Catch a Falling Knife

gloom. Neither did the dim light coming in through the windows. An open beer can and a half-eaten sandwich sat on the table. He turned off the TV with a remote.
    “So you knew Elise?” he said to me.
    As usual, I was conscious of the possibility of digging myself into a hole. “I knew her slightly,” I said. “She was such a bright and beautiful girl. It’s such a shame what happened.”
    “Who would do a thing like that?” he said.
    He slurred his words a little and looked as if he might be close to tears. Maybe he had been drowning his sorrows.
    “You can take comfort in knowing that she’s in a better place,” Tess said.
    Ted looked at her for a moment and said, “Right,” as if he wasn’t completely convinced of that.
    “Elise told me she had filed a charge of sexual harassment against one of the professors,” I said, plunging in.
    He looked at me, not showing comprehension, and I wondered whether Elise had told him about the charge. Maybe Donna had given me the wrong scoop. I wondered how to extract my foot from my mouth and why I wasn’t home in my apartment reading Reader’s Digest .
    Just as I was about to retract my statement, Ted said, “First that and now this. The whole world is going to hell.”
    I hoped he wasn’t going to deliver a sermon, but he became quiet again. I said, “She also told me that she was going to withdraw the charge.”
    “Withdraw the charge? Why would she withdraw the charge? The man abused her, sullied her, dirtied her. He’s probably the one who killed her. He should be the one to die.”
    Uh oh. I had woken him up. “If she was going to withdraw the charge, maybe that meant she…she was mistaken.”
    “No, there was no mistake. She definitely wasn’t a virgin.”
    Tess and I looked at each other. What made him an expert on virgins? Unless the two of them…. I said, “I know how you feel. Marriage is a sacred union and should be treated as such.” When he didn’t respond, I said, “It must have been awful for you. How did you hear about…Elise?”
    “Mr. Hoffman called me at about 1 a.m. from her apartment. Of course I rushed right over there.”
    “Do you have a car?”
    “No, it’s only about a mile. I ran all the way. I couldn’t believe it was true. I hoped it was just a bad dream.”
    “And you had been here studying the evening before?”
    “I…you sound just like a detective.”
    Now I had really woken him up.
    “I’ll bet Detective Johnson asked you that question.”
    “Yeah. I guess I was upset that he would consider me a suspect.”
    “Did he say that you were a suspect?”
    “No. He said Dr. Pappas had probably done it.”
    “He said that to you?” Tess asked, astounded.
    “Yeah. I bet he did it, too. That guy’s a dirty…skunk.”
    I didn’t want to argue with Ted about Mark, so I said, “I heard that you and Elise were talking about getting married.”
    “Who told you that?”
    Woops. “Maybe I misheard. But you have been going together for a while, haven’t you?”
    “Since September. I…wanted to marry her, but she hadn’t agreed. Sometimes I got the idea she thought I wasn’t good enough for her. But she who casts the first stone…I was willing to take her, in spite of her transgressions.”
    Big of you. “What are you studying?”
    “Right now, liberal arts.”
    “And what do you want to do when you…graduate?” I almost said, “…when you grow up.”
     “I plan to go on to graduate school and study to be a minister.”

Chapter 15
     
    Mark and I arrived at the farm early because I wanted to be present when Donna got there. At first, Mark didn’t want to go, but I gave him the old “we’re all in this together” speech and he finally acquiesced. He hadn’t seen Sandra in over a week and it was time they talked to each other.
    One of the devious reasons I had invited Donna was to attempt to strike a spark of jealousy in Sandra. If Sandra became aware of the fact that Mark had his groupies, she might value him more. I also wanted to come up with a plan of action that everybody in the family could agree on and I figured that Donna could make suggestions and would also stick up for Mark, in case Sandra or Albert had any doubts about him.
    Technically, Mark was violating the rules laid down by Burt about not talking to anybody connected with Elise, but this was a family gathering and he wouldn’t be alone with her so I had justified this meeting to myself.
    Mark drove King and me in his car.