Armed with her teams’ hours of work, Taylor and Baldwin went to the Vanderbilt campus. The storm damage was extensive, but the cleanup had gone very well, and all the roads through downtown were back open, as was the campus itself.
It was a beautiful morning. The sun shone on the quad, the grass had been freshly mowed, probably for the last time before the bitter cold of winter hit. There was just a hint of the smell of burning leaves wafting through the air, most had been blown off the trees during the heavy storms. The scent reminded Taylor that the nights would soon turn frigid and warm fires would be needed to chase the fingers of winter away.
Students milled about, happy to be back to school, enjoying the unseasonably warm morning. Two boys played with a football, showing off for three girls in bikini tops and cut off shorts on a blanket nearby.
There were two professors they needed to talk to from the Classics department: Edward Lear and Barry James. Fitz and Marcus had gone through Shelby’s, Jordan’s and Jill’s records since their arrival at Vanderbilt. By intersecting their schedules, they had come up with the names of two professors all three had taken classes from. A conversation with one of the nuns in administration at Aquinas College had revealed that Mary Margaret de Rossi sometimes audited classes at Vanderbilt in the Classics, a program not offered at her school. She had audited three classes and taken one each from each professor.
Baldwin had found the girl who had put together the flier campaign to help find Jill. Her name was Susan Davidson, and he thought it would be smart to speak with her first, before the professors. If they knew a little more about Jill, they might be able to piece the rest of the story together.
Taylor and Baldwin made their way to the Student Center, and Susan met them at the door, escorted them inside and found them a table.
Taylor started the interview with a few niceties, asking about the girl’s study and major. Then she started in.
“So Susan, tell us how you know Jill Gates.”
“We met at a sorority rush party in the first week of school. She wasn’t thrilled to be there, which surprised me. I mean, she had the looks, the body, the whole package the sororities look for. I also heard she was a Tri-Delt legacy, so I figured she’d be snapped up quickly. I really wouldn’t have paid a lot of attention, you know, except she took off in the middle of rush. Just left. I thought it was strange, but I had my own stuff to deal with, you know?”
“But you met her again, right? You said on the phone that you two had a class together.”
“Yeah, last semester. I added it in the second week. I didn’t like my psychology class, so I transferred into this Classics class, you know, mythology and all that? One of the girls in my dorm told me the prof was totally cool, and he was. Went off all the time on these weird tangents, but he was so into the gods and their roles shaping our lives that we couldn’t help but get interested. And he has the grooviest eyes, you know. Sort of this sea green, like yours, Agent Baldwin, though yours are much prettier.”
Taylor smiled and shot Baldwin a look, but interrupted the girl’s daydream. “Susan, let’s get back to Jill Gates. You and she were in the class together?”
Susan snapped back to reality. “Yeah, we sat next to each other. She knew so much about this stuff already, you know? She sat glued to his every word, and I always saw her go see him after class. But she’d ask him questions she knew the answers to, cause I’d see her write them down before she went up to him. But whatever, you know? Everyone thought he was hot. She seemed really into him.”
“Did you ever talk to her about it?”
“She blew me off as soon as I brought it up. Said she wanted to go on and get her doctorate in the Classics, and it would be really helpful if she had such an influential teacher to back her up. Yeah, whatever, like I bought that.”
“Did you know Shelby and Jordan?”
“Well, sure. They were in the same class with me and Jill that first semester.”
Taylor felt a bump of adrenaline. “Who was the professor, Susan?”
“You didn’t already know? Dr. Lucas, of course.”
“Dr. Lucas?”
“Yeah, Gabriel. Gabriel Lucas. He’s not a prof here any more, though. I don’t know where he went.”
Gabriel Lucas wasn’t one of the two professors they had come to speak with. She’d never even seen the name. Taylor made a mental note to call Fitz the second they finished and ask about him.