The Square Root of Murder (Professor Sophie Knowles)

place for her class.
    “I’m afraid we ate you out of house and home,” she said. “Let me bring dinner by tonight.”
    I was so wired from the day already, I hardly even remembered that there had been beaders in my home. While I was packing up and ultimately absconding with a murder victim’s property, then entertaining three possible killers, notwithstanding the adorable outfits they wore, several Henley women had been sitting at my kitchen island making earrings and bracelets.
    “Don’t worry about it,” I said to Ariana. “I can pick up something.”
    “I want to come. You’ve been avoiding me since all this happened.”
    “That was yesterday.”
    “See you around six. I have some new organics that are just what you need.”
    “Okay, thanks.” There was no use arguing with Ariana once she went into her incense mode. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she came ready to smudge my home and yard. “I have a meeting at three so I should definitely be home by six.”
    “Who are you meeting with?” she asked.
    “Huh? Oh, sorry, gotta go.” I clicked off with great relief. I’d rather tell Ariana after the fact about a successful session at police headquarters than risk potential confusion when she gave me advice on how to determine Archie’s aura. Which she would certainly do. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know Archie’s aura even if I had the skills to detect it. I did want to know his birthday, however.
    Bruce was next. I told him how nice it was to see my photo on the dresser in his home away from home.
    “How was it between Gil and Rachel?” he asked.
    “What do you mean? Gil was very nice about showing us around and lending us her room, until the Bat Phone rang.”
    “I heard about that. Glad you could see the crew in action. We don’t just watch movies, you know.”
    Not so fast. “What’s this about Gil and Rachel?” I asked
    “Nothing really.”
    I let out an exasperated sigh. “Bruce.” I tried to sound like a stern mother. Or dean.
    “Okay. It’s just that Gil’s always had a thing about Rachel and Hal.”
    This was news. “Rachel and Hal?”
    “You know, whether they were an item.”
    Not only news, but shocking news. “I can’t believe you never told me this.”
    “Thought you knew.”
    “Hal was Rachel’s freshman adviser and they’ve always been close. Well, not close close. You mean there was talk?”
    “Just talk. I’m sorry I brought it up. I figured you knew but didn’t want the talk to grow. I was impressed at your integrity, but now I see you didn’t know.”
    Bruce laughed; I didn’t.
    “Where did you hear this talk?”
    Bruce’s long breath told me he was sorry he mentioned it. Too bad. Too late. “Gil brought it up once or twice, but not lately I don’t think. Ernie told me she asked him for advice about it once. Ernie’s the nurse that’s on shift with her a lot. She asked him, should she confront her husband, that kind of thing. Then I think Sim got wind of it, too, and had a couple of talks with her.”
    Who would have thought? The MAstar trailer was gossip central, as bad as the Clara Barton, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Paul Revere dorms.
    “What other Henley gossip are you keeping from me?”
    “Not a thing. What’s new with you?” he asked, sounding eager to move on.
    “I’m just leaving campus.”
    “I’d have thought the campus was still a crime scene.”
    “Nah.”
    “Where are you headed?”
    “I’m going home, then I have a meeting with Virgil’s partner.”
    “Archie? Watch out for him. He’s single and, you might say, hot. What’s he want with you?”
    “We’re going to compare notes,” I said, checking my rearview mirror for a state trooper on lie patrol.
    “You’re not getting into any trouble, are you?
    “Pfft. Why would you think that?”
    “Let’s see. No reason. Except”—I heard a snap of his fingers—“oh, yeah, there was the time you put together a petition to get rid of the Chairman of the Board of Trustees—”
    “He was breaking labor laws by posting jobs he’d already wired for his friends.”
    “I love how naïve you are about how things are done in the real world.”
    “Well, if that’s reality, I’ll take . . . math.”
    Bruce laughed but he wasn’t finished with me. “And then there was the week you went to Washington to track down the fraud issue, and the proposals you submit every month to get credit for interns in spite of all the precedents against it, and—”
    “I get it.