Her expression became immediately guarded. “What for?”
“We’re trying to find Professor Stark’s killer. We hope you might be able to help us.”
She nodded and glanced at her friend. “I’ll be right back.”
They found a place away from others and Miranda wasted no time. “What did you think of Professor Stark?”
“He was a great guy. A good teacher. I respected him.” She moved her gaze between them. “What else am I supposed to say?”
“I don’t know. What else do you want to say?”
“He was demanding to work for. But I respected him for that, too.”
“You’re a research assistant.”
“Now I am.” She stopped, a strange look coming over her face. “Actually, I guess now I’m out of work. That sucks.”
“What did you mean by ‘now’ you’re a research assistant?”
“That was Jess’s job. I was his teaching assistant. Then she up and dropped out of the program about a month ago. Left me to do it all until the fall. It really messed up my schedule.”
“Why’d she drop out?” Jake asked.
“She said some family emergency, but I think it was because he rebuffed her.”
Bingo. “Rebuffed her?” Miranda repeated. “As in rejected her advances?”
“Oh, yeah. She had a huge crush on him. Huge. Everybody knew it.”
“Did Professor Stark know it?”
“Sure. But he always kept it super-professional.”
“He always keep it super-professional with you?”
She looked surprised. “Yeah. That’s who he was.”
“Anybody else have a crush on him?”
She snorted. “I’m not sure you’ve got enough paper in that notebook. Even some of the guys had a crush on him. He had it all—looks, smarts, and heart.”
“How about you? You have a thing for him?”
“Nope. See the dark-haired woman over there? Red shirt?” She pointed. “That’s my girlfriend.”
“Gotcha.” Miranda glanced at her notes. “By any chance, do you know where Jessie lives or have her number?”
“Yeah, sure. I tried calling her a couple times today, but she didn’t pick up. Sent a text. Got no response.” She frowned. “Wondered if she’d heard. I was sort of worried about how she’d take it.”
“You haven’t seen her tonight?”
She said she hadn’t and moments later Miranda and Jake walked away with Jessie’s contact information.
“What do you think?” Jake asked. “Pay this Jessie a visit?”
“Absolutely.
“Randi? Is that you?”
She stopped and looked back. A woman she recognized from high school had separated from a group of faculty and started for her. They hadn’t been friends—totally different sides of the track—but she was smiling as if she’d found her long-lost BFF.
“Randi,” she said again, smile widening, “that is you.”
“Miranda now,” she corrected, meeting her. “How are you, Paula?”
“Good, until this happened. It’s so awful.”
Miranda agreed. “You’re on the faculty here?”
“Started in January. Mathematics.”
“Props to you. But then I seem to remember you being good at math.”
“And I remember you being not so good at it.”
“Thanks for that description of my skill with numbers. It was generous.”
She laughed. “You work here at the university?”
Miranda shook her head. “I’m a cop.”
“You’re a cop?”
At her incredulous expression, Miranda laughed. “Hard to believe, isn’t it? This is my partner, Jake Billings. Jake, this is an old schoolmate, Paula Gleason.”
Paula shook his hand. “So, you two are here in an official capacity?”
“We are,” Jake said. “Did you know Richard Stark?”
She looked away, shook her head. “Not really. I’m just getting to know the people in my own department.” She returned her gaze to his. “I came to show my support.”
“You never even met him?” Miranda asked.
She shifted, looking uncomfortable. “I didn’t say that. I met him but I didn’t really know him.”
Miranda handed her a card. “If you think of anything else or hear any rumors about Stark, call me.”
Paula looked at the card, eyebrows drawn together in thought. “What do you mean, rumors?”
“Relationships he was in, hearts he may have broken, someone who had an ax to grind. That kind of stuff.”
“Oh. Okay.” She looked at Jake. “Good to meet you.”
Miranda watched her hurry back to the group of faculty, frowning in thought. That’d been weird. Definitely. But had it been so because of their own history? Or because she hadn’t been honest about her familiarity with Stark?
“What the hell, Miranda?”
She looked back at Jake, surprised. “What?”
“Rumors? Hearts he may have broken?”
“What’s wrong with asking that?”
“It’s leading, that what’s wrong with it.”
Her cheeks heated. “I’m looking for a motive.”
“More like trying to create one. And at the expense of Stark’s reputation.”
“That’s bullshit. Stark was brutally murdered by a sexual partner. And I don’t think it happened because he was such a ‘great guy.’” She made quotation marks with her fingers.
“You’re case lead, but I’d be careful if I were you.”
“Why’s that?”
“You ask the wrong person things like that, you might find yourself in a world of hurt.”
CHAPTER TEN
8:25 A.M.
Chief Cadwell looked like he hadn’t slept well. Miranda’s last check in the mirror confirmed he wasn’t the only one. Jake was on his way; he’d stopped to get them both coffees.
They’d been up late, trying to chase down Jessie Lund. She hadn’t been at her home; her neighbor on the other side of the duplex had claimed he hadn’t seen her in a couple days. They’d learned her family lived in Metairie, near the New Orleans airport. They’d made the drive—and come up empty.
Jake arrived. “Sorry I’m late.” He handed her a large cup and a paper bag.
“Bless you,” she said, nearly swooning at the aroma wafting up from the cup.
“Close the door,” Chief Cadwell said, “and take a seat.” He folded his hands on the desk in front of him. “The Stark case. Update me.”
“We’ve made progress. We interviewed Rhonda Peale, the psychology professor to whom who Stark sent a message just before his death. She insists she didn’t respond to Stark’s message.”
“But she saw it?”
“Yes.”
“Alibi?”
“Nope. She was home alone the entire evening. Grading papers and posting grades online.”
“And, obviously, checking Facebook.”
“Yup. She offered up a motive for being a suspect, right then and there. Apparently, she stopped by his place Friday and found him shacking up with somebody else.”
“Who?”
She didn’t see them or ask a name. He offered the information up as the reason she couldn’t come inside. Didn’t see his sleeping around as an issue because they hadn’t made a commitment to each other.”
“Pretty cold. And classic woman-scorned motive.”
Jake jumped in. “Which is why she didn’t respond to his invitation the night of his death. She said she had her pride.”
“Meaning she wanted to go.”
“I asked if she was in love with him. She didn’t answer directly, though she implied she was.”
Chief Cadwell nodded. “She seems like a really good suspect to me.”