Page 36 of M for Murder

‘You think I want to eat with you?’

Hickok grinned. ‘Don’t be so picky, Angell. I don’t think you’re gonna get any other guys showing up on your doorstep tonight, do you?’

Rebecca scowled, wishing she had a baseball handy.

For once, realising that he’d overstepped the mark, he apologised. ‘Look, help me out here and I’ll put in a good word for you with Krigg, okay?’

‘You promise?’

‘I promise.’

She nodded, not quite sure what she was letting herself in for. ‘Okay, wait here while I go get my jacket.’

Twenty minutes later they arrived at the college. Hickok drove again and, although Rebecca didn’t bother to argue about the speed limit, she scowled disapprovingly at the speedometer.

Getting into the main building proved easy. Although they found the doors locked, Hickok soon located a night caretaker who asked no questions once the Fed had flashed his badge, and willingly provided them with a set of keys.

Still unsure exactly what they were doing there, Rebecca followed Hickok along the empty, dimly lit corridors, some of which she recognised from their previous visit, trying to remember the name of the horror flick she’d seen years earlier where in a similar setting a maniac with a knife had sliced up a bunch of kids attending a student dance.

Eventually they stopped outside a classroom.

‘This is the one,’ Hickok told her, unlocking the door and pushing it open.

‘This is the one what?’ Rebecca asked, following him inside.

He didn’t answer her question. ‘Close the door behind you. I don’t want anyone finding us in here.’

‘Why? The night caretaker already knows were here.’

‘Yeah, but I don’t want anyone else to know we are.’ Hickok looked up and met her eyes. For once he looked serious. ‘So just close the door, okay?’

Rebecca did as she was told, not sure that she felt very comfortable being alone in a dark classroom with Hickok. She was about to flick the light switch on when she saw him pull a miniature flashlight from his pocket. Switching it on, he headed over to the desk at the front of the room. Rebecca glanced around the classroom at the empty desks, thinking how creepy the room looked empty of students. Still unsure about being there, she joined Hickok over by the main desk, where he was already trying to get the drawers open.

Finding them locked, he pulled another bunch of keys from his pocket and proceeded to test each one in the lock.

Rebecca felt her heartbeat quicken. ‘Hey, where did you get those?’

Hickok answered her, not even bothering to look up. ‘They’re friends of mine. Never know when you might need them.’

‘Are they legal?’

‘Legal, illegal, it’s a fuzzy line, Angell.’

Giving up with the key he was trying, he moved on to the next one on the ring.

Rebecca glanced round at the door, half expecting someone to walk through and catch them at any moment. She could just imagine Hickok causing her to lose her job. Had she realised what exactly he’d meant when he said he was going exploring over at the college, she would have refused. He looked up at her, apparently sensing her unease.

‘Look, relax, Angell. It’s not a felony, okay?’

‘Yeah, sure.’ Pulling up a chair in the front row of the class, she sat down. ‘So seeing as you dragged me down here, I think you at least owe me the courtesy of telling me why exactly we are here.’

Hickok tried another key. ‘You remember the professor I talked to on Wednesday, Lawrence Parker?’

‘Yes.’

‘This is his classroom. I just want to have a snoop around in his things.’

Rebecca raised an eyebrow. ‘Well, why didn’t you just look in his desk when you were last here? I’m sure he would have shown you.’