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‘Detective Rogovoy? Is there a reason you’re telling me this?’
    â€˜Ms Schwartz, when your boyfriend tells you you shouldn’t go out walking alone at night, he’s right. Cambridge is a city, and like all cities, it can be unsafe at times. Especially for a young woman, alone.’
    â€˜Detective?’ He looked up at her, his big eyes so sad, she didn’t want to continue. ‘There’s something else, isn’t there?’
    â€˜Mina Love, the young woman who was attacked?’ He reached forward as if he were going to take her hand, then stopped himself. ‘Ms Schwartz, she was young, a little, well, full-figured, and she had curly hair. Dulcie, she looked like you.’

FIVE
    â€˜D ulcie, please,’ the voice on the phone pleaded. ‘I’m worried about you.’
    â€˜Chris, I’m sorry I even called.’ Dulcie was. After leaving Rogovoy’s office, she’d dialed her boyfriend automatically. That had been a mistake. Not only had she woken her nocturnal boyfriend, she’d alarmed him with the news that she’d been near the scene of the attack. Along the way, she had managed to confess her own possible foolishness of the night before. ‘I didn’t even want to tell you.’
    â€˜I’m glad you did, Dulcie.’ He sounded fully awake now. ‘I don’t want you to ever feel you have to hide things from me. But tonight, Dulcie? Won’t you please stay in?’
    Dulcie paused before answering. ‘I can’t, Chris. This is important.’ She hesitated, before honesty prompted her to add, ‘even if I don’t like the guy.’
    â€˜Because it’s the future of your department.’ Chris repeated what she’d told him a few moments before. ‘It’s the Newman lecture.’
    â€˜The
first
Newman lecture.’ Dulcie corrected him. ‘And, yeah, this guy – Lukos – is possibly the future of the department. I mean, I hope not. He’s one of those super post-structuralists who thinks that nothing matters but the text, except that the text isn’t really a text because the author is only reacting to societal pressure. And the author may not even be “the author” of her own narrative …’
    She stopped at the realization that she’d been making air quotes with her fingers, which, of course, Chris couldn’t see. Bad enough she had just woken Chris; she didn’t want him to fall back asleep before she made her point. ‘But, yeah, it’s important. The new dean has finally gotten around to inviting the top candidates to address the department, and they’ll all be speaking over the next few weeks – all giving open lectures in their area of expertise. Whatever I think of their theoretical disciplines, they are some of the top scholars in my field, Chris. And one of them may be my new boss.’
    â€˜Well, Thorpe will still be your thesis adviser, right?’ Chris knew about the balding scholar’s temporary standing as head of the department, but the details of the academic hierarchy sometimes confused him.
    â€˜Yes …’ Dulcie drew out the words. ‘If he stays.’
    â€˜
If
? Isn’t he tenured?’
    Dulcie hesitated before responding. Somehow she hadn’t managed to tell Chris about her strange interaction with her adviser. Or of her suspicions.
    â€˜Yes, but it will be a blow.’ She said finally. ‘He really wants the job.’
    â€˜Maybe he’ll get it then.’
    Dulcie hesitated. ‘I don’t know, Chris. He’s spent his entire career here, and the university, well, they’ve done a national search. International – Renée Showalter is coming in from McGill.’
    â€˜And the journeyman teacher isn’t going to be able to compete with the stars.’ Chris finished her thought.
    â€˜Exactly.’ Dulcie didn’t go into what else she was thinking.