Love Can Be Murder

organization."
    Nell's smile faded. "I see."
    "Are you disappointed?"
    Nell shook her head. "This is your decision, Roxann. May I ask why?"
    She sipped from her water glass and shrugged slowly. "I'm tired of the schedule. Ready for a change."
    Her mentor arched an eyebrow. "Ready to settle down?"
    Another sip. "Maybe. Someday."
    "Ah, your biological clock is ticking."
    Items for her life list flashed before her eyes. Have a daughter. Be a good mother. "I still haven't decided about the mothering gig."
    "But you'd like to get married."
    "Maybe. Someday."
    She lifted her glass and smiled over the top. "Do you have someone in mind?"
    "No."
    "I wondered if you were still carrying a torch for Carl after all these years. You two parted on such a bittersweet note."
    "I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought of him often over the years."
    "I could tell tonight that he was glad to see you."
    "He seemed surprised when I saw him today. You didn't tell him I was coming?" '
    She shook her head. "Carl's path and mine rarely cross these days. He's so involved with the administration and with the church, he does very little teaching."
    "That's what he said." Roxann toyed with her napkin. "He also said that he's never married all these years."
    "No." Nell laughed. "Why is it that men who don't marry are even more intriguing, while women who don't marry are simply old maids?"
    "I don't think of you as an old maid."
    The professor shrugged. "I don't mind, really. But it isn't nearly as fulfilling as the feminists made it sound thirty years ago."
    "You have your career."
    "Yes, I do. But my career can't keep me warm at night, can it?"
    Roxann blinked. She'd always thought of Nell as an asexual person, uninterested in base pastimes like romantic love.
    "Oh, yes, I'm a woman." Nell laughed, but her laugh turned into a cough, which grew in severity until people around them stared. "I'm sorry." She gasped into a handkerchief.
    "You're ill. We should go."
    She shook her head and drank from her glass. "I'm fine. Just a cold from the change of weather." But her hand trembled violently.
    The waiter arrived with flat bread and hummus. They ordered soup and salads. Nell still looked a tad blue, and Roxann wondered if one of the woman's imagined ailments had truly materialized. She was trying to think of a diplomatic way to inquire when Nell spoke.
    "Roxann, how well do you know Angora?"
    Roxann frowned. "She's my cousin."
    "Yes, but how well do you know her? Is she always so unpredictable?"
    She splayed her hands. "If you're talking about her behavior at the auction tonight, I think she was feeling a little upstaged by the award they gave me." She smiled. "If you hadn't noticed, she has a thing for tiaras. And throwing money around is her way of getting attention. Besides, she was drinking."
    "You're being generous, don't you think?"
    Roxann tamped down the spark of anger at Nell's uncharacteristic sarcasm. Besides, the woman had tapped into some of her own concerns. "Four days ago she was dumped at the altar."
    "Oh? Yes, that's tragic. Still, she seems...unstable."
    "If you knew her mother, you'd know why."
    "Does Angora have psychological problems?"
    Roxann frowned. "You're serious."
    Nell nodded.
    "Not that I know of. Why?"
    "I shouldn't say anything, it's been so long ago."
    "What?"
    Nell glanced around them, then leaned closer, her mouth pinched. "Did you know Angora was a suspect when that girl was killed on campus years ago in a hit-and-run?"
    The hummus turned to sawdust in Roxann's mouth, and she swallowed painfully. "Tammy Paulen?"
    "You remember her?"
    "Yes." She was still digesting Nell's words, and replaying snatches of troubling conversations with her cousin. "We were talking about her the other night when we found my annual. Angora was a suspect?"
    Nell nodded.
    Now was probably not a good time to mention that Tammy had taunted Angora, or Angora's comment that the girl had gotten what she deserved. "Did the police ever make an arrest in the case?"
    "No."
    "Well...there were probably lots of suspects, weren't there?"
    "Three. The two boys who called in the report, and Angora."
    She put her fingers on her temples. "Why didn't I know this?"
    "The investigation was kept under wraps because the president was afraid of a scandal. I was brought in to assist because I was Tammy's faculty advisor."
    "I can see why the police would suspect the guys who reported the incident, but why was Angora a suspect?"
    "I understand that her name kept