You Can Run... (37 page)

“Did you know anybody on the plane?” Willow asked Diana.

“No. It happened before I was born. Uncle Simon knew a few people, though. My grandmother told me he was very sad when it happened.”

“You see the points at the top of the fountain?” Diana asked Willow. Willow nodded. “Each of the points represents a life lost on the plane.”

“Oh, my,” Willow said mournfully.

“After they built the student center and installed the fountain, they constructed the amphitheater and laid bricks instead of concrete, for the floor of the plaza. I think it’s a beautiful memorial,” Diana said.

Willow turned to Diana. “Will you take a picture of Tyler and me in front of the fountain?”

Diana smiled. “I would be most pleased to oblige.”

“Does oblige mean ‘yes’?” Willow asked. Diana nodded. “Great. Then Tyler and me will have a picture of us at Marshall to give to Mommy when she gets well.”

In their first shots by the fountain, both Willow and Tyler looked almost woebegone. Diana stopped snapping pictures and said, “It’s all right to smile, you two. A picture
of you both smiling in front of the fountain would be much nicer.”

At first both their smiles and postures looked stiff. When Diana once again called for some joy to match the dancing, glittering water behind them, Tyler lifted Willow up to his shoulder and the pose seemed to do the trick. Diana managed to get several shots of the two looking cheerful, and one shot of them looking downright ecstatic.

“That last one was a winner,” she told them. “In the first ones you both looked like your faces would crack if you smiled.”

“We professional models have to get in the mood, Diana,” Tyler told her haughtily. “We can’t just turn the charisma on and off like a light switch. We’re a temperamental bunch.”

“That’s why I usually do landscapes, smart alec.”

The whole time they’d been touring the campus, Diana had been on the lookout for Glen. She knew that the police had not found his medical ID bracelet until this morning, and she didn’t think that would warrant more than a questioning from them. She hadn’t given Nan’s confession to Detective Silver until nearly three hours ago. Would the police act on that immediately? After all, it was just Nan’s word against Glen’s. Still, Diana didn’t want to run into him on campus. Autumn classes hadn’t started yet but they would in two weeks, and by this time, professors who’d chosen not to teach summer classes often began readying their offices and class materials for the next semester.

Professors such as Glen, who was fanatically organized. Many people admired his stringent order, but Diana had always thought it resulted from his lack of self-confidence. If he didn’t have everything planned to the last degree, he was lost. Glen could not speak or act extemporaneously. He lived by routines, schedules, habits, and almost fanatical preparation.

Thinking of Glen gave Diana a sudden, uncanny desire to return home. She didn’t want to scare Willow,
though. In a light voice, she said, “I don’t know about you two, but I’m getting a little tired.”

“Oh, my God!” Tyler burst out. “Your head! Your hip! You’re supposed to be resting and I’ve dragged you all over the city. Doctor Evans would kill me.”

Diana laughed. “I’d hardly say we’ve been all over the city and I don’t believe Doctor. Evans would kill
anybody
. I’ve really enjoyed today. I needed to get out in the fresh air and have some fun, and so did Willow. But I think I have reached my limit. Do you mind if we go home now, Willow?”

“Oh, no. You need your rest, dear,” she said, sounding remarkably like Clarice. “We can come back and see the rest of Marshall next week. Does your head hurt real bad?”

“Not yet, but my hip hurts some. And so do my feet.” She held out a high-heeled foot. “I told you what this kind of shoe will do to you!”

They were all laughing when someone shouted, “Diana? Diana Sheridan?”

Diana looked up. A colleague of Glen’s strode across the plaza toward them. She desperately tried to come up with his name but the best she could do was Frederick. He stopped in front of them, looking at Diana inquiringly.

“Uh, yes, I’m Diana Sheridan. Frederick, isn’t it?”

“Can’t believe you remembered. I wasn’t sure at first it was you when I saw you with a little girl and this great strapping man by your side instead of Glen.” Frederick was short, round, jowly. “You
are
still dating Glen, aren’t you, Diana?”

“Well—”

“Sure you are. He told me you were going to some shindig at the country club over the weekend. I’m a bit shaken about . . . well, have you seen Glen today?”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Talked to him on the phone?”

“No. Is something wrong?”

Frederick’s expression went from carefully bland to distressed. “Is it all right to talk in front of the little girl?”
Without waiting for an answer, Frederick ploughed on. “The history department had a faculty meeting scheduled for one o’clock. Glen didn’t show up. In the five years he’s been here, this is a first. He didn’t even call in an excuse.”

“Maybe he forgot the meeting,” Tyler said.

Frederick looked at him as if he were an intruder. “And you are?”

“Tyler Raines. Good friend of Glen’s.”

Willow looked up at Tyler in surprise, but Frederick didn’t notice. “Oh. He’s never mentioned you.” Frederick dismissed Tyler with a flick of his gaze. “Anyway, Diana, when Glen didn’t show up at the meeting, the head of the department asked one of us to check his office. Glen can get caught up in all of his filing and note-making and—well, you know Glen. I went and knocked on the door. No answer and the door was unlocked. Naturally, I opened it and—”

All three of them leaned toward the round man. “And what?” Tyler finally demanded.

“The office has been trashed. Not just messed up.
Trashed
.”

“Good heavens!” Diana exclaimed. “Did vandals damage other offices?”

“No. At least not in our department. We all checked. Just
Glen’s
office!” Frederick shook his head. “The cushion on his desk chair had been slashed, someone had carved on the desk, and every book had been tossed from the bookcases. That photo you gave him of the cable-suspension bridge downtown with the sunset behind it was covered with ink. Ink was splattered everywhere. Ink! Who uses jars of ink these days?”

“How could someone have gotten in?” Diana asked, shocked. “He keeps the office locked.”

“That’s just one of the odd things about this. The lock wasn’t broken. Someone had a key. And the damage must have been done in the night otherwise the secretary would have heard. We tried calling Glen to tell him about the office but we only got the answering machine.”

“Have you called the police?” Tyler asked.

“Of
course.
” Frederick’s tone indicated Tyler must be an imbecile. “I was just going back to the building to see if they’ve come, yet.”

“Maybe it would be best to stay out of their way,” Tyler said.

Frederick ignored him. “Oh, Diana, there was one more thing. Well, really two.” He paused, making everyone wait in suspense once again. “Pictures of two girls were flung all over the place. One had light-brown hair, not so pretty—I think she’s a student. The other had short dark hair and she was a real looker. Oh, sorry Diana,” he said absently. “They were Polaroid shots, but there must have been at least twenty pictures of each girl—different poses.”

“You handled the pictures,” Tyler said with disdain. “Didn’t you think you might be destroying evidence?”

“There’s more than enough evidence in that office to satisfy the police,” Frederick returned, offended. “And finally, Diana, if you can believe it, handwriting had been spray-painted in red on the wall. It said, ‘They destroyed my life.’ ”

Diana expected a barrage of questions from Willow after Frederick’s badly timed description of the damage inflicted on Glen’s office. Of course, they would not have wanted Willow to hear about it, but he hadn’t given Diana a chance to say she’d rather talk to him alone. Frederick was so full of the news he’d simply told everything he knew, as unstoppable as a tidal wave. And what bothered Diana most was that he’d seemed more gleeful than upset.

After hearing about Glen’s office and the inability of anyone to reach him, they’d headed back for the car. Diana wished she’d started complaining about pain ten minutes earlier and they’d completely missed Frederick, but she couldn’t change what had happened. She could only deal with its aftermath.

She looked back at Willow, sitting quietly in the backseat with her seat belt fastened around her. Her earlier joy had vanished. Her face had turned tight and pale. She looked down at a blue-and-white crystal stretch bracelet that Diana had bought for her, turning it slowly on her small wrist.

“Did you have fun today?” Diana asked cheerfully.

Willow looked up. “Yeah. Lots. Thank you for taking me.”

Her voice held no vibrancy, no hint of little-girl happiness. Diana tried again. “I can’t wait to develop the pictures I took of you. I’m going to develop them even before I develop the ones for that awful man at the tourism center I went to last week. If he calls up saying he wants his pictures right
now,
I’ll tell him he has to wait until I develop my pictures of the prettiest girl in the world.”

“But I’m not,” Willow said desolately. “Mommy and you are the prettiest girls in the world.” She looked up with fearful eyes. “Do you think somebody hurt Glen like somebody hurt Mommy?”

“No. I think somebody tore up his office—maybe a student who was mad about the grade he gave them.”

“Do bad grades ruin your life? That man said somebody wrote on the wall somethin’ about his life gettin’ ruined.”

Diana tried not to look at Tyler. “A student who was really upset might think one bad grade had ruined his life, but that’s silly.”

“Glen was s’posed to go to a meeting but he didn’t. How come?”

“I don’t know. Honey, why are you so worried about Glen? I didn’t think you liked him very well.”

“I don’t. Oh, he’s okay, I guess, but I could always tell he really didn’t like kids, so I tried not to bother him. I told Mommy and she said that was best. I said, ‘How come Diana loves a guy like him? What if she marries him?’ And Mommy said, ‘She doesn’t love Glen one bit. She’s just going out with him till she meets the
right
guy, someone special I have picked out for her. When they finally meet, they’re gonna love each other like crazy and they’re gonna get married and have a little girl like you.’ ” Willow went silent again for a moment, then said, “Diana, was Mommy talkin’ about Badge—I mean Tyler? Are you two in love?”

Diana, blushing, hesitated, but Tyler loudly announced, “I am so in love with Diana I could just burst! She’s the most wonderful, beautiful girl I ever met and I’d marry her tomorrow if she’d let me. Would you come to the wedding,
Willow? Because neither one of us would want to have a wedding without you there. And the cats, of course. Do you think Romeo would be my best man?”

He’d done it,
Diana thought as Willow began clapping, her face breaking into a wide smile. He made her happy again. But was that his only reason for saying he wanted to marry her? She looked at him, still embarrassed, and he reached over and took her hand. “Just how big a diamond do you want in your engagement ring, future Mrs. Raines?”

Diana still didn’t know if Tyler was serious, so she tossed back, “As big and gaudy as possible. Something people will need to wear sunglasses just to look at it! And Willow will be my maid of honor and Christabel will be the flower girl.”

“But what if Christabel and Romeo wanna get married then, too?” Willow asked.

Tyler pretended to think. “Then it will just have to be a double ceremony! Are we going to take our honeymoons together, too? Where do Christabel and Romeo want to go, Diana?”

For the sake of Willow, Diana and Tyler continued bantering until they pulled up to the Van Etton house. They went in to find Simon and Clarice in the library, drinking iced tea and talking quietly. While Willow sat down and immediately began telling Clarice all that she’d seen downtown, Simon walked back to the kitchen with Tyler and Diana.

“Something happened,” Simon said. “You two can smile all you want, but I know when things aren’t right. Just give me the bad news now.”

Quickly Tyler told him about Glen missing the faculty meeting, being unreachable by phone, and finally about the office. Simon seemed most dismayed about the pictures. “They were all of Nan and Penny?”

“I suppose,” Tyler answered. “This Frederick guy bursting with all his news said one girl had lighter hair, she wasn’t pretty, and he thought she was a student. He said
the other had short dark hair and was, in his words, ‘a real looker.’ He also said there must have been twenty pictures of both women. He wouldn’t know there were twenty of each unless he handled all of them, which should delight the forensics people, and I don’t know if they were twenty pictures of each in the same pose or different poses. He did say they were Polaroids, though.”

“I’m sure Glen had no trouble getting Nan to pose for him, but what about Penny?” Diana asked. “Either he would have forced her or he would have taken shots of her when she didn’t know he was around.”

“The kind of thing a stalker does,” Tyler said.

Diana shivered. “I cannot believe I dated this pervert for seven months and my only opinion of him was that he was boring. My God! What was I thinking?”

“Not about him, obviously,” Simon said dryly. “And you must remember he was always on his best behavior with you.
You
were the woman he wanted to marry.”

“Why?” Diana asked. “I gave so little—he didn’t even
know
me.”

“Status, dear girl. You’re the beautiful, captivating, world renowned photographer from what he considered ‘good stock.’ ”

Diana made a face. “I don’t think the director of the tourism center considered me captivating and world renowned.”

“Well, that man was an idiot. Nevertheless, when I first met Glen, I was rather charmed by his boyish wish to live in the world of some old movie. It was as if he thought somehow people really did live the way the characters did in
Dinner at Eight
or
The Philadelphia Story.
Later, I began to worry about him. He didn’t seem to be maturing. He still didn’t see life clearly. I wasn’t overjoyed when you began dating him, Diana, but I didn’t think any harm could come of it.” He shook his head. “Hindsight is twenty-twenty.”