Murder in the Dorm Read Online Free Page A

McDermott out of the picture, it’s that much more important to see if you can learn anything from colleagues and students.”
    On that note DeVries rose, as did Matson, and the detectives left.
    “It’s like last time; one death on campus leads to another off-campus.”
    “Kate, all I’m doing is seeing if someone knows something useful.”
    “No; I’m not fussing about you being involved. I can see DeVries and Matson need whatever information you might get. It’s just that I was thinking about something.”
    “What?”
    “Well, what you said about height. Do you know how tall McDermott was?”
    “Oh, you think he might have killed Kelsey?”
    “It makes sense. If Kelsey and McDermott were involved in something and had a falling out, McDermott killed Kelsey, and someone else killed McDermott.”
    “That would explain why McDermott seems to have kept a low profile for a couple of days but didn’t leave Kingsford or go to the police when Kelsey was killed. It even explains access; McDermott would certainly know how to get in and out of Kelsey’s dorm room without being spotted. Maybe he’s even got a room in the same dorm.”
    “I wouldn’t usually say this, but I think you should call DeVries right now.”
    Charlie had only DeVries’s office number, but when he called and explained to the receptionist that DeVries and Matson had just been to their house, the receptionist said she’d contact DeVries and ask her to call Charlie. It didn’t take long.
    “Charlie, was there something you wanted to add? And please excuse the background noise. We’re in the car.”
    “No, not add; something to ask. How tall was McDermott?”
    “Six one. Yes, I see. You think he may have killed Kelsey and then been killed himself. We did think of that, but we still haven’t gotten the results on the fingerprints found on the bookend, so we’ll have to wait. Thank you for making the point, though.”
    “Not me; Kate. She thinks McDermott killed Kelsey over a fight about whatever they were into and that someone else then killed McDermott.”
    “Thank Kate. I might as well tell you this since it’ll soon be common knowledge. McDermott was shot, so it was likely premeditated.”
    Eventually Kate and Charlie went out. They drove to one car dealership and Charlie looked over one of his potential choices. The other dealership was further out and Charlie decided he wasn’t that interested, so they went to lunch. Later that afternoon Charlie was reading but his mind kept straying to Kelsey and McDermott.
    Now totally ignoring his book, Charlie drew a tentative conclusion. It looked as if Kelsey and McDermott had seriously disagreed on something and, assuming McDermott had struck and killed Kelsey, a third party decided McDermott had to go, too. If McDermott killed Kelsey, he likely ruined whatever they were doing and prompted his own murder. Suppose that McDermott had been cheating on their arrangement and Kelsey found out and confronted him, or the other way around. In either case, the mysterious third party shot the survivor, probably to cut his or her losses and because he’d attracted police attention. What was clear was there was a third party involved. If Charlie was to get anywhere he had to learn what it was that Kelsey and McDermott had been doing. He had to track down Barbara Kline and ask about McDermott. He also had to track down the other names on his list.
    Charlie decided not to wait till the next day. He went to his briefcase and got out the list. Aside from Barbara Kline, he needed to contact Andrew Ford, Miguel Garcia, and Siobhan McLachlan. Before searching the Internet Charlie did the no longer obvious; he checked the phonebook. There he found numbers for Kline and Garcia, but not for Ford or McLachlan. He jotted down the numbers and went to his laptop.
    Ford and Garcia were both on Facebook. McLachlan was on neither Facebook nor Twitter. Facebook provided Charlie with a picture of Ford but also told him