I really like this place. It has beauty, not like Paris, but in an unassuming Midwestern way. People give you straight answers here. Lock your car, don’t lock your car—it makes no difference; these are honest people who live on campus and the nearby town, Hastings.
What to do, what to do? I scratched my chin while thinking of the direction that I should take. I heard Fay putting on her coat and gathering her things, getting ready for class. She must have found her notes.
I should talk to Larry, see what he knows. Lawrence Schwartz is the Dean of Students and a person in the loop. Either he made the decisions for the school or was consulted before the decisions were made. I was lucky to have him as fan a of mine.
“Larry, it’s Palma. How are you?”
“Good. What can you tell me about the theft in the library?” We talked for several minutes.
He told me that it was a very delicate situation. The theft might dissuade donors from contributing to the school’s collections because of the “appearance” of lax security. Also, there were political overtones. Several administrators’ contracts were coming up for renewal shortly and this may affect some careers, what with all of the politics going on in the ivory towers. Homecoming was only a few weeks away and it would be bad PR if something as important as the bowl was not on display at that time.
It looks like the ball is in my hand. I must make things right, and if it takes more than two weeks, some people are going to look mighty bad, maybe even me.
Chapter 3
The Group
When Fay came back from class, I asked her to type up invitations and hand deliver them to some of my students. By three o’clock, all eight had received the note.
The note said that we were to meet at a quarter to four in room G-03 for complimentary snacks and beverages and to discuss on-the-job-training. G-03 was in the basement of Griffin Hall, the science building.
They all arrived before the appointed time and were sitting there waiting for me. I said, “Please help yourselves to the snacks and there are cups over there on that table for the drinks.”
The two girls got up to get cups and the boys ripped open the bags of chips. The chips were the individual size bags and were on a regulation Formica cafeteria table.
So I said, “I suppose you’re wondering why I called you all together today.” I was standing at the head of the table. Everyone nodded. “OK, something has happened here, here at Braxton.
“All of you are now taking or have had a criminology course with me. I chose each of you for several reasons. One of them was that you are all interested in law or law enforcement. Another is that you’re all smart. And what I consider the most important reason: I think that you’ll be able to work together. You will be a team.” They all smiled self-consciously.
“This task will take away from your study time and your social lives. I don’t know how long this will take but I need a commitment from you. This is a criminal investigation and it will be a paid job, $8 per hour, just like working in the cafeteria. You will be paid for twenty hours a week, the maximum that the school allows a full time student to work. Most weeks, you will be working more than that. Please don’t consider this investigation for the money. I put in for a budget to pay you so you won’t have other jobs competing for your time. This will be good practical experience for you. You will be doing the same work an investigator would do on a case.
“I’m going to leave to make a phone call for a minute. While I’m gone, think about what I said. When I get back, I’ll answer any questions you have and then if you want to do this job, you’ll sign an agreement.” I left.
They all stopped talking when they saw me reenter the room. “OK, any questions? Yes, Ms. LaMonica?”
“Yes Professor Palma. I’d like to know if we would be working regular hours every day?”
“No, we’ll work when we need to. If you have a test or a paper due, you can be excused. But, don’t forget to tell me first. You see, we’ll be a team and every one should be able to count on everyone else. Yes, Mr. Diedrich?”
“What are we going to investigate? What’s the job?”
“It’s a burglary of school property. I can’t say anymore until we have all of the questions answered and those of you who want to do this have signed up. I don’t believe that the person who did this is violent so I’m not expecting this to be dangerous.”
“I’m working at the post office now,” Ralphy Diedrich continued, “Can I continue working there while working on this investigation?”
“I’m sorry, but you’ll have to quit that job in order to work with us. This investigation will take considerable time and effort so if you have any other activities that you’re involved with, I suggest that you put them on hold during the investigation.”
“OK? Next question. Mr. Malloy?”
“Are we going to work five hours a day or ten hours a day? Will we work on weekends? And, will we have to get up early?”
“The answer to all those questions is yes. I don’t know what is going to happen. Sometimes we will be waiting for something—lab results, something in the mail, someone getting back to us with some information. Then everybody does their regular work. And then sometimes we are all needed right now.” I stabbed at the desk with my forefinger for emphasis. “We work when we need to, just like the police. Only with us, we will only have this one investigation. Yes, Mr. Schultz?”
“I was wondering. What if you don’t feel comfortable doing this? I mean I know it could be good experience but I’ve got other things to do also. Like my studies and I go home every weekend.”
“If you don’t feel comfortable doing this then that’s OK. We only want you on the team if you want to be on the team.
“Any other questions? All right then. Who would like to give this a try? Who would like to be on our team? Raise your hands please.”
Two boys got up and left. The rest raised their hands looking around with smiles on their faces. I passed around an employment application/waiver of lien form which they all began studiously filling out, consulting wallets and purses for personal information that was not committed to memory.
In five minutes, everyone was finished and looking at me for directions. I collected the forms and sat down at the table with them. “This is about the theft in the library last Sunday. Has anyone heard about it?” They all nodded. “OK, we will discuss that in a minute, but first I would like you to introduce yourselves to your team members. Tell us your name and what you think that you will get out of this investigation. Who wants to go first? Yes, Mr. Diedrich?”
“First, although my name is Randolph, everybody calls me Ralphy.” He was chewing gum while he talked.
“I think that I’ll see if this is the type of work I want to do. I mean I think it is but maybe it isn’t like what I am expecting. It would be bad if I spent four years here and a lot of money and found out that this is not the job for me. So I want to see what law enforcement officers really do.”
“That’s good, Ralphy. Who’s next? Miss LaMonica, Veronica?”
“Well, I’m Veronica. I’m a junior and this is my sister Monica. She’s only a sophomore. We talked it over and we want to do this to meet people, and to learn more about the school, the different offices and the secret nooks and crannies. And,” she said as an afterthought, “to learn more about criminology.”
“Good. Jason, Mr. Malloy?”
“I’d like to know more about the technical aspects of investigating. You know, the finding of evidence and testing it in the lab. Will we do that Professor?”
“I don’t know. Most detectives in most cases don’t have the luxury of using a lab. Because of budgets and backlogs, even if the lab is in a detective’s district, the chances are not good that the lab can be used for everyday cases. If we’re lucky we’ll be able to use the county lab. We will be the only people looking at this crime scene for evidence. This isn’t li
ke television where a dozen people in lab coats are seriously examining everything at the crime scene.”
“And I guess I’ll have to quit my job at the library. I fix the computers there,” Jason said.
“Yes,” I replied, “but only temporarily. This should be finished up in a couple of weeks.”
“Before Homecoming?”
“I sure hope so,” I said. “Yes,Veronica, a question?”
“Yes, why aren’t the police doing this? Aren’t we covering up a crime?”
“No, were not covering up a crime. The police have been notified of the theft as has the insurance company. This is a valuable object that has been taken and it is insured.
“After a meeting of ‘The Powers that Be,’ it was decided that this issue could be resolved with the least amount of disruptions if it were done in house, so to speak. A police report has been filed but since Hastings is a small town and doesn’t have much crime, they use the county for detective work. The county spends most of its time on violent crime and would not give this case a high priority. So, this crime will be exclusively investigated by the insurance company, Mutual Assurance of Wisconsin.
“I worked at MAW, that’s what we called it, ‘Maw,’ several years ago as an investigator so they know me. They hired me to investigate this incident.”
“Question!”
“Yes, Ralphy.”
“Well, why the eight dollars? I mean, if the insurance company is paying you, they aren’t paying eight dollars an hour. That’s a big company with lots of bucks. Aren’t we poor students getting short-changed by the man?”
The rest of the group turned and glared at Mr. Diedrich.
“Normally, I would do this alone. You have been brought into this for experience in an actual investigation. This will be beneficial to you and will be good on your resumes.
“There are several of you, each on the payroll, and there are expenses; this adds up. These expenses aren’t only for things like fingerprint powder, but they are for more practical items like copying and transportation. If we have to investigate off-campus, the costs mount very quickly. For example, if we had to travel to Springfield to look at documents or interview someone, it would cost us about $200 a day for each person there.
“And food. We usually will meet at a restaurant so we can be spending $70 dollars for just a half hour meeting that we’ll be doing almost everyday. That is one of the perks of the job, free food.”
The boys liked that. They smiled and nodded while looking at each other.
“This whole cost issue is something that you will have to understand if you are self-employed or working for a company. You’ll always have a budget for your investigation, expenses that someone must pay.
“OK, the problem. Some person or persons unknown has stolen a priceless antique bowl from the library. It’s a Greek bowl that was made around 500BC and discovered and brought to our school when it was first founded.
“We don’t know why this article was taken, or exactly when, but our job is to get the bowl back.
“OK, after I leave here, I’m going to work out a plan and specific things for you to do.
“I’ll see you all at the Bar Bar at seven tonight. Oh yeah, another thing, I’m going to write a letter that says that you’re working for me. You can use it to show people that you have a right to inquire about this theft. I should have it ready for pick up tomorrow morning. So come in and pick them up from Fay at my office.” If they don’t know Fay already, they’ll meet her tomorrow.
The LaMonica sisters huddled together, talking quietly with bright eyes and raised eyebrows. The boys were leaning back in their chairs with satisfied looks on their faces which said, “I am so cool.”
All of them, my new investigators, look like they are expecting to have a fascinating adventure.
* * *
The meeting at the Bar Bar was short. I mulled over what the kids did best. Ralphy was the most outgoing and oldest so he’ll be our interviewer. Jason was a technogeek, he loved computers and repairing anything. He’ll be our technical consultant, and the LaMonicas will be our researchers, digging around for anything that relates to the case.
I told Jason to go as soon as the library opened tomorrow and check the crime scene for evidence. I wasn’t expecting much since the bowl was probably taken several days ago and dozens of students have been in that area since. I told them that we would meet tomorrow for lunch here at the Bar Bar and discuss what Jason found.
They left with Jason telling the LaMonicas how he was going to impress everyone on campus with his cool new job.
What would he find?
Chapter 4
Sunset at Jason’s
I watched the sun go down while having my twentieth Nescafe.
These Illinois sunsets are not like California or New England where the sun comes up or goes down into an ocean. A Midwestern sunset usually doesn’t include water—salt or fresh. Sure, there’s Lake Michigan. If you’re some kind of wealthy dude, you could live next to it and see the sun come up from the water. But that’s not the normal thing.
Day begins with the light seeping into the sky. At Braxton U, the sun is first seen on the roof of Bellerman Hall, at least from my room it is. A slight illumination (good word eh?) and then this ball of light creeps over the roof’s ridge and into view of all in Foster Hall.
Sunset uses the trees beyond the pond. It aims for the tree tops alongside the highway which is the western border of the campus and then filters through these trees dimming the whole campus and then, when it is totally under the treetops, we get some color, red, bright red usually, unless it’s Friday. Why is that? I don’t know. Am I a chemistry major or something? Wait, I should know that. I should know everything. After all, I am almost a Criminal Lab Technician!
Chapter 5
Meeting at the Bar Bar
“Hi guys, what’s going on?” Ralphy Diedrich said. He pulled up a chair. ”Can I have some, Professor?” he said to me as he put one of the tortilla chips into the melted cheese dip before I could answer. He was the last one to arrive. The lunch time crowd had thinned out. We had the place to ourselves.
“Jason was just telling us what he found at the library. Please go on, Jason,” I said.
“There really wasn’t much. I dusted for prints; found smudges. It wasn’t that the guy was being careful or anything. It was that so many people touched the glass that there was nothing useful on it.” Jason grabbed a handful of chips and stuffed them into his mouth as soon as he finished speaking.
“Did you dust the inside of the glass? You know, behind the broken piece. He might have touched there and it would only be the thief’s prints because the back of the glass is not available to the public,” I said.
He nodded yes and raised his hand for us to wait until he finished a mouthful of chips which was dripping cheese onto his shirt. “I checked that too and came up negative. There really wasn’t anything there except the broken case and the missing bowl. We’ve got nothing to work with here,” Jason added as he rubbed the cheese into his shirt with his hand.
Both LaMonicas were taken aback by this unsanitary activity.
“What about fiber evidence?” I asked.
“I vacuumed in front of the case and there was so much there because it was a public area that I couldn’t tell what was left by our villain. I also checked inside the case and there was nothing. So I drew a blank on that. Sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. You did the best anyone could do,” I said, trying to cheer him up.
“Do you think anything else was taken?” Veronica asked. “Maybe some other items were taken but nothing was broken, you know? Maybe they got into other cases and didn’t have to break them. Maybe they took some books.” Monica nodded in agreement.
“Good point, Veronica,” I said.
“The library had
one of their guys go through and check everything out and they found nothing else was missing,” Jason said.
“One of their guys?” Ralphy said disgustedly, “Their guys are freshman jocks. They couldn’t find a bull in a bathroom with a searchlight.”
“Searchlight?” Jason asked.
“You get my drift,” Ralphy replied.
I thought for a minute. “After we break up, Ralphy, go to the librarian, either Ms. Beems or Ms. March, and ask to have one of the permanent staff—not a student—go with you through the collections and make sure that everything is OK. Better yet, have the person in charge of the collections go with you.
“Monica, you and Veronica go to the library and get the names of those who were working on Sunday. You’ll have to interview them. Ask them if they noticed anyone suspicious or anyone who acted strange.”
“OK,” Monica replied.
“Did everybody pick up their ‘letter of transit’ from the office?” They all nodded.
“OK, next thing is the phones. Does everyone have a cell?” They all nodded. I gave each of them a cell phone with 120 pre-paid minutes on it and a charger. “These will help us keep in touch. Always have this one with you and keep it turned on. I don’t want to hear anyone say, ‘Oh, if only I had my phone.’” They nodded.
“Please notice the speed dial. Number 7 is setup for a conference call. So, if I hit 7, it dials Jason, Monica, Ralphy, and Veronica. Then I can talk to all of you at once. Another use is if someone is in danger. The chances that all of us would be unavailable at the same time would be pretty slim so someone should pick up. Put it on the charger when you go to bed. But be sure to always take it with you and always keep it on.
“Any questions?” They all shook their heads. “All right, Ralphy, get back to me after you’re finished at the library. The rest of you, I’ll see tomorrow.”
They filed out playing with their new toy and left me alone with the bill for their mid-morning snack The bill wasn’t too much and even if it was, it’s being paid for by MAW. I put MAW money on top of it and walked toward our waitress. The bill felt funny, it was like two sheets thick. I turned it over and saw the yellow post-it that was stuck on the back. There was a small drawing of a dagger with drops of blood dripping from it. It was done in red ink and looked like it was hastily done, not an art major I’m sure. Who could have put it here, and why? What did this mean for our group? Should I tell them? I pondered this question as I marched back to my office in Fogel Hall.