Quoth the Raven(55)

Suddenly, Chessey Flint sat up straight, stretched out both her arms and legs in a ritual motion of unkinking, and said, “Mr. Demarkian? Can I ask you something?”

“Yes,” Gregor told her, “of course.”

“Jack said he thought you thought that—that the person who did that to Miss Veer wasn’t really looking to do it to Miss Veer. That it was just someone on the cafeteria staff who put that stuff in something it wouldn’t be noticed in, like a peanut butter sandwich, and then just left it out for anyone to take and get hurt by it. Is that what you think?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

Gregor, thought about skirting the whole question. It wasn’t his investigation. He hadn’t even been asked to help yet. He had no idea what David Markham did or did not want generally known. To tell Chessey Flint only that such an explanation didn’t feel right, though, would offend her—and she would have a right to be offended. She was treating him like a human being and she had a right to be treated like one by him.

He wrapped his arms around his knees and gave it to her, the whole thing, from why the lye couldn’t have been in Miss Veer’s tea to the utter lack of anything else it could have been in anywhere in the premises after Miss Veer had fallen to the floor. Chessey listened to him in silence, her large eyes wide and trained determinedly on his face. When he was done, she stretched again and sat back.

“I see,” she said. “I shouldn’t have said Jack thought you thought it was one of the cafeteria workers. That wasn’t quite what he was getting at. I don’t think he knows what to think.”

“What do you think?”

“I don’t know.” Chessey sighed. “I was sitting very close, you know. At one of the tables in the first line beyond the cash register, right on that side of the room. I was even looking straight at her when she started to fall. I just wasn’t paying any attention.”

“Had a lot on your mind?”

Chessey snorted. “I always seem to have a lot on my mind these days, Mr. Demarkian. I don’t think I like being a senior much. It’s confusing.”

“So is being fifty-five and retired. Life is confusing.”

“Maybe. But you know, Mr. Demarkian, I keep thinking about it. I was looking at it and I was not looking at it. I keep thinking I must have seen something. And all I can remember, really all I can remember, is thinking that Dr. Elkinson looks better with her hair back in a scarf.”

“Dr. Elkinson?”

“Dr. Elkinson was standing at the cash register with Miss Veer,” Chessey said. “They were just standing there talking, right inside the place where you have to pay, near the cans of Coke and Pepsi and that kind of thing. And then Dr. Crockett came up, and I got a little angry.”

“Why?”

“Sort of as a matter of principle. He’s been taking up a lot of Jack’s time lately, with the rock-climbing and the cabin on Hillman’s Rock and all that sort of thing. Did you know that Jack was a rock-climber?”

“From what I’ve heard,” Gregor said, “practically everyone around here is a rock-climber.”

Chessey nodded. “Practically everyone in the Program is, anyway. Dr. Crockett’s always been the adviser for the Climbing Club and he’s very popular. Even most of the faculty have gotten sucked into it at one time or another. Dr. Elkinson, Dr. Branch. I think it put Dr. Crockett’s nose a little out of joint when Dr. Steele came and it turned out he was a world-class climber too.”

“Dr. Steele.” Gregor rubbed his chin. “I keep hearing about this Dr. Steele, but I never actually see him. Isn’t he new on campus this term? Shouldn’t he be around?”

“Oh, he should be around all right, Mr. Demarkian, he just isn’t. Nobody’s seen him for a couple of days. It’s been a little weird, if you want to know the truth. Usually you can’t get rid of him. Anyway. About this afternoon. Dr. Crockett came up, and then Jack came up from the other end of the line. When I was first looking at them—at Dr. Elkinson and Dr. Crockett and Miss Veer—they were all talking together, but when Jack came up he and Dr. Crockett sort of split off by themselves. And I thought, well, if I don’t like it I ought to do something about it. I’m supposed to be all grown up. So I did.”

“Do something about it?” Gregor asked.

“That’s right. I went up, got Jack by the arm, and dragged him back to the table.”

“Then what happened?”

Chessey shrugged. “I don’t know. That was the point where I really stopped paying attention. To them, anyway. I had a lot to talk about with Jack. The next thing I knew, Miss Veer dropped her tray, the teacup smashed on the floor, and Dr. Elkinson started screaming.”