MAX4 - SEPTEMBER 9, 2023
Louise Larkner finished getting dressed. She had a class at 9:00, and it took 20 minutes to get to campus. Even though she was an assistant professor of Olive Studies and a consultant to the American Olive Growers, she still taught an Introduction to Botany class at the University of California at Davis.
She stopped in the kitchen, where Inez Sanchez cooked bacon and eggs.
Inez asked Louise, “Do you want an egg?”.
Louise replied, “That sounds good. Can you fry it hard, and I’ll put it on an English Muffin for the ride to campus.
Louise reached into the cupboard, got an English muffin, split it with a knife, and popped the two sides into the toaster. She liked her English muffins on the light side, so she adjusted the toaster to setting two. She grabbed a Yeti mug and filled it with coffee.
Louise gathered her purse and school bag, and the English muffins popped up. She grabbed the two pieces and said, “Ow, they’re too hot.” She grabbed a paper plate from the cupboard's top shelf, put the two English muffin parts on the paper plate, and held it out for Inez to put an egg on one half. She was balancing her purse, school bag, and paper plate and hadn’t picked up her coffee mug yet. Putting her school on the table, she put her purse inside the bag. She then grabbed a Ziplock bag and shoved the English muffin with the egg into the baggie, and she now had a free hand for her coffee.
Turning back, she quickly kissed Inez and said, “See you tonight.”.
Inez was a Ph.D. student in Psychology specializing in Women’s Studies. She was teaching an Intro to Psychology class at 10:00, so she wasn’t in a hurry.
*****
Louise pulled into the faculty parking lot and walked into the Environmental Horticulture Building. In the lobby, she waited a minute for the elevator and pressed the button for floor three. Passing through the main horticulture office, she says ‘hi’ to the staff and goes to her office EH-312. She dropped her backpack on the floor, grabbed her coffee cup, and walked past two more offices to the staff copy machine and coffee room. Getting her coffee, Louise walks back to her office, opens her MacBook, and reads her emails and messages.
‘Hmmm - what does Max Zinn want?’ as she opens his text.
Suddenly, she is totally awake. Death at the American Olive Growers, poisons used, bees killed - what in the world is happening?
She quickly called Max.
He answered on the third ring.
“Good morning, this is Max Zinn,” said Max.
Louise replied rapidly, “Good Morning Max. This is Louise Larkner. What in the world is going on?”
Max answered, “Oh, not much, Louise. A former employee and an accomplice broke in last night. It seems like the accomplice shot the former employee - through the forehead. He had a carton of some kind of poison or disease. Almost all the bees in that area are dead or gone this morning. We don’t know what the stuff was, and the Butte County deputy took the carton to be analyzed. Carlos and I don’t know if it will spread through the grove or if it will cause the trees to die.
“Might it be possible for you to come down and help test the trees and help us understand? And, if you know why the former employee was shot at close range, the sheriff’s office would like to know.”
Louise gasped on the other end of the line, “Oh my God. I’m busy most of the day, but I’ll see if I can round up my graduate assistants and come up later this afternoon. It might be five or six o’clock. I’ll see if one of our toxicology experts can come with me. “
As an afterthought, she said, “Some poisons start acting right away. Can you save me some leaves from this morning, and then we’ll compare them to what we see this afternoon? Look for some red blotches on the under leaf.
“You say the dead person was a former employee.”
Max answered, “Yes - he was stealing bushels of olives and seeing them in Chico.”
Louise asked, “Did he have access to poisons? He might have concocted something with - ah - maybe bleach or vinegar mixed with Round-Up. Seal everything you find in Ziplock bags for me.”
Max said, “We will do that’.
Louise closed, “I’ve got a class to teach, so I have to run, but I’ll check back later today. Goodbye”.
Max answered, “Goodbye,” quickly before he clicked off.
He thought, ‘I’m glad she can come today. The faster we solve this, the better the trees and the bees will be”.
*****
Inez Sanchez’s office was in a room with three other graduate students. It wasn’t very private, but it gave her a place to meet with students and work on her dissertation. With her advisor, Dr. Cecilia Warmister, her dissertation was Rape Cases on College Campuses: 1950 to 2010. Although she didn’t have a law background, Inez quickly became familiar with discrimination in rape cases. In the great majority of cases, men who were accused of rape of women students were not guilty. It was a disturbing trend. Many lawyers for the defense called that it was consensual sex, not rape, and that the women who filed charges after the rape occurred were just trying to get money from the man’s family.
At 9:55, Inez walked to class. It was in a larger classroom. And freshman-level classes generally had at least 40 students in the class. She walked in and connected her MacBook that had slides for today’s lecture.
She did a little mental game warm-up - called Wordle and then launched into a presentation on the readings from the textbook. The current chapter was on sensing and perceiving. She had an in-class challenge planned. At 11:27, one of her office mates, Daniel Wagner, would rush through one door and out the other, screaming something. Daniel would have a wig on and a T-shirt.
So, Inez is in her presentation, and Daniel runs through the classroom and out the other side. She screams, as do a few of the others in the class.
But, once Daniel is gone, she goes back to class discussion.
Then she returns to her presentation - “Class, the chapter we’re looking at is Sensing and Perceiving. She starts with questions: “Okay, class, what was the person wearing?” “Was it a male or a female?” “How tall was the person?”, “What was the person screaming?”, “What color was the person’s hair?” and additional questions.
Most got that the person was wearing a San Francisco 49ers jersey and was male. On the question about height, Tina Martinez (one of the students) walked to the door and pointed at a spot on the door frame.
Tina says, “He was this tall.”
Inez complemented Tina on getting it right. “How did you know?” asked Inez.
Tina laughed, “I worked at Taco Bueno. And at the door, we had measurements on the door frame. We were asked to notice things about the people in the restaurant, so if he were going to rob the store, we would be able to identify him in a police lineup.”
They spent a few more minutes discussing the incident before flipping to the PowerPoint slide of Daniel Wagner as he appeared in the class. Some got most of the questions right, but some only remembered a few items.
Class finished the class, and as the students were filing out, Inez called Tina up to the podium. “That was a good job picking out Daniel’s height on the door frame.”
As the room emptied, Inez quietly told Tina, “It is good to have you in class today. How are you coming with the abusive boyfriend?”
Tina blushed a little. She and Inez had talked about the boyfriend a few times when Tina stopped in Inez’s office with bruises all over her body. She replied, “I broke up with him, and I think he finally got the point. I don’t think I’m going to see him again.”
*****
Louise texted Inez. “Are you done with class? Ready to walk?”
They generally went to the old gym and walked together when they could.
Inez texted back “I’ll see you there in ten minutes.” Inez stopped at her office and got a pair of sneakers from under her desk and a fresh shirt from her backpack and headed to the old gym.
*****
At one time the old gym had been the only gym on campus. There was an indoor track on second floor with six lanes that had been used for indoor track events. There were now two newer gyms. One that was used for gym classes and some sports; and one that was reserved for the intercollegiate sports. The athletic teams were called the “Aggies” for the many agricultural majors on campus.
At noon, the indoor track could be crowded, but today it wasn’t too bad. There were a couple of intramural volleyball games on the first floor. It kept their interest to be able to watch the games as they walked.
Louise was already on the track by the time Inez got her shoes and shirt changed.
“About time,” Louise kidded her partner.
Inez didn’t even try to tease back, but grabbed Louise and gave her a big hug and a long kiss.
Inez said, “Okay, let’s walk.”
Louise told Inez about the murder at the olive orchard and how the culprit had been shot through the forehead. She said the culprit was a former employee that Max and Carlos knew, but that somebody else had killed him at close range.
Then Louise filled Inez in about the toxins that might have been used that probably had killed the bees.
And, then Louise gave Inez the bad news. “I’m driving up there this afternoon. If you want a boring end to the day, you can ride along. I’ll have two of my graduate assistants with me and we’ll do an analysis of the toxins and potential damage to the orchard.
Inez gave a fake yawn, “Ho hum, I can ride along to a olive grove where a murder has been, or I can get a couple of pages written on my dissertation about rape on college campus. I sure have an exciting life.”
Louise teased her back, “That’s right - be a martyr. But hurry up and get that dissertation done. But I think rape is probably a little more exciting than my dissertation on fungi growth on certain olive species in humid climates.”
Inez came back at her. “I’m surprised you didn’t die of boredom with that dissertation.”
Louise nodded, “Yes, but that boring topic worked out and now I’m a professor and have to write boring papers for academic conferences and journals.”
Inez retorted, “So, why do you want me to finish my dissertation? So, I can be as boring as you?”.
*****
They walked about forty minutes, not at a fast pace. They wouldn’t shower but try to clean up a little before heading back to their offices.
***********************
End of week 4 of Max Zinn, olive grower.
Where will this go next week? (Hopefully I’ll have more time to write!!!)
LOVE WINS
LOVE TRANSFORMS
KAREN ANNE WHITE, ©, SEPTEMBER 9, 2023
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