Sounds of Murder

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

She didn't know how it happened but Shoop was again seated in her office, his lanky body draped over the back of her sofa. He had greeted her colleagues officially and then requested some private time for additional questioning "if she didn't mind." Of course not, she thought, I love being grilled about a murdered colleague by the police. I love recalling every ugly moment of finding Charlotte's body in the lab.

She was seated on her desk chair, no longer in her comfortable spot on her sofa. She felt robbed. This big giant of a man was not only invading her privacy, he was invading her space. She steeled herself for the onslaught of questions.

"Now, Dr. Barnes," noted Shoop, as he pulled out his trusty black notebook.

At least he's using my title today, thought Pamela.

"Let's go over your testimony from yesterday." His lack of enthusiasm radiated from his droopy eye lids to his slumped posture.

Testimony, she thought. He makes it sound as if I'm in court. I'm not certain if anything I said yesterday is accurate. I was so distraught, she thought. She put her hand to her head and rested her elbow on her desk.

"I know that it's hard to think back," he started. Out came the handkerchief. Pamela tried to avoid cringing.

"Detective," she interrupted, "To be frank, thinking back is all I can do. I can't get any of it out of my mind. I'd like a break from it for just a brief moment, but no one will let me do that." She contorted her face and rubbed her eyes.

"I'm truly sorry, ma'am," he said, reaching for a tissue from a container at the edge of her desk and handing it to her.

"No, no," she said, brushing it away, thinking of the germs transferring from his large hanky to her tissue. "I'm fine, really. Let's just get on with it. What else do you need to know?"

"Dr. Barnes," he said, "You say that you can think of nothing else. While you're thinking...have you remembered any information that you didn't mention when we spoke yesterday? I mean, you were traumatized. You'd just discovered a colleague, murdered. You undoubtedly were upset and not thinking clearly. Now, after a passage of time, you might remember things that you didn't yesterday."

"Detective," she said simply, "To be frank, I don't remember what I said to you yesterday."

"Let me review the highlights of your testimony," he replied, opening his notebook. At this, he quickly ran through several pages of his notes, very thorough ones, she observed.

"All right, all right," she said, thinking. "One thing I did remember was the computer screen--it was on."

And that was strange to you?" he asked.

"Not strange," she said, "But it did suggest why Charlotte was in the lab. The computers in the first row are equipped with special subscription databases that we don't have available on our office computers. I believe I mentioned that."

"And you think," he completed her thought, "that Dr. Clark was probably in the lab using this subscription service?"

"I would say it was likely," answered Pamela. "Charlotte visited the lab often to check on research studies of hers being conducted there, but there were no subjects or graduate assistants there last night, which I know because my assistant Kent checked the lab sign-up sheet and my experiment was the only one scheduled in the lab this week and there was no one scheduled to be working in the lab last night because he was in class-with me. So, I can only assume Charlotte was there to use the databases."

"All right," he said, jotting this information in his notebook. "Is there any other reason Dr. Clark might have been in the lab late at night at that carrel?"