Whatever remained of his composure crumbled and his color got bad. I remembered what Larry had said about a heart attack and wondered if I’d pushed too hard.
“Jesus God,” he said. “Don’t pursue this. I didn’t know- an aberration. I assure you it will never happen again.”
“True. Kruse is dead.”
“Let the dead rest, Delaware. Please!”
“All I want is information,” I said softly. “Give me some truth and the matter’s dropped.”
“What? What do you want to know?”
“The connection between Ransom and Kruse.”
“I don’t know much about that. That’s the Lord’s truth. Only that she was his protégée.”
I remembered how soon it was after Sharon arrived that Kruse had filmed her.
“He brought her with him, didn’t he? Sponsored her application.”
“Yes, but-”
“Where did he bring her from?”
“Wherever he was from, I assume.”
“Where was that?”
“Florida.”
“Palm Beach?”
He nodded.
“Was she from Palm Beach too?”
“I have no idea-”
“We could find out by checking her application records.”
“When did she graduate?”
“’81.”
He picked up the phone, called the department, and mouthed a few orders. A moment later he was frowning, saying, “Are you sure? Double-check.” Silence. “All right, all right.” He hung up and said, “Her file is gone.”
“How convenient.”
“Delaware-”
“Call the registrar’s office.”
“All they’d have would be her transcript.”
“Transcripts list prior institutions attended.”
He nodded, dialed a number, pulled rank with a clerk, and waited. Then he used the yellow marker to write something in a column of the manuscript and hung up. “Not Florida. Long Island, New York. A place called Forsythe Teachers College.”
I used his paper and pen to copy that down.
“By the way,” he said, “her grades were superb- undergraduate and graduate. Unblemished A’s. No indication of anything other than exceptional scholarship. She might very well have gotten in without his help.”
“What else do you know about her?”
“Why do you need to know all of this?”
I stared at him, said nothing.
“I had nothing to do with her,” he said. “Kruse was the one with a personal interest in her.”
“How personal?”
“If you’re assuming something… corrupt, I wouldn’t know about that.”
“Why would I assume that?”
He hesitated, looked queasy. “It’s no secret that he was known for certain… proclivities. Drives.”
“Were those drives directed toward Sharon Ransom?”
“No, I… That’s not the kind of thing I pay much attention to.”
I believed him. “Think those drives helped her get straight A’s?”
“Absolutely not. That’s simply-”
“How’d he manage to get her in?”
“He didn’t get her in. He sponsored her. Her grades were perfect. His sponsorship was simply an additional factor in her favor- nothing unusual. Faculty members have always been allowed to sponsor applicants.”
“Tenured faculty,” I said. “When have clinical associates ever had that kind of clout?”
A long silence. “I’m sure you know the answer to that.”
“Tell me anyway.”
He cleared his throat, as if ready to spit. Expelled a single word: “Money.”
“Blalock money?”
“As well as his own- he came from a wealthy family, ran in the same social circle as Mrs. Blalock and her ilk. You know how rare those kinds of contacts are among academics, especially at a public university. He was regarded as more than just another clinical associate.”
“A clinical associate with training in psychological warfare.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Never mind,” I said. “So he was your bridge between town and gown.”
“That’s correct. Nothing shameful about that, is there?”
I remembered what Larry had said about Kruse treating one of the Blalock children. “Was his only connection with Mrs. Blalock a social one?”
“As far as I know. Please, Delaware, don’t make something ominous out of all this and get her involved. The department was in dire financial straits; Kruse brought substantial funds with him and promised to use his connections to obtain an ample endowment from Mrs. Blalock. He made good on that promise. In return we offered him an unpaid appointment.”
“Unpaid in terms of salary. He got lab facilities. For his pornography research. Real academic rigor.”
He flinched. “It wasn’t that simple. The department did not simply yield like a harlot. It took months to confirm his appointment. The senior faculty debated it heavily- there was significant opposition, not least of which was my own. The man was sorely lacking in academic credentials. His column in that crass magazine was positively offensive. However…”
“However, in the end, expediency won out.”
He twisted beard hairs, made them crackle. “When I heard about his… research, I realized letting him in had been an error in judgment- but one impossible to undo without creating adverse publicity.”
“So instead you made him department head.”
He continued playing with his beard. Several brittle white hairs rained down on the desk.
“Back to the Ransom dissertation,” I said. “How’d it get through departmental scrutiny?”
“Kruse came to me requesting that the experimental rule be waived for one of his students. When he told me she planned to submit a case study, I immediately refused. He was persistent, pointed out her perfect academic record. Said she was an unusually skillful clinician- for what that’s worth- and that the case she wanted to present was unique, had major research ramifications.”
“How major?”
“Publishable in a major journal. Nevertheless, he failed to sway me. But he kept pressing, buttonholing me daily, coming into my office, interrupting my work in order to argue his case. Finally, I relented.”
Finally. As in fill the coffers. I said, “When you read the dissertation, did you regret your decision?”
“I thought it was rubbish, but no different from any other clinical study. Psychology should have remained in the laboratory, true to its scientific roots, never been allowed to venture out into all that poorly defined treatment rubbish. Let the psychiatrists muck around in that kind of silliness.”
“You had no idea it was autobiographical?”
“Of course not! How could I? I never met her, except once, at her oral exam.”
“Must have been a tough exam. Kruse, you as his rubber stamp. And an outside member: Sandra Romansky. Remember her?”
“Not in the slightest. Do you know how many committees I sit on? Had I the smallest inkling of any impropriety, I would have put my foot down- you can count on that.”
Reassuring.
He said, “I was only tangentially involved.”
“How thoroughly did you read it?” I asked.
“Not thoroughly at all,” he said, as if seizing on extenuating evidence. “Believe me, Delaware, I barely skimmed the blasted thing!”
I went down to the department office, told the secretary I was working with Professor Frazier, verified that the file was missing, and called Long Island information to find the number of Forsythe College. Administration there confirmed that Sharon Jean Ransom had attended the school from 1972 through 1975. They’d never heard of Paul Peter Kruse.
I called my service for messages. Nothing from Olivia or Elmo Castelmaine. But Dr. Small and Detective Sturgis had phoned.
“The detective said don’t call him, he’ll get back to you,” the operator told me.
She giggled. “Detective. You getting involved in something exciting, Dr. Delaware?”