The Never List

“I’m Caroline Morrow. I’m doing some research and wondered if you might have some time to talk to me.” I grabbed my pen quite easily in the end, so to gain time, I flicked it farther over to the wall.
    “Wait,” he said, with slight irritation, I thought. “Allow me.” He walked over behind the desk, gracefully plucked the pen from the floor, and handed it to me in one swift gesture.
    “You were saying?” he pressed.
    “Yes, sorry.” I smoothed my shirt and pushed my hair out of my face, trying to regain some semblance of composure. “I was saying that I am Caroline Morrow.” I didn’t reach out my hand, and neither did he. “And I’m in the sociology department.” I motionedback toward the opposite end of campus, as though he wouldn’t know its physical location. “I’m writing my dissertation on Jack Derber, and I know you were starting out as a junior professor here back when he was arrested.”
    Unlike Adele’s response when I mentioned Jack Derber, David Stiller actually seemed interested. His face broke into a sardonic smile, and he sat down, pointing to the chair across from him.
    “Please. Have a seat. No one wants to talk about Jack anymore around here. I’m curious to hear about your project. Kind of surprised the department would sanction that research, but I guess times change. What’s your angle?”
    “Angle? I don’t know about my angle. I just think there are elements of the story that have not been thoroughly explored. And I plan to do some original research, from a purely factual perspective. That’s why I picked this topic—you know, it all happened right here.” Here I was, vamping. I was impressed with myself. He was nodding encouragingly.
    “I understand he was a friend of yours.” At this, the smile instantly disappeared from his face.
    “Friend? No, no, no. I don’t know where you heard that. We were colleagues, but I barely knew the guy. Our work was at opposite ends of the spectrum. We were never even on a panel together. But he was definitely a star in his own right.”
    “A star?”
    “Come on. Surely you know by now that that’s how it works in academia. You have to be a star to get anywhere at all. Give a lot of talks, papers, symposia, you know, really make the rounds of the conference circus—I mean, circuit. You’re signing up for a demanding life.”
    “And what about Adele Hinton?”
    At that, his face darkened. “Oh, her. Talk about Jack Derber.” He shook his head.
    “What do you mean?” I prompted.
    “Well, after that whole business went down, let’s just say her talks were jam-packed. More for her notoriety than for her academic insights, if you ask me. I think everyone was waiting for some juicy tidbit about Jack Derber. Don’t quote me, but she owes her career to that case, frankly.”
    “So she got a lot of attention?”
    He laughed.
    “I’ll say. The Portland Sun even did a profile of her back then. Ridiculously fawning. I mean, she is an attractive woman after all, so it’s not that surprising the reporter wanted to spend plenty of time with her.”
    He leaned in a little closer, his eyes narrowing, looking at me to make sure I fully understood what he was suggesting. Then he went on, leaning back in his chair now and swiveling slightly to the left and right, ever so slowly.
    “You know, if you really want to do some original research, there’s another angle you should consider. Jack worked a lot. He did a lot of research, had a lot of studies. Traveled constantly. His office was brimming full of papers. Files, binders. And he was incredibly protective of them. Only Adele had access to them. I know the FBI put a lockdown on all of that work pretty fast after they hauled him off. But I’m sure she got hold of something. I know it.”
    He turned his chair to face the window and gazed out for a minute, thinking to himself.
    Finally, he spoke, more to himself, it seemed, than to me, “Well, this has never been enough for her, of course. She wants Ivy League, doesn’t she? It only makes sense. She has a lot to live up to.”
    He turned back to me.
    “You probably don’t know this, but her father is one of the most prominent surgeons in Seattle. Very successful.” He smirked and shook his head, shifting forward in his seat.
    “But I digress. Back to your paper. I can’t prove it, but I’m sure she’s using Jack Derber’s ideas and research. She’s the one you should talk to. There have to be a few facts there