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WITH DAVISON GONE, Donnie and I were able to settle into a pleasant routine in my little place. We spent a relaxing weekend a deux, and even took Monday off to enjoy some additional quality time together. Tuesday I was back to morning yoga.
Sharla sat at the front desk of the Laughing Lotus, talking on the phone. She smiled when I walked in and hurriedly ended her telephone conversation.
“Molly, I followed your advice. Worked like a charm.”
“You’re staffing the front desk full time?”
“Nah. I got a video camera and ran surveillance.”
“Oh. That wasn’t really what I—”
“Wasn’t even two days. Caught her red-handed.”
“Oh. A customer? An employee?”
“Crystal Phoenix, aka Chrissy Roach.”
“So what did you do?”
“Fired her, of course. And made a report to the police. We have her on video. Know how she did it? She took the chopsticks out of her hair and used them to fish the bills out through the slot. Hey, your class is starting. Better hurry. Listen, thanks again. You were a real help.”
After an invigorating yoga session, I went back to campus and spent several eyeball-aching hours filling out my department’s weekly reports for the Student Retention Office. Then I joined Emma for lunch in the campus cafeteria. The fare would never pass muster with Davison’s whole-food crew—everything tasted like it came out of fifty-gallon drums shipped from some central warehouse in Kansas—but it was fatty and salty enough to be palatable. We had just found an empty table and settled in with our trays when my chatty student Lars Suzuki buzzed over to us.
“Hey, Professors. Real quick, you know my friend who works on the cruise ship? He says he has a couple reduced rate cabins on the Christmas cruise next month. If you’re interested, you gotta act fast.”
We declined gently. Lars probably made some small commission on referrals like this, and I liked to support my students in their business endeavors when I could, but I couldn’t see Donnie getting away from the Drive-Inn long enough to go on a cruise.
“Yeah, it’s probably for the best,” Lars said. “The ship that’s out now? They have another stomach virus going around.”
“Well, that sounds unpleasant,” I said.
“Oh yeah, and they just lost one of their passengers at Aloha Tower.”
“How do you lose a passenger?” Emma asked.
“I dunno. Someone’s in a lotta trouble, though.”
Lars took his leave, and Emma made a face.
“It’s the last place in the world I’d wanna spend Christmas. Floating around on some plague ship. Hey, sorry I couldn’t make it to yoga this morning. What’d I miss?”
“Oh, turns out Crystal Phoenix was the one stealing the money. They caught her on video. Fired her.”
“Whoa, Sharon an’ Sharla don’t mess around. Anyway, I’m sure Crystal’s gonna be fine. Doesn’t she have like, twenty other jobs? Hey, there’s Pat. Finally.”
“Where were you?” I asked him.
“Hikers found the body of a young woman at the bottom of a ravine,” Pat said. “She was wearing a crystal around her neck on a leather string.”
“I thought you stopped reporting for Island Confidential,” Emma said.
“I’m not reporting this. I was just in a meeting with our legal team. The university owns the property where the accident took place.”
“A crystal around her neck?” I asked. “Wait a second. Was it Crystal Phoenix?”
“The lawyers told us not to say anything about it.”
“You know she just got fired from the yoga studio.”
“Really? So she might’ve jumped on purpose. Hang on.”
“What are you doing with your phone?” Emma demanded. “Texting the lawyers with the good news we might not be liable?”
“No one said it was good news,” Pat muttered as he typed.
“It’s so sad,” I said. “I hate to think of someone in such despair they think they have no other way out.”
“Hey, Pat,” Emma said, “speaking of people getting fired, when are you gonna get canned?”
“Not me.” Pat laughed as he finished his text and put his phone away. “In fact, I’m starting a new project. I’m going to be promoting the university’s new Prison Education Project. We call it PEP.”
“PEP?” Emma snorted. “Seriously? Aw, Molly, your phone’s ringing now? Geez, they should build a Faraday cage around this cafeteria. Then people would be forced to actually talk to each other.”
It was Marshall Dixon’s secretary calling. I was to report to Dixon’s office immediately.
“How did she know I’d be available?”
“The central scheduling system,” Pat said. “It knows you don’t have any classes or meetings right now.”
“Well, wish me luck.” I piled my napkins and utensils on the tray and picked up my bag.
“Whatever happens,” Emma said, “don’t you go jumping off a cliff, okay?”
“And thanks for the encouragement,” I added.