Chapter 16

Chapter 16

I didn't think Esmeralda knew there was a speed limit on the highway. Actually, I didn't know a MINI Cooper could go that fast. Especially around corners. My fingers gripped the armrest on my right side, and my feet pressed against the floorboard, trying to slow down the car with my mental powers. Which I didn't have, even if Esmeralda believed I was gifted.

"I'm scaring you, sorry." She glanced over at me and lifted her foot off the gas pedal. "I'm not used to having company when I drive to Bakerstown. I just love watching the ocean as I drive by."

"I'm not sure how you can even see it." I flushed, feeling the heat on my face. "Sorry, I shouldn't complain. Thank you for driving and for going with me. Deek gave us a gift though."

"What's that? Cookies for the road?" Esmeralda glanced into the back seat, and the car swerved into the oncoming lane.

"No, not cookies." I stared at the road. No one was in the lane, thank goodness, but I would feel much more comfortable once we were in Bakerstown. And I might ask Greg to come pick me up. I could have used working on my paper as an excuse if I'd thought ahead and brought my computer. No, I was stuck riding there and back with the speed demon. I just hoped we made it. "He told me where the professor hid a key to his office."

"That's great. We don't have to break in or make up a story and hope."

"We weren't really going to break in, right?" I turned to look at her and saw she was laughing. "You're messing with me."

"I am. Greg had the idea. I guess he wants you to think twice before asking me to be your Watson." She slowed the car a little. "Sorry, I thought it might be funny."

"You're awful." I slapped her arm. "Now I'm glad I didn't bring cookies. You don't deserve any."

"I already ate two at the station while I was waiting for your shift to end." She tapped her bloodred nails on the steering wheel. "I wonder how many other people know that trick about the professor's key?"

"I don't know. Deek said he dated one of the professor's teaching assistants. So maybe a few. Like prior ones."

Esmeralda's fingers stopped tapping. "Like Tank Harding?"

"Yeah, I guess." I watched her face. "Is Greg thinking Tank was involved in the professor's death?"

Esmeralda's face froze. "I don't know."

"Yes, you do. You have a tell. Anytime I'm close to guessing something, your face goes still. Like porcelain." I leaned back in my seat. "But that doesn't make sense. Tank didn't come until after the professor died."

"Really?" The finger tapping started again. "Well, there you go. And my face doesn't freeze."

"Too late. You already let the cat out of the bag. I'm hoping the office isn't an active crime scene. Greg would have looked at that, right? It's probably a long shot that the police haven't cleaned out the office. If there were any clues there, they'll be long gone." I pointed to the upcoming ramp. "That's the exit. This one will take us right to the history department building. If you take the one after, we'll have to park in the admin building lot. This has a parking lot just a few buildings away from where we want to be."

Esmeralda turned on her blinker. "It's good to have a perpetual student on our side. I haven't been on campus since I took that self-defense class two years ago."

"I'm just an amateur compared to Deek." I pointed to the next road. "Turn right here, and it will be your next left. I hope we didn't make a trip for nothing."

"Time will tell," Esmeralda said in true fortune-teller generality.

Esmeralda followed my directions, and soon we were parked and walking through the campus. "The history department is in the liberal arts building. The English department used to be housed here too, but they got moved to a new building next to the library after the school got an endowment from a local author. I can't remember his name. He wrote spy novels."

"Tom Clancy?" Esmeralda was keeping up with me.

I glanced her way. "Not sure. I should have listened more when my Business Communications professor was telling us the story. The business department was all up in arms because they thought they were getting the next new building. But the tech guy didn't come through with the funds."

"His stock must have tanked." Esmeralda scanned the almost-empty campus. "Or his company went belly up."

"Positive thinking." I climbed the large steps in front of the building. "Let's be a little more upbeat for the office key."

"I didn't realize you were a believer in the Just Be Happy mantra." She smiled at me and met me at the large glass doors that led into the lobby.

"I live in sunny California. I took an oath when I got my driver's license." I held the door open for her. "Didn't you?"

She shook her head. "I lived on the grift for too long to not know a con when I hear it. If you're happy all the time, it means you don't look at anything critically. Your relationships, your job, your purpose in life. Bowling league is the opiate of the masses."

"I thought that was religion." I paused in front of the building directory. The campus must not have updated news, because the directory listed Professor Wellborn's office on the fourth floor.

"Bowling works too. Or dart league. Or basketball. Whatever keeps you from really examining your life." Esmeralda pushed the elevator button. "For Deek, it was school. Until Rory kicked him out and he had to find his life. Working for you is the best thing that has happened to that kid in years."

I entered the elevator after a short boy and taller girl got out. They had book bags but looked about ten years too young to be taking college classes. I pointed them out to Esmeralda.

She shrugged. "Old souls. They must be on some sort of enrichment program for their school. You got to keep kids involved or bad things happen."

I didn't think much of it until we reached the fourth floor. I hadn't seen a lot of kids here either during the week or on weekends. "Did you know them?"

"Who?"

"The kids that got off the elevator?"

Esmeralda paused at room 401. The door had a name tag on the varnished wood that read: Professor Horace Wellborn. A bouquet of flowers sat on the floor by the door. I reached up for the key and found it easily. I kind of hoped this wasn't the key to the futuristic lab. There was no crime scene tape, but I could see the residue of fingerprint dust. The police must have released the office back to the university. I should have known that Greg wouldn't have sanctioned the trip if the scene was still in processing.

"No, I didn't know the kids. I think the reason you find so many clues is that you look at everything as a possible one. Like the kids." Esmeralda took the key and put it in the lock. "Let's see what we can find."

She pushed open the door and found a room in chaos. Books were all over the floor. The file cabinets were open, and files were everywhere. Paper covered the floor tiles where books weren't.

"What on earth?" Esmeralda looked around at the mess.

I stepped gingerly into the room. "I don't think we'd even notice if anything was missing." I started picking up the books.

"What are you doing? Your fingerprints are going to be on the books." Esmeralda gasped as I piled them on the desktop.

"Call Greg. Tell him we found the door cracked open. Put the key back up top and wipe it." I continued to look through the books.

"Okay, but what are you looking for?"

I set the next stack of books by the first. "The book the guy who did this didn't know to take."

"That doesn't make any sense." Esmeralda watched me and then took out her phone. "I'm calling Greg, but I'm telling him I told you to stop messing up the crime scene."

"If it was still a crime scene, there would be tape." Which was true, but my theory had the killer coming back to the scene, after the office had been processed. Like we had. So I guess it was a crime scene again, although I didn't think the killer had found what he was looking for the second time. Maybe that was why the professor had been killed the first time. Maybe he'd found the killer in his office, looking for a book.

By the time Esmeralda came back, I'd found what I'd been looking for. It was the sister book for the one I already had in my tote. I'd found it referenced in the professor's notes. I started to step out of the mess but noticed a file on the desk. It was the professor's file for the California history class I'd taken years ago. This one had a listing of current students and their midterm grades. I scanned down the list and saw that two students were failing. Could it be that simple? Had a student attacked the professor to slow down his grade posting? It was a commonly known fact that the professor kept everything on paper and had his teaching assistants do the computer work at the end of the semester.

I pulled out my phone and took a photo of the class list. I hoped I wasn't right. As I walked out of the room, a large man in a uniform stood in the doorway.

"Campus police, ma'am. Did you call in the break-in?" He looked around the room and whistled. "Someone did a number on this office. Looks like the frat house after finals."

"Actually, I'm Jill Gardner. I had my friend"—I nodded to Esmeralda, who was in the hallway, watching me talk to the guard with that look on her face, like I told you so—"call Greg King over at South Cove. I was just walking by and found the door open."

"You shouldn't have gone inside." He waved me out of the room. "Someone might have still been in here."

My eyes widened, and I saw Esmeralda smirk at my actress skills. "Oh my. I didn't think of that. I came in because I thought someone might be hurt. Heart attacks and strokes seem to be on the rise lately. Especially among older workers. It's all the stress from their jobs. I read about it in a recent journal."

He watched as I stepped around him. "You thought all this damage was done by someone who was having a heart attack?"

"On television people walk around bumping into things." I shrugged, playing dumb. "It could have happened. Then I saw all those poor books on the floor, open and their bindings being stretched. I didn't want them to be ruined. I own the bookstore in South Cove. Books can be damaged easily. Especially older books like these. I picked up a few and put them on the desk so they'd be safe. People could have stepped on them."

The look on the guard's face was priceless, and Esmeralda had to cover her mouth with her hand and pretend she was coughing and not laughing at my performance.

"Ma'am. Please just give me your name and contact information. Then you can leave. We'll call you for your statement." He pulled out his notebook and handed it to me.

I wrote down Esmeralda's and my names and phone numbers, then handed it back. "So we can go?"

"Please." He tucked the notebook back in his pocket.

"Great, because we're going to a lecture on campus today that starts in a few minutes. You might have heard about it? Local mysteries based on historical legends?"

He nodded to the elevator. "I haven't, sorry. Please find your way off the floor. We're going to have to block this area off."

"Oh, that's exciting. I'm so glad we came early, aren't you, Esmeralda?" I took her arm as we strolled toward the elevator.

"Is there even a lecture today?" Esmeralda asked after the elevator doors closed.

I shook my head. "It was canceled after the main speaker was killed. It just cemented our reason for being up on that floor."

"But if they check that closely, they're going to know Greg told you about the professor dying."

"Yeah, but maybe I thought someone else was going to speak instead. A lot of times, the professor's teaching assistants do the lectures. Especially if the professor isn't a people person." I watched the elevator lights chart our way down. "I don't think Professor Wellborn has done his own community education lectures in years. Tank did it when he worked for him."

"You seem to have covered all your bases with this lie." Esmeralda leaned against the elevator wall. "So this was a wasted trip."

"Not really. I think we need to find out more about the professor's teaching assistant and the people who were failing his classes. We've assumed that his murder was about Josh's journal and the missing treasure. Maybe it was just bad luck." I stepped into the lobby and pulled out my phone. "Hey, Deek? Can you give me the name of your girlfriend who used to work for Wellborn? Does she know who had that position this year?"

The café noise behind him told me that the bookstore was busy. I quickly added, "You can do this after your shift."

Deek laughed. "If I wait, I'll forget to get it for you. Hold on, I'll text you her name and number. I don't know who was working for the prof this semester, but Rachel might."

"Thanks, Deek. Everything okay there? Do you need me to come back?"

"No, we're handling it. Evie just came in, so we'll be fine. Do you want me to call Jackie if we need overtime approved?"

I'd forgotten my aunt had started that policy a few months ago. I tended to trust the staff to do what they needed to do to keep the shop going. My aunt had a more hands-on management style. "No, I'll approve it now. Just make a note on the shift change sheet that you talked to me and when. That should work."

"Perfect. I'm walking into the back to do that and get Rachel's info. You'll have it in five minutes, at the most."

I left the phone out and sat down on one of the benches. "So what's next?"

"Do you want to talk to Deek's friend before we leave town? Or should we just leave that to the professionals?" Esmeralda sank into the bench next to me. "Hanging out with you is exhausting."

I grinned at her. "You're not having fun?"

"We just got chased out of a crime scene. I thought we were going to be arrested. What part of that is the fun part?" She sat up as an alert hit my phone.

I read Deek's text, then hit the button to call the number he'd given me. As it rang, I looked at Esmeralda. "The part where we figure out the puzzle. That's the fun part."