“You did, Dr. Eban,” the man said.
A rumble filled the room.
“That is not true,” Dr. Eban responded coolly. “And I don’t appreciate the accusation. Please leave our class.”
The man stood but he didn’t leave. He looked around the room and then brought his arm slowly up to point at the doctor below.
“This man is a killer. If you put your trust in him, he will ruin your career and then your life. When that’s not enough, he will kill you.”
The rumble grew. I didn’t see a weapon on him, but a hum of violence filled the air along with his accusation. I watched as a few of the students stood to leave and Dr. Eban reached for his mobile.
The man left his chair and began walking along the back wall toward the door.
“Let’s follow him,” I said to Elias.
“Aye,” he said with his own violent glimmer.
“I don’t want to pick a fight, I just want to talk to him,” I said, hoping to diffuse Elias’s obvious anger.
“We’ll see.”
Elias led us out of the room. We were followed by a couple of students who’d felt the need to escape even after the man and his anger were gone. Dr. Eban didn’t try to stop anyone.
I looked at the doctor before I went through the doorway, and his eyes caught mine briefly. He blinked in confusion, but I didn’t stick around long enough to see if he finally recognized me.
“He went this way,” Elias said from halfway down the hallway.
We set off at a quick jog.
TWENTY-TWO
Elias pushed through a door at the end of the hallway that led to a stairway. By the time I followed through he’d already traveled up one flight and was turning to go up another.
“How do you know he went up here?” I called to him.
“Only reasonable place. He’s hiding from security now.”
Elias and I both took the stairs two at a time, but with his head start and determination, he easily beat me up the four flights.
At the top, he pushed through another doorway. I reached it just before it closed. I held the door open and tried to catch my breath as I looked out to the roof.
“Hey!” Elias said to the man, who had indeed gone where Elias thought he would. He stood a few feet back from the ledge and his chest rose and fell quickly with his breathing.
“Who are you?” he said to Elias.
It was at that moment that I knew I was dealing with two similar people. They were both toward the far end of middle age, both with minds and hearts that desired to set things right. The man who’d accused Dr. Eban thought he was doing the right thing, and Elias thought he was doing the right thing by chasing down this man who’d seemed dangerous to a roomful of people. Doing the right thing can get people in so much trouble sometimes.
Hurriedly, I grabbed the rock that had been set outside the door and put it where it would keep it open.
“Hi!” I said a bit too cheerily as I jogged toward them. I held up one hand toward the man and put my other one on Elias’s arm. “I knew Mallory. We just want to talk to you.”
“How did you know Mallory?” he said as if he was certain he should know me too.
“I got to know some of the medical students. I met her,” I said. I swallowed and looked back and forth between him and Elias. “I was with her the evening before she got killed. I work at the bookshop where … where it happened.”
There was no sense of goodwill coming from the man as he took one step closer to the ledge. I really didn’t think he would jump, but that might have just been denial.
“My name’s Delaney. This is my friend Elias. What’s your name?”
“Why did you chase me up here?”
“Why do you think Dr. Eban killed Mallory?”
“Are you students?” he asked.
“No, we were there to spy on Dr. Eban. Well, kind of spy. We wanted to see him work. Just curious about him.”
“Do you suspect him too?”
I shook my head. No need to add to this man’s suspicions. “Not until you accused him. Well, I just don’t know, but I’d really like to find out. Will you talk to us?”
“I can’t leave the roof for a while. I’m sure security is looking for me.”
Elias huffed. “They’ll look up here too.”
“If you’d just close the door on your way back down, they might not think about it.”
“It will lock. How will you get off the roof?” I asked.
“I’ve got someone coming tae get me later.”
Elias and I looked at each other. He squinted and then turned toward the door. I wasn’t sure what he did, but it included a piece of a receipt he pulled from his pocket and the gum he’d been chewing. A short few moments later, the door was shut, but Elias illustrated how it opened easily. It was a trick I hoped to learn some other day.
While Elias had been working on the door, the man and I hadn’t moved from our spots. My breathing normalized, and I noticed that his chest wasn’t moving up and down as quickly either.
“What’s yer name, man?” Elias said as he walked back to my side.
“Conn Clatcher.”
“You’re Conn?” I asked. Yes, he and Elias were similar, but I didn’t think
