Whitham pulled out his phone and scrolled through his photos. He had snapped an image of the person leaving Delamont’s house earlier that morning, but he didn’t know who the man was. He had taken a photo of the person’s car too. Squinting at the photo, he noticed a familiar sticker on the back windshield. Whoever it was, they were a staff member at Onore too. They had the staff parking lot decal to prove it.
He looked at the man’s face again but still didn’t recognize him. Luckily, the university kept an online photo directory of all program staff. It shouldn’t take long to scroll through all of the images. Onore wasn’t that large of a school. He opened the school’s website on his home computer and navigated the links until he found the photo directory. He was surprised by the number of pages the directory housed. Maybe Onore was bigger than he thought. He started at the beginning of the alphabet and clicked through page after page of photos. More than once, he had to pause to compare his image to a staff photo, but none of the photos were of the guy he had spotted. He was starting to grow frustrated and realized that the car could have been the man’s wife’s vehicle. He’d never figure it out then! He had no choice but to keep clicking through the images. He was about to take a break and rest his eyes when the man’s face emerged onto the screen. Gotcha! Closing his photo app, he mulled over the best course of action. How could he make contact with this guy?
* * * * * * * * * *
Emma waited until she got home to call Marjorie. She thought about sending her a text but didn’t know if she would be able to get much out of her over a text thread. She found her number from the group chat and hit talk.
“Hello? Is this Emma from the track team?”
“Yeah, hey, Marjorie. I just wanted to call and check in with you. How are you?”
“Oh, I’m…I’m hanging in there. It’s been a hard twenty-four hours, I guess.”
“I can’t even imagine. I’m really sorry, Marjorie.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it.”
“Is there anything I can do for you?”
“Oh, no. I’m okay, really. Stephen’s parents got here this morning, so I’ve been shuttling them around. It’s been good to have that as a distraction. He was an only child, so they’re basically in shock. We all are, I guess.”
“Oh wow, I hadn’t realized he was an only child. I guess I didn’t really know him very well, to be honest. I’m sure it would be shocking to anyone. He seemed like he was in great shape. I guess you never know.”
“He was in great shape. No one knows what happened. Even the medical examiner told Cort and Shirley, that’s Stephen’s parents, that he might not be able to figure it out without doing an autopsy. Cort and Shirley didn’t want one, though. It won’t bring him back, knowing what happened, right? So, they just want to move on from that and have their time to grieve.”
Emma paused before speaking. She couldn’t think of a way to ask if Marjorie knew about the powder without first telling her about the powder. “That’s really hard. I keep saying that I’m sorry and I really am. If you need anything, please let me know. Even if it’s just to talk.”
“Thank you, Emma. My roommate has been really great. She is a good friend to have right now. I appreciate the phone call.” She hung up.
Emma sighed. As much as she wanted to know if the program was in further jeopardy, she couldn’t grill this poor young woman when she was clearly suffering already. They would have to go to plan B. She sent a text to the group to report her failure.
* * * * * * * * * *
Andrew read Emma’s text and thought about how best to respond. Casey only knew of Marjorie’s roommate from the calculus class. They needed a better connection to get information from her. Casey responded before he could come up with an idea.
There’s a review group that meets at the library on Sunday afternoons. She always goes. I could try to catch her afterwards?
Andrew still didn’t think that was the right play. They needed someone that wasn’t just a random acquaintance. He had an idea.
What if I go to the review session and ask her out on a date afterwards?
Jess and Casey didn’t like that idea. Did he really think that any female on campus would swoon at the opportunity to date an athlete? Wiley stuck up for him, though. He told those girls that Andrew was pretty well known on campus. He held the homerun record and his face was on posters around not only the gym but other campus flyers. Casey remained firm, though.
Why don’t you pretend to need extra help in calculus? You can borrow my book if you need to. She is really good at math. Always answers the questions in class. I don’t even know why she goes to the review sessions. Ask her if she’ll stay late and give you extra help.
Andrew mulled it over and thought it would work. He had already taken calculus in high school. He was a business major now, but he should be able to bluff his way through the review enough to look like he needed help.
* * * * * * * * * *
Derek read through the texts while lying in bed. He was holding his phone in his left hand and tossing a football with his right. All of this work to figure out what the girlfriend knew seemed dumb to him if the program was still on hold. Did anyone even know where the powder Dr. D was giving them had ended up? He texted Alan.
You up
Yeah. Y
Is anyone taking over the program? I’m starting to get nervous about it.
Me 2. No idea.
Should we talk to Whitham?
He creeps me out.
Same
But I’ll call him tomorrow maybe.
K
Derek laid his phone on his chest and continued tossing the football absentmindedly. It helped him focus. It seemed like Whitham would want to keep the program going, so logically, the only reason he wouldn’t have contacted them about the next pick-up would be that he didn’t have the powder or didn’t know where it was.
* * * * * * * * * *
Marjorie laid back on her bed and pulled her comforter up tightly under her chin. When she was little, she used to pull it all the way up over her head if she got scared. The phone call from Emma seemed thoughtful at first, but the more she went over the conversation in her head, the more it bothered her. She had seen Emma at the gym that morning in the media room. Someone from campus police had been with them and two others that looked more professionally dressed. Detectives maybe? She had gone up to the gym to confront Dr. D, but then his office was sealed with crime scene tape. She hadn’t been paying much attention to alerts from the school and realized that she had missed a couple. They had announced the death of Dr. John Delamont around eight that morning. Murdered! But the university wanted to assure everyone that the investigators felt it was an isolated event and that there was no reason to think the campus was unsafe.
But how could they know that? Marjorie shuddered. His death had to be related to Stephen’s, but how? And why? And why did Stephen’s teammate call her?
* * * * * * * * * *
Whitham went back to his office to access the school network. As the athletic director, he was able to view all of the schedules for the student athletes each semester. One by one, he pulled up the eight program members’ schedules. One of them had to have a class with the guy he had photographed.
Finally, he found someone in one of the man’s classes. This person could get into to the man’s office through office hours. They could get the program back on track. Whitham knew the program was just as important to each of the athletes as it was to him. It wouldn’t take much convincing to get them to snoop around some. He pulled up the photo again and found the share button. Scrolling through his contacts, he found the athlete’s name and shared the photo.
I know you are in this man’s class. He has the powder. Find a way to get it back.
His young friend responded.
What? Why does he have the powder? Why can’t u get it?
Whitham responded.
I know that he has it. Find a way to get it back. Without the powder, you could lose everything. You know the man. I’ve never met him.
He waited for a response.
I can’t exactly just ask for the powder, right?
He typed in a response.
Probably not. Figure out where he keeps it. Get it back.