Andrew sat in a tiny room with what he knew was a fake mirror. He wished he had brought a jacket with him; it was freezing in here! He looked at his watch again. He’d been sitting in here for over half an hour already. They took his phone before they put him in the back of the detective’s car. The old detective was such a grump. It was probably past his bedtime at this point. He had to be at least forty-five years old, maybe even fifty.
He drummed his fingers on the table. He wished he had his phone so he could call his coach or Wiley or his mom, anyone! He was starting to get hungry too in addition to being so cold. If he hadn’t eaten dinner at 4:30 today, he would have been fine. He stared at the mirror, wondering if they were watching him. Today just kept getting worse and worse. The only good thing was that they had the powder back, but how was he going to pick his up if he was in here?
* * * * * * * * * *
Genevieve watched the stocky, young man through the glass. She could tell that he was angry, but there was something else. He was nervous. He wasn’t completely sure why they had brought him in and it was making him fidgety.
“What do you think, Alex? Have we let him squirm long enough?”
“Probably. Plus, it’s getting late. I don’t want to be here all night.”
“What are you, eighty-five?”
“Not funny. I need my beauty rest.”
“Don’t I know it.”
“Also not funny. C’mon, let’s see what he has to say.”
Genevieve followed Alex into the interrogation room. The young man’s head popped up from the table when he heard the door open. He glared at her as she sat down in front of him. Alex stood in the corner and leaned against the wall.
Genevieve had a folder with the printouts from the app Niles had used to schedule the meeting with Delamont. She opened it and took out the top sheet of paper. She pretended to read its contents before looking him in the eye.
“Mr. Niles, do you know what this is?”
“I couldn’t possibly.”
“Detective.” Alex grunted at him.
“What?” Niles asked.
“You couldn’t possibly, Detective. Be respectful.”
He rolled his eyes. “I couldn’t possibly, Detective.”
“It’s a printout from a messaging program that allows its users to schedule meetings with their contacts that use the same app. Sound familiar?”
“Meetable?” He asked.
“That’s the one.” She smiled. “Funny thing. When my partner talked to you yesterday, you never mentioned scheduling a meeting with Dr. Delamont for early Saturday morning.”
“He didn’t ask.”
Genevieve put her hand up before Alex could growl again. “You didn’t think it was relevant to mention this to him?”
Niles shrugged.
“I didn’t catch that. Yes, it wasn’t relevant?”
“I canceled the request, so why would it be relevant, Detective?” He spat the last word out.
“You know what else is funny? Now, you can’t find this on the app. It’s only visible on the computer version, but you can see if you have a canceled meeting. And you can see what time your contact put in the cancellation. Isn’t that funny, Mr. Niles?”
Niles started to shrug again, but his eyes flashed quickly when she mentioned the time stamp. “I don’t hear you laughing, Detective.”
“You’re right. I’m not laughing. In fact, I’m really confused, Mr. Niles. Not only did you not mention having a meeting scheduled with a murder victim on the morning of said victim’s murder, but you also failed to mention that you canceled it right around the same time he died or shortly thereafter. That makes me suspicious. What about you, Detective Runimoss?”
“It doesn’t look good for him, Detective Viacorte. You know what? Here’s what I think happened. I think Mr. Niles here was upset with our Dr. Delamont about something, so he requested a meeting. Dr. Delamont loved his athletes and never refused a meeting, so he accepted the request. Mr. Niles arrived to his meeting and got into an argument with Dr. Delamont. Did you know that Mr. Niles plays baseball for Onore University, Detective?”
“I think that came up at some point, Detective.”
“I find it interesting that Mr. Niles plays baseball and also is the current record holder in home runs.”
“That is interesting.”
“He can probably swing a bat pretty damn hard.”
“I bet you’re right about that too.”
Alex pushed off the wall and walked over to the table. Bending down to Niles’ face, he spoke again in a whisper. “I bet he could really do some damage if he swung a trophy at someone’s head, don’t you think?”
Before Genevieve could respond, Niles pounded both palms onto the table. “Stop it! I wouldn’t hurt Dr. D! You’ve got this all wrong. I never laid a hand on him.”
“I’m all ears, Mr. Niles,” Alex said, straightening up.
“You see, it’s like this. I requested a meeting with Dr. D, like you said. And, yes, he accepted it, but then when I arrived on Saturday morning and went to his office, I found him dead on the floor. I’ve never seen a dead body before. There was so much blood. I panicked. I ran back to my apartment and canceled the meeting. I didn’t know the computer saved a record of that.”
“Why wouldn’t you have told us this? If you did nothing wrong, why the secrecy, Mr. Niles?” Genevieve asked.
“Just like you said, it looks really suspicious. Why would you believe me that I didn’t kill him?”
“I don’t know. Why would we believe you now? What proof do you have that you didn’t kill him?”
“I only have my word. I didn’t do it. I swear to you.”
“Why were you meeting with Dr. D so early on a Saturday?”
“It was for the nutrition program. I had a couple of questions.” He looked at his feet.
“I don’t know, Detective. That sounds like a lie.”
“It’s the truth.”
“Let’s stick a pin that for now, shall we, Mr. Niles?”
“Why were you chasing a young woman across your college campus this evening?” Alex asked.
Niles slumped back in his chair, looking defeated. “I needed to ask her a question.”
“The last person you had questions for ended up dead, Mr. Niles. What kinds of questions do you ask?”
“It’s not like that! You’re twisting my words!”
“Explain yourself, by all means.”
Niles mumbled under his breath.
“I didn’t catch that. It almost sounded like you said that you didn’t want to.” Genevieve raised her eyebrows.
A look of shock briefly flashed across the young man’s face. “I think I want a lawyer. And I want to go home. You can’t hold me here forever.”
Genevieve stood up. “Do you know your lawyer’s phone number? We can go get your phone and you can call him or her.”
He shook his head. “I want to call my dad. He can get me a lawyer.”
“We’ll be back momentarily, Mr. Niles.” Alex told him. He opened the door to the interrogation room and held it for Genevieve.
Once they were back in the adjacent room, Genevieve spoke to Alex. “I don’t know that I see him as a murderer, Alex. He’s rude, yes, and he’s not telling us everything, but I don’t think he’s a killer.”
“We’ve got his back against the wall. He knows it. That’s why he asked for a lawyer.”
“I don’t know. Something is definitely off with his story, and I think it has to do with the young woman he was chasing tonight.”
“The young woman that your friend is keeping at her apartment?”
Genevieve nodded. “So, what do we do with this kid? I don’t know that we can keep—”
Alex’s phone was ringing. “Detective Runimoss…yes…another one? Okay. We’ll be there in ten minutes.” He turned to Alex. “That was Officer Webb over at Onore University. They have another body: Dr. Bryan Hartfeld.”
* * * * * * * * * *
Andrew sat in the interrogation room with another police officer. After the two detectives left to get his phone, all hell broke loose and it seemed like he’d been forgotten in the chaos. Then this officer came in with his phone and said that the detectives had to go see about another matter related to the case. At least he had his phone back.
His dad had asked why he needed a lawyer, but Andrew didn’t know what to tell him. They weren’t supposed to tell anyone about the program or the supplement. He couldn’t explain why he had been chasing that girl if he couldn’t talk about the program. His dad had refused to help him and definitely wouldn’t call a lawyer if Andrew couldn’t even say why he needed one.
He was supposed to be picking up his next dose first thing in the morning, but it didn’t seem like he was going to get out of here any time soon. Maybe he could ask one of the other athletes to grab his, especially now that they all knew each other. He sent a text to Wiley.
I got hung up with something, can u get my pickup 4 me
Sure man, where r u
Long story tell u later
Ok
Once they had all learned that the program was back on, half of the group felt like it would be okay to leave Ithaca’s girlfriend alone. Andrew didn’t agree. She was talking to reporters, making plans to talk to the police. They needed to get her to see how important it was to keep that info to herself. Emma agreed with him for once. No one knew where she was. She had jumped in that reporter’s car and sped off into the night. He couldn’t try to find out from the roommate either; she had stopped answering his texts. This was all such a nightmare! He was glad that he had decided to turn his phone off before getting pulled into the station for questioning. At least thirty messages had been exchanged while he was in this little room. The detectives surely would have been even more suspicious if his phone had been blowing up while they had it. He was stuck in this stupid room, freezing his ass off, and no one cared! He was about to pound his fist on the table when he remembered that his ‘guard’ was still with him. He grimaced instead.
“Am I gonna get out of here soon? You haven’t even said why I’m being held.”
“Not my call, chief.”
“Please, I have class tomorrow and practice! I’m not going to run away or something.”
“Again, not my call.” He never even looked up from his crossword puzzle.
Andrew groaned and laid his head down on the table.
* * * * * * * * * *
Emma pursed her lips together. She hated to agree with that Niles kid, but he was right about this. If they didn’t find out what the girlfriend knows, it could come back to bite them in a really bad way. Casey wanted to move on. She thought if they cooled it for a bit, people would forget, and things could go back to normal. Derek agreed with Casey. Bothering the girlfriend would just make her more suspicious and want to talk to the police more.
She scrolled back through the message thread. Andrew had been silent early on in the conversation. At one point, he had texted the group that he knew where Marjorie was (“the girl” as he always referred to her), but then they didn’t hear from him again for a few hours. He was back to stating his opinion and trying to tell everyone what to do. She wondered why he had been silent for so long. It almost seemed like his phone had been off. Alan had asked earlier if Andrew had caught up with Marjorie, but Andrew didn’t respond. She didn’t think he had just overlooked the message. She thought he was choosing to deliberately not answer it. We’ll see about that, Niles. She sent a message just to him.
Where were u earlier? Why did u stop messaging?
She tapped her foot while she waited for him to respond. Luckily, he had an iPhone too, so she could see that he had read the message. He would have to respond now or look even more suspicious. Finally, a message popped up.
Got pulled over 4 speeding on campus
Speeding on campus? Emma had gotten her share of speeding tickets in her short driving history. It was not an hours long experience. It was maybe a fifteen-to-twenty-minute experience. Did Niles think she was an idiot now or what?
And for the other 90 min…?
Had a mtg. Lay off
A meeting? Emma didn’t believe that for a minute. Niles might have gotten pulled over for speeding, but that wasn’t the end of the story. Emma felt certain that he’d been questioned further by the police. He was making this worse for all of them. She decided the rest of the group needed to know and started a message without Niles. Even if he was on her side about Marjorie, he couldn’t be trusted any longer. Who knows what he had told the police already?
* * * * * * * * * *
Genevieve let Alex drive over to Onore. She was still trying to process Hartfeld’s murder. How did all of this fit together?
“What did Officer Webb tell you?”
“Hartfeld was found strangled in his hamster lab room by the cleaning crew. They arrived at nine o’clock and couldn’t get the door to open the whole way. When they looked inside, they saw him on the floor and called 9-1-1. Dispatch switched it to campus police because he was on campus. Then Webb called us.”
“Why does she think his death is related to Delamont’s? I didn’t realize that she knew they were friends.”
“She most likely still doesn’t know that. She just assumed that since we were already working one murder on campus, we should probably hear about the second one. I hate to say it, but I think your reporter friend is right. This is all tied together somehow.”
Genevieve couldn’t disagree. “There’s definitely more to the story here. We’re still short a few pieces of the puzzle, though.”
Alex parked along the curb outside of the biology building. Hartfeld had an office as well as a set of lab rooms inside the building. Genevieve looked up towards the building but didn’t see anyone waiting to let them in.
“Is this the front of the building or the back?” She asked Alex.
“Hell if I know. Why?”
“I don’t see anyone that’s going to let us inside. We might have to walk around to a different entrance.”
Alex stopped mid-stride. “When we asked for the ID numbers of people who had entered the gym on Saturday morning, did they give us the info for all of the doors or just that front one? I assumed the badge entry feature was only found on the front entrance. What if there were multiple entry points?”
“We can check with Officer Webb when we see her. I still don’t see anyone over here. Should I call her or do you want to just walk around to the other side?”
Alex responded by stomping off towards what Genevieve viewed as the back of the building. She jogged to catch up. That was one way to answer her question. When they turned the corner, they saw Officer Cravits waiting by a set of double doors. Now that she could see this side of the building, Genevieve realized her assumption was incorrect. A bronze statue of a man holding his hat sat squarely in front of the building. Genevieve stopped to study it briefly. The plaque at the base of the statue read, “John Burke – a man of unquestionable integrity.” There was also a summary that referred to Mr. Burke as Honest John and stated that Onore University was founded in tribute to this honorable man and that all its students and alumni were called to live with the honor and integrity exhibited by him. Interesting, she thought. She had always wondered where the university got its name.
“Are you coming or what?” Alex snapped her thoughts back to reality.
“Sorry! I was just reading about the statue. Did you know that Onore was founded in honor of this man?”
“Do we really need a history lesson right now, Gen?”
“I just thought it was interesting, you big Scrooge. I’m coming.”
Officer Cravits held the door for them as they entered the building. The hallways were fairly dark as only every third ceiling panel light was powered on at this time of night.
“Are you a history buff, Detective Viacorte?” Officer Cravits asked her.
“Oh, not really. I just found that statue rather striking and wanted to know who it was. I don’t think I’ve heard of John Burke before.”
“Most people in this part of the country probably haven’t, unless they go to school here. That’s one of the tenants of the university: honor. The admissions committee requires every applicant to write an essay about what it means to be honorable and have integrity. Anyone who has a dishonorable past isn’t even considered for admission.”
Alex grunted as they stepped off the elevator. Officer Webb was waiting for them at the end of the hallway. She waved in recognition. Alex turned to Officer Cravits before the elevator doors closed.
“The ME and CSU team will be along shortly, so you’ll need to let them in as well.”
He nodded his understanding. Genevieve followed Alex down the hallway to Officer Webb. She was standing outside of a room labeled ‘Hartfeld—animal research area’.
“This was Dr. Hartfeld’s hamster lab. We called his lab manager already. She is on her way here now. We’ve also requested that the other members of his lab come in for interviews with you. A few of them have arrived and are waiting in the conference room around the corner.”
Genevieve put on gloves and booties before entering the lab room. Inside, she saw a wall of cages housing at least thirty hamsters. A logbook sat on the counter across from the cages. Dr. Hartfeld was on the floor with his legs straight out. His eyes were still open, staring blankly up at the ceiling. Around his neck, she could see some dark red and purple bruising that seemed to be indicative of strangulation. Alex was already squatting down near the body. She stepped in for a closer look.
“Looks like some petechial hemorrhaging in his eyes, see here?” He pointed at both eyes. Genevieve nodded.
“Seems like a clear case of strangulation. I could see the bruising on his neck from the doorway.” She turned to Officer Webb. “Please tell me that this building has cameras or an electronic entry log of some sort.”
“You’re in luck. It has both, depending on the entrance.”
“We’re going to need a copy of that footage. And speaking of multiple entrances, does the gymnasium have multiple ways to enter after hours, or does everyone have to go through the front doors?”
“There is a second entrance, but you have to have a key to get in there. It’s always locked from the outside. Even when someone uses a key to unlock it, it doesn’t stay unlocked. It’s a security feature until we get the cameras and the badge entry system set up on that side.”
“Do you have a list of everyone with a key?”
Officer Webb sighed. “Possibly, but because they aren’t digital, we have no way of knowing who has made a copy for a friend or colleague. It’s on the list to tighten up the security; we’re just really behind. It hasn’t been a priority because it’s never needed to be a priority. Obviously, all of that has changed this week.”
“Okay, which entrance has video here and which one uses electronic badge entry?”
“Both have badge entry, but the front entrance also has a camera. I’ll get all of that to you shortly.”
“I don’t know what time classes start here tomorrow, but this floor will be off limits until CSU is finished,” Alex interjected. “If there are lecture halls or labs that meet on this floor, they will need to be moved elsewhere.”
“We already contacted the dean of the school to let her know that another death had occurred on campus. She is drafting a message that will be distributed to the student body and all of Onore’s staff later tonight.”
Alex nodded. “CSU will dust for prints in here, but I don’t see a lot of evidence for them to collect. Hopefully, the killer was caught on camera or with his badge. We also need a roster of all the students in Hartfeld’s classes. Until we get a better idea of what’s going on here, everyone is considered a person of interest.”
Before Officer Webb could respond, the ME stuck his head in the door. “I’m here with CSU. Can we get started, or do you need to look around some more?”
Alex shook his head no. “Go right ahead. The sooner we have a time of death, the sooner we can start eliminating potential suspects. Also, where is the victim’s office?”
“Right this way,” Officer Webb said as she pointed to her left.
Genevieve and Alex pulled off their gloves and booties when they were back in the hallway. They followed Officer Webb down a long hallway. She stopped in front of the second to last door and pulled out her key ring again, flipping through the keys one by one.
“Here we go,” she said, unlocking the office.
“I can’t believe you know which key unlocks every door on campus.” Genevieve commented.
“There’s a master key for every building. It unlocks every office and closet. Each building has a number, so I just have to remember which number goes with which building.” She smiled. “I need to check in with the dean, so I’ll leave you here. Just pull the door closed when you’re finished. I can unlock it for CSU again later if they need access after you’re gone.”
Hartfeld’s office was a bit messy, but it didn’t look like anyone had searched it. An open laptop sat on the desk, but the screen was dark. Pulling his gloves back on, Alex touched the space bar lightly to wake it up. A password prompt appeared on the screen.
“Whatdya wanna bet it’s hamsters?” He asked Genevieve.
She shrugged. “Try it, though it seems like the university would require something more stringent.”
Alex typed in the word and hit enter. The prompt disappeared, revealing a paused video. Dr. Hartfeld’s face was frozen on the screen. Alex glanced at Genevieve and then hit play. She hoped that it wasn’t something that would self-delete after one view.
Hartfeld’s voice filled the room as his face came into focus. “If you’re watching this, then I’m probably dead or close to it. I don’t know who is after me, but I can tell you one thing. I killed John…”
* * * * * * * * * *
Cari woke up to her cell phone ringing. Checking the screen, she saw that it was Bob calling. She swiped across quickly to answer it before it went to voicemail.
“Hey, Bob, what’s up?”
“Were you asleep? Oh man, I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. What’s going on?”
“I just got called into another murder scene. It’s at the university too. Guy’s name was Bryan Hartfeld.”
Cari sat up in bed. “Did you say Hartfeld?”
“Yeah, do you know him?”
“I’ve interviewed him! He is, I mean, was, well, weird. Something was not quite right with that guy.”
“Well, there’s a lot more wrong now. Someone strangled him earlier tonight. I gotta go. Don’t use my name, okay, Cari?”
“No problem, Bob. I’m pretty surprised that you’d call me with information again after what happened earlier.”
“It seems like you’re the only one pushing this case in the right direction. I meant it when I said that I forgave you, Cari.”
“Thanks, Bob. That means a lot.”
Cari threw her covers back and got out of bed. She opened the door and saw that Marjorie was still asleep on the sofa. Glancing at her watch, she saw it was just before ten o’clock. No wonder Bob was so surprised that she was asleep. Granny Cari, at your service, she thought.
She had found Hartfeld to be really suspicious. Now he was dead too. Genevieve had to believe her theory at this point. Cari thought about calling her but figured that she was probably still at the crime scene and wouldn’t answer. She pulled out her notebook and started writing down names and making connections with lines. She put Delamont in the middle of the page and drew a circle around his name. Then she drew an arrow away from that and wrote Ithaca. She wrote “Hartfeld” off to the other side and drew another arrow towards his name from Delamont’s.
Cari was certain that the powder that Delamont was giving to Ithaca was not only the cause of Ithaca’s death but also related to Delamont’s murder. Hartfeld was a researcher in addition to teaching courses at the school. How did he fit in? Cari tapped her eraser on the page. The man had been adamant that his supplement was not tested on humans. He had even gotten angry about it. But what if Delamont had somehow gotten his hands on the supplement and given it to the athletes?
She turned on her laptop and started drafting a story. It was still all conjecture at this point, but she knew her editor would run with it if Cari could confirm the facts. To do that, she’d have to convince Genevieve to share some information with her.