Death by Suspenders Read online

  Death By Suspenders

  A Spencer University Cozy Mystery

  Laina Turner

  Copyright © 2019 by Laina Turner

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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  Laina

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  About the Author

  Thanks for Reading

  Also by Laina Turner

  Chapter 1

  I gave myself one last glance in the mirror before declaring my blonde, shoulder-length hair was as good as it would ever get and setting my brush down. I smoothed down the coral-colored dress I’d paired with a cream, short-sleeved cardigan, shut my bedroom light off, and walked out the door. Normally, I didn’t fuss that much with my appearance. I preferred sleep over primping. Ponytails and messy buns were my usual go-to hairstyle. I was more of a casual gal. Jeans were my normal uniform, and only because the administration frowned on yoga pants. They barely tolerated jeans. They said we needed to be role models for our students. In fact, we’d only been allowed to wear jeans since two summers ago, when the faculty oversight committee had accidentally omitted the word “no” preceding the words: “jeans, shorts, capris, or bare shoulders.”

  The dress code update had passed with the majority vote before David March, head of the committee, noticed the typo.

  He accused Betty Thornburg, the committee secretary and the one responsible for typing the document, of doing it on purpose. She’d vehemently denied it, then pointed out committee by-laws prevented a revote until the next meeting. By then most committee members were enjoying their jeans, shorts, capris, and bare shoulders. David realized he’d lost the dress code battle. He’d have us all wearing suits and bow ties if he had his way.

  My name is Olivia Little, and I’m an associate professor of psychology at Spencer University. It’s a job I love, even if I don’t particularly like all my coworkers.

  Since it was the first day of school, I wanted to make a good first impression. Not that my students would notice what I wore. Most of them rolled into a morning class still in their pajamas.

  I walked down the hall and almost tripped over my Siamese cat, Henry. He wound himself around my feet at the most inopportune times. Now, in typical cat fashion, he gave me a dirty look, as if he felt I had disturbed him. Muttering under my breath about the sense of entitlement all cats seemed to suffer with, I headed to the kitchen to pour coffee into my oversize travel cup. I needed a full thirty-two ounces to get me ready to start the day. I often said I’d start cutting back on my caffeine intake, especially on the days I was jittery from too much caffeine. I’d yet to make good on that statement, though. There was always tomorrow. Mañana, as my grandmother would say. Because tomorrow would never come.

  It was a gorgeous August day, already in the seventies, even though it was early. August in the Midwest could be brutal. Which is why I needed the cardigan. The building’s air-conditioning would be at full force, and my classroom would be freezing. While I loved my job as a professor at Spencer University, it was one of those days where spending time outside on my back deck, reading a trashy romance novel and soaking up the sun, was calling my name. But my summer was over, and it was time to get back to the daily grind.

  Faculty reported last week before the semester started to have our annual fall kick-off meeting and tour the new library built over the summer. As much as I might grumble about going back to work, I did love the first day of school. I had since I was a little girl, and it hadn’t changed. It explained a lot about why I went into my chosen profession. That and summers off. It definitely wasn’t for the money.

  There was something about the fresh start. Meeting new students, opening new school supplies, and knowing that fall, my second favorite season in all its pumpkin glory, was right around the corner. It made me happy.

  The drive from my house to the school wasn’t a long one. I soon pulled into the main drive and headed to the parking lot of the building where my first class was located. I looked at the clock on my dash, happy to see I was early. I would have time to chat with Polly, my best friend, fellow professor, and fellow coffee addict. It was our routine to chat over morning coffee before facing the day. We’d hardly missed a day since I met her three years ago, when she first started working here. We’d hit it off instantly.

  As I pulled farther into the campus drive, I noticed flashing lights and a cop standing in the entrance, waving cars down to the far lot. Way past our normal parking spot and a much farther distance than I wanted to walk in heels, I would normally be annoyed to have to park there. It took me three years to earn a spot in parking lot A, but it was obvious something was going on here. If there were police involved, it couldn’t be good. My heart started pounding. What the heck had happened? This didn’t bode well for the first day of school.

  After parking I grabbed my stuff and got out of my car, locking the door behind me. I threw my computer bag over one shoulder, my purse over the other, and dialed Polly, who answered on the first ring.

  “Happy first day of school,” her cheerful voice came across the phone.

  “I take it you’re not here yet?

  “No. Pete got out again, so I had to chase him down before I could leave.” Pete was Polly’s golden retriever. She’d adopted him last year when her divorce was finalized. She said he was the only man she ever cared to live with again. I could understand why she would want the companionship of a dog, but Pete was always finding ways to sneak out. Polly was always running after him and having to apologize to the neighbors because Pete had a digging problem. That’s why I preferred cats. Much more sparing with their affection, but you didn’t have to go chasing after them all the time. Plus, they were very self-sufficient.

  “Something’s going on here,” I whispered, not sure why I found it necessary to lower my voice.

  “What do you mean?”

  “The parking lot to the Taylor Fieldman building is closed off, and there are police here. Three police cars plus an ambulance, from what I can see.”

  Polly gasped. “What do you think happened?”

  “No idea. Hurry up and get here,” I said.

  “Where are you?”

  “I’m in the spillover lot. That’s where they’re making us park.”

  “Wait for me. I’m five minutes away.”

  “Okay.”

  We hung up, and I observed the action across the street. The only time police came on campus was when they were busting underage drinkers. Considering it was eight in the morning and there were four cop cars, which was probably the entire force in this small town, not to mention the ambulance, I didn’t think it was something as simple as underage drinking. I raised my travel mug to my lips and realized it was empty. Damn. I knew I should have filled the second one. Crazy, I know, but nothing was as sinful as running out of coffee. Okay, that was maybe a
slight exaggeration, but coffee and a prayer could fix anything, in my opinion.

  I kept looking at my watch impatiently, and after what seemed like an eternity, but was actually only six minutes, Polly pulled up. “What do you think is going on?” she said as she got out of her car and followed my gaze across the street, where all the activity was.

  “I have no idea, but let’s walk over and find out,” I said.

  We quickly crossed the street to join the crowd gathered right by the parking lot entrance. Made up of mostly faculty and staff, there was already a fairly good-sized group of spectators. Even on the first day, most college students weren’t inclined to get to class early, and the first class didn’t start for an hour.

  “What’s going on?” I asked the group when we walked up.

  Shelly, one of my coworkers, tossed her brown hair and said, “The cops won’t tell us, but something bad has happened in the building. Jim is with them, but they won’t let him come over here.” She pointed across the parking lot to where I could see Jim, our boss, sitting in a chair by one of the cop cars. Head in his hands, even from a distance, I could tell he was upset.

  The doors of the building started to open, catching Polly’s eye. “Olivia, look!” She grabbed my arm and pointed with her other hand.

  I turned my head to see the emergency response people coming out of the building rolling a gurney out with them.

  “That’s a body bag.” My eyes widened, and my heart pounded in my ears.

  “Does that mean they found a body?” Polly gasped.

  “It certainly looks that way,” I said, expelling my breath slowly. The body bag rose off the gurney, so it seemed an obvious conclusion. Had it been empty, it would have lain flat.

  A dead body at Spencer University. I shuddered at the thought of someone dying at my workplace. What a way to start off the school year.

  “Who do you think it could be?” I heard one of my colleagues say.

  I wondered the same thing. I’m sure we all did. I saw Jim heading toward us. Hopefully he was coming to tell us what happened.

  As he got closer to the group, I could see he looked pale and wan.

  When he reached us, everyone started talking at once, asking him what had happened and why the police were there.

  Jim held up his hand to silence us all. “I’m afraid I have some bad news. This morning, when I got here, I discovered our esteemed colleague David March, dead.”

  It took a few seconds for what he said to sink in, but then everyone started talking again and asking questions at a more rapid rate than before. I couldn’t understand what anyone said, and I’m sure Jim couldn’t either. Once again, Jim held his hands up to quiet the crowd. Not normally an easy feat with college professors, as we tended to be chatty, this time it worked.

  “I know you all have questions, but I need you to be patient. We’re canceling classes for today, but please stick around for a college-wide meeting we’ll have in about an hour, to let you all know what our plan will be for tomorrow.”

  “Are we in danger?” Shelly asked, but either Jim didn’t hear her, or he ignored her. My guess was the latter.

  “We will talk more about this in an hour, in the auditorium. I will try to answer all your questions then,” he said, then walked back over to where the police were.

  “David March, dead? Oh my God, Olivia. What could have happened?” Polly exclaimed, a look of horror on her face.

  Chapter 2

  A bunch of us sat outside at the few picnic tables scattered around the common area, waiting for time to go by until the meeting so we could find out what had happened. We were all feeling anxious.

  “Do you think David was murdered?” Shelly asked, having wandered over from the group of people she’d been talking to and sitting down next to Polly and me.

  I just looked at her, wondering what she was trying to stir up. We were colleagues, not friends, and Shelly didn’t frequently sit down and chat with us. She was the biggest gossip on campus, and was often at the bottom of any faculty drama. You’d think a bunch of people with advanced degrees, in charge of teaching the next generation, would be above gossip and petty drama. That wasn’t the case. In fact, it seemed worse here than at other, non-academic jobs I’d held.

  “Jim said dead, not murdered,” I said, not wanting to think one of my colleagues had been murdered. “Why would you jump to that conclusion? Do you know something we don’t know?” I shouldn’t blame her for asking what I’m sure others were thinking, but the annoyance I felt came out in my tone. The fact the temperature had risen quickly to a sweaty eighty-five didn’t help my mood, either. Sweat formed on my back. The material of this dress wasn’t very breathable since I hadn’t expected to be outside.

  “Excuse me?” she said indignantly.

  “Well, no one other than you said murder I thought maybe . . .” I trailed off and raised my eyebrows.

  “You’re unbelievable!” she said, storming off.

  Polly burst out laughing. “You’re horrible.”

  “What?” I said, but then couldn’t help smiling.

  “Do you think she’s right about David being murdered?”

  “I don’t know. Don’t you think natural causes are more likely? Who’d want to kill David?”

  “It’s not like he’d win any popularity contests around here.”

  “But murder? Really, Polly? He’s just a college professor.”

  She had a point. David Marsh was easily the most disliked faculty member on staff. He was full of himself, coming across like he was the smartest guy to ever grace the halls of Spencer University. The fact he was probably in the top five didn’t help matters. Anything new we ever wanted to try was met with opposition in a condescending manner. He was one of those But-this-is-how-it’s-always-been-done type of people. He was resistant to change, and it caused a lot of conflict among our peers. The concept of change to improve things completely escaped him. Unless it was his idea. Then it was a totally different story.

  I saw Jim approach the auditorium doors, and we all started following him in. Thank God for some air-conditioning. I fanned myself with the notebook I’d pulled out of my briefcase. I wanted to stop sweating. The president and VP were there as well, which didn’t surprise me.

  After a few minutes, when everyone had found a seat, a somewhat quiet Jim walked up to the mic on center stage and cleared his throat.

  “Thank you for waiting. I realize this hasn’t been the morning you expected for the first day of school.” The crowd was full of murmurs, and he paused to allow them to die down. “This morning, at seven a.m., David March was found dead in the common area of the Taylor Fieldman Building. That building will be closed until the police finish their investigation. Classes will resume tomorrow, using space in other buildings, and we will be working on that schedule this afternoon. It will be posted online later today, but please be lenient on students tomorrow if they are late due to class location change.”

  The police wouldn’t be investigating unless there was something suspicious about David’s death, would they? Was this more than a simple accident?

  “I know many of you are wondering what happened, and I wish I could give you more details, but due to the ongoing police investigation, I can’t comment. I appreciate your patience and understanding during this difficult time,” he said, then walked off the stage without further comment. We were all left wondering what had happened. He hadn’t told us anything we didn’t already know.

  “What do you think that means?” Polly whispered.

  “I don’t know, but if the police are investigating, I doubt he tripped and bumped his head or just died of natural causes. There would be nothing to investigate in a case like that. I need to find Don.” I scanned the crowd, knowing he had to be here somewhere. I finally spotted him and waved to get his attention, while Polly gave me a look. I half-expected her to start on me about how we were meant to be together, but she held her tongue.

  Don was the campus head of
security and came to work here about eighteen months ago. Since day one, Polly had pushed me to ask him out, saying we’d be perfect together. At the time I had a boyfriend, but she’d disliked him immensely. When we’d decided to break up, she became relentless. Truth be told, I did think Don was a very handsome man, but the memory of my last failed relationship was always present in my head. I wasn’t in any hurry to relive that experience again. I’d sworn off relationships.

  He noticed me watching and walked over, looking at me in a way that made me all warm and fuzzy. Damn Polly for putting ideas in my head.

  “What can I help you ladies with?” He smiled, talking to both of us but looking at me. He made me feel a little uncomfortable, but not in a bad way. More because I didn’t want to think of him as dateable.

  “Can you tell us what happened?” I asked, getting right to the point.

  “You heard Jim. It’s an ongoing investigation.” The smile never left his face. Don knew exactly what I was asking, and that his non-committal answer was going to annoy me, which clearly amused him.

  I rolled my eyes. “I know what Jim said, and I also know you must know more about what’s going on. Isn’t it your job to know more? Aren’t you the eyes and ears of this campus?” I said this with a bit of an attitude that was more playful than anything else.

  “What are you going to do for me if I tell you what I know?” he teased, eyes twinkling. He was clearly enjoying himself, and I admit I was having fun too. Even though it seemed wrong, considering what was going on.

  I lightly punched his shoulder. “Be serious. Tell us what happened.”