Cliff

Chapter 12 -- A Missing Lecture

The next morning, Sally went as usual Tom o her 9:00 lecture. She was even on time. It was good to be somewhere where she was expected to be on time. She liked the assumption that people would be on time. It was the only lecture she had in common with Bob and she almost made it to the lecture hall before she thought of that.

The lecture had been canceled, of course, because of the untimely death of one of the students in the class. There was a notice taped to the lecture room door. She stared at the notice, then the other notices on the bullitin board, then she walked slowly over to Tom's place.

She was acting out of habit, mostly. She felt dull, almost without feelings at all. Grief, she supposed, was the time between when your brain finds out that Bob's gone but before the rest of you catches up. She hadn't a lot of experience with grief, and didn't think she wanted any. She had periods of mechanical motion and periods of intense logical thought. She couldn't believe he was gone, forever, and she knew it was true. She wasn't believing a lot of things that had to be true. Or maybe, she was not believing some things that only looked true. She did know that she wanted to be with somebody. She needed somebody to talk to, and to argue with.

Tom's place was a real mess, as usual. He was not expecting her. Poets are required to live in filthy squallor. This poet was following the rules. They were not required to be nice about being pounded out of sleep, but Tom was.

"No, really, I was just getting up. At least I was thinking about it. I wasn't asleep when you knocked. Not the after the first time anyway."

Sally didn't seem to notice the state of the room, or of Tom. She began talking immediately.

Where was Bob all evening? They would have to trace his steps! He was at Sally's at 5:30 for dinner. He left about 8:00. Said he was going home to look at some notes before the next day. Where did he really go? He certainly didn't say anything about walking along the edge of the cliff in the dark and in the fog! Did he go to the Coffee House? How can they find out without asking questions?

There was more: What had they found in Bob's room? A backpack/book bag, almost empty, a few clothes.

What was Bob working on? Why is there no evidence of any work at all? Of course, Sally knew what he was working on, sort of. And he was excited about it. He had just found out something interesting. And where is his computer? That old pile of junk he wrote all his papers on.

Tom was agreeable. He didn't say very much. He didn't think he was expected to, apparently.

Sally Remembered that the subjects for theses are posted on the wall outside Professor Lockridge's office. Professor Lockridge has office hours from 2 until 4 today. Could she go see Professor Lockridge on a pretext and find out more about Bob? No, she isn't that clever. Should she go to Professor Lockridge's office and see what all the subjects are. Could she make it there and bad back by 2 if she hurried?

She hurried. She had her usual luck. She and Professor Lockridge arrived at the same time. Sally pretended intense interest in the local gay and lesbian event posted on pink paper on the bulliten board. It was the notice farthest from the list of theses subjects. She couldn't remember if Professor Lockridge knew her or not. She had seen him once or twice, but that was when she was with Bob. Professor Lockridge had certainly not shown any interest in her.

Professor Lockridge looked at Sally vaguely and continued into his office. Sally read over the theses titles and left quickly. The fear of being caught detecting made her more thoughtful. She must be careful if she is to get anywhere without anyone knowing what she is trying to do. So how are things different, now? Up til now, she has been inquiring what the so-called authorities think. Now, she is investigating on her own.

When she got back to Tom's hovel, it was a different place. Tom must have been very busy indeed in the time she was gone. It still didn't look like much, but it is a lot neater.

"Tom, I need to appologize for rousting you out of bed without warning. Your life is yours, and I suddenly seem to be in the middle of it."

"Oh, that's OK, it's just that nobody has ever wanted to come here before. It'll take a little getting-used-to. Hospitality is a whole new idea to me."

"Well, I guess I'm asking now. I've lived with myself for a long time now, and I know when not to trust myself, and that's now. I need someone to think with me, and it has to be somebody I trust. I want to find out what happened to Bob. I trust you. Will you help me?"

"Well, yeah, sure, of course. I'll help you any way I can. What can I do?"

"You're doing it, right now. The author says that I've got to have another character to talk too. He says that 200 pages of me thinking not only won't sell, but it will put us both into the nut house. And who knows, if you end up actually being somebody we might fall in love. That's always something to look forward to."

"And the place looks great! There's even room for us both to sit down. Do you know how to boil water? We could have tea."

"They did that, and went over what they had. So great. Now they knew Bob had a subject and what it was. They already knew that, all but the exact words. Had he not yet started on it? Nonsense, he had talked about it a little bit with her. Had he hidden his notes? Where? Why? Should they look for them? Where?"

Tom said, "Now that I remember it, we didn't find much of anything in his room, no notes at all, no papers. It wasn't just the theses that was missing, it was everything! "

I didn't give it much thought at the time, we weren't investigating anything, but whoever was there before us took everything.

Sally jumped in, "So why everything? Because whoever searced the room was in a big hurry and didn't have time to search for what he wanted. Or, maybe whoever was searching didn't know what he was looking for."

This mysterious person who we had invented to search Bob's room and clean out his office did mean one thing, though. Bob had not jumped, and he hadn't fallen. He had been murdered!