O’Malley and Kelvin left the station at about 1am, when most of the leads that might have any semblance of truth had been called and their stories investigated. Larrabee had lasted until 11pm but had pulled too many double shifts to stay awake any longer.
All three knew that they needed to be back at 6:30am for a meeting with the bureau chief. O’Malley, Kelvin and Larrabee were all at their desks at 6am. The chief was already there, crisply dressed and looking as if he had never left the building.
At precisely 6:30am the chief invited the three of them into his office, where he told them that Jimmy’s body had been found during the night on the roof of Baker Hall. This time, the roof was considered to be the murder site. Jimmy’s throat had been slit, just like Ariella’s and the chief would not be surprised if it turned out to be by the same knife. There was blood all around the body and his clothing was soaked with it. Of course, forensics would determine with more veracity what had happened: whether the blood was all Jimmy’s or if some belonged to someone else, and if the same knife had been used on both bodies in both murders.
The chief stressed to them the need to be circumspect and cautious at all times moving forward. Everyone in the city, including the chief, felt that this murder was related to the broadcast from the night before. Two murders in a week at the same building at the same university were attracting the attention of the mayor, the city council and university trustees as well as administration. It wouldn’t be long before the national media and all the local news outlets got wind of this. They needed to make sure they were thorough before any more information hit the news, whether leaked or as part of an official statement.
O’Malley thought back to the night before and could kick himself. As much as he wanted to flush out the murderer, he had not wanted to cause another killing. If he could have found a way, he would have done anything to stop this murder.
O’Malley, Kelvin and Larrabee were tasked with going to the University, checking out the murder site and talking to Arthur Churykian, Sam Monroe, Rick Sampson, Donna Sussman and Derek Soper, if they could find him. The chief would take care of Jimmy’s parents and Ariella’s mother and keep the mayor’s office appraised of any new developments. He would hold down the office, monitor forensics and assign anyone willing to work on this case to help out as needed. He would also keep the lines of communication open with the director and producer at Channel 8 news.
O’Malley and Kelvin asked if any blood analysis had come back from the work they had done on what was found in the maintenance room in the underground hallway or if any tape had been retrieved from the camera found there. The chief knew nothing of any results but would keep them up-to-date on that as well. The chief then dismissed them with a nod of his head.
Since it was Friday morning, it would be a slower day both in the city and on campus. This provided the detectives with some sense of being able to move around without running into too many people. The downside was that no matter what, it was this second murder was going to attract attention, and news of it would spread quickly. They would need to get as much done as possible as early as possible.
A small crowd had already gathered in front of Baker Hall when they arrived. O’Malley immediately spotted Misty and Ron in the small crowd. Misty looked red-eyed, like she had been crying. Ron looked like he always did, three days’ growth of fine gray beard, gray to almost white hair sticking out of his watch cap, glasses and a perpetually calm gaze. O’Malley, Kelvin and Larrabee showed their badges to the two officers doing crowd control. O’Malley headed for the door to the building while Kelvin and Larrabee went over to grab Misty and Ron and take them up to the English Department conference room. They were using it as a command center until the body was removed and everyone they needed to interview on site had been interviewed. This had already been arranged with campus security, the bureau chief and the dean’s office.
Arthur Churykian, as department chair and at the request of university administration, was waiting for them when they arrived on the third floor. He and a couple of campus police and security officers were the only people present on the floor. The Boston police were making sure to keep the campus police in the loop and did not talk to the reporters. Arthur looked old, much older than he had looked at his party or even at breakfast on Thursday morning. The first murder had been sad, the second much more personal and painful because he felt it could have been prevented. If Jimmy hadn’t left the small conference room or if they had been able to find and protect him, he would be alive today.
Kelvin and Larrabee arrived with Misty, Ron and a student reporter for the school newspaper. “Hey boss, I thought it would be best to bring the student along. She was taking pictures and talking to people about what was going on, and she seemed to know that Jimmy was the person found murdered on the roof,” Kelvin said.
O’Malley looked at the trio appraisingly before responding. He asked all of them to stay in the small conference room together while the three detectives spoke to Arthur in his office. O’Malley wanted to know how they found out about the murder and the location of the body. Arthur had not told them. He had been alerted to what was going on by a campus police officer. He assumed these three had found out in a similar manner. When asked, none of the three of them responded quickly, indicating that they didn’t want to reveal how they had found out about Jimmy’s murder.
O’Malley pulled the campus police officer who had called Arthur into the large conference room and lectured him loudly in front of the Boston and campus police officers on duty about never calling anyone regarding this or any other murder without first consulting the Boston PD. He hoped it would teach them all to keep whatever they heard that day to themselves. Any campus police or security officer found to have talked to the reporters or anyone else about the murders would lose their jobs. It was embarrassing, but it was better to have a full-time job than a one-time payoff for information.
They then moved on to what needed to be done that day. Larrabee was sent out to find Rick Sampson and Donna Sussman. No one had been able to reach them by phone so they would pay a visit to see if they were at home or if they had fled. Larrabee took Officer Martinelli with him. He liked Martinelli and was a little bit intimidated by the meticulousness of Officer Wu. Their plan was to visit Rick at his hotel, then visit Donna and lastly to visit Derek and Jimmy’s apartment in the hopes of finding Derek.
Kelvin was assigned to take Arthur’s statement and then the statements of the reporters and other faculty members who showed up, depending on how things went with the initial interviews. O’Malley went up to the roof to view the body and talk with the medical examiner.
In addition to slitting Jimmy’s throat, someone had tried to remove his testicles. Jimmy was found with his pants and underwear pulled down around his knees. And the same cleaning crew that had found Ariella found him. The two-man cleaning crew was once again huddled on the roof, both fiercely determined to give up smoking and never enter this building again. Given the two bodies they’d found in the past seven days on the same roof, no one blamed them.
After talking with the medical examiner and viewing Jimmy’s body, O’Malley let the photographers and the ME get back to work on evidence collection. He took the two cleaning people with him down to the third-floor conference room to have their statements taken and then have them taken home with instructions to speak to no one but the police. He didn’t think the two cleaning people would have any problems with those instructions.
O’Malley joined Kelvin in Arthurs’ office. Arthur had not heard from Jimmy since he had left so abruptly. Arthur had been surprised to hear about the journal pages on the news the previous evening. He thought the journal was the only copy. Arthur had been shocked to hear about Jimmy’s murder from the campus police early that morning. He was concerned about everything that had happened in the previous week and how this affected the reputation of the department and the university.
O’Malley and Kelvin were both concerned about Arthur and how he was handling all this stress. They asked if they could contact anyone in his family. After a few minutes of insisting that he had no family who lived nearby, Arthur produced a phone number for his daughter, Anastasia, who lived in Northampton. He hadn’t wanted to disturb her and her family but by now she may have heard about what was going on at the university. O’Malley called her and asked her or someone in the family to come and stay with her father.
Done with Arthur, Kelvin went to talk with Misty, Ron and the young campus newspaper reporter. She and a police officer took each of their statements, letting them know that no information was to be revealed by them to anyone, particularly anyone in the media. Misty and Ron had already heard and agreed to this the previous evening. The young student reporter started to protest, until she realized that she would be kept in the conference room all day if she continued. She then asked to make a phone call. They let her know that she wasn’t being charged with anything, only questioned and that she would be able to make a phone call soon. The police temporarily confiscated their cell phones so that they would not be able to make phone calls or send text messages from the conference room.
O’Malley and Kelvin then decided to question each of them alone to find out how they had received information regarding this murder. When questioned, Misty let them know that Jimmy had called her during their meeting with the detectives the previous evening. She had had her cell phone on mute and didn’t realize he had called until much later that night. In his voicemail, Jimmy had sounded concerned and scared. Misty had spent a time trying to track him down but had never found him.
She had kept the voicemail message so the detectives were able to listen to it. Kelvin then arranged to have it forwarded to the police department system so that it could be kept as part of the evidence for this case. Misty had also received a call from a campus security officer letting her know of the second murder. She said that she had contacted Ron to join her this morning after she had received the call from the campus officer. Misty didn’t know who, exactly, had called her and she hadn’t asked for a name.
Ron’s story was pretty much the same as Misty’s. He had gone home to his wife and daughter after the meeting the night before; he’d then stayed home until the early morning call from Misty. His wife and daughter were used to him coming and going at all hours so dinner was waiting for him when he got home. His wife would be able to corroborate all his whereabouts for the night.
The young student reporter had also received a call from campus security and she was able to provide the name of the person who had called. She was also listening to the police scanner so she knew that the Boston PD had been called to Baker Hall. She was sure that they were holding her illegally and she let them know that. She was also sure that she should be allowed to leave and work on a special edition of the school newspaper. O’Malley pointed out to her that she might have a much better story if she waited until there was more information. She reluctantly agreed to stay until released.
Because all the calls had been received on cell phones, the police were able to gather information regarding the phone number used to send the tip-off. The campus security officer who made all of the calls had used his own personal cell phone rather than a university phone but he was still easy to track. He was hoping to make some money as an informant. Now he was suspended without pay pending further investigation. If he talked to anyone else, he would be immediately fired.
***
On the road, Larrabee and Martinelli were not meeting with much success. Rick had checked out of the Holiday Inn and left no forwarding information. Calls to his cell phone were not answered. They found no one at Donna’s apartment in the South End. One of the neighbors let them know that they hadn’t seen Donna much since Thursday evening. Since the neighbor was so talkative and observant, Larrabee asked if he had seen anyone else around the apartment. The neighbor described a young man who had been looking for Donna and/or Rick on Friday. The neighbor had not taken much notice of the person so didn’t have any description to provide.
Their next stop was a second address they had for Donna Sussman. It turned out to be a business address in South Boston with what looked like an apartment above. No one named Donna Sussman lived there, according to the mailbox and to the neighbors. The only person known to live there was a Tom West but he hadn’t been seen frequently for over a year. Larrabee and Martinelli were taken by surprise by this information and immediately called it in to dispatch to find out more about this address. Someone would need to do some research and call them back. They called O’Malley to find out what to do next; O’Malley had them head over to Derek and Jimmy’s apartment.
They arrived at the apartment in Andrew Square to find Jimmy’s parents and the bureau chief about to enter the apartment. Derek was not there. Jimmy’s parents had been informed of their son’s death and had viewed pictures of the body but had not yet identified it. The medical examiner and the forensics team were still working with the body. The bureau chief called O’Malley to update him on all this. Jimmy’s parents were looking to see if anything looked unusual or out of place. They had a key to their son’s apartment, so there was no need to force the lock.
The bureau chief asked Larrabee and Martinelli to join them in looking around the apartment. None of them was prepared for what faced them when they opened the door. The apartment was a disheveled mess of clothes, food, papers, books and dishes. The parents had visited before and while they didn’t think either Jimmy or Derek was especially neat, they had never seen anything like this. The mother started to cry and her husband took her in his arms and stepped back out of the apartment.
The bureau chief followed Jimmy’s parents and indicated to Larrabee and Martinelli that they should continue to look around the apartment but not touch or move anything, if at all possible. The chief would have the forensics team come in and see if there was anything they could do with this mess. Larrabee and Martinelli moved through the areas of the apartment where they felt they would move the least amount of stuff and not disturb anything important. It didn’t take them long to determine that the apartment consisted of an eat-in kitchen with a back door to a porch, a living room with a front door to the hallway, and three bedrooms, one of which was used as an office or computer room. While this room had two desks, only one of the desks had been trashed. They surmised that this must be Jimmy’s desk. There had once been an Apple computer on the desk but that appeared to be smashed on the floor. Derek’s desk had all the cords for a computer but no computer was in sight.
Of the two bedrooms, it was fairly easy to determine which was Derek’s and which Jimmy’s based on the materials in each room. Derek had his name on several items in his room, and raised letters spelled out his name on the wall. His room was messy but not overly disturbed. Jimmy had a desk, bed and dresser; the dresser had been pulled apart and clothes were strewn around the room. The mattress was ripped apart, its stuffing lying around the room. Someone had really wanted to find something.
After completing their search, they realized they would get nothing from this mess until someone came in to organize and review all the materials. They hoped a computer forensics team would be able to retrieve something from the smashed Apple. Larrabee and Martinelli waited at the apartment until a team came to relieve them.
The bureau chief took Jimmy’s parents back to the station to help them arrange a hotel room and to talk with them as more questions were raised. The parents were able to confirm that Jimmy had an Apple laptop as well as an iPhone. With Jimmy’s phone number, police officers arranged to monitor all calls to this phone with the carrier. And they were monitoring any calls that came in to the landline at Jimmy and Derek’s apartment. They were looking into getting access to Jimmy’s university email account, too, and investigating whether he had Facebook and Twitter accounts.
***
Soon after Larrabee and Martinelli left to do fieldwork, O’Malley called Sam. It was early and he woke her but he wanted to break the news of Jimmy’s death before she heard it on the news. He also wanted her to come down to Baker Hall to keep an eye on Arthur until his daughter arrived and while they interviewed the various reporters and went through all of the English Department offices. O’Malley hoped she could help identify anything unusual in Rick’s office. It was a long shot since neither of them knew what unusual might be in this instance.
The chief had obtained a search warrant for this search and had worked with the University attorneys to allow just one other person besides Arthur to be on the floor representing the English Department. They had all agreed that the second person should be the departmental secretary. Nancy had been with the department nearly 30 years, having started there right out of secretarial school. She enjoyed the work and the department members and was having a hard time thinking about what would happen once she retired. That was still ten years away, but it was on her mind. She also had keys to everything on the floor plus a few other spaces in the building.
Sam showered, dressed, grabbed a cab and was at the building in 45 minutes. Before she left, Sam told Kate where she was going, just in case anything happened or someone was looking for her. She didn’t have time to call anyone else, particularly Andrew. Kate didn’t ask for details. As soon as Ben returned from his night shift at the hospital, he and Ben would go down to Sam’s apartment to make sure that everything was locked up and that nothing unusual had happened during the night. Sam thanked Kate for her concern and all her help.
Once she got to Baker Hall, Sam was held outside while calls were made to clear her through to the command center. Officer Wu went down the elevator to walk Sam up to the third floor. O’Malley greeted her as the elevator doors opened up and escorted her to Arthur’s office. He told Sam that Arthur’s daughter was on her way but she wouldn’t be there for another two hours to take her father back to Northampton with her. O’Malley felt that would be best. Arthur was sitting in his swivel chair, looking out his window. He didn’t move as Sam entered and he waited a few moments before he spoke.
“Do you think I’ve been a fool?” he asked.
“A fool about what?” Sam asked.
“About everything. Should I have known more about what was going on in this department? There’s always some drama or other—it is academia after all—but we’ve never had a murder, let alone two, before. I somehow feel that I could have done something so that this didn’t happen. I feel like there is something important eluding me, and I can’t put my finger on what it is.”
“Arthur, you have been with the department a long time. This department, this university and your scholarship have been your entire working life. Not many people have murder mixed up in their lives, and I don’t think you should judge your entire career by what has happened this past week. I’ve spent a lot of time over the past few days thinking I could have done something to prevent Ariella’s murder. I feel that I let her down somehow and yet, I had no idea this would happen. There is no way I could have stopped this chain of events,” Sam said.
“Yes, Ariella’s murder is particularly disturbing. It just seems so senseless. Why would anyone kill her over a small bit of plagiarism?” Arthur asked.
He turned around and looked directly at Sam. He was pale and his brow was furrowed. The skin around his mouth and his eyes was more lined than she had seen before. He seemed to have aged overnight. She wondered how she looked right now. Kate kept saying that she never smiled anymore. Sam couldn’t think of anything she had had reason to smile about lately. Other than her mother’s birthday party, it had been the worst week of her life.
“You know that they are going to go through all of the offices. Nancy should be here soon to monitor what they do,” Arthur said.
“Yes, they think I might be able to help with Rick’s office but I’m not so sure about that. I understand that Anastasia is coming to get you,” Sam said.
“Yes, they think I should have someone watching over me. As much as I resent it, I have to say it seems appealing to me right now. I don’t want to go home tonight and being at Anastasia’s for awhile might help me put everything into perspective,” Arthur said.
“I think it’s a good idea, too. There’s not much that either of us can do except to get out of the way and let the police do their job.”
“You know, I’m going to put the house on the market. That was my last party Wednesday night. Now it will be more memorable than anything I could ever have imagined.”
“You’ll stay on with the department, won’t you?” Sam asked.
“I’m not so sure now. I’ve let the dean and the president know I’m ready to move to emeritus status. They promised me I could do that when I was ready. They’ll need to find a new department chair quickly,” Arthur said.
“It will be sad day when you leave,” Nancy said from the doorway.
Neither Arthur nor Sam had heard her at the door. From the look on her face, it was apparent that she had overheard Arthur’s plans. O’Malley came into the office to let Nancy know that they were ready to begin their search, starting with Rick’s office. Rick had known both victims very well and for that reason, plus the fact that they couldn’t find him, they wanted to go through his office first. He asked Arthur and Sam to wait until he was ready for them.
Nancy had already helped O’Malley and Kelvin put together a list of all the offices and the faculty based in them. She had helped the detectives determine the order in which they should conduct their search. Nancy was happy to be helpful but saddened by the reasons for all this activity. Now she was also saddened by the news that Arthur would be leaving.
While they waited, Sam asked Arthur if he had had any breakfast and he replied no. Sam asked one of the police officers if some food and coffee could be delivered, even if it came from one of the cafeterias. Arthur provided a credit card to pay for food for themselves and everyone else on the floor, including the police, Misty, Ron and the student reporter. It would make the work go a little bit faster.
Arthur returned to his window gazing and Sam started to doze off on his couch. She was surprised when the food arrived quickly. They all adjourned to the conference room for breakfast and Sam was surprised to see Misty in the room. Sam had only seen the reporter on TV before, except for the night that Misty had yelled to her outside of her condo building. Sam was stunned to realize that it had been just this past Sunday.
“Hi Sam, my name is Misty,” Misty said.
“Hi Misty, good to meet you,” Sam said.
“I know that this is not the right time or place, but someday I would like to interview you,” Misty said.
“What would we talk about?” Sam asked.
“Oh well, most likely about these two murders, but maybe we can get something about your book in there, too.”
“The book part would be good,” Sam said. “But the murders are a bit gruesome.”
“That’s OK; people like gruesome. Since you’ve been accused and then cleared of committing a murder, it would make an interesting discussion for our audience. Well, anyway, it’s been good meeting you. They are going to take us back to the other room now so that we don’t talk to each other,” Misty said.
O’Malley and Wu asked Sam to stay in the conference room to answer some questions about her friend Donna.
“Donna isn’t really a friend any more, but once she was my very best friend,” Sam said.
“We’ve been having a hard time finding her,” Wu said.
“Really? She hasn’t been at her apartment?” Sam asked.
“We haven’t been able to find her at her place in the South End. We have another address for her in South Boston, but no one seems to have heard of Donna Sussman there,” Wu said.
“I think it must be her ex-husband’s business. He used to run a computer repair shop and he owned the whole building. He doesn’t live there any more. He moved to Attleboro when he remarried a few years ago. I think they have two kids now.”
“And his name is Sussman?” Wu asked.
“No, his name is West. Tom West,” Sam said.
“Thank you,” Wu replied. He got up swiftly and left the room.
“I’m surprised she gave you that old address. She hasn’t lived there in years,” Sam said to O’Malley.
“When was the last time you talked with Donna?” O’Malley asked.
“Oh, she called me on Thursday evening. She wanted to talk about the party, she said,” Sam replied.
O’Malley waited a few moments before continuing, allowing Sam the time and space to add anything. When Sam didn’t offer any more information, he decided it was time to push her.
“So, what did you end up talking about?” he asked.
“Oh, we talked about Rick. She went into a tirade about how I had not been paying attention to him and how everything that’s happened was my fault,” she said. “And he was a good person who was misunderstood and my novel had only added to the misunderstandings.”
“What did she mean?” he asked.
“Now that you ask, I don’t really know what she meant. At the time, I thought she meant it was my fault that Rick left me for Ariella because I wasn’t paying enough attention to him.”
“Do you agree?”
“Well, we had drifted apart. I had been working more and more, and Rick was working on getting published. Our schedules were not the same so we weren’t seeing each other too much. I thought we were developing our careers,” Sam said.
“I understand that you put Rick through college?” O’Malley asked.
“Well, yes I did work while Rick finished his Ph.D.”
“Were you angry with Rick about that?”
“Sometimes. I had wanted to continue my education. Are you creating some sort of psych profile on me?”
“I’m mostly trying to see what was going on between you and your husband.”
Sam let O’Malley know that she had never felt angry enough to kill anyone. Sure, she was sad and depressed but she had moved on with her life after he left her. If anything, she felt she had moved on rather quickly with her novel and not really looked back at what might have been with Rick.
“How did Donna feel about your writing?” O’Malley asked.
“When we talked about it, she was quite negative. She always said I wasn’t a professional writer,” Sam said.
“When did the relationship between the two of you start to change?”
“I always thought it was as soon as I was laid off from the bank. But now that I’ve had more time to think about it, it started to change as soon as she and Tom divorced. She was jealous that I was still married and that I didn’t want to go out partying with her,” Sam said.
“Were Donna and Rick friendly?” O’Malley asked.
“Well, yes. When we were all married we used to go out as couples. After that, we went out a few times as a threesome. Apparently they had developed a relationship that didn’t include me.”
“Did you go out partying with her after her divorce?”
“I went a few times with Donna and others from work. I was always the first to go home. I was never much of a drinker and I wasn’t looking to pick anyone up,” Sam said.
“So, when do you think Rick and Donna became so friendly?” O’Malley asked.
“You know, I’ve given this a lot of thought and I just don’t know how this happened. I’ve been getting so irritated with Donna recently, with all her comments. They should have set off some bells in my head, but they just didn’t. And this whole thing with Rick and Ariella and then Rick and Donna happening so quickly afterwards? It’s really, really creepy,” Sam said.
“You know, I agree with you, Samantha,” Arthur said from the doorway of the conference room. “This whole thing is creepy and I don’t understand much about it either.”
Sam and O’Malley were both surprised to see Arthur. O’Malley asked him to take a seat. The conversation continued with O’Malley asking them both about their recollections of the party on Wednesday. While their stories differed on some details, they were essentially the same. Sam had arrived with William and Mathilda while Rick had arrived late with Donna on his arm. They had both been surprised to see Sam at the party. Some words were exchanged and Sam had left with Derek.
Then Rick and Arthur exchanged some words. Arthur remembered more about everyone else’s reaction. He was disappointed to see Rick show up so happy with a new woman on his arm. Arthur also noted that several of the graduate students immediately left the room when Rick arrived. At the time, he had chalked that up to their dismay about Ariella’s death and Rick’s lack of mourning. Now he wasn’t so sure.
Kate and Ben decided to go into Sam’s condo to check up on things. In just a week, they had seen their friend’s life turned upside down again and her apartment ransacked twice. They weren’t sure there was anything they could do, but they could check to see. As they entered the apartment, two men greeted them, one sitting at the breakfast bar and the other standing behind the counter. The man at the breakfast bar was dressed well in a dark overcoat and gray suit, while the man behind the counter wore jeans, a turtleneck and a tweed jacket. It was a moment before anyone spoke. Kate recognized the one behind the counter as Mr. Jones, who had been there when she dropped in the other day.
“You must be Kate and Ben. Sam has mentioned you before. I’m not sure she has mentioned me. I’m Dominic Fantini,” the man in the dark overcoat said. He got up from his seat and walked over to shake their hands and close the front door. “I’m Ariella’s father.”
Kate and Ben introduced themselves and Mr. Fantini introduced them to Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones asked them if they would like some coffee. Kate and Ben accepted the coffee and sat at the breakfast bar. Leaving didn’t seem to be an option.
“So, tell me. Have you seen Sam today?” Mr. Fantini asked.
“I saw her early this morning. She said she had to go down to the university and she asked me to check on her plants,” Kate said.
“I just got out of work at the hospital,” Ben replied.
Mr. Jones had taken most of Sam’s plants and watered them in the kitchen sink and placed them on the counter. “She has definitely not been taking care of her plants,” he said. “I’ve given them a good soaking and hopefully that will help. And she hasn’t picked up her package yet.”
“Well, I’m concerned about Sam and I suspect she hasn’t called her parents yet. Actually I know she hasn’t because she has been getting calls all morning from people looking for her,” Mr. Fantini said.
Kate and Ben looked at one another and at Mr. Fantini and Mr. Jones. They had no idea what to say and doubted that they were expected to say anything.
“I think that we need to go down to Baker Hall and make sure that everything is OK,” Mr. Jones said.
“I agree with you. My car and driver are outside. Would you care to join us for a ride down to the University?” Mr. Fantini asked. It seemed more like a direction than a request.
They locked up Sam’s condo and headed down the elevator to the first floor. The driver was waiting by the car and quickly got them settled. Mr. Jones instructed the driver to head to the post office first. He then handed the package stub to Kate and asked her to go in and pick up Sam’s package. Once Kate had the package in hand, they headed for the university. The streets were much busier than when Sam had taken a cab earlier. The Saturday shoppers were out and about.
At the university, Mr. Fantini let the police guarding the door to the building know that he was there to see Detective O’Malley. He let them know that he was Ariella’s father and he needed to talk about the current case. The officer was surprised when O’Malley said to let all four of them up to the third floor. The maintenance men had adjusted the elevator settings so that the elevator would only stop at the third floor. It provided the police a sense of control and didn’t encourage people to wander through the building.
O’Malley was waiting for them as the elevator doors opened. Kate and Ben greeted him as they exited since they had met him at their initial interviews. Mr. Fantini and Mr. Jones introduced themselves. O’Malley asked Kate and Ben to join Sam and Arthur and Anastasia in the seminar room. Upon arriving about ten minutes earlier, Anastasia had decided to stay and see what was going on because her father was way too interested to leave at this point.
While Kate, Ben, Sam, Arthur and Anastasia made small talk in the seminar room, O’Malley took Mr. Fantini and Mr. Jones into Nancy’s office to talk.
“Mr. Fantini, you do realize that I could arrest you and let the FBI take you away,” O’Malley said.
“Yes, I do. I think you’ll wait on that in case I can help you with this murder. Am I right about that?” Mr. Fantini replied.
“Yes, you are. The chief requested that we not arrest you or inform anyone of your whereabouts should we run into you, as we just have. I don’t know why, but I’ll do as he requested. What made you decide to come down here and talk with me today?” O’Malley asked.
“As you know, Ariella is not my only child. She is my only daughter, though. What has happened to her has devastated both her mother and me. We want a resolution to this case so we can bury our daughter in peace, with the knowledge that her killer has met his or her justice,” Mr. Fantini said.
“We’re also concerned about Sam,” Mr. Jones said.
“Is there any way you can be traced here today?” O’Malley asked.
“We don’t think so,” Mr. Fantini replied. “The car is leased and its driver is on his way back to Rhode Island as we speak—with different license plates than the ones used to drive here. And I don’t think Sam, Kate or Ben will do anything to reveal our presence.”
“I assume you used one of your own companies?” O’Malley asked.
“As you know, Detective O’Malley, a man in my position has no companies. I am a man without a country and with very few friends. But the friends I do have are very helpful to me.”
“Really? Well then, it should be easy to discuss this arrangement with you. Our chief is willing to work with you on the information you can provide. He will tell the FBI about the arrangement after you have had some time to do whatever you need to do,” O’Malley said.
“That’s a rather generous offer. What would prompt him to be so generous?” Mr. Jones asked.
“I suspect it has something to do with the murder of his son,” O’Malley replied.
“Yes, you are right about that. I seem to have joined that rather exclusive club of parents of murdered children. I assure you, it’s not one you will ever want to join willingly. How are the parents of this boy Jimmy doing?”
“How did you know about Jimmy?” O’Malley asked, surprised. They had been working hard to make sure nothing hit the news yet.
“As you may have noticed, I do have many, many sources in the city. Several of them are in the Boston Police Department as well as here at the university. You may not know that this, but I am a graduate of this university,” Mr. Fantini replied. “I have a degree in chemistry.”
“Well, I can honestly say that I did not know that,” O’Malley said.
“And I studied here as well,” Mr. Jones said. “I left after two years.”
“Mr. Jones was a mechanical engineering student. Someday he would like to finish his studies,” Mr. Fantini said.
“Well, I hope you are able to do so,” O’Malley said. “Now, let’s get down to business while we still have time.”
O’Malley let them know that he had to let Misty, Ron, Arthur and Anastasia go. Kate and Ben most likely did not need to stay either. He also wanted Kate and Ben gone while he talked with Mr. Fantini and Mr. Jones as he felt that they might compromise the case too much if they were still around. Sam was staying to go through Rick’s office with Detective Kelvin.
Mr. Fantini and Mr. Jones agreed to wait in the office while O’Malley made the arrangements to let the others leave. O’Malley also let them know that a university attorney was in with Arthur, asking the department chair to sign a letter letting the dean know that he was taking a short leave of absence to rest at his daughter’s house in Northampton. The university attorney was next meeting with the student newspaper reporter. The young woman would not agree to suppress any information about Jimmy’s murder unless she got something in return. In this case, she wanted to interview Mr. Fantini. She had researched Ariella well and knew that Mr. Fantini was a graduate of the university, as well as a sometime police informant and, of course, a known mob boss.
“Well, the young woman has certainly done her homework,” Mr. Fantini said. “I’d be more than happy to talk with her while you do what you need to do. If you don’t mind, I’d like to have Mr. Jones observe what’s going on, just as my eyes and ears.”
“That would be fine.”
“And I think Kate and Ben should stay for a while. They can escort Sam home and it will look a little less suspicious. We’ll want to take a look at the package Sam had waiting for her at the post office.”
“Do you think that someone is following Sam?” O’Malley asked. “And what package?”
“Yes, I think she is being watched closely. I don’t know why, but I’m not sure that it will matter if things don’t go well,” Mr. Fantini replied.
“Sam had a receipt for a package at the post office. We picked it up for her on our way here,” Mr. Jones said.
O’Malley thought about that for a moment but decided not to pursue how they had picked up a package at the post office that was not addressed to either of them. With that, the detective brought Misty and Ron into the conference room and let them know that they were free to leave but that they should report anything suspicious to him immediately. He gave them each his card with both the station house number and his own cell phone number that they could call at any time.
O’Malley then let Arthur and Anastasia leave. He encouraged Arthur to call him if he heard or thought of anything. Arthur had already signed the letter for the university attorney and identified the faculty member who he felt should be the acting department chair in his absence. O’Malley gave Arthur and Anastasia the same card and the same instructions as he had given to Misty and Ron. He wished Anastasia and Arthur a safe drive. They were also told not to speak to anyone about this case or anything they had heard today except Detective O’Malley or, in his absence, Detective Kelvin.
Kelvin took Sam into Rick’s office to look around, leaving Kate and Ben in the large seminar room. O’Malley moved them to the small conference room and brought the young reporter into the large seminar room. The university attorney was there to talk with the young reporter prior to her interview with Mr. Fantini. The attorney quizzed the young reporter on her knowledge of the murder and her planned interview with Mr. Fantini. He then asked her to also sign a letter stating that she would not reveal any information until expressly told that she could by him. In return, she would be allowed to interview Mr. Fantini for 30 minutes. This interview would also not be released for a couple of weeks or until the murder was either solved or became a cold case.
The attorney made copies of the signed letters for each of the recipients. He then packed up his things and headed out of the building. He was dressed relatively casually and wore a backpack so he would blend in with the campus crowd. The university had no desire to be more obvious than necessary.
O’Malley then brought Mr. Fantini and Mr. Jones into the conference room for their interview with the young reporter. Mr. Fantini took off his overcoat and removed his tie to appear slightly more casual. Mr. Jones did not have to go to such efforts to look casual. O’Malley left them and joined Nancy, Kelvin and Sam in Rick’s office.
“Is there anything out of place or unusual that you notice?” O’Malley asked Sam and Nancy while all of them stood close together in Rick’s faculty office.
“I can say that it looks neater than the last time I was here, but that was more than ten months ago. My sense was that he had papers in piles all around the office, even on the couch, but now everything looks neat and there are a lot fewer piles around,” Sam said.
“I agree with Sam. This is much neater than Rick has traditionally kept his office,” Nancy said. “I’ve been in here more recently and don’t remember it being this tidy.”
“What about the drawers in his desk and the file cabinet? Do you notice anything unusual about them?”
“No, I don’t think I’ve been in the drawers before,” Sam said. Nancy agreed. Faculty members were responsible for their own office. There wasn’t anybody around to help except the grad fellows.
“Who was Rick’s grad fellow?” O’Malley asked.
“This year, Jimmy Houser,” Nancy said.
“And last year?”
“That was Ariella,” Nancy said.
“Are any other of Rick’s former grad fellows around or anyone for whom he was a grad fellow?” Kelvin asked.
“Well, there is Professor Whitworth,” Nancy said. “She’s an adjunct faculty member now. Professor Sampson was her grad fellow about eight years ago. I can give you her home phone number, if that would help. The other two grad fellows that Rick had have graduated. I can look them up for you.”
O’Malley agreed that it would be a tremendous help to get both Professor Whitworth’s information as well as the names and contact information for the other two grad fellows. After Nancy returned, O’Malley let her know that she could head home. He asked her not to talk about the events of the day to anyone except the police and to call him with anything suspicions or concerns.
“And Jimmy’s body…. Is it still up there?” Nancy asked.
“No, it’s been removed by the medical examiner. We are rushing an autopsy to gather any evidence that might be helpful to the investigation.”
“Very good. Well, if you see them, please tell his parents that he was a wonderful boy and that I will miss him,” Nancy said. She left right after that, with tears in her eyes.
Sam and O’Malley joined Kate and Ben in the small conference room. Kate and Ben were looked like they wanted to leave as soon as possible. That was understandable since they hadn’t really known what they were getting into when they had come with Sam earlier.
“Oh, you know, I’m supposed to see Rick tomorrow morning at our divorce meeting with our attorneys” Sam said.
“Can you tell us where that will be and what time?” Kelvin asked.
Sam provided the information. She and Kelvin discussed how unusual it was to have a divorce meeting on a Sunday. Sam explained that it was in preparation for their hearing with the judge on Tuesday morning. Sam wondered if Rick would actually show up. Sam, Kate and Ben left soon afterward. Sam was surprised to see Mr. Fantini and Mr. Jones in the conference room. She noticed that Mr. Fantini spent some time looking at Kate and wondered, once again, if they would be good for one another.
“Sam, now that everyone else has gone, would you take a look at the package that we picked up from the post office today?” Mr. Fantini asked. The attorney and the young reporter had both left. Now just Mr. Fantini, Mr. Jones, Detectives O’Malley and Kelvin, Officer Wu, Kate, Ben and Sam were left.
“What package?” Sam asked.
“Oh, this one,” Kate said, pulling a large manila envelope out of her bag and handing it to her.
Sam took a look at the envelope and noted that it did not have a sender’s name. She opened the package carefully, removed the contents and placed them onto the seminar room table. She smiled as she looked at it. It was a set of handwritten comments on her manuscript from Walter, one of her writing group partners. Walter was a retired doctor who wanted to write novels and who was challenged by technology. He much preferred writing his comments in pencil on manuscripts and mailing them. His penmanship was atrocious so his comments were always hard to decipher. Sam’s story caused everyone in the group to smile except Mr. Fantini and Mr. Jones, both of whom looked very disappointed.
“Is there a problem?” Sam asked.
“No, not at all. We’re glad you received your comments. We were just hoping the package was from Ariella,” Mr. Jones replied.
“Ah, yes. It would be nice to have a package from her,” Sam replied.
O’Malley thanked them all for being so patient and asked Mr. Fantini and Mr. Jones if they would stay a little longer. The chief was on his way down and would like to speak with them. Kelvin and Wu were staying as well.
Sam, Kate and Ben strolled out of the building and onto the busy street as if they had not a care in the world. The sun was shining and it was getting warmer. After a few blocks they grabbed a cab and headed home. Ben needed to sleep, Kate needed to get ready for a date and Sam just needed time to think and absorb everything. She also needed to find out if her brother Andrew was coming with her to the meeting with her attorneys and Rick’s.
Andrew had accompanied Sam to most of the meetings; this time she would really need him. Sunday meetings were a little unusual and tomorrows would most likely cost a fortune but it was the only day they could all agree on. She was now glad that her dad had agreed to pick up the tab for the divorce. She wondered how much she should tell him and Andrew about the events of the day. She would definitely not tell her mother too much, especially if she was going to talk to reporters again.