Chapter 44

"Well, first of all, can I get you a cup of coffee?"

"Yes, please."

Jess brewed him a cup. "Black?"

"Yes, please," Antonio said.

"I swear all cops drink it black."

"We do for the most part," Antonio confirmed.

The cup brewed, Jess handed him the mug. "So, I have lectures at 9 10 and noon. Nicole has a test at 11. I'm going to help proctor it. I'm not sure if Hank told you that Nicole suspects some of her students are cheating. She made up a new test just to see how things would play out. So, if students are expecting the test she used last year, they're in for a very big surprise."

"So it's possible they may not cheat on this one," Antonio pointed out.

"It's possible. It's an essay test, so they could possibly try to copy off of each other's papers. I want to discourage that," Nicole said as she set down her coffee mug. "Jess seems to think that because it's an essay test and they're expecting a multiple choice test that they won't try anything. I don't believe her."

"So you want me to walk around and make sure they're not cheating."

"Pretty much," Jess said. "And that includes texting. I make my students hand me their phones on test day. Nicole doesn't do that."

"Never had a reason to suspect anyone was cheating until the last test," Nicole reminded.

"So, what do you want me to do for lecture?"

"Nothing except observe. I don't think they'll try to do a drug deal during lecture, but they may set one up. I tried to catch texting going on, but it's hard with a class of 50. Especially on the days when the Law Journal comes out. Everyone is surfing on that day."

"So just give them a friendly reminder that there is no texting during class?"

Jess nodded and stood up. "It's that time again," she said as she gathered up her bag.

While Jess lectured, Antonio stood in the back of the room where he could get a look at the whole class. Some students looked genuinely interested in Jess' lecture, others looked bored, others looked half asleep, and another group typed away on their laptops. He stood in a corner and observed. He listened to Jess lecture, her passion for the law obvious in her voice. He wondered if it was her love of law that Voight found attractive. There was definitely an age difference between them. He guessed at least fifteen years. He never understood why young women married older men, and vice versa. He and Buffy were 2 years apart, and that was plenty enough age difference between them. Anything more than that and he felt like he was dating his sister.

He thought about the case. He thought that with his addition to the staff, the students would be on their best behavior for a while. He only had this week to find something. Loyola was on Thanksgiving break next week.

When class ended, he waited until students had finished asking Jess their questions and then made his way down to her.

"Hi," she said. "Anything?"

"Aside from some looking totally interested, some looking bored, and some wishing they could go back to bed?"

"Ah, you caught that too."

He smiled. "Yep."

"I can see why you made Detective."

Antonio chuckled. "Nothing out of the ordinary. But let's wait and see."

Jess stuffed her notes into her bag. "We have Nicole's test in 10 minutes. Better get a move on."

Nicole looked at Jess and Antonio when they entered her classroom. Jess glanced around and noticed that most of the class had arrived. "Hey," she greeted as Jess and Antonio made their way over to Nicole. "Welcome to my nightmare."

"It'll be fine, Nic. You'll see."

"Ok, while they're taking this test, can you two just walk up and down the aisles and make sure no one is cheating?"

"Yeah, that's usually what proctors do," Jess reminded.

"I'm sorry, Jess. I'm just really nervous about this test."

"The way you're carrying on, you'd think you were taking it."

"I take it, I'd probably flunk it."

Nicole picked up the tests and started to pass them out. Antonio and Jess took their places at the end of the rows. Slowly, they moved to the back of the classroom to observe the students taking the test.