and collected.
“Wonder what’s wrong with him?” I murmured. Provost Thomas was known for being super calm and laid back to President Thaddeus Stoddard’s uptight, high strung personality. They were a good pair, balancing each other out well, though we often wondered how they didn’t drive each other crazy. It was definitely an opposites attract sort of thing.
“Maybe Stoddard’s finally rubbed off on him and now he’s neurotic,” Polly joked.
“Ahem.” Provost Thomas cleared his throat right into the microphone causing it to screech and us in the audience to wince. “Sorry.” He shuffled back and forth from one foot to another. Something was definitely bothering him. “I know you’re all gathered here, excited to
kick off the upcoming school year and to hear President Stoddard’s plans for us. However, I’m afraid this meeting will need to be postponed. President Stoddard had something come up that he had to attend to and can’t be here. For your trouble, we’ve opened up the cafeteria and desserts are on us.”
As Provost Thomas walked off the stage, I heard the people around us talking excitedly. A cancelled meeting and dessert. It was a great day in our world. While the cafeteria food itself wasn’t great, the baked goods were out of this world. Spencer University had a culinary school and the advanced pastry classes were in charge of making baked goods to sell and they were excellent.
“You get a feeling of déjà vu here?” Polly said.
I nodded, knowing she was referring to last fall when we’d arrived on the first day of school only to find out one of our esteemed colleagues had been murdered. It hadn’t been the start we expected, and it didn’t seem like this one was going to be either. “Except I’m sure Stoddard hasn’t been murdered. You know how he is. Always dealing with a crisis, whether it’s really a crisis or not. It’s probably nothing.”
“But this is his favorite part of the year. I’m surprised he let anything interfere. What could possibly be more important?” she said dramatically.
“True.” She did have a good point. President Stoddard loved to share his vision for the upcoming school year and always told us it was his favorite time of year, so it was a bit odd for him. “I guess we could swing by his office and see if Shelley knows anything.”
Shelley was the assistant to President Stoddard and Vice Provost Thomas, so she knew more than anyone else what was going on around campus; plus she was a bit of a gossip. Though a discriminate one. She was careful not to blab too much or to the wrong person. She loved being in the know, which often worked to our advantage. She was our source to fact check the information that circled around campus since most of it wasn’t true. The things people came up with. She trusted us because we never blabbed.
We walked to the president’s office by way of the cafeteria to take advantage of the free pastries. It wasn’t easy walking while juggling our bags, coffee, and the most delicious double fudge brownies, but the brownies were so good it was worth the effort. By the time we made it to Shelley’s office, we’d devoured the brownies except the one we got for Shelley to better butter her up. The willpower it took not to eat hers was huge. She’d better be appreciative.
We opened the thick glass door and walked into the ornately decorated front office where Shelley sat guard over the president. She looked up when she heard the door open and a smile spread across her face. She loved visitors. She said most of the time the president and Provost were out of the office and the place was too quiet. “Hi, ladies! What brings you this way?”
“We brought you a brownie.” I set the extra-large brownie on her desk.
“Thank you so much.” She picked it up and took a huge bite. “Oh, my goodness. This is amazing. That pastry dean. I tell ya, he’s got some great students.”
Polly and I took a seat in front of her desk and no sooner had we sat down, she started speaking again, leaning forward a little and dropping her voice. “Let me guess. You want to know why he canceled the meeting.”
“It’s not like him and we were worried,” Polly said, and I gave her a look. We didn’t need to lie to Shelley about being worried.
She knew Polly was exaggerating to say the least and she laughed. “I have no idea where he is. I haven’t talked to him since last week.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Last week?” Today was Thursday. Shelley normally knew his every waking move because she handled his schedule and kept him on task. He often joked that she ran his life more than his wife did. And that was saying something. His wife had a bit of a reputation for being controlling.
“He said he was taking a few days off after his conference to spend with Candy before the hectic school year started. I didn’t have a reason to bother him; things have been quiet around here. Plus, he does work hard. He deserves a few days to himself.”
Shelley’s face wrinkled up in distaste as she said Candy’s name. While President Stoddard was a bit high strung, his wife, Candy, gave a whole new meaning to the phrase.
“Well, that’s sweet. Have you talked to her to see where he might be?” I asked.
“No, but that’s a good idea. Candy always complained he didn’t spend enough time at home, so it made sense he was disconnecting. Let me call Candy and see.” Shelley picked up the phone and dialed. “Hello, Ms. Stoddard. It’s Shelley. The president missed his kick-off meeting today and I was wondering if I could speak to him.”
There was a pause as Shelley listened to whatever Candy was saying.
“Oh, really? I thought he told me he was going away with you after he got back from the conference. I must have misunderstood. Sorry to bother you.” Shelley hung up and looked at us, her face white. “She hasn’t seen him all week. Not since he left for the conference.”
We all looked at each other. Could President Stoddard be missing?
Chapter 2
I was the first one to get to Tiny’s Taco Shack and boy, was I ready to relax. I had a bad habit—or rather it was a good habit in my opinion—of being early. Today I was earlier than normal for me. Almost thirty minutes before the time we’d all agreed to meet. After the bomb Shelley dropped, trying to enjoy my last few days of freedom before the fall term started was impossible, as was the irresistible call of chips and salsa. I’d given up trying to relax at home and headed over here.
“Can I get you something to drink while you wait?” the waiter said as he dropped off chips and salsa.
“Yes. I need four margaritas on the rocks with salt and a frozen mango margarita. Plus, more chips and two orders, make that three, of guacamole.”
“Got it. I’ll have it right out.”
Polly, Shelley, Mallory, and I had a weakness for chips, salsa, and guacamole. We always ordered double what normal people should eat. Hopefully, Chloe did, too. If she loved Mexican food as much as we did, she would be a welcome addition to our group. If she didn’t, that would be another story. You had to be suspicious of someone who didn’t like Mexican food. The waiter had just replaced the basket of chips I had all but finished when everyone else arrived. Thank goodness he had so they didn’t see what a glutton I’d been. It wasn’t the first time I’d polished off a basket of chips myself, at least there wasn’t any evidence this time.
“I’m so glad you made it before I started drinking your margaritas,” I teased. “I hope you like guacamole and margaritas, Chloe. One of those margaritas on the rocks is yours.”
“Perfect. I much prefer on the rocks to frozen.” She reached over to grab hers.
“Then you’ll fit right in with this group,” I said. “Shelley is the only one who likes the frozen flavored stuff,” I said as I pushed the drink in her direction.
“Just know it’s a dog-eat-dog mentality when it comes to these chips. Olivia probably polished off one of these baskets herself while she was waiting.” Polly grinned at me and I gave her a dirty look, which she just laughed at.
“I don’t even care that you’re making fun of my drink choices. After the afternoon I had, I could use three more these.” Shelley sat down and gave a huge sigh.
“That bad?” I asked sympathetically.
“Once you guys left, I started calling around to some of the people the president regularly meets with to see if anyone had heard from him and no one has. Which is very unusual. President Stoddard, as you know, is a social butterfly. He attended every event he could squeeze into his calendar. Then it didn’t help that Candy showed up right before I left and she’s in total freak-out mode. I haven’t seen Vice Provost Thomas since this morning to see if he’s talked to him. He hadn’t right up to the point he canceled the kick-off meeting, which is why he canceled. But he left right away for a doctor appointment and hasn’t been back or answered my emails or calls.”
“Candy really
has no idea where he is?” I said, finding it hard to believe, knowing the tight leash she normally kept him on.
Shelley shook her head. “No. And you know how they are attached at the hip. She never lets him out of her sight. She thought he was at the conference and he was just too busy to talk. Which, as much as they are connected, isn’t unusual when he’s traveling. Personally, I think he likes to get away from her. She’s convinced someone kidnapped him,” Shelley said, rolling her eyes. Candy did tend to be a little dramatic.
Candy Stoddard was President Stoddard’s second, much younger wife, and she kept a watchful eye over everything he did. Watchful was an understatement. He didn’t do anything she didn’t know about and hadn’t approved. They’d met when he was still married to his first wife and we figured that was why Candy was so possessive. Lest history repeat itself. Well, until now apparently since he was somewhere doing something, and she had no idea what that was.
I pushed the chips away from me, one basket was enough, and took a sip of my margarita. “Where could he possibly be?” I said to the group, which of course no one had an answer. We just sat there for a second, munching on chips and lost in our own thoughts. “Tell us about you, Chloe. I’m sorry I’m just now getting to meet you. I was gone summer term.” I changed the subject because dwelling on where President Stoddard was wasn’t helpful and I did want to get to know her better.
“Yes, how was it finding a dead body on your first day?” Polly asked.