Free Phi Beta Murder by C.S. Challinor Page B

mattress to your room,” he informed Rex. “The blood seeped through the bedding. Is the lady going to be all right?”
    “Yes, but she has to stay at Arlington General for a few days.”
    Rex thought he saw an expression of relief pass over the desk clerk’s face. He had to admit he was relieved too. The hospital could watch over Moira while he got on with the investigation of Dixon Clark’s death.
    Interesting what Dr. Yee had said about men being more likely than women to follow through on a suicide … What could have pushed the young man to kill himself when Moira, who had witnessed a massacre and been disappointed in love, had not been able to go all the way?
    Rex consulted his notes and decided to visit the Student Health Center and see if he could talk to the person who had prescribed the Xanax to Dixon. Campbell had given him a map of the campus, and Rex found when he got there that the medical facility was housed in a converted block of old science labs located a quarter of a mile from the administrative buildings. The interior was set up like a regular practice, with a young pony-tailed woman in pale blue scrubs seated behind a window.
    “Can you tell me the name of the doctor who was seeing Dixon Clark?” he asked her.
    “The dead boy?”
    “Aye. His family has asked me to look into his suicide, and I thought his doctor might have some insight.”
    “Why aren’t his parents contacting us themselves?”
    “Because they’re busy dealing with formalities such as funeral arrangements,” Rex said tersely. “I have their number for you to call …”
    Disregarding Mr. Clark’s business card that he held out to her, she picked up a phone and pressed a button. “Becky, are you free?” She briefly explained the situation to the person at the other end. “Becky Ward,” she told Rex, “is our nurse practitioner. She saw Dixon Clark.”
    The receptionist propelled herself in her swivel chair to a file cabinet and pulled out a folder. “She’s just finishing up with a patient. I have to get a signed release from Dixon’s parents faxed to us.”
    Rex claimed a chair by a giant potted plant and waited. A boy whom he recognized as Mike, the fair-haired business studies major from Indiana, exited a door studying a leaflet on STDs, followed shortly afterward by an older woman in a white coat. She had cropped gray hair and wore glasses suspended from a chain around her neck.
    “Please come in,” she told Rex, taking Dixon Clark’s folder from the receptionist.
    Her office walls displayed colorful charts and anatomical diagrams. A glass door offered a view of a small concrete courtyard surrounded by oak trees.
    “Do you mind if we step outside?” she asked Rex. “I was about to take my lunch break.”
    “Please, go ahead. I’m sorry to be interrupting. It’s good of you to see me at such short notice.”
    Carrying a Styrofoam cup and a brown paper bag, the nurse led the way out the glass door and settled on a bench against the brick wall of the building. Two squirrels leaped up beside her and raised their paws to their chins, chattering excitedly and twitching their tails.
    “Little beggars,” she said fondly, feeding each a piece of her salad sandwich, while Rex sat at the far end of the bench and watched in amusement. “Meet Tricky and Lola, my lunch companions.”
    “They’re a lot more prepossessing than some of my lunch companions back in chambers.”
    “You’re from Scotland?”
    “Aye, Edinburgh.”
    “My grandmother was from Dunfermline.”
    “Oh, aye? That’s not far from us.”
    Becky Ward gently shooed the squirrels off the bench. “Off you go now and let me eat in peace. So, Dixon Clark,” she said, swiping her fingers against each other to dislodge the crumbs. She opened the folder. “This is a very sad business. He came to me for something to calm his anxiety. I prescribed an anti-depressant, Xanax, which he’d taken before.”
    “Did he discuss his problems with