“Yes,” said Julia, fighting a smile. “I guess the Angelfucker might turn out to be a guardian angel.”
Gabriel scowled. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. What else did she say?”
“Not much. We saw you meet with Christa, but we were too far away to hear what you were saying. Her body language seemed pretty obvious. She was trying to flirt with you, and you scolded her. I could tell Professor Martin that.”
“Absolutely not. You’re too involved as it is.” He scratched at his chin once again. “Jeremy asked that I not speak to Paul about Christa. The situation is a bit touchy because Paul is working for me, but Jeremy agreed to talk to him. It would be best if you didn’t speak to Paul about this, either. The less said on the topic the better.”
“He doesn’t like Christa. One of the first things he ever said to me was that she wanted to become Mrs. Emerson. He knows she was after you.”
Gabriel grimaced. “I reminded Jeremy that I approved Christa’s dissertation proposal back in December, after giving her numerous chances to fix it. Let’s hope that when he talks to Paul, he’s able to grasp a clear picture of what actually happened.”
Julia closed her eyes, resting her head back in the bathtub. She knew that they could rely on Paul to tell the truth. Despite his antipathy to Professor Emerson, he wouldn’t give credence to Christa’s false allegations.
Gabriel stood up. “There’s one other thing I need to tell you.”
“What’s that?” Julia asked, eyes still closed.
“Jeremy asked if we were involved. And I said—yes.”
She opened her eyes, staring up at him. “What?”
“I told him that we didn’t get involved until the Christmas break.” Gabriel’s expression grew tense.
“Did he believe you?”
“He seemed to, but he was angry. He told me I should have come to him immediately. He said that he was obligated to report me to the Dean for failing to follow university policy.”
“Oh, no.” Julia reached for Gabriel’s hand. “What are we going to do?”
“He said that because of our other troubles, he isn’t going to muddy the waters—for now. But he was adamant in telling me that he wasn’t going to cover things up.”
Gabriel leaned over to kiss her forehead. “Don’t worry about Jeremy. I’ll handle him. While you’re finishing your bath, I’ll update my lawyer so we can plan our next move.” He smiled and turned to leave.
“Gabriel, there is one more thing. Well, two more things, actually.
“Soraya is filing a complaint against Christa, on my behalf, arguing that she targeted me maliciously.”
“Good. Maybe that will cause her to rethink her actions.”
“And in my meeting with Nicole yesterday she mentioned that you weren’t in therapy anymore.”
Gabriel saw Julia’s expression, one of irritation mixed with sadness, and his shoulders slumped.
Chapter 22
In the grand scheme of things, Gabriel’s failure to mention the fact that he’d stopped going to therapy was unimportant. Or so Julia believed. They argued about it briefly, but both of them were too worried about their troubles with the university to do more than that.
Gabriel received a terse note from Jeremy the following week, indicating that he’d interviewed both Mrs. Jenkins and Paul. Other than that, he and Julia didn’t receive any communication from the university.
David Aras spent his Friday night alone in the office of his house with a bottle of Jameson whiskey. It was not unusual for him to do so. In his position as Dean of Graduate Studies he often brought work home. On this particular evening he found himself mired in a very tricky, very sensitive situation.
Miss Peterson’s harassment complaint had been challenged by the testimony of more than one witness. However, the academic fraud complaint against Miss Mitchell had alerted him to a possible case of fraternization between Julia and Professor Emerson. The problem was that the evidence was contradictory.
According to the information passed on by Professor Martin, Paul Norris had painted a glowing picture of Miss Mitchell and her character. As the whiskey burned his throat, David wondered if all women Mr. Norris came in contact with had mysteriously sprouted wings or if he simply had a weakness for young women from Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania.
(Wherever the hell that was.)
According to Mr. Norris and Mrs. Jenkins, Miss Mitchell was a timid young woman who was disliked by Professor Emerson. Mr. Norris went further to claim that the professor had fought openly with her in his seminar.