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McDermott’s LinkedIn profile was out of date because Ford was now in California. He wouldn’t be of much use. Charlie would phone him, but that could wait. Garcia’s page lacked a picture and had a bare-bones profile saying he was from Costa Rica and was studying information technology. Charlie went to LinkedIn and looked up both Garcia and McLachlan. Her profile was as skimpy as Garcia’s Facebook one and no picture. It said only that she was in Computing Science, was an exchange student from Glasgow, and was interested in an intern position. The next day he’d contact Kline, Garcia, and McLachlan.

Chapter 5
    The First Monday

    Charlie’s morning was devoted to a weekly seminar that had only four students. They started at nine and went to noon. For those three hours Charlie was totally absorbed in discussion with the students, all of whom were very bright, hard workers, and invariably came up with good questions and ideas. As usual on Mondays, he was a bit late for lunch; but again as usual on Mondays, the Club table was under-populated. There was some talk about the murders, but no one had anything new to add, so conversation was mostly about the president’s vague and anemic remarks to the press. Charlie did ask if anyone knew Barbara Kline, but no one did.
    Back in his office, Charlie first tried Kline’s home phone but got voice-mail. He then called Computing and asked for her, hoping she was accessible by phone. The secretary told him she was in class but would be in one of the student offices after two-thirty. He then asked for McLachlan. She was also in class but unlike Kline had no access to office space. He got the same story about Garcia. Charlie would try to meet Kline and tackle McLachlan and Garcia later. He busied himself with his paper and at two-thirty set out for Computing Science.
    Charlie immediately understood McDermott’s interest when he found Kline in the office the secretary had indicated. She was an attractive blond with a charming smile. Charlie went into his prepared explanation of why he wanted to talk to her and offered to buy her a coffee at the Club. Probably curious, she readily agreed and they walked over.
    “This is great; I’ve never been here before.”
    They sat in one of the lounges with their coffees and Charlie explained that he’d been told she knew Lawrie McDermott.
    “Oh no; not really. He was always hitting on me. I wasn’t interested, but he never got the message. I was polite, you know, but just listened and left as soon as I could.”
    “You do know he was killed last week?”
    “Omigod! No, I didn’t. I’ve had a lot to do and haven’t followed the news and no one mentioned it, but then I don’t know anyone who knew him.”
    “When you did talk with him, did you learn anything about him, I mean about his interests or what he was up to outside of class?”
    “He never said anything about himself. He’d just go on about places we might go. There was some café or bistro downtown that he liked. I don’t remember the name. I really didn’t pay much attention.”
    “What about Kevin Kelsey?”
      “He hung around with Lawrie but never said much. I found him even less interesting. I don’t think I ever saw Kevin with anyone but Lawrie.”
    “Do you have any idea of anything that Kelsey and McDermott shared?”
    “No, not really. They talked a lot but I always assumed it was about their course work.”
    “Was there anything in particular that struck you about McDermott or Kelsey?”
    “They really knew their stuff; especially Lawrie. I kept hearing that from others. One pretty savvy guy, I don’t remember his name, said Lawrie used Unix and Linux and Windows and Mac OS as if he’d written them all. He had a seventeen-inch screen laptop that looked like it weighed a ton but could probably do everything a mainframe could half a dozen years ago. He also had another laptop, a smaller one, and an iPad. He usually hauled a couple of them around. I’m