Murder Most Academic by Alicia Stone

Author:Alicia Stone [Stone, Alicia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: A Trinity Pierce Mystery
Publisher: Mainly Murder Press
Published: 2013-01-04T00:00:00+00:00

Eight

George Kirkland was on the phone to me just before six the next morning. “He’s back,” he moaned.

I propped myself up on an elbow and peered fuzzily at my alarm clock. The numbers peered fuzzily back. “What time is it?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know.”

A little of his desperation seeped into my consciousness, and I sat up, pulling the duvet around me. “What happened, George?”

“A letter. I have a letter.”

“And it says what?”

A rustling of paper. “I’m supposed to have the money ready today. I’m supposed to leave it in the admissions office.”

“With Carolyn Stone?” That stretched credibility a little. Carolyn as blackmailer?

“No, no, in an envelope. I’m supposed to tell Gwen that a student will be by to pick it up.”

That could work, I thought. Lots of students in and out of there, prospective students, time when Carolyn was away from the office. Her secretary, Gwen Moss, didn’t have Carolyn’s encyclopedic knowledge of the students she’d admitted. Better to make the exchange in a bustling office than a lonely street.

“Okay, George, don’t worry.”

“Don’t worry? I thought he’d gone away!”

Not for the first time, I marveled at the scholarly brain, which could dissect the most intricate of academic problems yet have difficulty with change at the grocery store. “We’ll find him, George,” I said with more confidence than I felt. After all, I hadn’t made a whole lot of progress so far, and I couldn’t exactly go and camp out in the admissions office and watch who came to pick up the envelope.

Time to call in the troops. Kate’s phone rang and rang before the voicemail picked up. Small surprise. I didn’t like being up at this hour, so I couldn’t imagine how she’d feel about it. “Kate, it’s T. Call me. I need help right away.”

Sean sounded sleepy, too, but at least he answered. “Do you know what time it is?”

“I need one of Kate’s girls,” I said.

“When?” He stifled a yawn. “What client?”

“It doesn’t matter who it’s for. I need someone who can look like a prospective student. I need her to be at Moreland, at the admissions office, by ten o’clock. I called Kate, but she isn’t answering.”

“Yeah, okay, I’ll swing by there. I’ll let you know.”

“Thanks, Sean.”

I made it through my morning routine and got to Moreland in record time. The names were running through my brain: Ben Cohen, Peter Graves, Khalid Darzi, and who knows who else that I might not even have considered?

I called Sean. “Well?”

“Kate says Lisa can be there. She’s over at B.U., looks the part. What’s she supposed to do?”

“Have her tell Gwen—that’s the secretary—that she doesn’t have an appointment, but she’s really anxious to transfer to Moreland. Have her tell Gwen she’ll wait until the admissions director can see her.”

“That’s it?”

“A man will come in with a thick manila envelope, a professor. That’s what Lisa’s to keep her eyes on. She’s waiting there to see who comes and picks it up. When someone does, she needs to text me right away and follow that person until I can catch up with her.

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