Dominance Read Online Free PDF

against the stone building, her forehead scraping the uneven cut of the jagged brick, the pain reminding her that she was there. (A memory: Michael at a frat party one night doing a perfect impersonation of Aldiss. His eyes became sharper and his voice dropped to an eerie, pitchless calm and everything about him changed. Laughteraround her, but all Alex felt was a cold dread. Please stop, Michael, she wanted to say. He’ll find out about you. )
    â€œAre you okay?” the dean was saying.
    â€œSally,” Alex managed. “Is she . . .”
    The dean did not respond, and in his evasion Alex knew the answer to her question.
    â€œLet me explain to you what we know,” Rice went on.
    He gave her the known details: Michael Tanner’s ransacked house, the book-strewn library, the staged signs of struggle, the young professor’s blood type on the wall painted in a kind of Rorschach pattern, his books carefully arranged on the floor, Sally Tanner coming home to find her husband’s body. It was all, of course, achingly familiar. Dumant University, Alex thought. Whoever did this was copying the murders at Dumant. Christ.
    â€œJasper police have just begun their investigation,” Rice said. “Right now there are few leads. And the crime scene—they think it was staged. There was no sign of forced entry, so their theory is that Dr. Tanner must have known his attacker.” Alex could almost hear the man wince.
    â€œWhat does it all mean?”
    â€œIt could mean nothing. The professor might have upset a disturbed student, or maybe someone knew of his history as an undergrad at this college. But given what happened to the victims at Dumant twenty-seven years ago . . . we are taking everything into consideration, of course.”
    Everything. The word jarred her. What he meant was everyone.
    â€œWe are a small school, Dr. Shipley. You know this as well as anyone. We are not Harvard. Our size has always defined us. We call ourselves quaint in the brochures, and we use that word without irony. We believe in our insularity. Nothing like this has ever happened at Jasper. Everyone is in a state of shock.”
    â€œHave you spoken to Richard Aldiss?” she asked.
    Another pause. She knew exactly what it meant.
    â€œThis is the reason I called you tonight,” Rice said. “We thought that maybe you could do that for us.”
    *   *   *
    Later she and Peter lay in bed.
    â€œYou don’t have to go back,” Peter said.
    â€œI do.”
    â€œWe don’t have to do anything we don’t want to do, Alex.”
    She didn’t answer him. She knew how untrue it was.
    He burrowed into her hair, breathed hotly in her ear. Normally it turned her on, but tonight it only annoyed her. The Chemical Brothers played on the stereo. Theirs was a students’ existence, and Peter wouldn’t have it any other way. But lately Alex had begun to want something different. Something deeper. She knew it would not be with him. Perhaps she had always known.
    â€œHow come,” Peter said now, “you never talk about your past?”
    â€œWhat is there to talk about?”
    â€œScars.”
    â€œI don’t have any.”
    â€œI can see them all over you, Alex.” He ran a hand up her abdomen, traced a circle around her navel. Sometimes he would write words there, ancient verse for her to identify. “I can feel them.”
    â€œWe all have scars.”
    â€œSome of us more than others.”
    â€œI’m all Vermont. Grew up in Vermont, went to undergrad there. You know all this, Peter.”
    â€œI know about the class, Alex. I know you were a hero. But it always seems so . . .” She looked at him. “I don’t know. It’s like you’ve never told me the whole story.”
    She rolled away. “Not tonight.”
    â€œIs it Aldiss?” Peter asked. “Is he in trouble again?”
    She tensed, hoped