A Function of Murder by Ada Madison Read Free Book Online Page A

much
     all of the faculty were here. The mayor gave the keynote address.”
    I didn’t mention how I now regretted all the criticism I’d levied against the poor
     man, how Fran and I had gossiped like schoolgirls during his talk. I found myself
     hoping Mayor Graves would be well enough to address us again next year. I swore that
     I’d pay attention and clap the loudest, and whatever it took, I’d strong-arm the whole
     rest of the faculty into doing the same.
    “Do you have any idea what time the mayor left the campus?” Virgil asked.
    “His speech was over at three fifteen. I don’t know if he left the campus right away,
     but he left the stage with his wife at that time.”
    Virgil grinned. “Looked at your watch a lot, huh?”
    At last, I felt a smile creep onto my face. “Nothing personal.”
    “I’ve been to a few ceremonies like that. I get it. Bruce indicated that the mayor
     mentioned your name before he fell? Any idea why?”
    “Bruce said that?” What happened to “get this knife
off me
” instead of “
Sophie
”? “No. I can’t imagine why he would have said my name. I don’t think I ever heard
     the mayor call me by my first name.”
    “But you had conversations with him in the past?”
    Rring, rring. Rring, rring.
    The old-fashioned sound from my smartphone, the unlikely ringtone suggested by my
     new age friend Ariana, the one with multiple body piercings and rainbow-colored hair.
     To look at our fashion choices, you’d never know we’d been best friends since our
     days at the same schools, from K to twelve. I wished she herself were here now and
     not just her selection of ringtone.
    I snuck a look at my phone’s screen, in case there was an even more important person
     than a homicide detective wanting to talk to me. I was surprised to see Monty Sizemore’s
     name. If the mayor’s fall had already made the Internet news, Monty would want details
     right away. I hoped he and his sister weren’t gloating at the fate of his nemesis.
    I wasn’t sure why, but Monty had always struck me as somewhat shallow, a wheeler-dealer
     who liked to be on the inside of things, always checking to see if he had the attention
     of the highest-ranking person in the room. Fran said it was just my perception, because
     I had misgivings about anyone who wasn’t an academic, and Monty was definitely a businessman
     first, an instructor second.
    “It’s one of the faculty. I’ll call him back later,” I told Virgil. Before I could
     switch my phone to off, I noticed another incoming call, this one from Fran. Their
     calls weremore blows of reality. There was no way Monty or Fran would be trying to reach me
     at this hour unless they’d heard the news. Or seen it on YouTube. I clicked off. I’d
     call Fran later. And maybe Monty.
    “We were talking about how you’ve had interactions with the mayor on a personal level
     in the past,” Virgil said.
    A big leap. This was Virgil in action as an interrogator, never minding the fact that
     his interviewee this time was a woman who provided a comfortable den for him to hang
     out with his buddy, and all the pizza they could eat.
    “I wouldn’t call our interactions personal. You know I volunteer at the Zeeman Academy,
     a charter school that seems to be a focus of his lately. His son, Cody, was a student
     there through the eighth grade. He’ll be a high school senior in the fall.”
    “But the mayor is still involved in the Zeeman school?”
    I nodded. “Whether as the mayor, or as an alumni parent, I don’t know. He’s dropped
     by my class a few times. But it’s always ‘Professor Knowles’ or ‘Dr. Knowles’ and
     ‘Mayor Graves.’ We’re not on a first-name basis.”
    “When was the last time you saw him at that school?”
    An easy one. “Friday. I guess that was just yesterday.” I blew out a breath, as if
     it were my first in a while. “It was the last day for the eighth graders. The school
     is K through eight. We had a