Ellen heard her movements, then her steps, the door opening, closing.
“You can come back now, Blair,” Haliday said. “You haven’t finished your sandwich.”
She made sure her hands were steady before she left the window and returned to the table.
“How’s it coming in the catacombs?”
“We’ll finish this evening, I think. Then there will be the current files in the records office downstairs. They won’t take long.”
“Good. What do you think, Blair? Did Ayers love him?”
Ellen set her cup down hard. “She said not, Haliday. What else can I tell you?”
He chuckled. “She can’t recall the name of a single woman he had an affair with. Curious, isn’t it?”
“I don’t think so.”
“I didn’t think you would,” he said mildly. “Eat your lunch.” But before she could take another bite, he pushed a paper toward her. “Have a look at that. Tell me, as a reasonable person, if you saw an apartment with all that stuff in it, would you assume the occupant intended to come back?”
Philip’s apartment, she realized. This was a list of what had been found. She had thought it was just a few odds and ends at the time, but this was a long list. Suits, outdoors clothes, other clothes, books, the typewriter, a stereo and records, television, photographs... She read it over again and shook her head. “I’d think he was coming back,” she said. “I never realized it was this much.”
“I’m getting that from everyone except Ayers. Seems word went out that he left a few things and took off.”
“But his family should have raised objections,” Ellen said.
“Sheriff Craxton says there was a lot of infighting going on at the time. They seemed to accept that he took off to annoy them. They deny anything of the sort now.”
She pushed her unfinished sandwich away and drank the rest of her coffee. It was bitter and cold. “Why do you keep telling me things like that? You’re implying that the sheriff knew, or should have known, it wasn’t a case of a man driving away. Why are you doing this?”
“You think the sheriff would deliberately hide something like this?”
“No. I think he’d bend a lot in little ways. No students get arrested for drunken driving, or searched for possession of substances, things like that. This serious? No.”
“That’s why I tell you stuff, Blair. I’m sort of using you as a sounding board, find out what people around here are thinking. You do just fine.”
That was part of it, she thought, but not the whole truth. She stood up. “I’d better get back to work.” At the door she paused and looked at him. “Why are you concentrating on the college? There are a lot of town women who might have become involved with him.”
He reached for the last sandwich. “I have people asking questions all over town, believe me. But, Blair, this started and ended right here on this campus.”
“Thanks, Haliday,” she said. “That’s really reassuring.” She could hear his chuckle as she left.
It was after four-thirty when she and Winona Kelly finished the files in the archives. “You can go on ahead if you want,” Ellen said when she finished checking the last batch of copied files. “I’ll just put this stuff back first.”
“I’ll wait,” Winona said.
Ellen shrugged and began to refile the records. “Did he tell you not to leave me here?”
“Not just like that. He was sore because a reporter or someone got to you yesterday.”
Ellen bit her lip and continued to replace the records. That bastard, she thought savagely. He was keeping an eye on her. But why? There wasn’t anything to connect her to Philip Seymour. Someone surely had told him about the age parameters Philip had set; he must know she had been well out of them. Or maybe he believed Philip had made an exception in her case.
Today Winona held an umbrella over both of them as they walked back to the administration building. “Can’t wait to get to my motel and get a shower,” Winona said. “You wouldn’t believe files could be so dirty, would you?” She chattered and popped her gum, never expecting a response apparently. “I grew up over in Bend,” she said. “Just can’t get used to this rain. Everything I have on feels clammy.”
Ellen nodded. Shower, change of clothes, something hot to eat and drink... Her needs seemed very simple at the moment. Then she began to think about the list of things Philip had left in his apartment. Clothes, outdoor wear... She was frowning slightly when they entered the administration building, where many people were milling about, students, work-study students, office workers. She saw Rita coming from the records room and went to her.
“Will you give this to Dr. Melton?” she asked, handing her the list of files they had copied that day. “I have to see the lieutenant. She may be gone before I’m through upstairs.” It was close to five; she hoped Hilde would go on home at five.
Rita said sure, no problem, took the list and headed back toward her own office. Ellen went up the stairs with Winona. When they passed the door of Conference Room A she saw with surprise that the furniture had been rearranged in there, and several groups of people sat at tables separated from one another. She recognized John Wooster from maintenance at one of the tables, and two cafeteria workers at others. He really was having everyone questioned, she thought in wonder.
When they reached Conference Room D the door was open and Haliday was reading a typed sheet of paper.
“Finished?” he asked.
“Pretty much,” Ellen said. “Just one question. On that list of stuff in Philip Seymour’s apartment, there wasn’t a tuxedo mentioned, a powder-blue tux. Would anyone have just included it among the other clothes?”
“Philip watchers saw him in a light blue tux? The night of the big party?”
She nodded. “That’s what I heard.” Patty had seen him in it, had raved that he looked like a movie star.
He glanced at Winona. “You can take off. See you in the morning. Come on in, Blair. Close the door. If Kelly stays, she goes on overtime,” he said. “You’re on straight salary, aren’t you?”
“Yes. But that’s all I wanted to bring up. I didn’t know if anyone had mentioned it.”
She remained at the door; he began to rummage through papers. He motioned for her to join him. “Have a look,” he said as he ran his finger down a sheet of paper he had extracted from a pile.
“I’d like to go home,” she said.
He paid no attention, merely beckoned again, and angrily she closed the door and joined him at the table.
“Would you say anything on that list looks like formal evening wear? Two sports jackets, gray suit, three pairs of jeans... Where do you suppose he changed after the dance?”
“I don’t know. In his van maybe.”
“That would be strange,” he murmured. “Five-minute drive to a closet full of clothes. Why change in the van?”
“Maybe he was more than five minutes away. Maybe he never went home after the dance.”
Haliday straightened up and slowly he nodded. “I think you’ve got it, Blair.”
The door opened and Hilde Melton came in. She stopped when she saw Ellen, and stood for a moment studying her. Then she continued into the room. “Lieutenant Haliday, I meant to speak to you alone. I thought Ellen had left, but perhaps it’s better this way. I want Ellen to return to her regular duties tomorrow. You have enough of your own people to conduct any further searches of our files. There are people in the current-records room to give you any assistance you may need.”
Good, Ellen thought, no microfiches.
“I don’t know,” Haliday said. “She’s really been helpful.”
“Lieutenant, look at her. She’s a nervous wreck over all this nonsense. Janice Ayers has mentioned that this is too much for Ellen, doing police work on such a ghastly case. People who have known her all her life have gone out of their way to comment. That awful woman reporter who seems to think she has privileges just because she was a student here, even she has commented. It was a mistake to offer you Ellen’s help. I wish to rectify my mistake.”