Suspect #12.

The Professor.

James is my old professor. He taught the core hospitality courses that followed me through the last two years of college at the University of Hawaii. He also is a an avid surfer and even moonlights for a local surfing instruction school on the weekends for tourists. Of all the suspects, I liken him the most to my dad. Calm, cool and collected.

Right now though, he is sweating it after receiving the call from detective Keele. He is going to be interviewed. I overheard his reaction in the detectives office and knew I had to get here before they did. He was hiding something. 

"Fuck..." 

He paces the floor of his office, back and forth between the opened window and his dark mahogany door. Trinkets from tourism locations tinkered and swayed in the breeze along his walls. He had traveled extensively while gaining tenure. Students past and present alike loved coming in here and looking at the collection he has amassed. It was quite impressive. 

"Leilani....fuck me." He bemoaned. 

I float near him and examine his desk. There is a smattering of papers everywhere. One of them had my name and under it a bunch of numbers. It looked like lottery numbers, about five sequences of them.

He takes out his phone and glances at the screen, unlocking it with a code. Up pops a weird app that looks like it is for a strip joint.  A well endowed blonde wearing a see through bra dances across the screen. He taps on her assets to open the app. The screen scrambles then a message flashes across.

Entry denied....

"Shit! Not now.."

James hits the close button and drops his phone on the desk, clutching his head with both hands. He lets out a muffled cry and stands up. I have never seen him this mad before, or upset. He is usually so chilled out. 

"Professor, can we go over todays grading scale before I head back home?"

His TA comes into the office, catching us both off guard. 

"Is something wrong?" She asks, her eyes wide as she clutches a huge stack of papers.

"No. No...not right now. I'll call you later on tonight. Please just go home. I have an important meeting coming up any minute."

The TA keeps staring at him until he glares at her. She nods and scurries out, letting the outer room door shut loudly. Apparently he wasn't sleeping with that TA. When I was in his class it was known that he developed 'intimate' relationships with his student staff members. Even still, he was one of the most popular teachers at U of H. 

Taking his pen, he crosses off the first set of numbers and then puts the paper away in the desk drawer. He clearly had an idea what to do with them, one that needed passwords. But why was my name on the paper? I had never done anything inappropriate with him, ever.

Before I could snoop further a knock sounded against the outer door. 

The detectives were here. 

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"Please, detectives...?"

The professor framed the open ended question in hopes to garner their names. 

"Detective Jones and this is detective Keele, my boss."

"Detective Jones and detective Keele, please, take a seat."

Choosing the love seat by the open window, both took out notepads this time. I hadn't seen them do this in tandem yet. Something big must be up. 

"I am sure by now you know I used to be Ms. Miller's professor."

Detective Keele nodded.

"Yes, we do. what we need more info on is your relationship with her next door neighbor.." He glances at his notes, "A woman named Rachel."

James looks like he has seen a ghost. His face turns ashen, and he is perpetually tan. 

"I...I don't know whom you are referring to. I have many students with that name in my classes." 

The detectives just catch him lying on something important. Something big. And they know it. 

"We have correspondence between you two.." detective Keele opens his notebook and takes out a few sheets of folded papers. "Showing that you talked extensively about our victim, Ms. Leilani Miller. Seems that you both offered her to be on this paid picture website that runs overseas. Did she decline your offer?" 

I am rendered unable to move. Feeling as though someone just killed me all over again, I try to remember when they had ever talked to me. There is no memory of such a conversation! None at all! How did he know Rachel? She had never been in his classes. How had they met? A sickly feeling oozes throughout my ghostly figure. 

"Now detectives, I don't think I should continue without my lawyer..." 

Detective Jones interrupts, "You can call your lawyer or you can answer a few simple questions and avoid a subpoena. We need to rule you out as a murder suspect." 

"I did not kill her! She was a star student and went on to represent the program well in the hotel you chose to work for. Hardly a motive to murder her!" He retorts, a touch of indignation in his voice. 

"That's true. But tell us what happened after she declined to share her pictures with you." 

James sighs, sitting forward in his chair now, elbows resting on his desk, his hands clasped together. 

"The idea wasn't mine. It was her neighbors, Rachel. I was already on the website when I met her. She messaged me relentlessly, asking if I knew of any local girls for a 'project' she had. I mentioned I was a college professor and knew of many but gave no names. She got ahold of my IP address somehow, began blackmailing me." 

Rachel...using the dark web. The sick feeling intensifies. 

"When did she mention the victim, Leilani?" Detective Keele gently asks. 

They are getting a boat load of information out of the professor. 

"It just came up. That she had a smoking hot neighbor who was her friend. She slipped her name and I said I had taught her. Then the threats got worse from there. She said Leilani was opposed to taking nudes and was trying to convince her that she could make a fortune. But I never ever wanted it to get that far. And I would never have hurt her." He says, his voice cracking at the end. 

"I understand. We'll need you to give us an official statement, and your alibi." 

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If you think this was the most disturbing interview yet, you'd be right. My friend, the one I shot the breeze with after work and on weekends, was trying to pimp me out on the dark web. And I still feel like she had more to hide. I am pretty certain that she was the one who killed me. But, who knows. 

"Thank you for telling us everything. We will check out your alibi and be in touch." 

The detectives both shake James's hand and leave his office then the outer door. There is a large beat of silence as their presence fades away, as if they'd never been here. He is frozen. Just sitting at his desk, staring off into space. I don't think he killed me, but he did view pictures my 'friend' had taken of someone else, with my head photoshopped on. In essence, he was just as bad. 

"Fuck.." He mutters. 

Picking up his office phone, he calls someone. I figured he wouldn't use his cell phone for it. Covering his tracks. 

"Hey. The detectives were here. Yep. They asked me straight away about the dark web."

He taps the desk as the voice speaks too muffled for me to understand. I wonder if he's called Rachel. Most likely. 

"Well I...no...I...." 

The voice was apparently cutting him off. He was visibly frustrated. 

"Now listen...yes. I told them about asking Leilani but she declined. No, no they don't know about any other pictures or girls. Trust me. I didn't tell, them..." 

James runs his hand through his hair and smooths the sun kissed strands. I'd seen him do this after class when he was overwhelmed. 

"Alright, I need to get my lawyer involved anyway. I gave them a statement on paper. They are going to check my alibi." 

More chatter from the mystery person. 

"I said I was with you....so you have to corroborate my story. Yes....and you know I could lose my job over this if they don't get a good answer from you. The university won't know anything yet unless I tell them." 

He listens more and grunts. I really wished I could hear through devices. That was one spirit power if you will, I just didn't posses. 

"Ok fine. Good. Yes, good. Tell them that. Perfect. Alright....talk to you later." 

He hangs up the phone and breathes out a huge sigh. 

"Ohhhh!" He lets out. "Leilani. Geez...if I had known you'd die...." 

Trailing off what could have been a confession, he stands up and stretches. Today must be a planning day because there weren't any students coming in or any office hours posted. I check the doors for anything of significance. No notes, nothing. Odd. 

"I need to get the stupid app fixed." He laments. 

I cannot believe that my former professor looks at porn on the dark web.

There are some secrets that should remain buried. 

~ This book is Copyrighted by K E Jennings and only available on Wattpad. if you are reading this on another site, it has been stolen without permission or monetary payment to the said author. ~

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Fun Hawaiian Fact: The first Aloha shirts date back to the 1920's and contained Japanese patterns.