Chapter 5: Poison Pen Letters

INTERIOR MAC's DORM ROOM

Seated at Mac's desk Veronica looked across the room at a tall lanky guy sitting on Parker's pink bed. He was thin with high cheek bones and delicate hands. His sunken eyes looked sad and scared as he nervously reached out to hand Veronica three pieces of paper. On each, using letters cut out from various magazines in a very old school manner, someone had written threats:

Stop what you are doing before someone gets hurt.

Your unnatural acts will incur God's wrath

God will defile you for your sins.

Scanning them Veronica probed more. "When did you get the first one of these?"

"At the end of last month," the man replied. "Shortly after I got the job of playing Demi Moore at the Castle."

Veronica nearly choked on the sip of water she had just taken from her Poland Spring bottle.

Not understanding her friend's reaction, Mac explained, "You know the lounge on Sepulveda, around the block from the Camelot Motel . .. . King Arthur's Castle – Castle, kings and queens, drag Queens. Get it?"

Recovering quickly, Veronica re-assured everyone. "No, I get it. The water just went down the wrong pipe. I'm fine."

"Max and I went there before school started. They have a stand-up comedy act and some songs. It's kind of like that place that Robin William's character owned in that movie, The Birdcage. Anyway it was so fun but as we were leaving we saw Bruce here in the alleyway and he was freaking out." Mac elaborated. "When we walked toward him I kind of recognized him from last year. That's when he showed me the second note."

Bruce continued, "The third one came this past weekend and that's when I really got scared. The others turned up at the Castle but this one was slid under my dorm room door. I found it after my family left."

"Do you still have the envelopes?" Veronica inquired. Her mind was already searching for angles.

Regretfully Bruce shook his head. "No. I threw them out. I wasn't thinking but they weren't mailed. There were no stamps or postmarks. I remember that."

"Okay," Veronica began, "that tells us that the notes were most likely hand delivered. We can use that."

A short silence hung over the room as Veronica and Mac worked through this puzzle.

Holding out his cell phone Bruce offered, "I do have some text message and one voice message. I think it's from the same guy."

Mac and Veronica both brightened at that revelation. Mac grabbed the phone from Bruce. Technology was her thing. "Come to mamma," she extolled flipping open her lap top to trace the cell number. After a few key stokes and a brief wait she looked up dejectedly. "Dead end. The number belongs to a pre-paid cell phone."

Veronica wasn't ready to give up. "Maybe we can figure out where it was purchased and then track down who bought it."

All of them nodded at the wisdom of her suggestion.

"Plus, since the Dean's murder, the school has put up more surveillance cameras. I'll call Weevil. Maybe he can get us access to the tapes from the other day. If somebody who doesn't belong was sneaking into the dorm, we should be able to identify them."