All Of The Wrong Reasons

Chapter Nine: Outside the Box

They had arrived at William Jewell College in Liberty Missouri shortly after noon. The local law enforcements had set up a command center in one of the multipurpose rooms in the school's student union. They were dealing with a spree killer.

Three students had died in the last five days, all of the gunshot wounds to the head. The first two victims were both sorority girls that shared no physical traits. The third victim was male and not a member of any Greek Association.

"Della Ochoa was a third-year Communications Major," said Mary Jacobson, she was an employee of the college but Spencer had missed her job title due to being distracted at the time of introduction. "She was a sweet girl. She visited Student Affairs all the time. She liked to hang out in Quentin's office after her classes."

Della Ochoa was the first victim. She'd been found in the student parking lot during the early hours of Monday morning. She'd been dead for only about three hours at the time. Spencer listened with only half his attention while Mary continued listing all of Mary's positive traits and talking about how close knit everyone on campus was how she just couldn't imagine one of the students doing anything like this. The other half of Spencer's attention was on the bottle of water he held clenched between his hands. The moment their plane had landed, Spencer had been hit with such a strong thirst it left him wheeling for a few seconds. He'd already finished off three bottles of water since their arrival in Liberty and he was very close to finishing a fourth but he was trying to convince himself to moderate the remaining water in the bottle so as not to disrupt the discussion to get another one.

He took a small sip of water from his bottle and turned his attention back to what was being discussed. They were talking about the second victim now. Deanna Horn was a first-year student majoring in elementary education. She'd died at around four in the morning on Wednesday. She'd also been killed in the student parking lot, a place referred to as The Sahara because of its distance away from campus. The Sahara was tucked behind the dormitories at the bottom of a staircase containing eighty-one steps. Deanna had just returned to the school and had called Campus Safety to drive her up to her dorm. This wasn't an unusual thing at all. Somewhere between the time she hung up her phone and Campus Safety had arrived at her, she'd been shot. She was dead less than five minutes when Campus Safety found her sitting in her car with the lights on.

"Deanna was very involved in campus life," Mary Jacobson said. "She was on the track team. She was a member of various campus organizations. She joined her sorority before recruitment due to Continuous Open Bidding. She was a really really sweet girl."

Spencer gave up his internal fight and downed the rest of the water in his bottle, the cool liquid easing the unbearable thirst within him and clearing his head a few minutes.

The conversation had turned to the third victim, Henry Kelley. Henry was a senior nursing major. He was the only one not killed in the student parking lot. His murder had taken place almost half way across campus on a path next to the house where the school's president lived. The path was a direct route from the back of the student union to the area where the upper year dorms were located. According to his roommate, Henry had stayed late at the Union to work on a paper. The Union was open twenty-four hours, but the doors locked at midnight. The doors could only open from the inside and there was a campus safety officer inside with any students that might be there. They were told he was seen heading downstairs in the Union to check his mailbox and then had left through the door near that area. His body wasn't found until the next morning by students on their way to breakfast.

"Henry was a very quiet boy," Mary said. "He had a small group of friends and stuck close to him. But he was really sweet and wouldn't hurt a fly."