Page 89 of M for Murder

Lucinda, a middle-aged woman with a honey-coloured beehive and a bright red lipstick smile, gave her a wink and a nod.

‘Coming right up, Agnes.’

Watching the woman walk away, Agnes leaned back in her seat, hands folded across the table, and smiled at Max. ‘Why don’t I tell you all about it.’

33

SAN PALIMO, CALIFORNIA. NOVEMBER 1963

G ood grades were something which Carolyn Mayo usually had to work hard to achieve. Some of the kids on her course seemed able to get an A by putting in the minimum amount of effort. Others couldn’t be bothered and were happy enough if they managed to get a D. Carolyn didn’t want Ds. She wanted As, and she found that these days she was starting to get them, though she had to work twice as hard as any of the other students to do so.

This didn’t bother her. She planned on becoming a newspaper reporter and knew that in order to fulfil her ambition she needed to pass her English class with good grades.

Her boyfriend, Bobby, thought that she was nuts wanting to become a reporter. His cousin was a photographer, and he was always going on about how Carolyn should try modelling. Although she was secretly flattered that he thought she was pretty enough to be a model, she had her heart set on the world of journalism, and deep down she knew that Bobby was proud of her trying to get ahead in what was still a man’s world.

On the whole, life was good: her grades, her relationship with Bobby, she had plenty of friends and a great social life. Back in the early part of 1963, Carolyn Mayo didn’t have a problem in the world.

Then shortly after she returned from summer vacation, ready for her second year, Professor Hayes who tutored her in English was killed in an automobile accident and his classes were divided between the other professors in the department. Carolyn’s class was taken over by Professor Myron White, an affable man whom, until now, she’d had little to do with.

The classes had started fine. White quickly became popular among the students. He was a handsome man in his late thirties, with thick wavy brown hair and a rugged jaw, and many of the female students found him attractive. He was the perfect professor, often making jokes during lectures and always telling them that his door was open should they ever need to talk.

Carolyn got on fine for the first few weeks. Unlike some of her female friends, she didn’t have a crush on the new professor, but she believed him to genuinely care about whether or not his students passed the course.

It was on a Thursday afternoon that she first noticed him paying her extra attention. It seemed that every time she looked up, he had his eyes on her chest and when, at the end of the lecture, she was leaving the room, he brushed past her, his hand drifting down to caress her on the ass.

At the time she tried to tell herself that it had been an accident. It was silly to think the man had done it purposely.

Although the incident remained in the back of her mind, she chose not to mention it to Bobby or any of her friends and she went to her Tuesday lecture thinking nothing more of it. It wasn’t until a week later, when White handed her back a paper he’d marked, that she realised she had a problem. Over the past few months, she had managed to consistently achieve As. Although she had worked just as hard on this particular paper and knew it to be worthy of an A, it came back graded with a D.

After the lecture Carolyn stayed behind to confront White and find out why she had been marked down. When she left the room twenty minutes later, she went straight to the bathroom, locked herself in the toilet and burst into tears.

Professor White had made it clear to her that he did not believe her paper to be worthy of anything more than a grade D. He told her that he felt her level of work had been slipping since the death of Professor Hayes and he suggested that she might wish to come back on Thursday evenings for extra help with the work. While there had been nothing overtly threatening in the words that he had used, the tone of his voice and the way in which he had allowed his hand to brush over her breast had left her in no doubt as to what he meant.

If Carolyn Mayo wished to achieve good grades again, she was going to have to offer the professor a little incentive.

Her initial reaction had been to report White to the College Dean. There was no way that he could get away with blackmailing her this way. Surely, if she reported him his contract with the college would be terminated.

It didn’t take her long to realise that if she did report him nobody would be likely to believe her. Professor Myron White was held in high esteem by all of his work colleagues and practically worshipped by the student body. Why would they take the word of an average student over his? Carolyn could just imagine what would happen if she tried to report him. White would probably turn the tables around, maybe even make out that she had a crush on him and that she became nasty when he didn’t reciprocate her advances. She would not only be risking her grades, but also her future with the college. What newspaper would want to hire her if she was kicked off her course?

She didn’t sleep for worrying for the next two nights, knowing that if she said nothing and didn’t comply with his requests her grades would continue to slip. During her Thursday lecture she couldn’t bring herself to look the man in the eye and, when he called her back after class and asked if she had decided to take him up on his offer, she told herself she was thinking of her future before answering the one word that was about to ruin it.

Yes.

They met in the classroom at half seven that evening. Carolyn lied to Bobby, telling him she was feeling ill and planned on going to bed early, before leaving her dorm and making her way across campus to the building that housed the English Department.

White was already in his classroom, waiting for her, looking like the cat that had got the cream as he sat behind his desk, his elbows resting on the arms of his chair and his two index fingers pressed together in front of him.

He looked at her and smiled. ‘I’m glad you came, Carolyn. It’s nice to know you care enough about your grades to put in the extra work.’

Carolyn swallowed back the bile that was rising in her throat and clutched her purse tightly. Her eyes flicked nervously around the room. The overhead light was on and White had drawn the blinds at the windows to prevent anyone being able to see inside the classroom. As she had entered the building she had noticed that no one else seemed to be around and it made her apprehensive, knowing she was all alone with him. White moved past her to the door, pushing it shut before pulling the blind down and turning the key. Noticing the fearful look in her eye, he gave her what she supposed was meant to be a reassuring smile.

‘We need a little privacy, Carolyn,’ he explained. ‘I wouldn’t want anyone to come in and disturb us while we work.’

Carolyn felt a little of her fear subside as he stepped away from the door, noticing that he’d left the key in the lock. He came to stand before her, placing his hands on her shoulders. Slowly he began to massage them.

‘You’re so tense, Carolyn. You need to learn to relax. We will work better together that way.’

Slowly he eased the strap of her purse off her shoulder, letting it slip down her arm to the floor. He pulled her closer and allowed his hands to drop off her shoulders and down onto her back.