Chapter 10. Trust

SATURDAY, 4:07 P.M.

“It’s so hard to believe that he’s been missing for eight years!” Dr. Ursler said.

She had been Scott’s political science professor during the semester he disappeared. Sean and I had already visited two other faculty members who weren’t able to give us much information, beyond simply confirming that Scott had attended their classes and received good grades. They probably wouldn’t have remembered him at all, had news of his disappearance not been plastered across the local media at the time.

We’d also gone to a few of the local businesses that Scott tended to frequent, but it was no use–in a college town, the turnover rate for so many positions is high. No one left in those businesses remembered the young political science major who’d made the news when he disappeared.

Dr. Ursler was our last faculty member still living in the area–she was our last scheduled meeting for this trip.

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“Thank you very much for meeting with us today, Dr. Ursler. I hate to bother you on the weekend, but I couldn’t get away from work during the week.” I replied.

“Oh, please call me Nadine.” she said, waving her hand at us. Sean smiled and put his coffee down on the table.

“First, why don’t you just tell us what your impressions were of Scott. No detail is too small.” Sean said, leading the questioning.

“Well, he was obviously a very bright young man. He asked wonderful questions in class, and he came to me early in the semester to discuss doing an independent research project. I was very impressed–you just don’t get many freshman with that degree of engagement and ambition.” Nadine said.

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“Do you remember what the project covered?” I asked.

“Yes–he wanted to learn more about the influence of press coverage on campaigns, and I helped him whittle the subject down to something manageable. I submitted his paper for the internship with Donald Price. At the time, Dr. Price was running for a place on the Sunset Valley city council.” Nadine said.

“Wait–Donald Price, our mayor?” I asked.

“Yes–he was just starting to get into local politics back then. Dr. Price was a faculty member at Sim State before he left academia for politics. He moved back to Sunset Valley….I guess about twelve years ago.” Nadine explained.

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“Do you know who won the internship?” I asked.

“Oh! You mean Scott didn’t tell you?” she asked. “Scott won.”

I tried to keep my face blank as I took that in. Why hadn’t Scott told us? Or had he, and we just didn’t remember?

“Do you happen to know when he found out?” I asked.

She thought for a few moments.

“I know it was close to the end of the semester. . . I’m sure that there would be something in the archives of the university newspaper about it, because it was such a big deal for a freshman to land that internship.” Nadine said.

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My mind was spinning with this information–Scott had won an internship with a politician in Sunset Valley. Finally, there was at least one reason why Scott would have been in Sunset Valley the day he disappeared. Sean took over the questioning because I’d fallen silent in my ponderings.

“Do you know if Scott was involved in any clubs or fraternities?” Sean asked.

“I don’t know for sure, but I would be very surprised if he hadn’t belonged to one of our political clubs. He wouldn’t have been eligible for some of the honors organizations until he was a junior. You know, that’s information you can get by looking at the campus library. The university keeps a yearbook of sorts that details club and organization membership.” Nadine said.

We only had a few more questions, which Nadine had no idea about–was Scott seeing anyone, was he particularly friendly with any of the other students? We left soon after that and I thanked her several times for her information.

*

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We talked over the information on the way back to the hotel. Sean suggested that we visit the campus library first thing on Sunday morning, and I happily agreed. It felt like we were actually getting somehwere. Already we knew something that hadn’t come to light in all the investigations before. How had it been missed?

“Since we’re going to start tailing Jeff at seven, why don’t we grab an early dinner so we’ll have time to change and check email before we head out?” Sean suggested.

“Sounds good to me–where are you thinking?” I asked.

“How about The Lousy House?” Sean asked. It was a local restaurant in Chestnut Park that specialized in delicious Cajun food. I hadn’t eaten there since I’d been a student. Since it was only a block away from the hotel, we walked.

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“Two for a table upstairs. On the balcony, please.” Sean requested at the hostess desk. We were led to our table, and once our food arrived (we both knew the best thing on the menu was the blackened redfish), I remembered that I needed to ask his advice about something.

“Sean…I uh…have a question.” I said.

“Shoot.” he replied, smiling.

“Is there a way to run searches on the databases at Rocca Investigations without it automatically copying a report to Nick?” I asked. I knew this didn’t sound good, but I had to get more information on Rosario’s lady, and I didn’t want to compromise her.

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Sean looked up from his fish and gave me a searching look.

“Nick doesn’t mind if you use the searches for Scott–he encourages it.” Sean said.

“It’s not that…it’s something else. Something I can’t let him know about.” I said. “Nothing illegal.” I think.

Sean stared at me a few beats before answering.

“There are ways to do it, but I have a much easier solution. Run them off my computer at my house.” he said.

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“I thought none of could have usernames at home.” I said.

“None of us who aren’t licensed.” Sean clarified. “Nick and I are licensed, and we’re both set up to work from home. But if you do that, then I will know what you’re searching for. So do I have to be kept in the dark too?”

I hesitated less than a minute before deciding to tell him.

“It’s about what Rosario told me–why he flipped on Dorantes, and why I could rest easy about him coming after me.” I said. “He gave me an address to a place, and I went there. You were with me at the time, but I told you we were just going on a walk.”

“So that’s what that was about.” Sean said, smiling.

“Anyway…soon before we passed the place, a woman came out, and she was pregnant. Rosario wants to cut a deal to stay out of prison because he found out that he was going to be a father. I want more information about her.” I said.

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“Holy shit. No wonder he wanted to go into witness protection.” Sean said.

“I’m thinking that he’s going to go into witness protection, then have her meet him at his new location, once he’s sure he hasn’t been tracked.” I said.

Sean ate a few bites of his food, then asked, “But…you don’t trust Nick with this?”

“It’s not Nick…it’s Erica. I don’t want to put him in an awkward position. He’d have information she would definitely want, and I’d be asking him not to tell her. Since they’re together, that just complicates things even more.  Rosario said she may have moles in her office–that Dorantes has them everywhere.” I said.

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Sean chewed quietly, and he had a strange smile on his face.

“What are you smiling about?” I asked.

“I’m just happy that you trust me.” he said.

I was happy about that, too.

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“I just realized something.” Sean said, minutes later. “We’ve never been on a date.”

“We’ll, we only agreed to start dating like…Two days ago.” I pointed out.

“Yeah, but I should probably take you somewhere. After all, I’m already sleeping with you.” he said, grinning.

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I’m too easy.”

“But seriously–what would you like to do?” he asked.

“Honestly, I prefer low-key dates. Renting a movie, sitting on the couch with popcorn–that kinda thing.” I said.

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“Then that settles it–I’ll make you dinner at my house.” Sean said.

“That sounds perfect. Next Saturday night?” I asked.

“A whole week away?” he whined. “Why so long?”

“Because I have a full-time job, plus I’m interning at this private investigation firm. My boss Nick is a taskmaster, and on the nights I’m not learning how to run searches in databases and handling cases, I’m getting self-defense training from this hot guy named Sean.” I said.

“Hmm…maybe Sean will give you a break one night, if you sweet talk him?” Sean practically purred.

“He ought to. After all, I am sleeping with the guy. Does it count if we really are just sleeping?” I asked, and grinned at Sean’s bark of laughter.

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Authorial Interjection: I’ve decided to start doing “covers” for my story, which is why the first picture is probably not at all what anyone was expecting.  I love comics and graphic novels, and a lot of times they let the artists go wild with the cover of the book.  Sometimes the artists choose to create something that is related to the story in the issue, but sometimes it’s just a really creative reimagining of the characters.  I was inspired by thelunarfox’s 1 year anniversary post on her blog for Ruin (because like her, I won’t get to use a lot of the nifty clothes and hairstyles), and thus the idea for making covers was born.  Hopefully it isn’t too distracting!

• October 15, 2010
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• 42 Comments