The Campus Murders Read Online Free PDF Page B

the Halls of Ivy and the Groves of Academe, Mr. McCall. It’s where he was raised and got his background. He’s caught in a trap, for all his intelligence and experience. He doesn’t know how to deal with the situation we have here. He’s headed for a breakdown, or a resignation like Kirk of Columbia and Kerr of Berkeley. The students ridicule him.”
    â€œBut this troublesome element, I’m told, is a small minority. Can’t the other students help?”
    â€œSome do, but there’s no organization of effort such as the militants display. The conforming students are caught in the current, midstream. If their classes are disrupted, what can they do?”
    McCall did not comment. “About Laura, Dean Gunther. I heard that a boy named Damon Wilde is close to her, but denies knowing anything about her disappearance.”
    â€œThose are the allegations. Me, I’m suspicious of everything and everyone these days. Say, what’s your first name?”
    â€œMike is what my friends call me. Stands for Micah.”
    â€œMine’s Floyd. How about a drink, Mike? I have a bottle in my desk. For God’s sake don’t tell Wolfe Wade.”
    â€œSure thing.”
    â€œYou have sympathetic ears.”
    Gunther produced a quart of bonded stuff. They had two drinks apiece. McCall consciously gave every evidence of enjoyment. He was that rare specimen of adult American, a spare drinker by choice. He simply did not like alcohol. He drank only when his job called for it, or it served some ulterior purpose.
    â€œMike,” Floyd Gunther said, leaning back, “you sure as hell have a job ahead of you. Damon Wilde isn’t the only hot number in Laura’s book. Two other boys have dated her heavily to my knowledge.”
    McCall nodded. He always preferred to keep his mind open, assume nothing until he had every fact, or until some spark set him off.
    â€œWho are they?”
    â€œThere’s Perry Eastman. There’s Dennis Sullivan. I know them both, to my regret. Sullivan’s chasing seems rather perfunctory—a because-she’s-there sort of thing. Eastman, however, has been hot after Laura for some time.”
    â€œHow do you know all this, Dean?—Floyd?”
    Gunther showed his teeth in a grin. They were rather bad teeth. “It’s my business to know, Mike. I wish to hell I were better informed! I can only hope you find her and that she’s all right.”
    â€œWhat are Eastman and Sullivan like?”
    The Dean of Men shrugged. “Sullivan is mixed up in the student agitation. He’s the cocky sort—you find yourself wanting to punch his face in. Perry drinks a lot and I suspect takes drugs. I’ve talked to him about it, but of course he denies it.”
    McCall questioned him in depth and soon concluded that the man knew nothing that might help. Gunther seemed under considerable strain, but this was probably because of what was going on.
    â€œMaybe your presence here will accomplish some good,” Gunther said. “It might make them cool it while you’re on campus and give us a breather. But somehow I doubt it. If things don’t improve, one of these days the governor is going to have to call up the National Guard, and then there’ll be hell to pay.” The Dean glanced at his watch, a black-dialed, skin-diver’s chronometer, and McCall rose.
    â€œI’ll be on my way, Floyd. I know you’re busy.”
    â€œIt’s not that,” Gunther said quickly. “Perry Eastman’s supposed to see me right about now. Disturbance in class; ridiculing a professor; drinking.”
    â€œIt’s lunch time anyway,” McCall said. “And I want to check Laura Thornton’s room. Where do I find the Sigma Alpha Phi house?”
    Gunther gave him directions. “How about coming to dinner tonight, Mike? My wife’s a great cook, and we could explore the situation more