Majoring in Murder

Chapter 5

The cell phone Carlo gave me began vibrating the following Wednesday while I was sitting in a lecture hall with thirty other students. My mind was consumed with our meeting since the day it occurred. Carlo might as well have been dressed in red and holding a pitchfork. I still felt guilty for my involvement, but also knew where to pin the blame. Of course, knowing how sleazy and vile Carlo was wouldn't bring back Professor Ginley. The buzzing phone snapped me out of my reverie. I jumped to my feet and excused myself, fumbling the phone out of my pants pocket as I left the room.

Outside the lecture hall, I pressed the phone's answer button. "Hello?"

"This Jason?" The voice was unfamiliar. It wasn't Carlo and nowhere near deep enough to be Giovanni.

"Yeah?"

"Do you know the Dairy Queen on the corner of Oak and Kent Streets?"

"Yeah, I know where it is."

"Be there tonight at ten o'clock. Look for a brown Lincoln Continental. Got it?"

My tongue clicked in my dry throat. "Yeah. Who..."

The phone went silent. Whoever called had already hung up before I could ask any questions and I had plenty.

I looked at my watch. It was 11:14 AM. The meeting was less than twelve hours away. My stomach suddenly felt queasy so I opted to skip the rest of the lecture to go back to my dorm room and lie down.

* * *

I arrived at the Dairy Queen a half hour early. I took a book with me—Christopher Moore's Practical Demonkeeping. I thought it would be light, humorous reading, but when I pulled into a parking space near the restaurant's dumpster around back, I didn't feel much like reading. I was anxious to get the meeting over with so I could leave. Knowing the business I was there to conduct made me feel like a seedy lowlife. I felt physically dirty.

I kept watching my rearview mirror to check the traffic that passed behind me on Oak Street. I became paranoid having my back to the street, so I turned my car around where I could face the street instead of the red-painted wall behind the dumpster. After I had turned off the ignition and it got quiet I felt a little better, realizing that any little noise only made me jumpy. My stomach was still in knots since receiving the phone call that morning.

My heart hammered and I broke out in a cold sweat when headlights played across my hood as another car turned onto Kent Street from Oak. A Chevy pickup rumbled past me and disappeared over the hill on Kent Street. It was five minutes to ten by my watch and my stomach spasmed like I had to take a shit. It was just a case of nerves, but the closer the moment approached, the worse my stomach felt.

I sat there watching the cars pass by the street in front of me for quite a while. When I looked back at my watch, it was five minutes after ten. A small wave of relief passed through me when I realized the meeting might not occur. This was short lived, as another set of headlights swung across my car. After the bright lights moved past my eyes, I could make out the big sedan. It was difficult to discern the color in the dark. I watched it turn around in the entrance to an Enterprise Rent-A-Car lot adjacent to where I sat so that it faced Oak Street. When it stopped by the curb, the headlights went off but the running lights stayed on.

I waited to see if anyone would get out or if I should go meet whoever was in the car. The cell phone rang.

"Yeah?"

"Where you at?" This time, the voice sounded like Giovanni's, but I wasn't sure since I'd only heard him utter just a few words when I was at the restaurant.

"I'm sitting to your right, in the Dairy Queen parking lot." I twisted the knob on the dash until my dome light came on and then I turned it off again.