Sunday, November 18, 2012

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

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