Books Can Be Deceiving (25 page)

The male model, who had his profile to them, seemed to sense the intrusion because he turned to face them.

“May I help you?” he asked.

Lindsey locked her eyes onto his and forced herself to keep them there. “We’re, uh, looking for Professor Cushion.”

“You’ve found him,” he said.

“Oh, is he here?” Lindsey glanced around the room, relieved to be able to look away. She noticed Beth did not, and she jabbed her with a sharp elbow to the ribs.

“Huh,” she grunted and looked away.

“I’m Professor Cushion,” the model said.

Lindsey whipped her head back in his direction and stared at the part in his shoulder-length, thick black hair. “Really?”

“Yes,” he said. “Here, everyone, let’s break for today. We’ll resume tomorrow.”

“Oh, we don’t want to interrupt . . .” Lindsey’s voice trailed off as he grabbed a robe and covered himself. He hopped off of the table and strode toward them.

“No, it’s fine. My leg was beginning to cramp.”

“But you’re their professor,” Lindsey said. The words flew out before she could stop them.

“Meaning they shouldn’t see me naked?” he asked.

“Well, it just seems . . .”

“Inappropriate?” he supplied.

“Well, yeah,” Lindsey said.

“Why didn’t I have any professors like you when I was in school?” Beth asked. Her voice came out breathy, and her eyes were a bit glazed.

Professor Cushion threw back his head and laughed. It was a good laugh, deep and resonant and pure. Lindsey found herself warming to him even though she questioned his judgment for disrobing in front of his students.

“This is an advanced class in the study of the human form. Everyone in here will be the model at some point in the semester. I figure I can’t ask the students to do something I won’t do myself,” he said.

Beth looked at him with shining admiration, and Lindsey figured she’d best steer them back to the matter at hand.

“Professor Cushion,” Lindsey began, but he interrupted, “Call me Tim.”

“Tim, I’m Lindsey Norris, and this is my friend Beth Stanley. We’re here hoping to ask some questions about a former student in the art program, and we’re wondering if you can help us.”

“I’ll certainly try,” he said. “Come on, let’s go to my office, where we can sit.”

He led them through another door to a cubbyhole of an office. It was full of books and half-done paintings, and the smell of oil paints and turpentine perfumed the air. An easel was set up by a window with a half-done portrait on it. Even to Lindsey’s untrained eye, she could see that he had talent.

There was no desk in the room. A laptop sat on the windowsill, and there was a couch and two comfy armchairs wedged in the corner. Lindsey and Beth took the couch, while Tim sat on the chair.

“Can I get you anything? Coffee? Water?”

“No, thank you,” Lindsey said.

“Very nice of you to offer, though,” Beth added.

“So, you have questions about a student?” he asked. “You know I can’t give out personal information.”

“It’s a matriculated student,” Lindsey said. “In fact, he graduated about ten years ago.”

“What’s his name?” he asked.

“Ernie Shadegg,” Beth said.

Tim sat back against the couch as if he’d been pushed. “I haven’t heard that name in a while.”

Lindsey studied him. She guessed him to be about their age. He obviously had an advanced degree to be teaching on a college campus.

“Did you go to school with him?” Beth asked.

“No, I did my undergraduate work in Philadelphia and my later degrees in New York City, but Mr. Shadegg is a legend at this school. I think he won just about every award ever given.”

“Really?” Lindsey hoped she sounded like she didn’t already know that. “Any word on what he is doing now?”

“Ah, so that’s why you’ve come,” Tim said. He smiled. It was a good smile that reached his eyes and made him even handsomer, if that was possible. “You’re interested in the legend.”

“Legend?” Beth repeated. She ran a hand through the short spikes of her hair, giving away her state of nervousness. Lindsey wondered if it was the handsome Professor Cushion making her nervous or if she was worried about what they’d find out. Lindsey was willing to bet it was a little bit of both, with the professor tipping her into a fine case of the jitters.

“It was before my time,” Tim said. “I’ve only been here about three years, but I’ve heard all about Ernie from other faculty.”

“What was their take on him?” Lindsey asked. “Was he well liked?”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Tim said. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. His robe gaped open and both Lindsey and Beth averted their eyes. “Oh, sorry about that. Here, I’ll change, and then we can finish our conversation.”

He rose and strode over to the corner of the room, where a neat pile of clothing was folded. As they watched, he dropped his robe, giving them a good shot of his backside. They exchanged a glance and turned away, staring at the opposite wall.

Lindsey could feel Beth’s shoulder shaking against hers, and she knew she was fighting off a sudden fit of the giggles. Lindsey pressed her lips together for fear that she was going to lose it as well.

“Get a grip,” she murmured out of the side of her mouth.

“I’m trying,” Beth said, but it was engulfed in muted laughter, which made Lindsey snort out her nose as she tried not to crack up as well.

“There,” Tim said as he rejoined them. “Now I feel like I can have a grown-up conversation.”

They turned back to face him. He was looking at them with one eyebrow raised as if he knew quite well that they’d been laughing at him.

“I’m sorry,” Beth said. Her voice still held a trace of amusement. “We’re librarians, so the naked people we see are generally not as good looking as you.”

“Librarians see naked people?” Tim asked. His dark-brown eyes were alight with curiosity as he used an elastic band to secure his long hair at the nape of his neck.

“Well, mostly naked. I do believe Mr. Bagwell was wearing his shirt and shoes,” Beth said.

“And he had his book bag,” Lindsey said.

“It was a cold day outside,” Beth agreed. “He might have caught a chill otherwise.”

“But why was he naked?” Tim asked.

“He just forgot,” Lindsey said with a shrug.

“His underwear?”

“And pants,” Beth added. “Apparently, he was so eager to return his DVDs, so as not to get a fine, he just plain forgot.”

“I had no idea libraries were so rich with characters,” Tim said. “I should bring my sketchpad and camp out.”

“When you work with the public, you see all sorts of things,” Lindsey said.

“Like Johnny, the transvestite with the broken heel,” Beth said. “Poor thing, he never could get a date with that hobbling walk of his.”

Tim’s eyebrows lifted up on his forehead. “You’re teasing me.”

“Nope,” they said together.

“Don’t forget about poor Karen,” Lindsey said. “She’s a regular who flosses her teeth with her hair. It’s a nervous habit.”

Tim looked at them as if he was trying to decide if they were messing with him or not.

“Now back to Ernie Shadegg,” Lindsey said. “What can you tell us about him?”

“Like I said, it was before my time here, but I got the feeling he had been a star student, loads of awards and accolades. Everyone expected really big things out of him. Word had it, he had tried to break into illustrating but had been unsuccessful.”

“Was he teaching at the school? Is that why he was still in the area?” Beth asked.

“No, I’m not sure why he was still here, other than he was still the big man on campus, and according to the people who knew him, he was arrogant enough to really like that.”

“So, what happened to him?” Lindsey asked.

“About five years ago, he just disappeared.”

“Without a trace?”

Tim nodded. “Thus, the legend.”

Lindsey and Beth looked at each other. They, of course, knew what had happened to Ernie. He had moved to the Thumb Islands under the name Rick Eckman and gone on to be a renowned children’s book author.

If being the big man on campus had been so important to him, it was hard for Lindsey to believe that he’d walk away from the bragging rights of his success. Unless, of course, there was a reason that he couldn’t brag, like maybe he had launched his new persona Rick Eckman with plagiarized work.

“Is there anyone at the school who might still remember him?” Beth asked.

“There are a few people on staff who knew him,” he said. “I’m sure they’d be happy to talk to you. But now it’s my turn to ask a question. Why are two librarians interested in a former student who disappeared years ago?”

L
indsey and Beth exchanged yet another look. Lindsey was going to leave it up to Beth. He had been her boyfriend, after all.

“We think we know where he’s been for the past five years,” she said. “In fact, we’re sure of it. He’s been living under the assumed name Rick Eckman on an island off of Briar Creek. It’s about an hour down the shore from here.”

“Really?” he asked. “That’s extraordinary. In this day of computers, you’d think it’d be impossible to disappear.”

Lindsey pulled the school photo out of her purse. “Can you tell if this picture was taken here?”

Tim studied it for a moment and said, “Wow, this is disturbing.”

“Because it was taken on campus?” Lindsey asked.

“Well, that, and because I know two of the people in the picture with him,” he said. He shook his head and flipped over the photograph. “How old is this?”

“Almost ten years, I think,” Lindsey said. “It looks as if he was still a student.”

“I never knew that he and Sydney were a couple,” Tim said. “Man, they look so young.”

“He and Sydney were a couple?” Beth asked. “I assumed he was dating the one that he has his arm around.”

“Yes, that’s Sydney Carlisle,” Tim said. “She’s very active in the alumni association. A powerhouse of an editor in New York; she brings in a lot of money.”

“I think you’re mistaken,” Lindsey said. She rose from the couch and looked over his shoulder. “Sydney is the one off on the right with the weird look on her face.”

“No, that’s Astrid Blunt,” Tim said. “I’m sure of it.”

“Who?” Beth and Lindsey asked together.

“Professor Blunt,” Tim said, with more than a trace of dislike flavoring his words. “She’s a professor here, has been for years.”

“But . . .” Beth began, but Lindsey cut her off. “Do you think you could tell us where to find her?”

Tim checked his watch. “I have just enough time before my next class.”

They followed him out of his office and back down the stairs to the art rooms below.

Tim stopped and tried a door at the end of the hall, but it was locked. He frowned and checked his watch again. “She should be here. She’s supposed to have a class right now.”

“This can’t be good,” Beth said. Her eyes searched the cavernous hallway as if expecting the woman they knew as Sydney but who was actually Astrid to leap out from any corner.

Lindsey blew out a breath. She met Beth’s gaze and realized she was coming to the same conclusion that she had. Astrid had come to Briar Creek and posed as Sydney Carlisle. The question was why? What had she hoped to gain?

Lindsey thought about the picture. Rick, or rather Ernie, had his arm around Sydney Carlisle. They looked to be the picture of a young, happy couple. But something must have happened for Ernie to change his name to Rick and completely disappear from his alma mater. The fact that Sydney went on to be a successful children’s book editor, Rick’s editor in fact, and then Rick suddenly changed his name and won a Caldecott made Lindsey suspect that the two of them had done something irrevocable. Something that would cause someone to hate them so much that he or she would murder them. Lindsey felt a shiver run down her spine.

“We think Astrid killed Rick Eckman—your Ernie Shadegg—and Sydney Carlisle as well,” Lindsey said.

“Sydney?” Tim asked. “What do you mean?”

“Sydney is dead,” Lindsey said. “She was killed in a train accident.”

“That we’re not so sure was an accident,” Beth said.

“No! Meek, little Astrid?” he asked. He shook his head and said, “No, I just can’t see it.”

“The photograph,” Beth said. “Where’s the photo?”

“Oh, nuts. I left it up in my office,” Tim said.

“She can’t get her hands on that. It’s evidence,” Beth said. Her voice had risen to a frantic pitch.

“It’s okay,” Tim said. He put his hand on her arm in reassurance, but Beth was so jittery, she jumped at the contact. “I’ll jog up and get it.”

He turned and took the stairs two at a time. Lindsey and Beth moved across the hall, away from Astrid’s classroom. Students were milling around the locked door, obviously wondering why they hadn’t heard that their class had been canceled. Lindsey wondered why Astrid wasn’t here. If they were right and she had killed Ernie and Sydney, had she gone into hiding? She hated to admit it, but a small part of her was relieved not to have to face the woman. The whole situation was beginning to give her the creeps.

Other classes were starting now, and students were moving through the halls. Most carried heavy black art portfolios as well as backpacks. They all looked freshly scrubbed and innocent, with their lives ahead of them, the path uncharted.

Lindsey thought she’d feel envious of their freedom but was surprised that, instead, she was looking forward to her life in Briar Creek. She was settled, and she was happy about it.

She glanced up the stairs, hoping to see Tim returning. But there was no sign of him. She turned to suggest to Beth that they go upstairs when the noisy chatter of the students was interrupted by a sharp bang and a second later by a scream.