Suspicious New Professor

Close Calls and Cover-Ups

13

The campus was quiet as Jenissa slipped into the administration building under the dim light of the late afternoon. Most students were heading back to their home or gathering for evening study sessions, leaving the building nearly deserted. It was the perfect time to get the information she was after.

Emile had offered to come with her, but she’d insisted on going alone. The fewer people involved, the safer it would be. He had reluctantly agreed, but only after extracting a promise from her to stay alert and get out at the first sign of trouble. His concern weighed on her mind as she moved through the halls, her footsteps echoing softly. She could almost hear his voice reminding her to be careful, to avoid taking unnecessary risks.

She made her way to the records room, where she hoped to find something—anything—that could shed more light on Elias Noir’s murky past. All she had to go on so far were her own instincts and the unsettling clues she and Emile had pieced together. But if she could find evidence of his academic history, maybe she’d find a pattern, some confirmation of what she suspected.

As she entered the room, she found it empty, save for the faint hum of a photocopier in the corner. The sight of neatly organized file cabinets lined up along the walls felt oddly comforting, the usual sense of order contrasting with the chaos of her investigation. She took a deep breath, crossing to the computer terminal at the far end of the room.

She sat down, typing in her student login information. Her fingers moved quickly as she navigated through the system, searching for Elias’s name. She knew that access to personal files was restricted, but she hoped to find just enough in the general database to confirm his past employment or teaching history, anything that might hint at previous incidents similar to the ones she and Emile had uncovered.

After several minutes of sifting through files, she struck gold. Elias Noir’s academic record wasn’t exactly hidden, but it had a strange quality—there were gaps in employment, unexplained breaks in his teaching history, and brief appointments at multiple institutions. She skimmed through the records, noting that his previous positions were often abruptly terminated. She knew enough about academia to recognize how unusual that was, especially for a professor as seemingly accomplished as Elias.

But it was his last position that caught her eye: a brief stint at a prestigious university in Switzerland, ending under “undisclosed circumstances.” Jenissa’s pulse quickened. That university had experienced a high-profile disappearance—the disappearance of a graduate student rumored to have uncovered something suspicious. The rumors had quickly faded, dismissed as a tragic case of a student overwhelmed by stress. But now, with Elias’s name on the record, she couldn’t ignore the connection.

Jenissa’s heart pounded as she hit the print button, hoping to make a copy of the records before anyone noticed her. Just as the pages started spooling out of the printer, a voice echoed from the doorway.

"Miss Faras, working late, aren’t we?"

She froze, the blood draining from her face as she recognized the smooth, detached tone. Elias Noir stood just inside the door, his face partially obscured by the shadows of the room. He looked calm, polite, even friendly, but something in his eyes made her skin crawl.

"I... I was just, uh, looking up some information for a project," she stammered, quickly closing out of the screen. She willed herself to stay calm, hoping he wouldn’t notice the printouts on the desk beside her.

He raised an eyebrow, his gaze lingering on the computer screen she had hastily exited. "A project? So late in the day? Most students prefer to study during the usual hours."