“Not in a million fucking years,” said Moose.
It was three hours of combing through books that didn’t have so much as a dog-eared page. They were crisp, neat, clean and orderly.
“Nothing. Anything inside the desk?” asked Moose.
“A few sheets of paper about the university policies and that sort of thing. There’s this,” he said tossing it to Moose. “It’s an insurance statement on his car.”
Moose glanced down at the paper and frowned.
“Wait a minute. He wasn’t driving a Jeep when we saw him. He was driving an older model Chrysler.” The two men looked up at one another. “Fuck. He’s got a second vehicle.”
“This is the address,” said HG walking up to the porch with Mo. They knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer. Knocking again, they waited a minute and then heard someone behind them.
“Can I help you?” asked a young woman.
“Are you Allison Morgan?” asked HG.
“Yes. Who are you?”
“My name is HG and this is Mo. We’d like to ask you a few questions about Professor Teller Wayne.” Her entire face turned beet red and she looked down at the bag of groceries in her hand.
“He’s not my professor. I just know him from the university,” she said pushing back the two men.
“We understand, Ms. Morgan, but it’s very important. There is a young woman missing and one dead and we believe he knows something about it.” She opened and closed her mouth several times, then nodded at them.
“Let me put the groceries down. We’ll sit out here if that’s okay.”
“Of course,” said HG. They could see her through the screen door setting the groceries down and then pushing her phone onto a table. At first they were concerned that she might text him, warning him of something. But she only seemed skittish.
“Do you want anything to drink?” she asked. She had a soda in her hand but both men shook their heads.
“Thank you, but we’re fine,” said Mo. “Ms. Morgan.”
“Allison. I’m just Allison,” she said.
“Allison. We understand that you struck up a friendship with Teller. Is that right?”
“No. I mean, we spoke several times but we weren’t friends.” She rubbed her hands on her thighs, pushing her jeans toward her ankles. “This is so embarrassing.”
“We are not hear to judge or make you uncomfortable but this is very important. Anything might help,” said HG.
“He’s a nice-looking older man. I mean, he’s not Prince Charming but he’s smart and well-groomed, just nice. I stopped to speak to him one day outside his classroom. At first he was really friendly with me. He was willing to talk to me about anything and I thought we were hitting it off.
“I wasn’t in his class, so I thought maybe, well, you know.” The two men nodded with a small smile, trying to make her feel better. “He talked a lot about gender roles.”
“Gender roles?” asked Mo. “What do you mean?”
“Well, he firmly believed that women should be in the house. Sort of a barefoot and pregnant scenario. At first, I laughed. I didn’t think he was serious. I mean, how could someone so educated be so ill-informed about the world?”
“It’s a great question,” said HG. “Did you let him know your opinions?”
“Yes,” she frowned. “He immediately changed his attitude toward me. He wouldn’t even say hello any longer. He was just completely rude. I was so hurt and I don’t even know why.”
“Because you thought he was a friend,” said Mo, “and friends don’t judge you. Was there anything else that stuck out for you during your conversations?”
“Only that even though he was talking to me, he was always looking at the thinner, prettier girls behind me. I don’t think he knew that I saw it but it’s not something a girl like me misses.” She blushed again and the two men stared at her for a moment.
“Allison, forgive me, I’m a married man but I can tell you that if I were single, I wouldn’t hesitate to ask you out at all,” said Mo. “I think you’re beautiful, smart, and obviously very kind.”
