The Lesson of Her Death

life?
    PH: I don’t know.
    DBB: Did you ever see the girl before? When she was alive?
    PH: No.
    DBB: Could you tell me about those picturesof the girls you had in your file cabinet? The drawings?
    PH: Well, it was sort of a game Jamie and me made up. It was like based on the movie—
    DBB:
The Lost Dimension?
    PH: Yeah. And we wanted to do a computer game of it and sell it but we don’t know programming too good so we made up this board game. We used some of the girls from school as characters. We cut their pictures out of the yearbook.
    DBB: Was this like a religion or a cult?
    PH: No sir. It was just a game. We were going to sell it to Parker Brothers or Milton Bradley. I was going to make a lot of money and get a house of my own and move out.
    DBB: Did you see anyone else around the pond that Tuesday?
    PH: We saw some guys fishing but that was at dusk.
    DBB: Do you have any idea who killed her?
    PH: No.
    DBB: Do you recognize this photocopy?
    PH: That’s my knife.
    DBB: Are you sure it’s yours? Or does it just look like one you have?
    PH: I don’t know. It looks like mine.
    DBB: You don’t have that knife any longer?
    PH: I lost it. I think I dropped it at the pond.
    DBB: Philip, did you know a Susan Biagotti?
    PH: Who?
    DBB: A student at Auden University.
    PH: I don’t know about her. I never heard of her.
    DBB: She was killed last year.
    PH: I don’t know anything about that. Really, Mr. Brann.
    DBB: Now you went back to the pond on the twenty-eighth? The night of the twenty-eighth?
    PH: No. Did Jamie tell you that?
    DBB: Nobody told me. The prosecutor thinks you were there.
    PH: Well, I wasn’t.
    DBB: You weren’t there at the pond?
    PH: I don’t know. I don’t remember.
    DBB: The deputies found some bootmarks near where the Rossiter girl was killed. They seem to match boots you had in your garage.
    PH: Well … (long pause). I think they planted those boots there.
    DBB: Philip, I’m on your side. You have to be honest with me. I know you’re scared and a lot is happening to you. But you have to tell me the truth.
    PH: I don’t know what happened.
    DBB: Did you threaten Detective Corde or his family?
    PH: No. I never did. Who said I did?
    DBB: Calm down, Philip. Is there anything you can tell me that might prove you didn’t kill the Rossiter girl?
    PH: I don’t know.
    The dean was on the phone when he walked in. She looked at Wynton Kresge and motioned him inside then hung up.
    “You wanted to see me?” he asked.
    The dean stood up and walked across her office. It was a lot plusher than Kresge’s but he didn’t care for it. Too many scrolly twists of wood and ceramic vases and immense nineteenth-century portraits. She closed the door and returned to her seat.
    Kresge was tired so he sat too.
    “Wynton,” she began, “I’d like to talk to you about the incidents.”
    “Incidents?”
    “The girls’ deaths.”
    “Right. Sure.”
    “I mentioned that it was important for the school not to be too involved. I can’t tell you the fallout we’ve had because of the investigation that Detective Corde was doing. Several of our lenders told Professor Sayles point-blank that they would not refinance their loans to us because they’d heard about lesbian orgies in the dorms. Thank God they’ve caught that young man.”
    “I’m sure Bill didn’t say anything about orgies.”
    “Well, this is just background, Wynton,” the dean said. “The reason I called you here is that I’m afraid I’ll have to let you go.”
    “Go?”
    “I’ve gotten a report from the Finance Committee. Did you authorize the placement of some advertising in the
Register?”
    Ads. The ads that Bill Corde couldn’t pay for. “That’s right, I did.”
    “You have no authority to approve nonsecurity expenses.”
    “I’d say it was pretty much a security expense. It was to find the killer of two of our students.”
    “Wynton, you made an unauthorized expense. It’s the same as embezzlement.”
    “That’s slander, Dean,” said Wynton Kresge, who owned more law books than hunting books.
    “It’s a serious breach of procedures. The Personnel Department will be contacting you about the severance package, which is extremely generous under the circumstances.”
    She didn’t say anything more. She hunkered down in her chair and waited for the onslaught.
    Kresge let her flash through a few EEOC nightmaresfor a long moment then said calmly, “That’d be effective today?”
    “Yes, Wynton. And I’m