Read Online Divas and Dead Rebels by Virginia Brown - Free Book Online Page A

wouldn’t think it was so strange, except that he disappeared in the middle of the day. I did a little digging of my own, and he didn’t make any of his afternoon classes Friday, and despite being expected at a function Friday night, he was a no-show. His wife is convinced something has happened to him.”
    While Rayna paused to take another bite of dessert, I had a sinking feeling I knew where this was going. Not even a huge bite of buttermilk pie got rid of the rock sitting in the pit of my stomach.
    “So what actions are the police taking now?” I asked.
    Rayna looked up from her dessert plate. “Here’s where it gets even more strange. The wife was staying at a friend’s house for the night to help with festivities for the next day, but when she couldn’t reach her husband she called the police. When they got to their house in the wee hours of Saturday morning, everything in the place was torn upside down and sideways, with no sign of the professor.”
    Bitty stopped shoveling butter roll in her mouth for a second to echo, “Professor?”
    Rayna waved an impatient hand. “Yes, one of the professors at the university, but here’s the best part—there are rumors he’s been kidnapped. Can you believe it? A professor at Ole Miss has probably been abducted, and you two were right there when it happened! I’m surprised y’all didn’t hear anything about it, but they did keep it quiet in case he turned up or kidnappers called with a ransom demand. Of course, his wife is afraid he’s been killed, but the police are still going with a Missing Person at this point. Well, I tell you, the newswires got a hold of it, and now it’s all over the state about this guy.”
    Bitty looked slightly relieved and started eating butter roll again. “It’s probably one of those money things, you know. I never knew professors made a lot of money, but I guess you never really know about those kinds of things, do you?”
    “By any chance,” I asked without really wanting to know the answer, “is this professor’s name Sturgis?”
    My question caught Rayna with a mouthful of buttermilk pie, and she just nodded.
    Bitty’s fork clattered to her dessert plate as she dropped it and put a hand over her mouth to stifle a gasp of surprise. I just looked at her. I tried to signal with my eyebrows that she should keep any unwise responses to herself so as not to compromise Rayna, but apparently she thought I meant for her to blurt out everything she knew.
    “Professor Sturgis wasn’t kidnapped,” she said in a voice much louder than a whisper. “He’s dead!”
    I sighed, and Rayna looked momentarily startled before she said, “But there was no evidence to support that theory, Bitty. No blood or anything at the scene, I mean.”
    “That’s because he was strangled with a wire coat hanger,” my clueless cousin replied with a nod of her head. At least this time she lowered her voice.
    Rayna glanced at me as if for explanation or confirmation. I briefly considered my inclination to disavow any knowledge of the professor’s fate, then realized that it would only be postponing the inevitable. So I nodded.
    “It’s true. We saw him.”
    “You . . . saw him?” Rayna looked horrified.
    “Somebody hid him in Clayton’s dorm room closet,” rattled Bitty, “so of course, we moved him elsewhere. They’ll find him eventually, I’m sure.”
    Nonplussed, Rayna put down her dessert fork and looked from me to Bitty and back. “This is really true, Trinket?”
    “I’m afraid so.”
    “Oh my.”
    I managed a smile and pointed to her dessert plate with my fork. “Don’t waste the pie or butter roll. You’ll be sorry later.”
    Rayna picked up her fork, but I could tell she’d lost interest in food. “Didn’t you think about telling the police?” she asked in Bitty’s direction, but her eyes were on me. I nodded.
    “I did, I did, but I was out-maneuvered by . . . my traveling companion.”
    Naturally, Rayna looked