Scoop to Kill: A Mystery a La Mode - By Wendy Lyn Watson Page 0,13
was telling you about.”
Ah. So this was the boy who had captured Alice’s fancy. I didn’t see the appeal, personally, but I wasn’t a seventeen-year-old girl with a brain the size of Dallas.
Reggie thrust his hand out to shake, but his eyes skittered about, as though he needed something to hold his attention. And we weren’t it.
“Alice has told us all about you, Reggie. It’s good to finally meet you,” I said.
“Me too,” he replied, leaving me to wonder whether he was happy to make his own acquaintance or whether he suffered from a polite form of Tourette’s syndrome.
“Alice, honey,” I said, “are you ready to get going? I should really get back to the store to give your mama a break.”
“Sure. Let me just go give my regrets to Professor Gunderson.”
She dashed off, leaving Reggie with me and Deena.
“I’m sorry about your friend,” I said.
“What?” Reggie shrugged, jerking like a marionette on a string. “You mean Bryan? We were colleagues.”
Colleagues. Apparently distinct from friends.
Deena and I exchanged a glance, and I saw a smile flirting with the corners of her mouth.
Perhaps he simply didn’t care what we thought of him, but Reggie didn’t let Deena’s amusement or my shock slow him down. “Lately, I hardly even saw him.”
“I thought you shared an office?” I said.
He nodded. “Yes, but he hasn’t been around much this semester. Since the whole blowout with Dr. Clowper, his status in the program has been a little uncertain. The university assigned him to work in the research office with Dr. Gunderson.”
“The one who gave the eulogy?” Deena asked.
“Yep.”
“I thought he was in your department, an English professor.”
“He is. But he’s also the Vice President for Research Support. They administer all the external funding the faculty and departments receive. The grants, you know.”
I could practically feel my eyes glazing over. Where the heck was Alice?
“Sounds interesting,” Deena deadpanned.
Reggie shrugged again. “Not really. It’s just counting someone else’s money, like being a banker. I mean, there’s hardly any grant money for the humanities. All the big money’s in the natural sciences and information technology.”
“Hmmmm,” I murmured. That explained why Emily was worried about getting a grant to fund her trip to the East Coast. But, honestly, I found it tough to muster up a lot of interest in the finer points of academic politics. I searched the crowd for Alice.
I caught a glimpse of her standing with a group of somber adults, her penny-bright hair like a flame in their midst. Dr. Gunderson stood next to a tiny woman with snow-white hair and softly rounded features. Another man stood next to Gunderson, much shorter but with an athletic vitality to his trim form. He nodded earnestly over something Alice said, his narrow bald head tipped down to better hear her. At his side, a woman with a black pantsuit and a bored look on her face stifled a yawn.
“I don’t know why Bryan wanted to work over there,” Reggie continued, oblivious to our disinterest.
“Money?” Deena suggested. “You know, the promise of a paycheck at the end of the month?”
“I guess. But if you’re motivated by money, getting a Ph.D. in English isn’t the way to go.”
“No?”
“No way. Academic jobs don’t pay well, especially in the humanities.”
Deena pulled a face. “I got the impression that Bryan planned to use his academic career to pay the bills until he got a big movie deal.”
Reggie’s lip curled in disgust. “Really? That’s depressing. Well, there’s nothing glamorous or high-paying about the work Bryan was doing in the grants office, and the few times I did see him this term, he seemed pretty excited about his work with Gunderson. Wouldn’t shut up about it. There was something other than money that lit his fire.”
“Maybe he was just putting on a brave face,” I suggested. “You know, making lemons into lemonade.”
Blessedly, Alice popped back into view at that moment.
“All set, Aunt Tally. We can go.”
A sigh of relief escaped before I could check myself.
Deena chuckled softly. “It was good to see you, Alice. We’ll have to have another girls’ day out before my Crystal turns into an old married woman.”
Alice blushed and glanced at Reggie, but he was busy digging in his pockets for something.
“See you on Monday, Reggie,” she said, a thread of girlish hope in her voice.
“Yep,” he responded. “Later.” He walked away, listing to one side as he continued to pat himself down.
“What did you think of Reggie?” Alice asked as we made our way through the crowded parking lot.