The Professor's Captive Wife novel · Chapter 6 of 24
Chapter 6: Card Swipes
My fingers closed on the clasp of my clutch.
I didn't open it.
Theresa's hand stayed out, patient, manicured, waiting.
"Mrs. Thaxter?" said the chair of the trustees.
"She doesn't need her phone."
Eliot had come up behind me.
He didn't touch me.
He stood at my shoulder with his untouched water in his hand, and he spoke to the chair of the trustees.
"The English building logs every card that opens its doors after five o'clock," he said. "Campus security keeps the record, not the dean's office. My wife has a spouse card for the library. It went through the side door at 5:51."
He took a sip of the water at last.
"Ms. Ingram's card went through the same door at 5:57."
The chair of the trustees looked at Theresa.
"Did you request those logs, Dr. Danforth?"
For the first time all week, Theresa Danforth hesitated.
It lasted half a second.
"I didn't think the timing was in question."
"It seems to be now." The chair turned to a grey man beside her. "Call security tonight. I want the record on my desk Monday."
"And the pattern," said the trustee with the glasses. "You mentioned others, Theresa. Names?"
"The students are frightened. I won't expose them in a room like this."
"Then there'll be no vote in a room like this either." The chair set her glass down on the mantel. "Professor Thaxter stays on leave until we've read the logs. Nobody is dismissed tonight. Enjoy the canapés, everyone. I'm told they're very good."
It was over that fast.
The noise came back into the room all at once.
Theresa smiled at me across the hearth rug.
It was a perfectly pleasant smile.
Then she turned and went to speak to the president of the university, one hand on his sleeve.
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