Finals (12 page)

“
One last thing,” Dunn said. “Would you take off your shoe for me?”

I’m sure if Denzel wasn’t eyeing me like a hawk a smug grin might have appeared, but instead of acting smitten I put on my confused face as if to say, “Why do you need my shoe?” as I handed my left shoe over to him.

Dunn flipped the shoe around to check the size
then
gave
it
back
,
before jotting down
a
brief note on his pad. Sorry Denzel, I didn’t have a size nine Converse.
Well
, I did have one
,
but it was currently nestled in the bottom of the Willamette River.

“
Okay, that’s
it.
If you hear anything or think of
anything
else
,
give me a call,” he said,
handing me
his business card
.

If I was smart I would have shut my mouth, but a single question was gurgling in the pit of my stomach like ingestion and I couldn’t help but spit it out. “I’m just curious, do you have any suspects at this point?”

I should have been happy that he was finally leaving, but no I had to push it to the limit. If I soon had to start
worrying
about dropping the soap, the only person I could put the blame on was myself.

“
I know you’re a writer and all,” Dunn said. “
But
I got nothing for you, kid.”

“
Oh, I can’t write anything about Brent,” I began. “Our supervisor has forbid us from writing anything related to his death. She said the university doesn’t want any more media attention.”

“
Smart gal.”

“
So you see, I can’t write anything about it. I want to know because Brent was my friend,” I said, doing my
best
to sound sincere.

Reading Denzel’s expression was more difficult than finding a helpful employee at Walmart, but just when I thought he was going to leave without a word, his gruff exterior vanished momentarily.

“
I’ve talked with a few folks and the impression I’m getting is that he was starting to get into drugs as you mentioned. We haven’t connected the dots, but I think that may be linked to his death.”

I choked down the triumphant urge to jump for joy as I gave the cop a solemn head nod.

“
Don’t worry kid, we’ll catch the
perp
. We always do,” Dunn
added
, one foot out the door.

“
Thanks, officer,” I said, and with that, the real life Denzel vanished.

Once I heard the door lock snap in place, I flung myself into my chair breathing a deep sigh of relief. I had pulled this one out, came through in the clutch, and to be honest, I was rather pleased I had lied so convincingly to a cop. Despite this small victory, little did I know, the next time I’d see Dunn would be in handcuffs.

Chapter Eleven

O
ne scrap of evidence could send me to the big house, but as weeks turned
to
months
,
I began to feel more at ease that the cops were following the investigator’s initial lead
,
rather than chasing yours truly.

The police believed that a drug dealer or a coke addict was responsible for the murder. I was neither addicted to cocaine nor did I sell it. My size shoe also helped reinforce my current attitude that I was not a prime suspect.

My three
Gazette
colleagues weren’t close to nabbing me either. Trevor was a hopeless twit, as everyone knew. There was no way that he was ever going to put the pieces together, even if I left him a trail of breadcrumbs linking me to the crime. Once I told Vickie about my interview and about Denzel’s suspicions, she started hunting down Brent’s friends to see if she could unearth anything. She snooped for a week or two but didn’t find much. Brent wasn’t a social butterfly and the few friends he did have were not about to tell Vickie about the giant stash of cocaine underneath his bed. With little to go on, no leads and no motivation, Vickie accepted that the case was in Denzel’s capable, lotion-soft hands.

Nancy Drew was the only one left on the case, but I found it hard to believe she was making any headway. As the semester progressed, Hayley talked about Brent less and less, leading me to believe the blonde bombshell wasn’t having much luck either. Oddly enough, for a pair of ex-lovers our conversations were becoming more cordial, and I no longer detested running into her or I could at least tolerant her. Then again, she also wasn’t dating Brent anymore, which made me secretly warm and fuzzy on the inside.

With the heat off and my professors yet to unload a pile of assignments and projects upon me, I was beginning to unwind. For the first time since junior year, I felt like a normal college student – drinking with my buddies, talking about slutty girls and football. I didn’t have to worry about classes, relationships or covering up homicides. It was fantastic!

Even the ominous murmurs in my head saying, “You are emotionally colorblind,” “You are void of compassion,” “You hide in plain sight, concealed by deception, you vicious killer,” were replaced with pleasant whispers such as, “You look ravishing in this sweater vest,” “These appletinis are delectable; excellent choice
,
Wayne,” “You’re so hilarious, you make Daniel Tosh look like Rob Schneider.” Evidently, my voices appeared to be on vacation as well, or least they were until my roommate told me about Harvey Cho.

Due to his afternoon clinicals, my roommate, Arthur didn’t arrive to join Scott and I for happy hour at our favorite bar, McMeminins, until about six thirty. Once Scott and I learned that Brent was off to France for a year, we desperately needed to find a third roommate to help with rent and Arthur Cobb was our man. Arthur was a nursing major, who was smart, tidy, and just an overall cool dude.

Happy hour started at five, and I was already on my third drink and my second appetizer by the time Arthur entered.

“
Hey big boy,” I said jokingly when Arthur came within earshot. “Why don’t you come cuddle up next to me?”

“
I see Princess Sophia’s been pounding the drinks, and how’s the Jewish accountant doing?” Arthur said looking over at Scott, as he joined us at our table.

“
He’s the accountant you dick,” Scott said, taking a sip from his second beer. “And how do you come up with these retarded nicknames?”

“
I’m a finance major, not an accountant,” I corrected them. “Accountants are pathetic losers!”

“
Wayne is Princess Sophia because he’s drinking lemon drops like some sort of sorority girl bitch, and you’re a Jew because your afro or jewfro I should say, looks like the hair on my testicles. Also, did I mention you’re an extremely cheap fuck.”

“
Who says I’m cheap?”

“
Likely the waitress when she sees the pathetic tip you’re going to give her,” I said in between bites of my bratwurst.

“
Our waitress is kinda cute man, she might deserve something special,” said Scott.

“
Oh, so like a two dollar tip then?”

“
No, like two in the pink and one in the stink.”

“
Can we not talk about the shocker please?
I have
sausage
in my mouth.”

“
That’s what she said!”

Uproarious laughter continued for several minutes before Arthur settled down, finally beginning his story about Harvey Cho.

“
Speaking of unwanted sexual experiences, you guys remember my old roommate, Harvey?” Arthur asked.

“
Yeah,” we both replied.

Harvey and Arthur lived two doors down from Dewey and me freshman year. Honestly, I did not understand the roommate selection process at St. Elizabeth. I should have gotten Arthur not a drama major still trying to discover his sexuality, and Arthur did not deserve to room with a porn fanatic who filmed himself having sex with the various girls he brought back to the room, most times without their consent. This creepy little
biology major
did most of his thinking with his little head
rather
than his big one and until this incident his horny behavior had never been scrutinized.

“
As I was leaving Franz Hall to go meet Rachel for lunch, I ran into Harvey and he told me this unbelievably story.”

“
Did he tell you about how he
hooked up with another
Asian chick?” Scott asked.

“
In a way, yes, but
that’s
not the whole story. He essentially got away with rape.”

“
No way!” I stammered.

“
I bet he was fucking proud of himself too, like he was the Asian
Kobe Bryant,”
Scott said.

“
Yeah, the cocky little bitch was sure proud of himself,” Arthur answered.

“
So dish,” I said. “I want to hear this juicy gossip.”

“
I’m getting there. Hold your horses, princess,” Arthur said, taking a sip from his whiskey sour that had now arrived.

“
Harvey found this freshman girl living in Andrews Hall. He was visiting his friend, Donna, who’s the RA on the first floor.”

“
Is that the same Donna he
banged
freshman year?” Scott asked.

“
The same. Anyways, this freshman girl lived in Donna’s wing, and when Harvey was scouting the floor looking for prospects he happened to notice this girl lived in the same town as he did.”

“
The creep was looking at the girls’ nametags on their doors and actually found one who lived in Santa Cruz?”

“
Not a bad plan, maybe you should try that, Wayne.” Scott said.

“
Oh yeah, like I’d walk into a girl’s room and say ‘We live in the same city so let’s go grab a frappuccino while we discuss what suitable names we’d like our children to have,’” I said.

“
Girls think you’re gay because you order frappuccinos and ask for chocolate drizzle, Wayne. But anyways, as we know, Harvey has more game than you do because he managed to get this freshman’s number. As are the majority of Harvey’s girls, this girl was innocent and naïve, and she believed Harvey wasn’t a sexist douche, which was wrong obviously. So the last weekend before finals start, Harvey is drunk as fuck at some party and he’s texting and texting
this girl
, begging like a dog for her to come to this party. Finally, she shows up around midnight, and Harvey is already trashed out of his mind. Harvey tells me he wants to get her on his level, so he fixed her a drink, half cranberry juice, half one fifty one.”

“
Dude,” said Scott, shaking his head.

“
Yeah, I know, right? Harvey said the girl weighed less than a hundred pounds, so I bet she was sloshed in no time. I’m guessing he probably said some smooth line to get her back to his place or clubbed her on the head and drug her back, regardless the two ended up on his bed. He said they started making out then after a few minutes he started to go down stairs. As he’s going down on this chick she starts saying ‘Don’t, Don’t,’ but Harvey figured that since she was getting frisky she must be enjoying it. Then after a few more minutes Harvey decides he’s going to pop his eggroll in. The girl starts up again with the ‘Don’t, Don’t,’ but you know Harvey, once he’s in, he has to finish.”

“
That sick fuck,” Scott said, taking another pull from his beer.

“
How does Harvey know he got away with it? The girl still can tell her RA or hall director,” I said.

“
I thought the same thing, but then Harvey tells me, the following day this freshman girl went to talk to Donna, her RA about
the
whole ordeal. The girl told Donna how she asked him to stop and how Harvey continued anyway. You guys won’t believe what Donna said to this girl.”

“
What’d she say?” I asked.

“
Donna tells this girl, that she must have been extremely drunk that night because Harvey respects women and would never in a million years do such a terrible thing. Then she goes off on this poor chick, stating that accusations such as these are very serious, and that she needs to know all the facts before she begins making false allegations that could damage someone’s reputation.”