Killer Classes Page 6

  “But why did you call him?” Chloe asked again.

  “To get him to talk to Candy and convince her we weren’t having an affair. She wouldn’t listen to me. Every time I saw her, she was questioning me. She was being paranoid, and I was sick of it.”

  If what Colleen was saying was true, then Candy must have had suspicions about her husband. Was Colleen just an easy target or was there truth to those suspicions? Could he have been having an affair with someone else and did that have something to do with why he was missing?

  “Was he having an affair?” I asked. “Not with you. I mean with anyone,” I added quickly so she didn’t get annoyed thinking I believed what she said Candy accused her of. I didn’t know what to believe right now and giving her any indication I thought it might be her was a bad idea. If we alienated her, we’d never get any information.

  Colleen shrugged. “I have no idea. I wouldn’t blame him if he did. Candy’s a pain. I don’t know why he married her in the first place. Though he’s a piece of work also. They are kind of right for each other in that sense.”

  “Is there a reason why Candy would think he was cheating?” I asked.

  “Like I said, she was paranoid. She could never forget the fact I met Thaddeus first and she thought I still harbored feelings for him. As if,” she snorted.

  Chloe and I looked at each other. What did she mean she knew him first?

  She noticed our glances. “She didn’t tell you that either. Of course she wouldn’t. She hates to be reminded of it. I’m two years older than Candy and I went on a few dates with Thaddeus until I got bored with the May/December romance thing and moved on. Candy couldn’t wait to step in, and Thaddeus does have a thing for younger women. Something that contributes to Candy’s paranoia. She worries he’ll replace her with a younger model just like he did his first wife. I guess I don’t entirely blame her for being paranoid, but if he’s cheating it’s not with me.”

  “Do you think she had something to do with his disappearance?” I knew it was a bit of a risk to ask, but Colleen didn’t seem all that protective of Candy so I doubted the line of questioning would bother her.

  “Nah. For all her faults, she does love him and him her. I have no idea where he’s gone off to.”

  Candy hadn’t told her sister she’d received a ransom note. That seemed odd.

  “It is unusual for him to leave and for Candy not to know his whereabouts?” I asked.

  Colleen nodded, then looked at her watch. “Listen, I have an appointment to get to, so if that’s all…”

  “Oh, of course. Sorry to bother you, but we both appreciate you talking to us,” I said.

  Colleen’s demeanor softened. “Candy and I may not always see eye to eye, and I don’t think she ever should have married Thaddeus, but I feel bad he’s missing. I’m sorry I wasn’t more help.”

  We walked back out to my car and got in.

  “What do you think?” I said, turning to Chloe as I started the car.

  “I think those sisters have a strange relationship.”

  “I would agree. Did you buy her excuse for calling President Stoddard?”

  “Yeah, I did.”

  “Me too.” It seemed we were back at square one.

  Chapter 15

  I was on my way home from Chloe’s when I caught something out of the corner of my eye, causing me to swerve over into the right-hand lane so I could pull into the grocery store parking lot. My purse flew off the passenger seat and spilled on to the floor, but I didn’t even care right now. I was too busy.

  Looking across the street at the coffee shop parking lot, I saw Candy with someone in the passenger seat of her car. That someone was male. I couldn’t see much from my point of view, but I could tell it was a man.

  While Candy had the right to do whatever she wanted, I couldn’t help but think this was a small town. People gossip and to have your husband missing and then being out with another guy could make some people think she wasn’t as upset about her husband missing as she led people to believe.

  They seemed to be arguing. Of course, I couldn’t tell from here what was being said, but I could see the body language and the fact that Candy shook her finger at whoever the man was next to her made it pretty clear she was unhappy about something.

  I sat there watching, feeling a little bit guilty about invading her privacy, but I was riveted. A few minutes later the man got out of her car and shut the door. Looking around almost as if to see if anyone was watching, he then headed across the parking lot to a red Corvette. I couldn’t help but giggle. This was what Polly and I would call the midlife crisis mobile. I didn’t recognize the man, but he was older than Candy and me, I would guess her husband’s age. Late fifties, looked to be in good shape, and silver hair, the kind that made men distinguished and that us women tried to hide with hair color. So not fair. I hated to rush to judgment, but based on her current choice of men, was this someone Candy was involved with in ways a married woman shouldn’t be?

  I watched Candy pull out of the parking lot and then a minute later, the guy backed out and did the same. Without even thinking, I put my car in gear and headed out after him. I was curious to see where he was headed.

  I followed him out of town and started to think I should give up this wild goose chase before I ended up in the next state or ran out of gas on the side of the road when he finally slowed down and turned on his blinker. Since we were a little ways out of town, there weren’t any other cars around and I didn’t want to get too close for fear he would see me and wonder why I was following him. I wasn’t sure what to do. I ended up hanging back a little and then turned right to follow him anyway. If he didn’t have anything to be suspicious of, he probably wouldn’t even notice, I reasoned. I could see up ahead a few hundred yards as he pulled in the driveway of a beautiful two-story brick home I assumed was where he lived, as his car operated the garage door opener and he pulled inside.

  Well, that was the end of that, I thought. Not much I could do now since I couldn’t very well walk up to his house and ask why he was arguing with Candy at the coffee shop. Though I did make note of his address.

  I pulled a U-turn and headed back to town. This time when I got to the coffee shop, I pulled in to grab a latte.

  I opened the door to walk in when I heard someone calling my name and looked over my shoulder to see Shelley.

  “Getting a mid-afternoon pick me up?” Shelley asked when she reached me, and we walked in.

  “You know it. So glad I ran into you.”

  “Really? It’s not like you don’t know where I work.” She laughed.

  “I know that. I just meant right this minute,” I teased back. When I saw her, it made me think maybe she might know who Candy was angry with.

  “I don’t have to be back for an hour,” Shelley said. “Let’s get our coffee and sit down and chat for a minute.”

  We both ordered our lattes and I headed over to the table in the corner to give us a little more privacy although we were the only non-students in here at the moment. Students never paid attention to us anyway. It was interesting, but they usually didn’t notice us when running into us off campus. Like they didn’t recognize us out of context.

  “So, what’s going on?” Shelley asked me and took a sip of her latte.

  “Did President Stoddard ever give any indication he thought Candy might be cheating on him?”

  Shelley’s eyes grew wide. Whatever she imagined I was going to ask I didn’t think that was it. “No. Not that he’d necessarily share that kind of information with me. Why? Do you think she was cheating on him?” she exclaimed.

  I shook my head. “No. I was just curious.”

  “Nothing he said ever gave me that indication, but it’s not like he shared everything with me. For all intents and purposes, I found them to be very devoted to each other.”

  “Yeah, I guess not.” I sat there dejectedly. I so wanted to piece all this together and felt it was within my reach. I just needed to find th
e key to it all. Whatever that was.

  “Don hasn’t heard anything?” Shelley asked.

  “Just that the police were viewing this as a missing persons case until they knew otherwise. You know how he feels about my snooping, as he calls it, so we haven’t talked a lot about it,” I said, using finger quotes. Shelley laughed.

  “It’s just so weird. Or maybe surreal. I don’t know, just the thought that someone would want to kidnap President Stoddard and it has to be a kidnapping, right? Why else send a note?”

  My eyes open wide. How did Shelley know there was a ransom note? I hadn’t told anyone that. I know Don hadn’t told anyone and I was sure the police hadn’t either. Was Candy blabbing even though she knew she shouldn’t be?

  “How did you know about the ransom note?”

  “Candy told me. Why? Is it a secret?”

  “Not exactly, but Candy was told not to say anything. Me too, which is why I hadn’t told you. Though I did tell Chloe, so I guess I wasn’t any better than Candy at keeping secrets. I saw Candy here earlier sitting in her car arguing with some guy. I didn’t recognize him, but he lives out on state road 37.”

  Shelley gave me a weird look.

  “I followed him,” I said sheepishly.

  “I don’t know who that could be. I don’t keep track of her schedule. We don’t have much contact unless she’s trying to track her husband down.”

  “Is that why she called you when she mentioned the ransom note?”

  Shelley nodded. “Yeah, she wanted to know if I’d heard from him. But I haven’t. This is all so distressing.”

  I agreed with that statement and made a mental note to tell Candy not to tell anyone else. The police would not be happy if they found out.

  Chapter 16

  “Finally. You have time for me,” I teased Don as we sat down to dinner at my house. I’d made pork chops and cheesy potatoes. Comfort food I didn’t normally make because while it was super tasty, it was so fattening. Especially the way I made my cheesy potatoes with more cheese than potato. Because in my opinion you could never have too much cheese.

  “You know I couldn’t help it,” he said, sounding sad. I felt bad for teasing him because of course I knew it had nothing to do with me. It was work.

  “You know I’m just joking, right?” I said to make sure he knew I was joking.

  “I know, but I do feel bad. I’ve been home now for almost a week and haven’t spent any time with you. I just hope you know it’s not because I don’t want to.”

  “Of course, I know that and you’re spending time with me now so don’t even worry about it. Though if you feel bad, you could fill me in on what you’ve found out so far about President Stoddard,” I teased, although I was really curious. “Did you come across any of his colleagues that knew anything about his whereabouts?” That reminded me again I hadn’t called the list Candy gave me. Luckily, she hadn’t asked again about it. As much as I wanted to find out what happened to him, I hadn’t called because I felt intimidated calling people several levels above my pay grade. Though talking to one of them might give me the information we were looking for, whatever that might be. I resolved to do it tomorrow.

  “Several people saw him the first day of the conference but not after that, so most assumed he had left early for some reason.”

  “Was it unusual for him? To leave without telling anyone?”

  “From what his colleagues said, yes. Everyone said he was the life of the party, big into socializing and never missed an event or session at one of these things. There seems to be a core group of three of them and they all look forward to these things and had plans together. Most of which Stoddard arranged and then he didn’t show up or even contact them to cancel.”

  “Did they happen to mention anything about him having marital problems?”

  Don raised his eyebrows. “What makes you think he’s having marital problems?”

  I proceeded to fill him in on what Chloe and I’d heard from Colleen. His mouth disappeared into a thin line and I could tell he was not happy. When I finished, it didn’t take long for him to start talking. “Why are you talking to Candy’s sister? How did you even find out Candy had a sister?”

  I squirmed a little in my seat, knowing once I told him the whole story he would be even more annoyed and I really didn’t want a lecture. “I might as well save my breath telling you to butt out and leave this to the police,” he said, shaking his head.

  “Thank you. Did you know about the marital problems?”

  “Nope, but you know we on campus aren’t privy to everything. There have been rumors though.”

  “About what?

  “That President Stoddard sometimes got a little too friendly with the co-eds.”

  “Have there been complaints?” I was surprised. I hadn’t heard this gossip before.

  “No. Just observations.”

  “With who?”

  “Meal tastes great as always, Olivia,” Don said and I could tell he wasn’t going to share any more with me. I put it in my mental list of things to check out regarding our esteemed president. Though maybe he wasn’t as esteemed as I thought.

  Chapter 17

  The next day I met with Chloe and I showed her the list of conference attendees Candy had given me and then filled her in on what Don told me last night before our evening disintegrated into an argument about why I should leave the investigating to the police.

  He’d finished his dinner but hadn’t stayed for dessert and I didn’t buy his excuse that he’d had a long day and was tired. He wasn’t tired; he was mad at me, but I wasn’t going to let him tell me what to do.

  I sighed, thinking about our conversation. I hated that we argued.

  “So how should we best utilize this information?” I asked Chloe.

  “Probably the old-fashioned way. We just need to pick up the phone and call. The key is finding a plausible reason to call so they don’t think we’re overtly digging for information.

  “You don’t want to give them reason to call the police. Though since they’ve talked to Don and maybe even other people associated with the case, they might be used to talking about it and be more forthcoming.”

  I sat there thinking for a few minutes. I didn’t actually know these people, but they were academics so at least I had an understanding as to how they thought.

  “Let me go ahead and call them,” I said to Chloe. “If they were people President Stoddard spent time with, I might have a better insight on how to talk to them, only because I know him better with you being new and all.”

  Chloe shrugged. “Fine with me. While you do that, I will see if I can find out any more information on Candy’s past. Maybe knowing a little more about her will help us find him.”

  “Deal.” I took the piece of paper with the names over to the small table in the corner of Chloe’s office. I looked at the first one and put the number into my phone. His name was Frank Clifford and was also a president of a university. I wish I had more information on his relationship with President Stoddard. It would’ve made this call easier, but here went nothing.

  I pressed call and waited for someone to pick up, but after a few rings I was sent to voicemail. I hung up the phone, a little relieved just because I didn’t know what to say. Though getting voicemail wasn’t helping us find him either.

  The next one was Daniel Story, another president. I dialed his number and pressed the call button and he answered on the first ring. My heart dropped into my stomach, not ready for an actual conversation now that I had someone on the line.

  “Is this President Story?” I asked in reply to his hello.

  “Yes, it is.”

  “Hi, my name is Olivia Little. You don’t know me, but I am a professor at Spencer University.”

  There was a brief pause, no doubt him wondering why I was calling.

  “How are you all hanging in over there? The police called me yesterday and said that no one has heard from Thaddeus since the first day of the conference
. Has he turned up yet?”

  Maybe this is going to be easier than I thought; getting him to talking about it.

  “No, and we are all very worried. As I’m sure you know, it is unusual for him to be missing when school is in session.”

  “Yes, you are right about that. No president worth his salt would miss the beginning of the school year.”

  “I don’t want to take up much of your time so I will get right to the point of why I’m calling,” I said, thinking direct was the best course of action in this case. “Do you have any idea where President Stoddard could be?”

  There was a pause and I resisted the urge to start talking again and waited for his response.”

  “Like I told the police, I really have no idea. For him to leave a conference without telling us is very unusual, so my guess was that had something to do with his wife or family. We don’t get a lot of time to spend together and hang out and we were all looking forward to this conference. So that’s the only thing that we thought of when he disappeared, but that obviously doesn’t make sense now since he never went home from what I’ve heard.”

  Dang it. That didn’t really give me any new information.

  “Are you working with the police on this?”

  I cringed. Of course, I wasn’t going to lie but I needed to tell him something that sounded plausible. I needed him to be willing to talk to me again if need be. More importantly, to not tell the police I was asking him questions.

  “No. And I realize me calling and asking seems nosy, but I’m doing it as a favor to his wife. She’s very worried about him.”

  He snorted at this comment, which was not what I was expecting but at least he didn’t hang up on me either. “I find that hard to believe.”

  “What? That I’m helping his wife?”

  “No, that she’s worried.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Thaddeus thought Candy was having an affair and was planning on leaving her. In fact, that’s one of the reasons we were also shocked he left the conference. He said he wanted to talk to us about it and get our advice.”