Darker Still (3 page)

Rich sat his stuff down on the floor and took his seat behind his desk. He grabbed himself a bottle of water, but did not offer one to John as he motioned for John to take a seat.

“I think I know why you are here,” Steven said.

John wasn’t sure he liked Steven. He seemed kind of arrogant and smug. Those were two traits that John loathed with a passion. He had seen too many convicted criminals acting the same way and basically telling everyone that they couldn’t be reasoned with and that the system was a joke to them.

Of course the joke was on them since most of them ended up in the slammer anyway. But just knowing that it really did not bother them and they were still laughing at him and at society over the things they had done always got him really hot and mad.

“Yes. I wanted to talk to you about Theresa’s murder,” John said. He was carefully gauging Steven’s response the whole time.

“Yea, I was so shocked when I heard about it. I would have cancelled my classes today, but finals are around the corner and it just can’t be done.”

“I understand that,” John said. It seemed somewhat plausible. He guessed that college professors didn’t really do substitutes. Especially for summer classes.

“When I found out I was just numb. How could anyone do that to someone who was so sweet and caring and loving as her? It just doesn’t make any sense to me.”

“It is a tragedy. I’m going around and trying to speak to anyone who knew her.”

“Right. Well, I’ll be glad to answer any of your questions,” Steven said.

“Great. Now you and Theresa dated for a while?”

“Yea, we dated for almost a year. We just broke up a few weeks ago actually,” Steven said.

“Ok. What was the nature of the breakup?”

“Well, we both realized that we just wanted different things.”

“Meaning what exactly?”

“Well, she wanted a more committed relationship than I did.”

“So, she wanted to take things to the next level, but you were not ready for that.”

“Precisely,” Steven said.

“Why were you so reluctant to take that next step?”

“I just wasn’t ready. It isn’t the right time in my life for me to settle down and start a family.”

John made some mental notes. He saw a riff coming and he knew that he was going to start pulling on some threads in a minute.

“How old are you Mr. Rich?” John asked.

“You can call me Steven,” he replied with that cocky smile that John hated.

“Ok, Steven. How old are you?”

“I’m twenty-seven.”

“So, you are a young handsome college professor who has no intentions of settling down any time soon. I can understand that and your reluctance to get more deeply involved with Theresa.”

“Good,” Steven replied.

“Do you ever fuck your students?” John asked. He loved the way he had blurted it out. It pulled just the reaction that he was looking for.

“What?”

“Do you ever nail your students?”

“Fraternizing with my students would be rather reckless. I would be fired instantly.”

“Well, if they talked about it that is,” John said.

“I don’t engage in secret relationships with my students, detective.”

John almost believed his lie. He was a good liar.

“What about Theresa?”

“She was not my student.”

“She was when you first started dating her,” John said.

“The semester was almost over and I decided to throw caution to the wind and it was stupid. I could have gotten fired over it.”

“Well, was Theresa happy to not be yours exclusively?”

“She was disappointed as you can imagine, but she was ok. She understood.”

“Did she really? Did she understand or did she try to blackmail you by exposing your relationship and the fact that she was your student when you first started dating her?”

Steven’s eyes flashed anger, if only for a second. He quickly regained his composure though.

“No, of course not. She wasn’t angry. We were friends even after we decided to not see each other romantically anymore.”

“Ok, that is good to know. Now tell me, with these other girls you are sleeping with, do any of them ever get jealous? Any of them think that maybe they don’t like sharing you and they want commitment?”

“No. It’s only a few anyways. It’s not like I have an entire harem or something.”

“Well, that is great to hear.”

“Look, detective. I’ve got some work to do, so if there are no further questions I need to get to it,” Steven said. He was obviously flustered and John felt good about a job well done.

“Just a few,” John said handing him a small piece of paper. “I’m going to need the names of the young ladies that you are currently involved with who are your students.”

“Is that really necessary?” Steven asked.

“Yes, I’m afraid it is. You see I’m working on a theory that one of those girls either did it or they know who did.”

“Ok, just do what you can to keep this quiet. Again if word got out that I was having relationships with my students then I would be kicked out of here on my ass before I could even blink. The college tends to frown unfavorably on that sort of thing. In fact they have a zero tolerance for it.”

“As well they should, “John said just to be a smart ass. He had no intention of squealing to the college about Steven’s affairs and trying to get him fired. He did however want to find out if any of these girls might have known something or seen something that could have led to the murderer targeting his sights on Theresa.

Steven scribbled down on a piece of paper and handed it to John. John looked at the list of three names. He saw that Steven had included the addresses for the girls as well.

“Ok, I appreciate your cooperation,” John said.

He walked out of the office feeling the glaring daggers coming from Steven Rich’s eyes. The guy was a piece of work. John doubted that Rich was a killer, but it was always a possibility.

*

John was getting ready to visit the apartment of Heather Mowry, the first name on Rich’s list. He wished he’d had time to run to the station to run these names through the computer first, but he was already on campus so he thought he would just swing by and talk to these ladies.

Heather answered the door and John’s bottom lip almost fell to the ground. Standing there was one of the hottest girls he had ever seen. She was a typical pin up hot. Tall, blonde hair, large breasts, curvy body and the attitude that said “I’m just ditzy enough to be totally irresistible”. John almost lost his train of thought when she answered the door wearing a pair of very short gym shorts and a tight, white tank top. Her cleavage was on full display.

“Hello,” Heather said. Her voice was sultry and sweet. It was like she had just stepped out of the pages of Hustler magazine and into his own little fantasy world. John tried to get a grip on himself. He was usually pretty suave around attractive women. He had not dated for a while because having your heart ripped out and stepped on will do that to you, but he used to be pretty good with women and never had trouble getting dates. Now he put up an invisible wall that was felt by all who came near him and that repelled women fairly well. He had toyed with the idea of taking that down from time to time to have some fun at least, but somewhere deep down he felt so guilty about driving the love of his life away from him that he just wanted to punish himself.

John’s secret with women had always been simple—they eat, sleep, stink, and shit the same as him. Why would he kiss their asses?

“Yes, Heather?”

“Yes, I’m Heather.”

“I’m detective John Anderson. I was hoping to have a few words with you.”

“What about?” Heather asked blocking the doorway. She seemed like she did not want to invite him in, or she was hiding something that she damned sure didn’t want him to see.

“Well, I understand that you have a relationship with Professor Steven Rich.”

Heather’s eyes widened. She didn’t know what to say.

“It’s ok; I’m not here to get either of you in trouble.”

“Ok, then what do you want?”

“Did you ever have a class with a girl named Theresa Daniels?”

“No, but the name sounds familiar,” Heather said. Then her face lit up. “Wait! She’s that girl who got killed right? I saw that on the news.”

“Yea, it’s a tragedy. I’m just trying to speak to anyone who might have known her or who might have known someone who did know her.”

“Well, I never met her. I might have seen her on campus, but I don’t remember being in the same class or anything.”

“Ok. Well, she was in Steven Rich’s Psychology class and she also had a relationship with him that was more than typical. It may have been at the same time that you were seeing him.”

Heather’s face looked angry and confused.

“No, you’re wrong. Steven loves me. We are going to end up together for the long term. We just have to wait until I’m no longer his student.”

“That seems to be his M.O,” John said.

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, how about I come in and we talk about it? There are a few things you need to know about your friend Steven.”

Heather moved back and let John walk inside.

A few minutes later he was sitting on a couch drinking a bottle of beer she had offered him. It was only ten in the morning, but he didn’t give a damn. Apparently neither did she since she was also drinking a beer and had two empty bottles in front of her already. He liked this girl already.

“So, what makes you think Steven is cheating on me?”

“Well, he gave me the names of three girls he is currently dating who are students of his or have been recently. I am just following up on all of them to see if any of them might have known Theresa or seen any little thing that could have led to her death.”

“So, you are grasping at straws? Sounds like you don’t have dick,” Heather said.

“Well, catching killers is not as easy as it looks on NCIS,” John said.

“I can’t believe that bastard is cheating on me. I thought we had something special. I knew other girls were into him. I mean how can you not be? He is gorgeous. But I trusted him.”

Heather was flaming mad and talking mostly to herself at that point. John needed to try to get her back on track here.

“Well, do you know these other girls on this list?” He handed her the piece of paper. She studied it for a few minutes.

“No, I don’t think so. I might want to find them and break them into little pieces, though.”

“Heather, this isn’t their fault any more than it is yours. Steven is a jerk. He is playing all of you and none of you know about the other ones. So he is the only one to blame here.”

“I suppose you’re right,” she said.

“So, you are positive you do not know who these other girls are?”

“Yea, I’m positive. I don’t know them.”

“And you have never met Theresa before either?”

“Dammit, I told you. I never met the girl.”

Heather was definitely not a morning person and she was starting to lose the sweet edge to her voice. But she was still as sexy as hell.

“Ok, well it’s my job to ask these questions.”

“Well, I answered them. Do you have any other questions?”

John was getting a little annoyed at her attitude.

“No, but I will say this. If I find out that you knew Theresa Daniels and you withheld the information I will be back and I’ll be putting you in handcuffs because that gives you a direct motive to want her dead.”

“I told you I never saw the girl. I never met her. I didn’t know she was messing with my boyfriend either. I’m a victim here. Don’t you get that? You can’t just spring this crap on me and expect me to be all nice an polite when you tell me that my boyfriend is screwing God knows how many other women.”

John finished the beer in one gulp and left Heather’s apartment. He was glad to be out of her presence. She was a hotheaded somebody and it was possible that she could have found out the truth before this and gone into a rage, but he doubted it. She honestly did not seem smart enough or together enough to pull off something like this, but it was a long shot to see if she might have known Theresa at all.

There had to be someone out there who knew something or saw something that might help with the case. The problem was that most of the people who might have seen something or known something would not have been able to recognize what they saw. That was why after a killer was caught there were always all of these people coming out of the woodwork to say how much they knew and what they had heard or seen. It always made John scratch his head as to why they didn’t come forward with that tip before. People lived in their own little bubbles and they just let shit lie.

As he got behind the wheel of his car his phone rang. He picked it up; it was the Medical Examiner, Jamie White. He had some useful information if John wanted to hear it.

“Does a bear shit in the woods?” John asked. It was an oldie but a goody.

“Well, we didn’t find any physical evidence. There is no second party blood, no hair, semen, or even sweat. I would say the killer killed her somewhere else and brought her there to leave on display.”

“Wow, that requires a bit of planning and technique,” John said.

“Exactly what I was thinking. I don’t think this is his first rodeo.”

“I was afraid of that, too. What else did you find?”

“The girl was not sexually assaulted. She was stabbed with a large hunting knife that is used typically for skinning the hide off of deer.”

“Well, that doesn’t narrow it down much. This area is full of hunters and people who love the outdoors.”

“The head was severed using what would appear to be a small axe, you can tell by the size of the indentures on the skin where it tore and the size of the jagged lacerations.”

John swallowed hard. Some of this stuff was still enough to gross him out after all of these years. It was disturbing how easily the ME was able to just talk about it like it was routine.

“Is there anything else?” John asked.

“I’m afraid not. There really isn’t any other evidence.”

“Thanks, Jamie. I appreciate it,” John replied.

With that John went to knock on the doors of Melissa Waters and Diane Suite. They were both just as shocked by Steven’s cheating ways as Heather had been but they did not react quite as angrily as she did. They were more hurt than angry and John felt a bit bad for them.