Chapter Forty-one: Allegations, Insinuations and Investigations
I managed to not go out until Friday.
A small victory.
I got up early at one o’clock and studied Pliny the Elder and Hitchcock until dinner. Frenzied, I got ready to go and went to find people to join me. Maybe Tim or James would be around? James was gone and his roommate Henry, the dirty hippie now clean shaven, told me I just missed him. On to Tim’s room, a knock clattered down the hall. There was no answer.
The cumulus clouds bent and rampaged overhead in the azure sky as I tread the path around Collin’s field. Loose rocks rolled under foot. Rubber sole was left behind. I walked with a steady, speedy gait and tightness roped around my lungs and cinched a knot. Hunched over at the double glass door to the Cafeteria, I hack coughed and bounced off my feet with each convulsion.
No cigarette had touched my lips that day. With a small survey of the dining hall, I found James eating by himself so to the snack bar I strolled and full tray in held firm, I sat down next to him in a clump.
“What is going down big man?” I asked.
“Not much, you?” he asked and swigged his apple juice.
“What is taking place this evening?” I asked.
“Many things,” James said.
“What are the guys doing?” I asked.
“Tim is off with Erin. He said they had business. George and I are heading out. You’re welcome to join us. Cyrus went home for the weekend,” James said and proceeded to demolish a triple-decker sandwich.
I nodded and figured I’d earned it.
The night was crowded and noisy.
Beers were warm and foamy.
My tooth didn’t ache.
It was the same as ever as the darkness concealed everything.
Sleep couldn’t be denied.
Hypnos came but I didn’t remember any dreams. I woke up sporadically, ignoring the revived pain in my tooth.
Sunrise came and went.
A heavy bang at my door jumped through my stale room. I was ready to yell as I opened the door but glanced over at my unopened copy of Less Than Zero and chuckled.
“I really should read that.”
I heaved the door open and raised my serious gaze to the trespasser.
Uniforms came into focus in the sunlit hall. Cops were at my door, guns, badges and all.
What?
“Can I help you officers?” I asked.
“Do you know Timothy Baumgarten?” the bird faced cop asked.
“Of course, he lives down the hall,” I said.
“Can we come in? We have to talk to you about Mr. Baumgarten. Your RA said you two were good friends,” the bulldog faced cop said.
“George down the hall knows him better than me,” I said.
“We must talk to you sir, so may we?” the bird faced cop said.
The air became thick. The long banished demons of pressure pressed me down.
The officers came in and stood arms at their sides. A grimy shirt was lifted of the floor as I sat on the edge of my bed. It struggled to fit.
“My name is Officer John Peters and this is my colleague Officer Samuel Kraft,” the bird faced cop said and reached to shake my hand.
His palms were mushy like dead squid. The dog faced cop crossed his arms and stood with his weight on his back foot. My hands fell. Officer Peters pulled out his note pad and pen.
“I need to ask some questions about Timothy. There’s been an incident,” Officer Peters said.
“What do you want to know,” I asked.
“How long have you known Timothy Baumgarten?” he asked with a furrowed brow.
“First semester,” I said.
“Do you know if he was involved in any illegal activities?” Officer Peters asked.
“What, no,” I said.
My pulsed stopped, started again and I felt sheets of heat ribbon across my face.
“Do you know Erin Douglas?” he asked.
“Sure, but not that well.”
“Do you know if she was involved in any illegal activities?”
“No idea.”
“Were Mr. Baumgarten and Ms. Douglas friends or did they know each other well?”
“They were a couple up until recently.”
“How recently?”
“A couple weeks, I think.”
“Thank you Mr. Chandler. That’s all we needed. We must be going now,” Officer Kraft said.
“Are they okay?”
“Something happened but I can’t tell you. There’s an ongoing investigation,” Officer Peters said as Officer Kraft opened the door. Officer Peters put his pad in his pocket, nodded and they left.
I was shaking like dog left out in the rain.
My lungs wouldn’t fill with air. My bowels boiled. A minute later James’ face was suspended in the doorway. He closed the door behind him.
“What was that all about? I saw the cops,” he asked and leaned back on the wall next to the light switch.
“They asked me some questions about Tim and Erin,” I said.
“So they did not say if they were in jail or an accident?”
I took a deep breath.
“No.”
“Let me know if you hear anything. George and I are going out later if you want to come?” James asked, curled his hand into a claw and tilted it back and forth by lips.
“Cool, I will be ready just come and get me, later” I said.
He rubbed his face, opened the door and it closed behind him with a flat click.
I got ready and ordered a sandwich before my shower. The shower felt like sand. The deliveryman was waiting for me the main entrances front desk. I apologized and over tipped. Even though the nausea bubbled up, I ate as I walked back up the stairs.
The words on the page became fuzzy as I sat reading at my workspace and a daydream of Elyssa undressing on my bed tore through my concentration. For the first time in over a week I got hard so I grabbed a tissue and was about to deal with it when the red dots appeared and crawled across my hands and down onto the floor.
The staff turned into a noodle.
I sat on my bed and tried to breathe but only shallow air could be captured. I wondered if Elyssa would ever give me second chance? All I could think about was Elyssa until sleep couldn’t be denied.
At eleven my alarm didn’t sound. Groveling over to the paper covered computer half on and half off of the workspace, I snatched by bent pack and lit up a smoke. I started to read and a half-hour later someone knocked gently three times on my door and I was naked. My robe didn’t want to leave the safety of the closet until the wire hanger lost its grip.
“What, what?” I asked as I opened the door.
Elyssa and Dawn in sweat shirts and pajama bottoms stood arms crossed. Dry streaks from tears twinkled under the hall light.
“What?” I asked while rubbing my forehead.
“We wanted to know if the rumors were true. We heard that you talked to the police yesterday,” Elyssa said and rolled her chin up.
“What rumors? The cops did not tell me shit yesterday, what rumors?” I said and scratched my stumbled chin.
“The rumors that Tim and Erin were murdered,” Dawn said.
Her voice echoed as Elyssa pressed her face into her trembling hands.
“Wa, wa, what, What did you say? Murdered?” I asked.
Dawn put her hand around Elyssa’s shoulder and nodded three times. I waved them in.
They sat on my bed before I could straighten the blankets.
“Where did you hear that?”
“A townie told some girls on our hall that two college students were found dead. They take a class with her, and she works for the town paper. Erin has not been seen in over a day,” Dawn said.
Her eyes welled up.
“Whoa, slow down. Has anyone from the school said anything or is it just speculation? People go away for the weekends without telling anyone,” I said.
“I heard that the police were he
re the other day asking about Tim and she was with him last,” Elyssa said.
“That does not mean anything. There are other schools around. Two students could mean two guys or two girls,” I said.
“We were told a girl and a guy. The police came and talked to you yesterday,” Dawn said.
“They probably were busted for drugs. You two should go back and chill. Either way the school will tell us,” I said and escorted them out the door.
In a jog, robe flapping, I went to George’s room and James was sitting on the couch.
“Hey, either of you hear any shit about some murder around town or something?” I asked in the doorway.
“No, I haven’t heard anything,” James said while skimming through a playboy.
George put down his guitar.
“You know they searched Tim’s room. That’s what Jack told me and they bagged some shit, what are you getting at?” George said with eyes wide open.
“Elyssa and Dawn heard that Erin and Tim were murdered but they are not sure. Some girl told them about students being murdered. Erin was with Tim,” I said.
Silence whipped through the background noise of the hall.
“You’re fucking kidding me. They didn’t say that,” George said.
“No, they said it,” I responded.
George went to talk to Jack leaving a huff behind.
Click, tick tock, the time stalled but in about a minute George returned.
“Jack said they had a warrant to search his room, and they didn’t discuss it with him either,” he said.
“So they haven’t told him anything yet,” James said.
“No, nothing yet but he will tell us when he finds out,” George said and I went over to sit next to James.
We just looked at magazines while George fumbled along trying to play the guitar.
George’s should have closed his door. Pestering clutches of whimpering idiots infiltrated our hall. Every few minutes someone would pop their head in and ask, “What was going on?” and tell us a rumor. Some, who knew about Tim, said it was drug related. Another rumor was that their car exploded, and another was it was a burglary and they were killed in her car at a Walmart.
I listened but never spoke a word and thought how cute Elyssa was in her pajama bottoms. The gossip hounds were lead to another scent in time and I just wanted to get drunk. George took off to investigate. The world pressed down with heavy hands around me.
Another attack might come.
“Are you going out tonight?” I asked James
“No, not with all of this bullshit. Wanna get a case and split it, watch some videos?” he asked.
I agreed asked him to pick me up an extra one and left George’s room. My phone was ringing when I got back. It was Dawn wanting to know what I had found out.
I told her nothing.
James got a few cases of beer, one for me to stash for later purposes, and we just camped out in his room because Henry went to be with his girlfriend. The TV, VHS built in, played Mel Brooks movies and a mini-fridge kept our beers company. When “Young Frankenstein” was almost done, a knock came at the door.
We hid our beers.
To our relief, it was George informing us that he was returning from the night early. He swayed down the hall knocking into the walls all the way back to his room. We commenced our viewing and then five minutes later another knock. We thought it might be George again. Jack stood rubbing his forearm in the hall. The street lamps cast a yellow glow over the parking lot that seeped through the hall window.
“Guys, there’s an important hall meeting at nine tomorrow morning in the Jasper building. You know, it’s where the Bursar’s office is but the meeting is on the third floor. I will gather everyone. I just wanted to tell you guys. Now, I must tell the rest of the guys so don’t indulge too much,” he said.
James closed the door and Jack didn’t bust us for having beers in our hands. This was an ominous omen.
“Something went wicked man. Tim did not get busted,” I said.
“I think you’re right,” he said.
We watched the rest of the movie.
I dreamt of Elyssa. surrounded by angels who wrapped her in silk sheets