Tenure Track (14 page)

Blanca was working hard to emulate Dr. Stevens, a challenge for this girl raised to hold her own against Cajun coonasses and Ninth Ward warriors, both of whom could be found within the tangled branches of her family tree. She knew she should have exerted more self-control with Lewis, but it felt good to let her feelings out.
Somebody needed to get that coullion.

“
There’s an Internet photo of Dr. Burns that’s being circulated,” Jane noted. “Did you have anything to do with that?”

Blanca shrugged. “Lotsa stuff gets passed ‘round the Web. Ya know how it is. With digital, ya don’t even know if a picture’s real. ‘Could be a head pasted onto somebody else’s body.”

“
Well, as of now, I want a moratorium on any further Internet activity having to do with Dr. Burns. Do you understand?” Jane admonished.

Blanca nodded. “Yes, Ma’am.”

Jane could have ended the conversation, but she sensed that this young woman might know other helpful information.

“
Tell me, have you ever socialized with Dr. Burns?” she asked.

“
Socialized?” Blanca repeated, the wheels in her head turning to decide if she could safely answer that question without betraying her friend. “Yes, Ma’am,” she admitted. “He hung out with all of us a few times.”

“
All of you?” Jane quizzed.

“
Yeah, there’s four of us that share a house. Lew, well, er, Dr. Burns, came over and hung out a few times. He even went clubbin’ with us sometimes.”

“
Us?”

“
Me ‘n’ Mandy and our other roommates,” she explained.

Jane pressed on. “As you know, the university has a strict policy against sexual harassment and any sexual contact between professors and students. Did Dr. Burns ever act inappropriately towards you?”

“
Inappropriate?” Ms. Dejean repeated, again thinking of the best way to respond. She was tempted to lie and claim victimhood, but knew such a false accusation would only get her into trouble. Instead she chuckled at the mere idea of Lewis hitting on her. “No. Ma’am.”

“
Did you ever observe any inappropriate behavior between him and Ms. Taylor?

Blanca quietly bit her tongue. “I’m not sure, my memory’s not so good after we’ve been partyin’, ya know?”

Ah-ha.
Jane might be on to something here. “Partying? Did Dr. Burns ever provide you with alcohol?”

“
No, Ma’am,” the student answered without hesitation. “We’ve got our own ways of gittin’ that.” Then she remembered the beer. “Oh, wait, he did bring some beer over one night when we were watchin’ movies. But I think he and Gus mostly drank it. And Gus is over 21.”

“
Do you know if he ever served alcohol to Ms. Taylor?”

“
Not that I recall, Ma’am,” she answered in the rehearsed tone of a criminal defendant.

Now Jane went for the big question. “Ms. Dejean, I need you to be honest. Do you know if Dr. Burns and Ms. Taylor had a sexual relationship?”

“
No, I never saw them havin’ sex,” she stated bluntly.

“
But do you have knowledge that it happened? Did she confide in you?”

Blanca looked directly at Dr. Roardan. “If she confided in me, then I can’t break a trust. The answer is still ‘No.’ I have no firsthand knowledge of a sexual relationship between Mandy Taylor and Lewis Burns.”
Spoken like someone who had been well-coached by a lawyer’s daughter.

Jane recognized defeat at the hands of loyalty. Short of pursuing disciplinary action against Blanca for violating the rarely enforced student code of conduct against lying to a school official, there was no way Jane could make the young woman reveal any further information. She looked to Sheila for help, but Dr. Stevens just shook her head silently, refusing to get involved further. Jane was about to end the conversation, when another idea hit.

“
Ms. Dejean,” she asked. “I admire how you’re trying to respect your friend’s privacy. Can you tell me this, just for my own edification: What is your
impression
of Lewis Burns? As a student observer.”

Blanca smiled slyly. Here was a question she could answer without breaking her word. She straightened up and came alive with righteous indignation. “Honestly?”

Jane nodded, indicating that Blanca was free to express herself. “Just between the three of us in this room.”

Choosing her words carefully, Blanca spit out, “I think he’s a . . . fool.” Her description to Sheila had been much more colorful, but she trusted Dr. Stevens more than Dr. Roardan. Still, being able to express a negative feeling did help Blanca relax a bit. Jane glanced at Sheila, who merely raised one eyebrow.

“
Why do you say that?” Jane pressed.

Blanca shrugged impassively. “I dunno. Just an impression, ya know? Am I done now?”

Jane dismissed the student, knowing she had gained little hard evidence in the process. Still, the Chair admired Blanca’s sisterly anger at Lewis and loyalty to Mandy. It had been a long time since she had had such a protective friend. She was not sure if she had ever had one, although Perry in his heyday may have come close.

Returning to her office, Jane recalled another helpful name
. What had Mandy said? Something about videos on a friend’s Web site?
The professor Googled the fairly common Hispanic-sounding name. Finally she hit the right page. Gus Gomez, professed CEO of Nana’s Boys Productions, with links to a host of videos the budding filmmaker had posted, along with his blog, broken down into a variety of topics—How to Make it in Show Biz, The Life of a Vet, War and Politics, etc. There was also a page touting some Latino boy band and a short documentary film called
View from the Missing Leg,
which mostly seemed to consist of strangers’ faces from the unseen filmmaker’s point of view. Under the “Most Popular Series” section, she spotted a familiar-looking face. With a click, she was directed to a list of all the webisodes for what appeared to be an online series entitled “In the House.” The most recent 10-minute webisode had been posted just a week earlier.

She clicked on that entry, which began with a rolling narrative:

In the House: Episode 46

What followed was a rather impressively edited, documentary-style version of the events surrounding Katherine’s discovery of the contents of her daughter’s Web page and insistence on pursuing action. The real Katherine never appears, and Jane doubted that she even knew about this show, given its rather unflattering portrait of her. Most of Katherine’s scenes involved Mandy’s side of telephone conversations, sometimes capturing the mother’s voice on speakerphone with subtitles. A couple of scenes involved reenactments, with someone else playing Katherine’s role. All-in-all, a very professional-looking series, one that no doubt would soon be shut down by Mrs. Benedict.

Intrigued by the series, Jane began to go back and view past webisodes. The show began during freshman year, with overwrought captions describing the main players thusly:

The early entries reenacted the three girls meeting in a freshman dorm, with Gus appearing as an off-screen voice who visits the girls on occasion. Jane skimmed through these early entries, then jumped forward and began backtracking from the most recent. Episode 44 apparently took place just after Mandy and Lewis parted ways, as revealed in a final monologue by Mandy. Facing the camera alone, she expressed her feelings in a raw, emotional outpouring:

Mandy looked like she was about to say more, but began to cry and waved at the director to stop filming. Jane’s maternal heart broke for the child. She wanted to view earlier scenes, hoping they might shed more light on the truth, but she ran out of time. Driving home that evening, Mandy’s words kept replaying in Jane’s mind.
‘Guess I was just a hole to fill his need.
A crude expression that reflected a deep well of pain.

Chapter Eight

As October turned into November, the emotional distance between Lewis and Laura seemed to increase. He still e-mailed and called frequently, but she answered less often and with fewer details, never attempting texting. If he ever mentioned her declining level of communication, she dismissed it as just being very busy. The subject became one of many things they never talked about, along with his nonexistent job search.

Laura was supposed to come home for Thanksgiving break, but on the Tuesday before the holiday, Lewis’s cell phone rang with her familiar song just after his noon class dismissed. Since Laura never called him in the middle of the day, he answered with a concerned tone, confirmed by the hoarse sound in her voice. She told him that she had contracted a severe virus and could not make it down for Thanksgiving. He offered to fly up to take care of her, but she refused, not wanting to make him sick. Besides, she had already managed to sell her plane ticket and it would be impossible or ridiculously expensive for him to get a holiday flight on such short notice. He feigned understanding, but could not hide the disappointment in his voice.

Over the next 24 hours his disappointment turned increasingly to irritation.
Why did she sell her ticket before calling? Why can’t I go up there? Shouldn’t a husband take care of his wife?

By the following day his irritation was morphing into anger and sadness, the idea of spending the holiday alone, depressing. Of course, he would not have to be alone. Jane had invited the couple over to her home for the holiday dinner, noting how much everyone would enjoy seeing Laura again. But now having to explain why Laura was not with him did not seem appealing.

He had a 3 o’clock class on Wednesday, but did not expect many students to show up, as most would already have headed off for the break. With a couple of hours to kill until then, he was sitting quietly at his desk, stewing in a funk when Mandy knocked on the door with another stack of government reports in her hands. “Hey, Dr. Burns! ‘Just wanted to drop these off before break.”

The shining light of her smile broke the darkness of his mood, enabling him to half-heartedly smile back. “Thanks. So when’re you headed out?”

“
Oh, not until tomorrow,” she chirped. “The interstate’s always crazy the day before Thanksgivin’. I make better time if I drive up in the mornin’. When’s your wife gittin’ here?”

Before allowing the darkness to sweep over his jovial mood, he fessed up. “She’s not. She has the flu.” Mandy apologized politely.

As she started turning towards the door, Lewis impulsively asked if she had eaten lunch and invited her to join him at the campus food court. Mandy had never been asked to share a meal with a professor, but there was something a little pathetic in Lewis’s demeanor, a desperate need for company. “Wouldn’t ya rather eat with one of the other teachers?” she asked.

Avoiding the question, he hopped out of his chair. “I’ll buy. Consider it your bonus for doing a good job.”

Though feeling a bit awkward about the invitation, Mandy agreed. As they crossed the Commons, Lewis droned on about all sorts of mundane things, from new dorm construction to the one-loss football team’s chances in their final regular-season game. Mandy knew that he was not much of a football fan, but humored his attempts to talk about something that might interest her.