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?”
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