thing for old music, not me. But when I decided to call myself the Shooting Star, it seemed to fit.”
Donna went into the other room and returned with the CD. The title was something about Perry Como’s greatest hits.
“I took dance lessons when I was young,” Donna said. “I know it was a crazy thing to do, but I always wanted to dance in front of a live audience. I had to wear the mask and wig. If my parents ever found out… I made some pretty good money, though. Look at my haul from Wednesday.”
She pulled an envelope out of the dresser and flashed a wad of bills inside it.
I was having trouble absorbing all this. “You’re speaking in the past tense.”
“Yes. Of course I couldn’t go on last night. And now I think it’s time to call it a career. Short and sweet. It was fun while it lasted. Whatever gave you the idea that Elise was the Shooting Star in the first place?”
“Well, you did. You’re the one who asked me to tell Dr. Pappas to go to the Club Cavalier and look for the Shooting Star. You said it would help him. And since we’d been talking about the sexual harassment case against him…”
“I have a confession to make.” Donna giggled. “I have a crush on Dr. Pappas. When I heard you talk about him with Priscilla I thought, wouldn’t it be great if he came and saw me dance. Of course he wouldn’t know it was me. And I would never have had the guts to tell him.”
“Dr. Pappas didn’t see you dance, but I did.”
“How did you like me?”
She gave no indication that she had seen me, but I couldn’t have expected her to. I had been sitting in the back and the spotlight was in her eyes. “You were…great. You sure held everybody’s attention. I’m told that after each dance you rushed out of the club and disappeared. In order to maintain your anonymity. Did you have your car parked somewhere?”
“A block away. I couldn’t park in the Club Cavalier lot because Elise’s father keeps a website of license plate numbers of guys who go there.”
“I know. My son’s license got put on the Internet.”
“I’m sorry. I hope it didn’t hurt him. Elise and I joked about it-in fact it’s a running joke at the college-but still I figured if I was going to keep my identity secret I’d better not risk it.”
“You owe Lefty a call,” I said.
“Lefty? Oh, you mean at the club.”
“Yes. To tell him you’re not going back.”
“Right. Because of everything that’s happened I haven’t had a chance.”
I looked around the bedroom. All of Elise’s possessions appeared to have been removed already. “You found her, didn’t you?”
Donna shuddered. “It was awful. She was in the bed there, lying on her back, all covered with blood. Blood…blood, all this blood.” She paused. “I had just returned from the club.”
“And the killer got in through the front window?”
“Yes, it was broken so he could undo the latch and open it. There was glass on the floor inside and the window was open. I didn’t notice any of that when I came in. It was dark outside and I didn’t turn on any lights in the living room. And the drapes were closed. The police found the mess.”
Then Mark definitely didn’t do it. He knew how to pick locks.
I must have said part of that aloud because Donna said, “Mark? You mean Dr. Pappas. I don’t believe he did it.”
“Let me clear one thing up. When you and I talked outside the Administration Building you said that he couldn’t be guilty of sexual harassment. You were aware at that time that Elise had filed the charge against him, weren’t you?”
“Of course. Elise and I didn’t keep secrets from each other.”
“Are you saying that Elise filed a false charge?”
“What does it matter now?”
“It may matter a great deal because Dr. Pappas is suspected of her murder. If Elise filed a false charge, Dr. Pappas of course knew it was false and would be less likely to kill her than if the charge were true.”
“Or maybe he would be more likely to kill her because she was trying to hurt him and he didn’t deserve it.”
I hadn’t thought of that. Human nature is complicated. “What did you tell the police about the harassment charge?”
“They didn’t ask me about it.”
“Look, Donna. We’re on the same side. Neither of us believes that Dr. Pappas killed Elise. Why don’t you just tell me what you know about the charge.”
“If I do, will you promise not to tell anybody else?”
“How can I do that? This is a murder case.”
“Okay, not unless you absolutely have to.”
“All right, all right.”
“Elise had a boyfriend named Ted. Ted was handpicked and approved by her father.”
“Were they serious?”
“He was more serious than she was. But I think she had become resigned to marrying him.”
“That doesn’t sound like till-death-do-us-part love.”
“No, but remember, Elise was always trying to please her father.”
Always didn’t sound like the right word. “Even to letting him pick her husband.”
“That’s what it looked like to me. Ted believes that people shouldn’t have sex until they get married. He claims he’s a virgin. But Elise…”
“Wasn’t.”
“She had another serious boyfriend before Ted, one definitely not picked by her father. Last year Elise and I roomed together in a dorm. Sometimes I had to leave the room while she and her boyfriend…”
“I get the picture. I still don’t understand what this has to do with Elise filing a harassment charge against Mark…Dr. Pappas.”
“The fact that she wasn’t a virgin gnawed at Elise because she figured it would be found out when she got married, if not before. She needed to get it excused in Ted’s eyes. She came up with this idea of filing a harassment charge for nonconsensual sex. I told her not to, especially not against Dr. Pappas. But she did it anyway.”
“Why did she choose Dr. Pappas?”
“Because…he’s young and good looking, and because…I suspect Elise fantasized about him, just like I did.”
There’s nothing like living out your fantasies. “So Ted knew about the harassment charge because he was meant to. I gather that her father didn’t know about it.”
“She didn’t want him to know about it because she was afraid he would hurt Dr. Pappas.”
“But the consequences of the charge, itself, wouldn’t.”
“I warned her about that. But she wasn’t thinking straight. I don’t think she thought it would hurt Dr. Pappas as much as it did. Or cause an uproar on campus. The whole thing was supposed to be confidential.”
“Who do you think leaked the fact that Mark was the accused?”
“I’d rather not say. I work in the Administration Building and I don’t want to lose my job.”
“You’ve said enough. I want to talk to this guy, Ted.”
“The police have already talked to him.”
We had been standing in the bedroom all this time. I had noticed a loose-leaf binder sitting on Donna’s dresser. The cover had been hand-decorated with music notes and flowers. The word “Compositions” was written on it in fancy script.
“Are you a writer?” I asked her.
She followed my gaze to the notebook and giggled in an embarrassed manner. “I like to write. I’ve written some poems and stuff. The drama department put on a musical review last fall. I wrote the words to many of the songs they sang, including all the songs that Elise sang.”
“That’s impressive. I read that Elise was a singer. She must have been good.”
“She was great. She was going to have the lead in Carousel, the May musical here at the college. Here death
