Even though Mr. Fantini had kept Sam up rather late talking, she was up bright and early—well, if you consider 8am early, which she did. Sam decided that she would talk to Arthur and report back to Mr. Fantini. It was the least she could do for a man who had lost his only child. At least, she thought Ariella was his only child. The cleaning crew arrived promptly at 9am and were finished cleaning by 11am. She signed a document stating that they had been there but was not asked for payment. She suspected Mr. Fantini, Mr. Jones or someone they knew had already paid.
Arthur should have some advice for her on how to find out if someone had been stealing or plagiarizing Ariella’s work. Sam decided to arrive a little after 10am, knowing that Rick would be at a seminar class from 11am to noon. She had been to Arthur’s office at that time before, so that would not be an issue. How to bring up the topic was more of an issue. She was still thinking about the best way to approach this as she left home.
It was a beautiful, if cool, November morning. The sun was bright, the sky was clear and the air was crisp, so Sam decided to walk to campus. A walk would be both refreshing and great exercise. She was determined to continue losing weight and getting in shape. She had definitely let herself go the past few years. Now she needed to think about getting back into the dating game.
Sam thought about her relationship with Arthur and how it had changed over the years. When she first knew Rick, he was in his first year as a graduate student with the goal of pursuing his Ph.D. in English and becoming a professor himself. She was in her senior year as a business student when they were invited to dinner at Arthur and Ruth’s home in Brookline. It had been a big thing for Rick and he had wanted both of them to make good impressions. Rick and Sam had been dating for two years and were getting married as soon as Sam graduated in May.
Sam had immediately liked Arthur and Ruth. She was the youngest person at the dinner and had sat next to Ruth, who was as kind as she could possibly be to a young student. She had missed Ruth these last few years since her death from breast cancer. Arthur had been devastated at the time and had only slowly started to recover. He had planned to retire, and he and Ruth were going to travel around the world. He was going to devote himself to writing and teaching the occasional class. After Ruth’s death, the dean had convinced him that he should stay on as a full-time faculty member. Arthur’s children agreed that this would be a good idea so Arthur agreed to stay on. His roles had kept him busy and involved.
Her thoughts kept her company while she walked and she was soon on campus. Once she reached campus, she felt energized by the students. She realized that they were not that much younger than her, but their vitality was engaging. It was a little too cool for them to sit under trees around campus, but many were walking swiftly between buildings and to and from the library. A few were attempting a game of Frisbee and others were standing around chatting and laughing.
Sam continued on to Baker Hall, where the English Department was housed. Next to the front door was a makeshift memorial to Ariella with flowers and candles and people around. She had blocked out thoughts of Ariella until now. Sam stopped for moment to look at the memorial. The sun no longer seemed so bright and warm and she shivered as she looked on. It wasn’t long before there were a few stares and whispers, and she decided it was time to move on. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed that there were plainclothes men and women keeping an eye on the crowd. The university seemed to be handling this in a low-key but respectful manner. Sam nodded at the plain-clothes person heading towards her and headed up the stairs.
Once inside, she decided to walk up to the third floor. She quickly opened the door to the floor, nodded to Nancy, the department secretary, and headed briskly down the hall to Arthur’s office. She didn’t want to be stopped and questioned about anything, particularly about Ariella. The secretary was crying and two of the professors were attempting to comfort her. They all watched Sam as she passed, too confused to stop her and not quite ready to ask her any questions. They had all obviously followed the news over the weekend.
Not many people were in the hallway as Sam made her way to Arthur’s office. The outer door to the space was open and Sam nodded to Arthur’s assistant as she headed towards the office door. She could hear voices and assumed that students were talking with Arthur. She was in the doorway before she realized that the visitors were actually two of the detectives from the previous night, O’Malley and Kelvin.
The conversation stopped short as they all looked up to see Sam. For a moment, she considered turning and leaving; on second thought, she figured it would be better to stay and talk to all three of them. It seemed an eternity before anyone spoke.
“Sam, my dear, we were just talking about you and the unfortunate happenings of this past weekend. How are you?” Arthur came around his desk, took her by the elbow and led her to the only free chair left in his office.
Sam realized that she was actually holding her breath and let it out in a deep sigh as she sat down. The two detectives followed her movements without speaking. Sam nodded to them but didn’t really know what to say. Arthur took his seat again.
“Well, I think that one of us has to speak and it might as well be me,” Arthur chimed in when no one else spoke.
“I’m fine,” Sam responded.
“Really?” Arthur replied.
“Well, yes. I do want to talk to you when you have a free moment. I don’t need to interrupt you and the detectives here.” Sam started to get up.
“How rude of me. I should not have interrupted our interview,” Arthur responded, nodding to the detectives. “It’s just that you had such a look of shock on your face.”
Sam thought for a moment before responding. Her plans had changed now that the detectives were in Arthur’s office. She needed to think quickly about what to do with them. She was sure she was ready to tell the detectives about Mr. Fantini but before she could think this through, she found herself talking.
“I came here to talk with Arthur about Ariella. I know that this will sound unbelievable to you, but Mr. Fantini stopped by to talk to me last night and wants me to help find who killed Ariella. He seems to think her murder had something to do with her writing. Ariella told him she thought someone was stealing her work,” Sam said.
There was a long moment while everyone took this information in. Detective O’Malley was the first to speak. “You should have called us as soon as you could to let us know about Mr. Fantini. He’s not only Ariella’s father; he’s on the FBI’s most wanted list.”
“I, well, it was just too much for me last night to really think about calling you, or anyone else for that matter,” Sam replied. “Oh, and he had a bodyguard with him, Mr. Jones. He was very big and very quiet.”
“So, why did you come to talk to Professor Churykian?” O’Malley asked.
“Um, well, Mr. Fantini thought Arthur would be able to provide some insight into Ariella’s work,” Sam said.
Everyone turned and looked at Arthur, as if there were something he could say that would make sense of all this.
“I have to say that everything I have heard so far in this investigation has cast Ariella as a girlfriend, a husband-stealer and a victim. No one has asked me any questions about Ariella in her own right,” Arthur replied. “I can see why her father, no matter who he is, would want to find out more about her and why she was murdered. I’m a little surprised to hear the charge of plagiarism, but it does happen. Did Mr. Fantini provide any reason for saying this?”
“He said Ariella had told him this in a phone conversation sometime last week. He didn’t say exactly when he talked to here or any other details,” Sam replied.
Detective’s O’Malley and Kelvin were not at all surprised to hear about the plagiarism. Jimmy as well as their bureau chief had brought it up. It was definitely an unexplored reason for the murder that they overlooked until now, one that seemed to make sense.
“He also mentioned that Ariella kept a journal and he hasn’t been able to find it,” Sam said.
“How close was he with his daughter?” Detective Kelvin asked. “We thought they didn’t really speak to each another.”
“I don’t know,” Sam replied. “He talked as if they were somewhat close. At least close enough to talk on a regular basis.”
The conversation about Ariella continued. The detectives tried to get a sense of what she had been like from both Arthur and Sam, two people who had spent time with her in different ways and for different reasons. The detectives were definitely probing for information about any enemies Ariella might have had or anyone who might have wanted to do her harm.
Arthur felt that Ariella was a talented fiction writer, one of the most talented to come into the department in some time. He also felt she wasn’t making the most appropriate choices in her personal life, both in her relationship with Rick and with some of the students she had befriended in the program. Sam felt that Ariella had a lot of writing skills but didn’t always know how to separate her personal life from her work. Arthur had seen Ariella’s work drop off recently and thought it was related to stress, although he wasn’t sure what had caused it.
The detectives asked Arthur and Sam if they knew that Ariella was no longer living with Rick. She had left their shared apartment and moved in with a friend. Neither Arthur nor Sam knew this. Sam expressed surprise since Ariella had visited her the previous Thursday night and had mentioned nothing. Ariella had not told Arthur about her change of residence either.
“Speak of the devil, here’s one of her friends now,” Arthur said, looking at the door to his office.
“Ah, sorry, professor, I thought you would be alone,” Derek replied. The number of people already in Arthur’s office didn’t seem to deter him.
“Derek, how wonderful to see you. Why don’t you join us? I think you can provide us with some information about Ariella that we seem to be lacking,” Arthur said.
“Yes, please do join us,” Detective O’Malley said. “If you are Derek Soper, that is.”
Derek nodded in assent. He neither smiled nor looked very forthcoming with information, but he did join everyone in Arthur’s office.
“We’ve been attempting to get in touch with you,” Detective Kelvin continued. “Have you received our messages?”
Derek explained that he had been devastated when he heard of Ariella’s death on Saturday from the detectives who had come to take his statement. He hadn’t paid attention to anything else until this morning, when he decided to come into the English Department to see if a remembrance of Ariella was being organized. He also wanted to check in and see if his roommate, Jimmy, was around.
Sam had met Derek before and remembered that he had dropped out of the graduate program. She seemed to recall it had more to do with money than with academic ability. Rick had thought Derek was very talented when he focused on the assignment, but generally got by without really trying his best. Detective Kelvin took Derek to an empty office to take his statement while Sam, Arthur and Detective O’Malley continued to talk.
“So, Mrs. uhh, Sam, Dominic Fantini, a known mobster, visited you while you were all alone last night and asked you if you would do some investigating of his daughter’s murder and report back to him, is that correct?” Detective O’Malley summarized.
“Yes, basically, that’s what we discussed. Except he wasn’t alone. He had a bodyguard with him,” Sam replied.
“Really, he had a bodyguard. And what was the bodyguard’s name?”
“As I said, he was referred to as Mr. Jones with no first name.”
“OK, that’s interesting. When you meet with Detective Girard later today, I’d like you to look at some mug shots to see if you can identify Mr. Jones for us. I’m sure that’s not the name we know him by. If they stop by again, will you call me and let me know?” Detective O’Malley asked.
“As much as I’d like to, calling the police didn’t seem like something they wanted me to do. They were very intent on just talking. But I’ll see what I can do. By the way, I have a funny feeling he is having my place watched,” Sam said.
“Would it be OK if we bugged your place so that we can hear what is being said?” Detective O’Malley asked.
“That’s fine with me, but if he’s watching my apartment, won’t he see what’s going on?” Sam asked.
“Possibly but I don’t think he’d do anything. He’ll be sure to have only what he wants to have recorded. He might slip up and provide some useful information, though,” Det. O’Malley replied.
Sam thought it over for a moment and decided that that would be acceptable. If nothing else, the cops might gather some useful information and be more quickly alerted if something else happened. They agreed to have the technicians access the apartment through the same back door as Mr. Fantini had used early that morning.
“What did Mr. Fantini tell you to do if you got more information regarding Ariella?” Arthur asked.
“He left me a phone number and instructions on how to introduce myself to the person who answered so that the message would get to him. He also said he’d pop into my apartment to get an update in a few days,” Sam replied.
Detective Kelvin returned to the office after finishing her interview with Derek. Derek said he had to leave and quickly left while they all discussed the situation. Arthur mentioned that he was having a department-wide dinner on Wednesday night and Sam was certainly welcome to attend. She had attended before but never as a single person; she wasn’t sure she wanted to have dinner with the faculty and students. It would be tough for several reasons. The first was that she would be going alone; the next was that Ruth would not be there, which would be hard for her to face. And Rick would be there, which might be even harder to handle.
Arthur noted that it was not going to be like the sit-down dinners he and Ruth used to host in the past, but more of a cocktail party with servers walking around with trays of food. Arthur had hired a caterer and an event planner to pull this together in a relatively short time. This was the type of thing that Ruth handled so superbly in the past. Arthur would have more time to spend with his guests and his guests could mingle more with each other. Arthur very much enjoyed seeing faculty members exchange ideas, and it gave him great pleasure to provide a venue for them.
Arthur encouraged Sam to attend. She could pump some of his guests for their thoughts on what might have happened. She would be a hit at the party and, in Arthur’s opinion, people would flock to tell her things they wouldn’t tell anyone else. Sam just wasn’t sure she should be gathering information, either here or at the party. In the end, though, she agreed to attend. She wasn’t sure what she would do if she were forced to talk to Rick. They now communicated almost solely through their attorneys and they were scheduled to talk again in a week or so. With Ariella gone, this could be an even more uncomfortable meeting.
Detective O’Malley reluctantly agreed to let Sam go to the dinner. He really didn’t have any authority to stop her from going, and he agreed that some people would talk more readily to her than to the detectives. They would make sure the police were nearby in case something unexpected happened.
Sam confirmed the party’s date, time and dress code and decided to leave for home. It was already past 1pm and Rick would soon be back in Baker Hall. So she was more than surprised to step out of Arthur’s office to find Rick waiting by the assistant’s desk.
“Well, I wondered who was taking up so much of Arthur’s time,” Rick said.
“It’s good to see you as well. My sympathies on Ariella’s death. It must have been a great shock to you,” Sam replied.
“Well, of course her death is a huge shock. Not that I’m aware of her comings and goings any more. Didn’t you know that Ariella had moved out about a week ago? Since everyone is talking about how you were one of the last people to see her alive the night before you left, I would think the two of you talked gleefully about it,” Rick said.
“No, Ariella never let on about the two of you separating. We actually didn’t talk about you. We mostly talked about writing and her plans for the future,” Sam replied.
“Well, she was concerned that someone was taking her stuff and that I wasn’t sympathetic enough. Her father arranged a new place for her to live.”
“And when were you planning on telling us this bit of information?” Detective O’Malley asked from the doorway behind Sam.
Rick was stunned to find the detectives standing behind Sam. He had been so focused on her that he had failed to notice anyone else.
“If you don’t mind, Professor Sampson, we would like to ask you a few questions,” Detective O’Malley said.
The two police officers escorted Rick down the hall to his office for some additional questioning.
“Sam, since we are alone now, why don’t you spend a few more minutes with me?” Arthur suggested, using his arm to indicate that Sam should return to his office.
“Oh, sure. What would you like to talk about?”
“I’m concerned about you, Sam. You have done so much to move your life forward over these past few months, and I don’t want you to slide back into a life that will bore you or cause you to stop writing,” Arthur said.
“Thank you, Arthur, but I won’t be getting back together with Rick. In fact, we have our last joint meeting this Sunday before the divorce hearing next week,” Sam said.
“Really, you have no idea how glad I am to hear that,” Arthur replied.
They talked a bit more about Sam’s meeting with her agent and her trip to Florida. They also talked about the horror of Ariella’s death and the fact that her body had been found on the roof of this building. The police and campus security officers had yet to find the location of her murder. They also marveled that Rick and Ariella had not been living together for the past week.
The university had done a good job of making sure that their campus wasn’t obviously invaded by the police, at least while classes were taking place. Of course, most of the needed evidence had been taken over the weekend and Ariella’s body was at the medical examiner’s office, waiting to be autopsied. More information was to be released on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, pending notification of Ariella’s mother, who would officially identify Ariella’s body and then arrange the funeral.
As Sam headed down the hall after saying goodbye to Arthur, she ran into Rick once again. He was in the departmental office going through his mailbox and quickly trashing any unnecessary mail and memos.
“So, how’s the romance novel coming along? I’m sure it must be easier to write and sell than a novel of more depth and substance,” Rick said.
“Oh, I don’t know. They are pretty firm on what they want in a romance novel and they aren’t very flexible with first-time writers,” Sam said. “How is your novel going?
“Really, I don’t think there is any comparison,” Rick replied.
“Well, I guess we’ll see each other at the meeting on Monday,” Sam said, heading for the staircase.
“Yes, I guess we will. So what did you and Ariella talk about the night before you left?”
“Like I said, we just talked about Ariella’s work and a bit about my romance novel,” Sam replied.
“I’ll never know why she liked you so much. Ariella was so much more intellectual than you and certainly had a brilliant career in front of her.”
“I guess we’ll never know now that she’s gone.” Inside Sam was steaming. She did not appreciate being compared to Ariella and she particularly did not like being compared to Ariella by the man they had both once loved. “Well, I need to get going.”
“Have a good day,” Rick replied to Sam’s back. She headed through the door and down the staircase as fast as possible.
Sam decided to walk home. It was still a beautiful day and Rick had made her so mad, she needed to get her temper under control. She hoped that he would decide not to attend the dinner party on Wednesday night.
And the fact that Ariella had spent a whole evening with her and never once mentioned that she had left Rick also left her dumbfounded. Nothing about this was mentioned on the news. If anything, they all assumed that Ariella and Rick were together and that Rick was the grieving lover. Sam was deep in thought regarding all of this when she heard her name being called. She stopped to see who it was and was surprised to see Jimmy.
“Mrs. Sampson, it’s good to run into you,” Jimmy said.
“Hi, Jimmy. I’d rather you called me Sam than Mrs. Sampson.”
“Oh, sorry, I wasn’t thinking. I’m sorry. I hope you aren’t offended. I just always think of you as Mrs. . . . Well, I guess I’ll have to think of you as Sam now.”
“It’s OK. I never actually changed my name. At work, I was always Sam Monroe.”
“Of course, I knew that.”
“Really? How?”
“Well, Professor Sampson used to say that you had never changed your name. But he used to refer to you as Mrs. Sampson, so I guess that’s how I always think of you, or thought of you, until now.”
“Well, I bet you weren’t looking for me to talk about my name. How are you feeling about everything that’s happened?” Sam asked.
They walked and talked about Ariella, her writing and her murder. Jimmy was having a hard time coming to terms with her murder. He had been good friends with Ariella and they had spent a lot of time together. Jimmy said that he had been in love with Ariella but she never even considered him as a romantic partner, which had broken his heart. Ariella had shared with him her hunch that someone was stealing her work but she had never revealed who she thought it was. Sam let Jimmy know that she was sympathetic. She was hearing a lot now about Ariella’s concerns about plagiarism. They hadn’t really talked much about their personal lives with one another; it had all been about writing and critiquing each other’s work. Sam regretted that a little bit now. That kind of friendship might have developed over time, had they had more time.
They walked for quite a long time together. Sam needed to get to the Boston Police Department Bureau of Investigative Services to give her official statement about her whereabouts at the time of the murder and for the whole weekend. Jimmy walked with her so he could continue talking. Sam lent him a sympathetic ear while knowing she would take any information she gathered back to Mr. Fantini and Detective O’Malley. Funny, she hadn’t thought about it that way until now. She would report back to each of them.
It wasn’t long before they were in front of the Boston Police Department building. Jimmy let her know he would be at Professor Churykian’s party and Sam said she was glad she would see a friendly face there. Jimmy smiled and waved good-bye and said that he was looking forward to it.
“By the way, Jimmy, do you have any idea where Ariella was staying for the past few weeks?” Sam asked.
“Oh, she didn’t go anywhere. She stayed at the apartment and had one of her girlfriends move in with her,” Jimmy replied.
“So where was Rick staying?”
“I’m not sure, but I think at a hotel somewhere nearby. At least that’s what I heard,” Jimmy replied. “I’m off to the library. See you Wednesday.”
Sam waved to him as he headed off. She turned to look at the building she needed to enter. If she had ever been inside a police department, she couldn’t remember when it might have been. She had always mailed in parking tickets and once completed a police report at the scene when their car had been broken into. This reminded her that she needed to think about getting a car. Once the condo was sold, she anticipated living outside the city and a car would be a necessity.
“Ms. Monroe, I sort of anticipated speaking with you inside the building rather than out here.” The voice startled her from her reverie. She looked up to see one of the detectives from the previous night standing on the sidewalk next to her holding a large coffee in his hands.
“You took me by surprise,” Sam replied.
“I can see that. You know, it’s warmer inside. Why don’t we finish your statement there?” Detective Girard said. “I started a statement for you this morning based on the information we got from you last night.”
“Yes, I think that would be a good idea. I was just thinking that I don’t believe I’ve ever been inside a police station before,” Sam said.
“Well, I’d be more than happy to show you around. It’s not very exciting but we like to call it home.” His jovial manner made Sam smile.
Detective Girard and Sam entered the building and headed up to the investigative unit. Detective Girard took off his coat and hung it on a coat rack and then led Sam to his desk. He noted that he had expected to see Sam sooner, based on a call Detective O’Malley made earlier when she left the campus. Sam told him she had decided to walk from campus to the police station and one of Ariella’s friends had joined her so it took longer than expected. Plus, she had been outside for a little while.
Detective Girard printed off the statement he had begun and had Sam review it. Sam made some edits and they finished it together regarding her whereabouts at the time of the murder and she signed it. He made her a copy for her files and then asked her a few questions about the late night visit from Dominic Fantini as well as her thoughts on her conversations this morning with Professor Churykian, Derek and Rick. Sam went over what had happened while Detective Girard took notes. As they were finishing up, the Investigative Services bureau chief came over to introduce himself and chat about Dominic Fantini. The bureau chief also let Sam know that Ariella’s mother was arriving that day to identify the body and would be staying until the funeral.
Sam expressed her sympathy for Ariella’s mother and asked him to pass on her sympathy to Mrs. Fantini. Sam also indicated that she would be more than happy to talk with Ariella’s mother at any time. The bureau chief said would let Sam know if Mrs. Fantini would like to speak to her.
By the time Sam left the police station, she realized it was 4pm and she had not had any lunch and very little breakfast. She was starved and tired, so she decided to take a cab home. When she arrived at her clean and shiny place, she had a message from Kate and Ben saying they would be by with some Chinese take-out for dinner and that she shouldn’t do anything. Sam decided to lie down on her couch for a moment and was asleep almost immediately. She didn’t wake until there was a knock on her door and Kate, Ben and the food arrived.