#1 in POLITICALDRAMA
In the late forties, six university students find themselves surrounded by killings on campus. They're messengers, relaying information back and forth between a network of professors who supply an intelligence organization.
The...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
By morning the whole campus knew. They knew that a third body had been discovered; they knew that the second body was a Carol Thomas. Identifying those who knew Thomas was easy. Beyond the students who let fear of a killer on campus overwhelm them, beyond the ones who felt consumed by rage and helplessness over the arrogant and evil act of murder, there were those who mourned. They grieved, weakly and vulnerably, succumbing to the terror of living through loss.
The local authorities had encouraged the board of the university to regulate the comings and goings of students to better control the situation. By the afternoon a notice had gone out and all of the professors had announced to their classrooms that a curfew had been instated, that all students living on campus in dormitories must be checked into their rooms by eleven o'clock at night. They announced that police officers would be patrolling campus as a protective detail; the police department had hired officers from other districts to work on campus during their off duty hours to maintain as many men as possible.
"It doesn't make sense," Betty mumbled under her breath to Douglas. They stood together in a chemistry lab, finishing reports for different projects. "Why instate a curfew when one of the killings was in broad daylight? And how is a beat cop going to be able to prevent murder by poison? What are they going to do, body check everyone before they drink their coffees?" Her voice was low and whispered, her chin low to her chest to avoid being overheard by those around them.
Douglas didn't look up from his report, pausing in his determined scribbling to push his glasses back up his nose before responding to her quietly, "The curfew is a result of two of the bodies being found late at night. If all of the students are checked into their rooms at night there's a lesser likelihood of being killed after curfew, which is arguably a good thing. On the off chance that someone is killed after curfew, they can track down those students who were not in their dorms and have a selection of suspects. The police officers are going to be on campus looking for behavior that they've been trained to recognize as suspect, and they're also going to be around in case someone needs protection. You think you're being followed? There's probably an officer around the corner. You just had a cup of coffee and now you feel a bit topsy-turvy? Go snag an officer to get you medical attention as quickly as possible. It's not a solution, it's a Band-aid to make us feel like everything's going to be okay."
Betty wrote her name on her report and filed it away in her book bag, dropping her pencil in along with it. "I have to go. I'm running a few things down to the post office, do you need anything mailed?"
He shook his head, waving one hand distractedly in farewell as she clutched the strap of her bag and hurried out of the lab.
{ tenebrous }
"Did Gale ever mention any concerns about anyone in his life?"
The young woman frowned at Charles, uncomfortable with the question. "Concerns?" She tapped her red fingernails against the bone china teacup that sat steaming before her. She was the fourth person Charles had interviewed that day; two of the people had been friends of Carol Thomas and the other had been another friend of Gale Smith's. None of them had any prior awareness of any problematic relationships in the victims' lives.
