Chapter 27

  

The next morning I woke up alone and feeling blue. Joe had dodged my suggestion we go to Graeagle for a weekend. “We’ll see,” was all he had said. I spent some extra time patting Charlie’s silky head, feeling sorry for myself, and then shook off the blues. I still had not found any serious clues to Jamie’s whereabouts, and I knew I should get back to focusing on that.

But focusing on Jamie was not to be. Senator Virginia Delacroix was waiting in my office.

“She’s been here since eight. I gave her coffee.” A roll of Nell’s eyes told me to expect a tough meeting.

“Good morning, Senator.”

Virginia Delacroix was a handsome woman, strong features, elegant navy blue suit, carefully styled blonde hair swept into a wave on one side of her face. “Good morning, Dr. Solaris. I hope you don’t mind my visiting unexpectedly, but I also assume Dr. Milton told you I would contact you.”

“She did. I’m sorry to hear about Peter.” I sat down at my conference table opposite her.

She placed her coffee mug delicately on the table as if afraid it would break. She smoothed her hair and unbuttoned her suit jacket. “I need your help.”

“I’m not sure what I can do.” The senator’s face was so tragic I felt a surge of pity for her.

“You were Peter’s teacher last year?” She played nervously with a diamond and gold bangle on her wrist.

“Yes, he was in one of my writing classes.”

“He spoke highly of you.”

“That’s nice to hear. Peter was a good student.”

“I’m glad you remember him, and I was wondering if you could appear at Peter’s hearing and speak on his behalf. He did well in your class, I believe.” She ran her hand over her hair again. Her hand trembled slightly.

“Senator, I’m sorry. I don’t think I can do that. It would be highly inappropriate for me to seem to take sides in a university hearing on...sexual assault.”

“I don’t know how well you know my son…”

“Not well. He was rather shy with me.”

Her back straightened and her voice grew stronger. “Peter’s shy with everyone. You probably don’t know, most people don’t, but Peter doesn’t relate to other people very well. He never has since he was a little boy. He was an adorable baby, but then he changed. He keeps to himself. He can be charming, but usually he’s quiet, unobtrusive. But, as you may have observed, he’s terribly bright. It’s just that drinking and sex are not part of his life.”

I nodded, unsure of what to say next. How often have I heard a parent swear their college student didn’t drink or was still a virgin?

She pushed her hair roughly away from her face. “It’s impossible for me to believe Peter would do what he’s accused of doing. He’s a kind, gentle boy who can barely make conversation with young women. He doesn’t date.”

“That must be lonely for him.”

“Probably, but that’s his life. When I asked him about the accusations, he shook his head. And when I asked him if he had done anything to…with that girl, he burst into tears.”

She paused to catch her breath. “Crying is very unusual for Peter. Except for occasional impatience with a math problem, showing his emotions is rare. Clamming up is what Peter usually does, and that’s what he’s doing now. He won’t tell his father or me anything.”

“I understand. I am so sorry about all this.”

She stood up. “Dr. Solaris, my son is a loving, wonderful young man. If you can’t help, I don’t know where to turn.”

“Senator, I wish I could help, but I can’t get involved. Please believe that. Perhaps you should go back to Karen Milton and tell her what you have just told me.”

She looked at her watch. “I doubt Dr. Milton will care. I’m due to see the provost in fifteen minutes. Perhaps Ezra will have some ideas on how to help my son.” Ezra? Yes, of course.

The dull stare in her eyes told me we were done. “Thank you for your time.” She picked up her handbag and left.

Yes, Senator, do see the provost, I said to myself. McCready may not give a damn about your son or any other student, but he knows a powerful political ally when he sees one.

I busied myself for about half an hour with paperwork before Nell came in. “Mark Froman is here. Wants to see you.”

Oh, wonderful. Another tough meeting. Just what I needed. No doubt Froman would want to talk about the shooting. And he did.

Froman stood in my office doorway looking even taller than usual. Instead of the thousand-dollar suit he had worn the previous time, he was wearing jeans and work boots and a denim shirt that made his shoulders look particularly broad.

“Thanks for seeing me, Red. Sorry I didn’t have a chance to change into a suit and tie, but my best mare had a bit of trouble birthing a foal this morning and I had to stay with her.”

“How’s the mare doing now?”

“Oh, fine. She’s a good breeder normally. Just taking her time this morning. Foal’s a bit spindly, but I think he’s healthy.” He sat at the table this time, avoiding the slender chair in front of my desk. I moved from my desk to join him.

“What brings you here, Mark?” As if I didn’t know.

“The shooting, of course. What’s the latest?” I had to make an effort to conceal my impatience. Once again, Mark Froman acted as if he was entitled to first party information no matter what the subject.

“Well, as it stated in the paper this morning, George Weinstein is at a hospital in San Francisco pending spinal surgery, and Larry Colman has been released on bail pending a trial for assault with a deadly weapon.”

Now it was his turn to be impatient. He waved his hand dismissively. “I know all that. What I don’t know is what you are going to do about Coleman. I mean, when you’re going to fire him.”

“Larry’s a tenured professor, Mark.”

“Yes, but you can fire him for cause even if he is tenured. Considering the man shot a colleague and seriously wounded the fellow.”

Nell entered with more coffee. Mark looked up at her. “Any raw sugar around here?”

Oh, for Christ’s sake.

Nell cocked her head to one side. She was used to arrogance. “Just regular white,” she said, and turned on her heel without waiting to hear what was sure to be another request.

“Hmm. Females around here are a little touchy this morning.” Obviously Nell and I and his slow-laboring mare were all lumped together in his mind.

“Very few academic units carry gourmet condiments,” I said. “And we’ve been very busy and very sad at this school today.”

He sipped his coffee and eyed me over the rim of his mug. “About firing Coleman.”

Again, I practiced patience. “If Larry Coleman is convicted of a felony, he will automatically be terminated by the university. That’s our rule. But until then, he is presumed innocent, and he claims self-defense.”

“You were there. Was it self-defense?” How the hell did Mark Froman know I was there? Oh yes, friends and informants in the Landry Police Department.

“I wasn’t there the whole time, and that’s all I can say about it now.”

Froman pushed himself away from the table with a grunt I’m sure was meant to indicate his displeasure with me. Oh well. One more opponent to my getting the dean’s job probably didn’t matter, since I was sure the provost was opposed. “You’re a stubborn woman, Red Solaris. Thanks for the coffee.”

“You’re welcome.”

He stood once again in my doorway, one hand on the frame, his head almost touching the top of the frame. He smiled. “And you’re one beautiful woman. We should have dinner sometime. I’ll show you around my property.”

“I understand you have quite a lot of property.”

“My dad bought half the county, and then after old man Lassiter died, I bought half of the other half.” Froman laughed. “I mean it, Red. I think you and I could have a good time.”

Lassiter property. Jesus. I worked hard on a smile back. “Thank you, Mark. But I don’t think I’m your type.”

His smile dimmed. “You’re right about that. You’re not my type. I like a smart woman, but I like a woman smart enough to follow good advice.”

“You mean follow instructions.”

“Maybe so. See you around, Red.”

  

Lassiter property in Froman’s possession. I had to follow this up. But how? I called Sadie.

“I need to know more about Froman. How can I find out?”

“Well, I suppose you could try his ex-wife, although I don’t know how much she might be willing to tell you. Why do you need to know more about him?”

“Oh, Sadie. He’s so pretentious. But for some reason, he quizzes me all the time about everything. I have to figure him out. Particularly because he just said something that suggests he might know about my missing student and I need a way to follow up without his knowing.”

“Hmm. Interesting. I’ll give you Diane’s number in Dallas. I haven’t talked to her in years, so I don’t know if it will still work, but you could try.”

The former Diane Froman, now Diane Peterson, picked up on the third ring, and didn’t seem the least bit reluctant to discuss her ex-husband.

“What’s that idiot done now?” She had a lilt in her voice that suggested she enjoyed hearing bad news about Mark Froman.

“Ms. Peterson, I don’t know for certain, but did you ever know him to become involved with a student?”

She expelled a breath so loud I could hear it. “Are you kidding? Listen, Dean Solaris, I found him with a cheerleader in a motel room six months after our wedding. And I doubt she was his first student, just the first one I found.”

“Were there others?”

A pause. “Not that I knew of, at least not while we were married. Cocktail waitress, yes. Our attorney’s wife. And, believe it or not, once our attorney’s seventeen-year-old daughter. Needless to say, no longer our attorney after that. But the cheerleader was the only college student I discovered.”

So Froman liked them young.

Diane Peterson must have read my mind. “Dean Solaris, he liked them young and old and in between. The man thinks of himself as a great seducer. He’s sure he can talk any woman into anything.”

“Do you think he would force himself on a woman?”

“Christ, no. Mark’s no rapist. He prefers to persuade his conquests. Took him two years to lure me into his web, but he got me. Man’s all patience and persistence. Then, of course, once he’s gotten you into bed, gotten you to fall for him, he gets bored and looks elsewhere.”

“That must have been very difficult for you.”

“It was. But I’m over it now. And glad to be home and happy in Dallas. I never much cared for his ranch.”

“Did you know anything about the land he purchased?”

Another pause, this one longer. “I thought you were interested in his sexual exploits. Not his business.” Her voice was lower and the lilt was gone.

“Only in land he might have purchased while you were married.”

“Sorry. I know he bought land, but I don’t know anything about it.”

  

Jamie

  

She failed to find another way to escape. She searched through every inch of the house that was available to her. She tried again to work on the door to his room, hoping she would find his satellite phone. Nothing. She was once again seriously considering setting the house on fire that night so he would have to let both of them out. Wouldn’t he?

She thought about pretending grave illness. She would put soap in her mouth and writhe around on the floor, alternately screaming and foaming. Unless he wanted her to die, he would have to take her to the hospital. Wouldn’t he?

She would attack him with the skillet. Try to bash him hard. Not knock him out, but just hurt him badly enough for him to know how desperate she was, even willing to risk his violent retaliation, major injury, even death. He would have to take that seriously. Wouldn’t he?

Midafternoon found her sitting in the parlor staring at the biblical verse on the wall. Let a woman learn in quietness with all subjection.

Maybe that was her way out. Submitting to him. After all, she wasn’t a virgin. She’d known lovers in college. She could pretend long enough for him to drop his guard. And then one night after he had satisfied himself and fallen asleep…

The thought made her nauseated.

No, shouted every bone in her body. That was what he wanted, what he had been hoping for all along. She was not going to let him wear her down, exhaust her into capitulating to him. She would rot in that house before she would ever let him put his hands on her.

But meanwhile, she would pretend. She would soften him up. Maybe to the point where he would let her outdoors, untethered. He would watch her but all she’d need would be a minute outside the house.