Death of the Ayn Rand Scholar by Gray Cavender (classic literature list txt) 📕

She left Wilson Hall and walked along the sidewalk that angles across that large green lawn…West Hall on her left and that obelisk or whatever that structure was on the right. Even in this heat, students were seated on it…looking like figures on a funky wedding cake. The lawn, the sidewalk and the obelisk were actually above The Hayden Library. Jillian thought of the hours she’d spent down below, looking for books or academic journals.

She felt the afternoon heat more than usual: it burned around her eyes so she dug out her sunglasses. There was a slight breeze, but it was hot and seemed to make it harder to breathe. The only way to handle the Arizona summer heat was to not think about it, so she willed herself to do just that.

When the angular sidewalk intersected with the main, wide sidewalk that cut through the campus, Jillian took a left and headed back toward the Tempe PD Headquarters. She thought about how to present the gist of the interview to Wes. She refused to jump to conclusions, but still…

Her cell vibbed—she could feel it even in her purse. She’d turned-off the ringer before she interviewed Professor Naremore. Jillian read the display…an announcement about a meeting tomorrow for ASU’s Sexual Harassment Task Force. Earlier, before…Professor Siemens…she’d received a Doodle Poll message asking her to identify potentially available meeting times, which she’d done. Apparently, tomorrow at 9am was the time everyone agreed to. She thought, ‘OK, Al said I was still on the Task Force, but I’ll need to clear this with Wes...after I recount the interview with Professor Naremore.”

In addition to the text, she also saw that she’d had a phone message…actually, from Wes…who called while she was in the interview. He wanted to let her know that he was heading downtown to interview Carlton Spann, one of the Professor’s former lovers.

Wes said, “My phone call with Professor Spann revealed some things of interest. It seems that their relationship didn’t end as neatly as Susan Moser told us. Anyway, he’s in so I’m on my way to the Phoenix campus. I’ll check-in when I finish with Spann. We can exchange info.”

As she crossed the street back at Headquarters, Jillian saw two TV news vans...parked…and a crew doing a stand-up in front of the main entrance on 5th. She thought this was the same group she’d seen earlier at ASU. She took the employees’ side entrance…and tried not to look like a detective.

Jillian saw no TV crews in the hallway. She did see Officer Peter Voss who was lingering around Wes’ office. He said hello, and told her that Wes had gone to Phoenix downtown for an interview, but didn’t know when he’d be back. He’d wanted to tell Wes…but could tell her, instead, that they’d found Professor Siemens’ car in Lot 10, her assigned lot. He described the car as a ‘bone white Lexus SUV, tricked-out with all the bells and whistles.” He reported that Angel and her team had gone over it and tentatively pronounced it ‘clean,’ although they’d impounded it and were conducting more tests. Officer Voss also said that, so far, their canvass of the units around Professor Siemens’ condo had revealed nothing of note. But, “not to worry,” he told Jillian, because most of the owners hadn’t been in. He and the other officers would return hopefully after the residents were home from work.

While they waited for Wes, Jillian and Officer Voss made small talk. Soon, she excused herself on the pretext of needing to check-in with Lt. Timms. She did want to say hi to Linda, her former boss, but mainly she thought that Officer Voss’ eyes were a little too bright, his conversation a little too effervescent.

Linda, Lt. Timms wasn’t in; she was in the meeting with the Chief. Jillian didn’t want to re-visit Officer Much-to-Friendly so she found a vacant interrogation room, opened her IPAD, and did some work on Google.

CHAPTER 6

Jillian didn’t pay much attention to the fact that she was in an interrogation room. Really, it was just a non-descript room with a small table and four straight-back chairs, pretty much like what you see on TV police dramas. What gave these rooms their sense of gravitas, she figured, is that someone who was in such a room was being questioned by the police, and as often as not, for some bad situation. Mainly today, it was a quiet place to work.

Jillian started with Billy Gilroy. First, she checked-out his entry on the English Department’s webpage. MFA and a PhD from The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC). He’d come to ASU from UNC Wilmington nine years ago. Five years ago, he was promoted to Full Professor. From his resume—she’d heard her professors refer to this as a C/V (Curriculum Vitae)—she noted entries for the book and the glossy newsletter that she had seen represented in the posters in Gilroy’s office. The resume listed other titles, what she assumed were books of poetry, and poetry criticism in academic journals. He’d also written one novel. He’d served as an editor for a poetry journal seven years ago. That was pretty much it for his webpage.

Next, she tried Wiki. Gilroy’s entry here was mainly a fleshing-out of what she had just read on his departmental webpage. The only other interesting piece of info was a statement that he’d studied at UNC with Fred Cavell, who apparently was an important poet. Jillian wasn’t sure, but thought that maybe her dad had read her some of Fred Cavell’s poems…she’d ask him. The Wiki page included a comment from Cavell, apparently taken from a “Forward” he’d written for one of Professor Gilroy’s poetry books. Otherwise, it was a fairly short entry.

Jillian decided to turn next to Professor Siemens—she was the murder victim, after all—but instead found herself, without even thinking, going to the Justice Studies webpage and pulling up Ian Naremore. Her interview with him had been that unsettling. His page was