Phi Beta Murder by C.S. Challinor Page B

afraid you’ve wasted a trip.”
    “I dinna think so. This is an ideal opportunity to clear things up. I prepared a speech, but I’ve forgotten it.” She smiled ruefully at him, displaying sharp little teeth.
    “It’s not as ideal an opportunity as that,” he protested. “It so happens a student at Campbell’s university hanged himself, and the parents have asked me to look into it.”
    “Why you?”
    “I was first on the scene.”
    “You always were dependable and steady, Rex. I always appreciated that about you.”
    “Not that much, evidently, since you ran off with the first man who looked at you twice!” Rex was surprised at the resentment that still smoldered within him. He thought he had long since put his feelings toward Moira behind him.
    “That’s not true!” She jumped up and paced the room. “There was a car bombing at the Sunni-Shiite neighbourhood market where I was buying provisions for the refugee center. I canna describe the deafening explosion, all the glass shattering everywhere.”
    “Moira …”
    “People were screaming. Blood was spattered all over the dirt streets and across the buildings. Two pickup trucks arrived to carry away body parts.” Moira paused, clutching at her cardigan.
    “’Tis a terrible experience to live through,” Rex commiserated.
    “Aye.” She lay back down on the bed, seemingly exhausted, and took a deep breath. “Neil was with a reporter shooting a documentary. They ran to the scene and helped excavate the victims. A shop front collapsed and buried me under the plaster. Neil lifted the door off me. I escaped with minor cuts and bruises, but what I saw that morning won’t heal. I keep reliving it in my mind. There were babies, Rex, catapulted out of their mothers’ arms. Oh, God!” Her legs curled into a fetal position and she began to cry pitifully.
    Rex poured a glass of whisky from the bottle he had appropriated from Campbell’s room. Moira was teetotal, but he felt she could benefit from it for medicinal purposes as she was clearly distressed. “Have you sought psychiatric help?” he asked, handing her the glass.
    To his astonishment, she sat up and downed the whisky in one gulp. “I thought I’d be fine once I got home, but everything’s changed. I want us to get back together, Rex. I need stability.”
    Moira had no family to speak of, and had not seen her abusive alcoholic father in years. Her main support group was the Charitable Ladies of Morningside, where she had met his mother and with whom she used to play bridge. She was persona non grata with his mother now. No wonder Moira was clinging to him as to a life raft. She had no one else.
    “I’m sorry I caught you at a bad moment, with that student hanging himself,” she murmured. “I know how he must have felt. I’ve had despairing thoughts too.”
    Rex sat beside her and took her hand. “I’m sorry I did not listen before, but this is right awkward. I’m seeing someone else.”
    The room phone rang.
    “I have to take this. It might be important.” He went over to the bedside table and picked up with, “Hello—Rex Graves.”
    “Rex! I’m glad I caught you.” It was Helen. The timing couldn’t have been worse. “I didn’t want to try you on your mobile in case you were out doing something with Campbell.”
    “How are you, lass?”
    “Missing you. Are you having a good time? How is Campbell?”
    Rex glanced at Moira who was watching from the bed with tight-lipped suspicion and he turned his back. “There’s been a crisis at the college with one of the students. Campbell’s coming through it okay, I think. A boy in his hall was found hanging in his room.”
    “Oh, how awful! It’s a very susceptible age. Young people take things so hard. They have the pressure of exams, relationships, being away from home, and the constant worry of whether they’ll measure up in the real world.”
    Rex decided this was not the time to get into a discussion about the case even