person. They died on a Thursday night. Chris goes to dance every Thursday and has not missed a night as long as I’ve known him. I’m sure if he’s out of town and it’s a Thursday, he will be dancing somewhere. He dances to remember them and he drinks to forget his sorrow.”
“How do you know this?”
“I learned while being his dancing partner. He allowed me to go with him while we were working on his invention. He talks to them when he really gets drunk. I looked up his father’s name in the University’s Library and found the details of the accident. He doesn’t know that I know. Jillian, I love him like a brother.” Dolly stared Jillian in the eyes and she saw something hard to describe. “I’m telling you this because Jeff tells me you were his hand-to-hand combat instructor. Trust me on this one, Jillian. You don’t ever want to even think about hurting him.”
Jillian looked at Dolly, and could see the menace in her eyes. “Is combat one of the things you’ve learned?”
Dolly moved faster than Jillian could react. She held her hand out and Jillian saw both of her earrings. She hadn’t even felt them being removed. “No. Why would you ask that?”
Jillian knew she had no chance against someone that moved as fast as Dolly had just demonstrated, “Maybe you should be the Alphas instructor.”
“No, I don’t have any desire to hurt anyone or teach anyone how to do it. At least I can’t think of anyone I’d ever want to hurt. Yet.”
Jillian understood the veiled threat. “Look, Dolly, I have no intention of hurting anyone. I thought you were just a cupcake initially, but you’ve proven to me that you are so much more. Regardless of what I think about Dr. Connor, I like you. I’ll not hurt him because of that.”
“That’s good enough for me.” Dolly hugged Jillian, smiled, and said, “I need to get back to work. I’ll let you know if anything turns up.”
“Fair enough.” Jillian stood and walked back toward the Tablet.
She had trouble sleeping that night. Jillian finally decided, looked at her clock, and called Kim. “Hello, Jillian, it’s been a long time.”
“Hi, Kim, yes it has. Do you have a minute?”
“Sure.”
“Do you remember the incident in Oslo involving a Doctor Christopher Connor?”
Jillian heard her voice change immediately, “Why do you ask?”
“What’s wrong, Kim.”
Jillian heard her sigh, “Of all the articles I’ve written, that one has troubled me the most.”
“Why?”
“Jillian all he had to do was deny it. He wouldn’t, so I had to assume he was guilty.”
“Then why are you being so defensive?”
Kim sighed, “I called one of our field reporters that covered his university. I figured that if I could dig up some more dirt on the professor, my story would be picked up by all the news agencies.”
“I think they all ran with it anyway.”
“They did, but my field reporter told me to drop the story.”
“Did he say why?”
“Yes, he did. He told me not to believe he was guilty. He said that Dr. Connor would have never done what he was charged with.”
Jillian didn’t say anything.
“Jillian, he told me that the professor could have any female at the university and he had never stepped out of line once. When the students heard about the charges, every one of them laughed at them. They knew they were ridiculous. I just couldn’t let the story go. I wrote it anyway but I’ve always wondered what really happened.”
“Kim, he was in Paris that night with a sick exchange student. It wasn’t him.”
“Then why didn’t he tell us?”
“I can’t say. But you can check his story. See who signed for the student at the hospital in Paris that night.”
“Jillian, that was five years ago. The damage has been done.”
“Do you want to feel better?”
There was a long silence and then Kim said, “I guess I do. I’ll look into it.”
“Thanks, Kim.”
“No, thank you for letting me know. It should be easy to
Red Snapper, Essence BlaQue