Chapter 10

I got back in my car and turned it on to get the air conditioning going while I found the number for the security office on campus. I had never heard even a peep of a rumor around campus about David having any kind of relations with students. But if anyone had ever said anything, it would stand to reason that Don might know something about it. Somehow he always knew the gossip. Whether true or not.

“Campus security. This is Don. How can I help you?"

“Lucky me, I got just the person I wanted to talk to. It's Olivia."

"And why do you want to talk to me?"

“Have you ever heard anything about David and students?"

"I'm not sure I follow. What are you getting at?" he asked, sounding puzzled. I couldn’t say I blamed him. It was an odd question I was asking.

"I just talked to his ex-wife, Raquel, and…"

"What?" Don exclaimed, interrupting me. "Olivia, why were you talking to his ex-wife?" He sounded exasperated, making me feel a little defensive.

"I told you I wanted to find out what was going on. You didn’t think just because you thought it was a bad idea that I wasn’t going to do it, did you?"

I heard his heavy sigh on the other end of the phone. "Well, I hoped that you would see reason."

"Have you heard anything or not?"

"Confidentially?"

"Of course."

"Yes. No complaints from female students or anything like that because those would have been dealt with swiftly. But let's just say one of David's colleagues reported him a few times as having inappropriate relationships with students, but we could never find any student willing to come forward and admit they had a relationship with David." I couldn't help but cringe a little, wondering what a young student would see in David. He was incredibly smart, and I guess he wasn't bad looking. I still shuddered at the thought. Professors had positions of power and I didn’t like to think they would abuse that power, even if it was with another consenting adult.

"Who complained?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. They called the ethics hotline and all I can tell you is that it was a male caller but whoever it was didn’t leave a name. Which, of course, isn’t necessary since the whole point of the ethics hotline is to be confidential."

Dang. An anonymous tipster didn't help me because who knew if it was even a legitimate complaint? Maybe someone just wanted to try to get David in trouble. One would hope people at the university would be adults and wouldn't call in an unfounded violation, but I didn't have to be a psychology professor to know that people did crazy things for crazy reasons.

"Did you hang up on me?" Don asked after the line had been silent for a few moments.

"No, just thinking. I’ve never heard any rumors like that about him before. Who knows who might have made such an allegation, and maybe it's not even true. Do you think it's true?"

"The couple of women we talked to didn't give me the impression there was anything to the claims, and before you ask, no, I can't tell you who they are. The hotline is confidential for a reason," he repeated, and I knew it would be useless to press him.

"Fine," I said, but understood where he was coming from.

"Now I'm going to ask you again to leave this to the professionals."

"Yeah, yeah. Maybe I will. Instead of making progress, what I'm really doing is opening up the suspect list to even more people who could've wanted him dead."

We got off the phone and I sat there a minute before putting my car in drive and pulling out of the parking lot. I was having a hard time wrapping my brain around all the new information I had. But contrary to what I may have told Don, I wasn’t ready to give up. I just needed to think what my next step was going to be.