THE SANDMAN - PART 4

THIS IS PART 4 of 9. Be sure to read the preceding parts by clicking below:

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

Adam and Jamie looked quizzically at Rex. “Let me get this straight. You think Remington Jenkins is the murderer?” asked Adam.

“Just now, when Remington was talking to us he mentioned that he felt bad whenever someone takes their own life, and he SPECIFICALLY mentioned Alyson using her own gun to take her own life,” said Rex. He explained these points very carefully as if he were tutoring them in the finer points of catching a killer. He emphasized different words with his hands.

A look of concern, confusion, and disgust settled on Jamie’s and Adam’s faces as they thought about what Rex was saying. Their eyes showed that they were still processing what Rex was saying.

“But why would Remington want to kill Alyson?” asked Adam.

“...and make it look like a suicide?” Jamie inserted.

“I don’t know. But he’s the murderer.”

All three stood there in silence for a few seconds. All they could do was think about Remington and Alyson.

“Ew. I just gave him my number,” said Jamie. A shiver went up and down her back.

“Jamie, when are you planning on starting your next piece about Alyson?” asked Rex.

“Well, I talked to her roommates and I was planning on going over to Alyson’s place tonight to talk with them to get to know a little more about Alyson,” said Jamie.

“Would you mind if I came along?” asked Rex.

“Don’t you have homework?” asked Jamie with a smile.

“Well, yeah, but…” chuckled Rex. He was somewhat infamous for not doing his homework in a timely manner, but still managing to ace the tests. Students that lived by the curve hated him. “But this is so much more interesting. I’ll pick you up at 7:00.”

Rex knocked on Jamie’s door that night at 7:05. Jamie’s roommate, Emily, opened the door. She was a little shorter with very curly and springy hair and wore glasses. She didn’t look it right now but when she straightened her hair and wore contacts she was very attractive. “Oh, hey Rex.” She turned her head behind her and yelled for her roommate. “JAMIE!” she shouted. When people first met Emily they would have pegged her as a petite sweetie with a tiny voice and gentle personality. She was quite the opposite. You always knew what she was thinking. “Why are you here? I thought you guys broke up, like, three weeks ago?” she said bluntly.

“We did,” said Jamie from behind, walking out of her bedroom in the back of the apartment. “He’s helping me on an assignment tonight.” Jamie slipped on her shoes, put on a coat, and grabbed her journalism purse (the big one). It contained a pad of paper, a number of pencils, a tiny digital audio recorder, and some pepper spray. “We shouldn’t be long.”

Rex smiled at Emily but didn’t say anything as he followed Jamie out the door and shut the door behind them.

“So how’s Emily doing?” asked Rex.

“Oh, she’s been complaining about how no guys ever ask her out and how she thinks all guys (including you) are pigs.”

“So, same as usual with her, then.”

“Same as usual.”

They had decided to walk to Alyson’s apartment tonight despite the cooler weather. They strolled down 400 North with cars and runners passing them. They took a right on 500 East and walked a few more blocks.

“Which complex does Alyson live in?” asked Rex.

“She’s in the Twin Peaks apartments.”

“Really?” Rex sounded surprised.

“Why?” asked Jamie.

“Well my roommates and I actually looked at those apartments earlier this year. You know how we like to save money. But we felt those apartments were...TOO cheap, if you know what I mean.”

“They were rated as some of the cheapest apartments in Provo in an article the paper did on student housing,” said Jamie.

They arrived at the Twin Peaks apartment complex. They definitely looked a little run down, even by student housing standards. The air conditioning units were sagging in the windows. The heating units were running at full capacity and you could hear it. The cement had a number of stains. The parking-lot had patches on patches of asphalt and was still cracking.

“I guess the owner is hoping the weeds will hide the cracks,” said Jamie sarcastically.

They walked up two flights of a semi-sturdy and loud metal stair-case to apartment 207. They knocked on the door. They could hear a TV playing a little loud on the other side.

They heard someone behind the door unlock the deadbolt. A plain but attractive girl answered the door. She was a real “girl-next-door” type. She was smiling when she answered and Rex guessed she always smiled. But she didn’t say hello.

“Hi. My name’s Jamie Stirling. I’m with the Daily Universe and this is...Rex.” She didn’t know if she should refer to him as her assistant or not, so rather than hesitate, she didn’t refer to him as anything. “I spoke with someone named Kirsten earlier about coming over.”

“I’m Kirsten. Come on in,” said the girl at the door. She extended her hand and shook hands with Rex and Jamie.

Rex and Jamie walked in. The two other roommates on the couch turned the TV off and stood up. Rex and Jamie shook their hands. “Hi, I’m Maren,” said the shortest one. She had rather short, blonde hair and chose not to wear makeup.

“I’m Kelsey,” said another. Kelsey had brown hair that was pulled back in a pony-tail.

“Sorry to bother you after you just got home from campus, Kelsey,” said Rex.

Kelsey’s eyes darted back and forth. “How’d you know I just got back from campus?”

“Well, this backpack on the floor by the door has some shoes by it but Maren is wearing shoes. Plus when both of you got up from the couch your imprint from where you were sitting flattened out before Maren’s.” Sometimes Rex had to remind himself that these things weren’t as obvious to others as they were to him. This annoyed Jamie when they were dating, but by now she had grown accustomed to it.

“We’re so sorry for your loss,” Jamie interjected, trying to draw attention away from what Rex had just said. “We can only imagine what this must be like for you.”

“We’re still getting used to the idea that she’s gone,” said Kirsten. “It started to sink it today when the police brought some of her personal items that were left in her car still.” She nodded toward a box on the table. Rex noticed some pens and pencils, chapstick, sunglasses, and a receipt.

“I’d really like to write a proper article about her for the paper, though, and ask you a few questions if that’s okay,” said Jamie.

The three roommates all nodded in agreement.

“Great.” Jamie and Rex had also talked about the interview before coming in. They wanted to find out more about the suicide/murder without making it look like that was all they were there for. In reality, that’s all Rex was there for, and the investigative journalist in Jamie couldn’t help but be naturally curious herself.

Jamie and Rex sat down on the loveseat. It only had a few holes in it. The girls sat down on the couch. One of its cushions had cotton coming out like it was bleeding. Kelsey kept trying to push it back into the couch, but her efforts were futile.

“What do you guys remember most about Alyson?” Jamie prepped her pencil and pad.

“Well, we moved in together without really knowing each other. Alyson sort of became the ringleader of the apartment and made sure we did stuff together,” said Kelsey.

“If it weren’t for her, we wouldn’t be friends. Just roommates,” said Maren.

“She had a very magnetic personality. Where she was, fun was,” agreed Kirsten.

Jamie was taking notes. Rex had his hands on his legs and was looking around the apartment, only half paying attention.

“What was her home life like? Her relationship with her parents?” asked Jamie

“Oh wonderful. She often drove home on the weekend if she didn’t already have a date. She was very close with her parents,” said Kirsten.

“We’ve all sort of become good friends with her parents.” said Kelsey. “When they came down here for visits they never just visited with Alyson. We were always invited.”

“What was her dating life like? She didn’t just go through a nasty break-up, did she?” asked Rex. This was a question he’d been wanting to ask.

“Well, she did just break up with her boyfriend, Marcus. But that was a few months ago, and it was mutual. No ill feelings from either side. She often talked about how it was the cleanest break-up she ever went through,” explained Maren.

“Did she say anything about her job as a TA? Did she love it? Hate it?” asked Jamie.

“No, nothing that stands out anyway,” said Kelsey.

“She really like studying American History and she really enjoyed teaching others about it. She always got the highest reviews among the American Heritage TAs,” said Maren. “She loved it so much that she kept saying that she would be sad to leave it, even though she needed a better paying job since her father lost his job. She doesn’t get as much help from them as she used to.”

“Is it okay if we see her room?” asked Rex.

“Sure,” said Kirsten. “I think that’d be okay. We’ve sort of started to box her things up already though.”

Everyone got up from the front room and Kirsten led them to Alyson’s room. “She was my roommate. My side is on the left, hers is the right.” She gestured for Jamie and Rex to go in first. It was a rather small room. There was a window between the two beds that were on opposite sides of the room. If the occupants of both beds were to reach their hands out in the middle of the night they could touch fingers. It was a modest room, clearly made nicer by a girl’s touch, but clearly a girl that was trying to make do with what she had. On the shelf by Alyson’s bed was a photo of her family. Lying next to the framed family photo was a box containing a pair of diamond earrings that looked relatively new. She had a poster featuring a picture of Jesus and an inspirational saying. Her desk had an open textbook on it with some lined paper. The handwriting matched the writing on the suicide note, Rex noticed.

The closet was filled with hangers and clothes. On the floor of the closet were Alyson’s shoes. The sneakers that she was wearing when she died were gone, of course. All that remained were a pair of generic Sunday shoes (that would go with most any dress) and a pair of really nice Sam Edelman stilettos still in the box. Rex eyed the receipt next to the box and saw they were bought from Nordstrom.

“Let me finish writing down a few more notes and we’ll be out of your hair,” said Jamie, still scrawling on her notepad. “Finished.”

Rex and Jamie said goodbye to Maren, Kelsey, and Kirsten as they walked back down the sketchy metal stairway and headed back to Jamie’s place.

As they got closer to Jamie’s apartment complex, Rex asked, “So, do you have any plans for the weekend? I mean, Remington hasn’t called to ask you out yet, has he?”

“No. Which, believe me, I’m fine with.”

“Really, a nice guy like him?” Rex asked sarcastically.

“Well, I have a list of deal breakers, and possible murderer is one of them.”

They stopped at her door and faced each other. They had been in this goodnight-doorstep-scene position with each other many times. “Do you want to stop by my place on Friday before the party or should Adam and I pick you up on our way over?” asked Rex.

“I’ll probably be coming from campus so I’ll stop by your place.”

“Alright. Thennn...I guess I’ll see you tomorrow at lunch.”

“See ya.”

They paused just long enough as if about to hug each other. Instead Jamie turned the doorknob and walked into her apartment and Rex turned and left.

CONTINUED IN PART 5

THE SANDMAN - PART 3

This is PART 3 of 9. To read a previous part click below:
PART 2 
PART 1 

The next day, a Tuesday, Rex stood outside the Harold B. Lee Library wearing his jacket and looking at the newspaper kiosks that bore the headline “BYU Student Found Dead.” In the next few minutes a bell would ring signaling the end of the 10:00 AM class. Campus would then be flooded with students making their way to the Marriott Center for Tuesday’s regular 11:00 AM devotional. That meant some of the highest pedestrian traffic as people left class and walked to the devotional.

The bell rang and people began to pour out of the buildings. Students walked past Rex and he was stuck in the hustle and bustle of traffic, still staring at the paper. He seemed oblivious to the crowd around him. A number of people stopped by the kiosk and took a paper. They walked a few steps away as they unfolded the paper but then stopped in place as they read the story about Alyson. The news of yesterday’s suicide had begun to spread across campus.

Rex grabbed his own copy and started to walk toward the Marriott Center for the devotional. As he walked, he read from the paper:

“Yesterday morning, the body of History major Alyson McBride (‘14) was discovered in her 1992 Honda Civic in the Wilkinson Student Center east parking lot. Chief Mackay of campus police says the body was found by a police officer in the early morning hours prior to the arrival of students on campus. Her parents have been notified by officials. A short memorial service led by BYUSA president Remington Jenkins will be held in her honor today at the Marriott Center prior to the regular Tuesday devotional.

“Alyson is originally from Bountiful, Utah where her parents still live. She was studying History with plans to attend Law School. She was currently helping Professor Linda Stuart research documents belonging to newly freed slaves during the post-Civil War Reconstruction period in South Carolina. Details to follow as they are released by officials.”

Jamie caught up with Rex just as he was entering the Marriott Center. “Hey,” She said to Rex. Rex folded his paper in half, stuck it under his arm, and held the door open for Jamie as they walked in. “Everyone’s talking about Alyson,” said Jamie.

“Has there ever been a murder on BYU campus before?” asked Rex. They walked into the stadium seating and saw the vast expanse of chairs before them. About half were filled with students.

“I wondered the same thing last night after I finished writing the article.  I skimmed old newspaper editions going clear back to the 1970s and couldn’t find anything...Unless you count the 2011 BYU-Utah football game of course.”

“Nice,” smiled Rex. “Look, there’s a few open spots down on the floor that are still open.” Rex pointed toward some seats closest to the temporary stage and pulpit. “Let’s grab those.”

As they took their seats, the lights dimmed. The BYUSA president, Remington Jenkins, walked to the pulpit.

“Welcome students. Before we begin our regularly scheduled devotional we will hold a brief memorial service for our fellow student Alyson McBride, whose body was discovered yesterday on campus.”

When Remington said ‘was discovered,’ Rex coughed “was murdered” quietly enough so only Jamie could hear it.

“Alyson will be remembered as a good student, a loving daughter, sister, and friend…” continued Remington.

As the BYUSA president droned on Rex leaned over to Jamie and whispered, “This is probably the most exciting thing he’ll get to do as BYUSA president.”

Jamie stifled her laugh and punched Rex in the arm.

Remington continued: “I had the special opportunity of meeting Alyson a few months ago just after being I was announced as the newest BYUSA President. I met her when I found out she would become the TA of the American Heritage class I had recently registered for. I was immediately impressed with her warm smile and down-to-earth personality. During the next few months she would prove invaluable to my own educational experience at BYU as she helped me on my assignments, essays, and exams in that class. She had such a gift for presenting the most difficult of material. This was especially important to me as I am about to apply to Harvard Law School and am finally finding time to take one of the hardest classes known to BYU students.”

The crowd snickered in agreement to this last statement.

“Let me close by saying that if nothing else comes out of this tragedy, let us at least be reminded to make an extra effort to smile at that boy or girl we may not know, but see every day between classes. Incidents like this remind us of how fragile life is. In this way Alyson’s death will not be in vain and she will live on through us. Thank you. We’ll now be pleased to hear from our regularly scheduled devotional speaker.”

When the devotional speaker had finished and the closing prayer had been given, the organist began playing the postlude and the students stood up, stretched and began to shuffle out of their seats and rows. Rex turned around and looked at the stadium seats behind and the mass of students finding their way out. He and Jamie wouldn’t be able to get out for at least another five minutes or so. That was a disadvantage of sitting at the very bottom.

While they were waiting for their turn to move, a hand rested on Jamie’s shoulder from behind. Jamie turned around to see the owner of the hand was Remington Jenkins.

“Hi. It’s Jamie, right?” Remington said. “Listen, I just wanted to thank you again for writing such a good article last week on the purposes behind student government. I thought you did a very good job.”

“You’re welcome,” said Jamie. She was a little caught off guard.

“What did you think of my remarks?” He nodded to the pulpit behind them.

Jamie batted her blue eyes. She was always nice to those trying to carry on a surface-level small-talk conversation with her. “They were very appropriate. Very good job in light of such a tragedy.” She clearly would rather have been making her way to class than talking to him. For all her sarcasm, she sure was polite.

“Thanks. It’s so sad. I had only begun to get to know her but even in that short time I could already tell that Alyson was a wonderful person. But I guess even she had a dark side. It’s so sad that she felt the need to take her own life. I just can’t picture someone like her shooting herself,” said Remington.

Rex was still only half-listening to the conversation as he watched the stadium full of students.

“Well, listen Jamie,” Remington continued as he punched one hand into the palm of the other. “I’ve gotta get going and you’ve probably got class as well, but I was wondering...I couldn’t get your number by chance, could I? I mean if you’re not already dating someone…”

As he said this Remington was clearly eyeing Rex out of the corner of his eye.

“What? Oh no, no. I could do that,” said Jamie. She pulled out a pen and patted her pockets looking for something to write on. Rex handed her the newspaper. She tore a corner off the front page and wrote her number down. “This is my friend, Rex. We usually walk to devotional together.”

Rex gave a quick smile and a half wave to Remington. Jamie handed the corner of the newspaper to Remington. “Well, I guess I’ll see you later,” said Jamie.

“Yeah, see-ya,” said Remington.

By now the crowd had thinned enough for Jamie and Rex to make it up to the exits from the floor of the basketball court without too much trouble. They pushed open the doors and squinted as their eyes adjusted to the sunlight. They started walking toward the tunnel that led to the main campus from the Marriott Center.

“Jamie, Rex!” A voice called their name from behind. Jamie and Rex turned around to find Rex’s roommate, Adam Thompson. He ran to catch up with them, his guitar slung over his back jostling up and down. He was a little taller than Rex and probably considered to be more attractive by the opposite sex. He never really had trouble getting girls to go out with him. He was the type of guy that girls in their senior year of high school hoped to be dating next year when they came to BYU. “Hey guys. You headed to lunch?”

“Yeah,” said Jamie. “You’re welcome to join us.”

“Wish I could, but I’ve got an assignment to turn in. We’re supposed to hand it in through the school’s new video-sharing website, BYU-Tube. For guitar class we have to post a video of us each week. We have to pretend we’re teaching a song we just learned in class. You know, go over the chords and such,” said Adam. “I just can’t get my video to load right.

“We actually use BYU-Tube in my Econ 233 class,” said Rex. “We have to record a group presentation in a few weeks and turn it in on BYU-Tube. The professor really likes using the site because then it frees up class time and since there’s no way to fake the time-stamp, he can see exactly when we each turn in our assignment.”

“It’s not bad,” said Adam. “I wish they’d make it work on your phone. The professor specifically told us that it doesn’t work on phones. Such is life. What’d you think of the devotional?”

“Not bad,” said Jamie. Rex nodded in agreement. “You didn’t sit with us like you usually do,” Jamie said to Adam.

“So you guys remember Lauren right? Lauren Baker? I sat by her.” Lauren was Adam’s latest crush. He tended to get his heart broken a lot but had no problem finding another girl to fill that void. “We were talking about school and stuff and then we started talking about plans for this week. She said that she’s going to this party on Friday and invited me. It’s supposed to be a pretty big party and I’m still getting to know Lauren, and she’d be the only person I’d know there, I was wondering if you two would want to come along?”

           

Rex and Jamie looked at each other and sort of shrugged their shoulders as if to say, “I’ll go if you go.”

“Sure I guess,” said Rex.

“Thanks you guys. By the way Jamie, good job on the paper this morning,” said Adam. “Such a terrible thing to happen in a place like this.”

Jamie teasingly bumped into Rex from the side. “Rex thinks she was MURDERED.” She started to snicker a little. Her tendency to laugh in serious situations was coming through. As she said this, she curled her forefinger and put it under her nose imitating the stereotypical moustache of BBC detectives like Hercule Poirot.

“Really?” smiled Adam, along with Jamie. Rex was one of the smartest people Adam knew. But Adam also knew that Rex could be a little over analytical sometimes. “Why does he think that?” he asked Jamie, continuing their two-person conversation as if Rex wasn’t standing in between them.

“Just some things I saw at the scene of the crime, that’s all,” Rex answered for himself. “For example...” Rex started to explain but stopped dead in his tracks. He stared into the space in front of him and lifted his hands as if to tell the whole world to stop. “Jamie, what did Remington say when he came and talked to us after the devotional?”

“He asked me for my number, why?”

“No, before that.”

“He mentioned how sad he thought it was that she would take her own life.”

“Exactly. Jamie, you didn’t mention anything in your article this morning about HOW she died. How did Remington know she took her own life?”

“Maybe he knew somehow because he’s the BYUSA President,” said Jamie.

“I don’t think so. Chief Mackay wanted this thing pretty tight,” said Rex. “Plus Remington mentioned that he couldn’t picture Alyson shooting herself…”

Jamie caught on to where he was going with this. Her eyes got wide. “But how would he know she used a gun to kill herself?”

Rex turned his head and looked at Jamie. “I think I just found the murderer.”

CONTINUED in PART 4