14: More-than-Willing Witness

“What a remarkable young woman!” Mac said as Banfield drove us back toward Erin.

“Too bad we lost her as a student,” Banfield added.

“Then you believe her?”

“I didn’t say that, Seb, although I’m inclined to. I’ve got her on record as saying she hasn’t been on the SBU campus. If anything turns up to the contrary, she’ll have some explaining to do.”

I called Hadley Reams back, putting him on speakerphone.

“I was just looking for an update on the murder,” he said.

Any student journalist would, but Hadley had the added incentive of being just one semester away from looking for a newspaper job. He’d made that clear. No doubt that’s why, as editor of the Spectator, he assigned the story to himself.

“You know I can’t give you every jot and tittle of the investigation,” I said, “but I can assure you that the campus and city police are both going full bore in investigating Professor Burch’s murder. They are cooperating to interview people both on and off campus.”

“Suspects, you mean?”

“I don’t know if I’d use that word.”

“Persons of interest, then?”

I looked at Banfield in the front seat for direction. She shook her head.

“I wouldn’t use that word either.”

“Well, what word would you use?” For some reason, he sounded frustrated.

“I would say they are talking to people who might know something, even though they might not know they know something.” Got that? Banfield seemed doubtful.

“This is a very thorough investigation,” I assured Hadley. “Moreover, the safety and security of the campus community is Priority One for Interim President Kingsley as he prepares to take over the reins of the university from Father Pirelli on Monday morning. In the short term, our campus police will increase their patrols. Students will get used to seeing uniformed officers around. In the long run, the comprehensive review of safety that Father Pirelli ordered will go forward with all possible dispatch.”

“Do you think that will make students and their parents feel better?”

“No one will feel better, Hadley—including no one in the university administration—until this killer is caught.”

What I thought then was: Throw in a few quotes from Jason Danvers, rehash everything you wrote before, and you’ve got a passable story. What I said was: “Any other questions?”

“Who’s taking over Professor Burch’s classes?”

“Dr. Wendy Yazane will be administering his tests next week. Longer term, as far as I know, the dean hasn’t yet made the arrangements for covering his classes next semester. Popcorn can check that out for you if you need to know. I’m on the road right now.” I like saying “on the road”—it sounds so dynamic.

After a few more pleasantries, I disconnected.

“With those increased patrols and all, this case is really going to cut into my social life,” Banfield said with a grin. “When I’m not cruising the campus or with you guys, I’ll be working with Jack. Oh, darn.”

“A policeman’s lot is not an easy one,” Mac said.

Choosing not to join this badinage, I called Maggie and gave her essentially the same scoop I’d doled out to Hadley.

“Thanks,” she said. “You’re a lot more informative than Oscar Hummel.”

“Well, you know dealing with the media doesn’t rank high in his skill set.”

“Do the cops think the murder weapon, the teaching award, may be significant? Are they looking at the students he harassed as suspects?”

“Hey, hold on. Don’t forget, the murder weapon is strictly off the record for now. Orders from the coroner. If you print that, I’ll get in trouble with Arly for telling you. Then I won’t be so informative anymore.”

Banfield kept looking at me in her rear-view mirror, no doubt fascinated by this inside view of how the sausage is made.

After a beat, Maggie said, “Got it. But are the girls suspects?”

Banfield shook her head, not that I needed the cue.

“No more than anybody else at this stage,” I said. “As I said, law enforcement officials are talking to a wide range of people who might know something helpful. It’s too soon to talk about suspects. Any other questions?”

“Not right now.”

“Say, Maggie, Lynda told me about Mallory. I was really sorry to hear that.”

“Oh, thanks. She was my favorite niece.”

There was a catch in her voice at the end of the sentence. If Maggie weren’t at work, she’d probably be bawling her eyes out. Maybe that’s why she was at work.

“Well, hang in there,” I said. “Talk to you later.”

I disconnected.

“Masterful!” Mac said.

Banfield didn’t seem so sure. “Clue me in here: Why did you describe the murder weapon to her off the record? If she can’t use it in her story, the information’s no good to her, is it?”

Time for a lesson in Practical PR 101. “There are a lot of reasons for sharing off-the-record material. Quite often I’ll tell a reporter something I don’t want printed or broadcast in order to warn him or her off from making a mistake—leaping to a wrong conclusion based on an incomplete picture, for instance. Journalists appreciate that. The trick is, you have to make clear up front what’s off the record and what’s not. And you have to be dealing with a reporter you trust. And I trust Maggie.”

Even my annoyance with the old trouper at the tone of her stories about the Burch settlement didn’t change that.

“But why would a reporter agree to let you give her information she can’t use?” Banfield asked.

“Because she trusts me that she’ll be better of knowing it than not knowing it. Besides, it must be fun for her being privy to stuff I haven’t told her competitors. That puts her one up. They don’t know it, but she does.”

“Fascinating,” Mac said.

Our next interview was by Skype with Madison Lee, who graduated from SBU in December 2016—a semester early because she is a brainbox—and immediately filed a complaint against Burch. She was now a law school student at Georgetown.

“I had an internship as office assistant to the dean,” she said. “I thought that would be great. It turned out to be a disaster. I’ll tell you anything about it you want to know. But all that happened a couple of years ago. What does it have to do with Burch’s murder?”

Ms. Lee had dark black skin and long yellow hair, straightened. From what I could see on Mac’s computer screen, she appeared to be well proportioned and well clothed in a multi-colored caftan dress. We called her up from Mac’s office as a concession to his bum leg. Maybe Lee wouldn’t notice the paperwork mountains or the bagpipes flopped over a file cabinet. The “Thank You For Not Breathing While I Smoke” sign remained as a relic of another time now that Saylor-Mackie had convinced Sebastian McCabe that the campus-wide smoking ban applied even to him.

“Your interactions with the victim may not have anything to do with the murder,” Banfield replied, “but the victim seems to have left a lot of people behind who had reason to want him dead.”

“Why? He was already punished by being removed from the deanship and returned to the classroom, where it’s harder to get by with that kind of crap.”

“Somebody may have thought that wasn’t enough.”

“Are you kidding? I bet it broke him. A man like that, titles are everything in his world.”

With that kind of astute perception, I could foresee a great career in the law for this young woman.

“Do you know who else he mistreated?” Banfield asked.

Lee shook her head. “Besides Zoe Slade, no. But I always assumed there were others. Zoe warned me when I got the position. She had it before me and she told me why she transferred out. I thought she was exaggerating. How wrong was that! I wasn’t there more than a week before he started asking me to reach high bookcases, calling me honey, asking me to give him dancing lessons. A couple of times he even adjusted his crotch in front of me.”

TMI, TMI!

“But you maintained your internship through spring and fall semesters.”

“Getting an internship in a dean’s office is pretty much an honor. I thought it would look bad on my record if I chucked it.”

“Then why not stay and lodge a complaint?” This was a side alley, but clearly one that had Banfield’s interest.

“I figured that could really complicate my life. Instead, I took a heavy course load, worked my butt off, and was able to graduate two years ago this month.”

“Then you filed your complaint.”

“I got him in the end. That’s what I keep telling myself.” Somebody really got him in the end.

Banfield paused. Maybe she was adding it up. I know I was, and I presumed from Mac’s beard-stroking that he was doing the same. Madison Lee had contributed no new names to the victim list, and in fact shot down the idea that any of Burch’s accusers would have reason to put him on permanent sabbatical.

“Have you been back to the SBU campus since you left?” Banfield asked.

“No. Why would I? I’m over it. I wear dresses again.”

Banfield turned to Mac. “Any questions?” Maybe she thought she owed him that because it was his office.

“Did you tell your parents?” Mac asked Lee.

She winced. “Not until I made the complaint. I think they were almost more upset with me for putting up with it than they were with Burch, especially Mom. She’s the vice president for inclusion, diversity and equal opportunity at Licking Falls University. She read me the riot act.”