Rutwell College Chronicles:
Halloween 2022
Introduction:
Welcome to Rutwell College.
A place of learning. A steppingstone for all who enter its halls in the great journey of life.
For over two centuries, students at Rutwell have found themselves growing, stretching their limits, encouraged to try new experiences and to embark on paths they never considered before.
In these lecture halls and libraries, this haven of scholarship, the faculty find fresh minds to mould, empty vessels looking to be filled. Youth and experience coming together in creative unexpected ways with astonishing results.
As the motto of the college says, 'Mens Aperta, Corpus Saturatum'... 'Open Mind, Sated Body'.
Chapter 1:
"And that ladies and gentlemen is why I believe bio engineering, and in this case a focus on cell regeneration, is the next big step for the scientific research. Up there with the quest for Artificial Intelligence and Clean renewable energy. Why else would I have given twenty years of my life to it."
Professor Victoria Finkelstein smiled demurely in response to the tepid applause from the dinner guests, stepping back from the podium to allow the Dean of the college to take over.
"Ingrates and ignoramuses that's all they are." she muttered as she walked past a number of her colleagues gathered near the drinks table.
Doctor Habeeb from the Geology Department handed her a glass of wine.
"Not enjoying your turn as part of the dog and pony show my dear?" he asked her.
Victoria threw the contents of the glass back, barely tasting the wine before she bothered replying to him.
"I don't know why the Dean insists on making me give talks at these fund-raising events. Nobody is interested in funding my project." she said bitterly.
"Now, now, don't be coy my dear you know precisely why you are called upon." Dr Habeeb said with a wry twist to his lips as he gazed up at Victoria. At 5'8, Dr Habeeb wasn't the tallest of men however he wasn't particularly small either. However, Professor Finkelstein had worn heels that evening, which added to her 5'11 height making the representative of the Geology Department seem diminutive alongside her.
It was true, Victoria was well aware that the Dean used her purely as 'window dressing', expecting the more attractive members of the faculty to flirt and flatter their way through the assembled potential college benefactors. The Dean considered a large bosom and shapely legs as essential tools to open up the bank accounts of the attendees.
Victoria couldn't fault him for using her in that way, after all it was the college and its research programs that benefited from it. What she did take exception to was the fact that she didn't reap any of the rewards for her project.
"I've had enough for one evening." she declared, reaching for her coat and bag that she had stashed beneath the drinks table to facilitate her quick departure. "If the Dean is looking for me, tell him I had papers to grade."
Habeeb waved farewell, both hands filled with glasses of complimentary wine. Victoria wound her way through the edge of the crowd, disappearing through the double doors and into the gloom of the evening.
While she didn't have any students' papers to grade Victoria did have a couple of jobs to do. The campus was large given the average size of the student population. It took her a brisk twenty minutes' walk on what was a chilly late October evening to reach her laboratory. Although lying almost at the edge of the campus grounds, the building was one of the original ones from the late eighteenth century.
An old building like this tended to be too hot in the summer and freezing in the winter, so as Victoria stepped inside, she kept her coat firmly closed.
Waiting for her was her bespectacled Teaching Aide, Inga. Professor Finkelstein's laboratory was rundown, her funding all but non-existent and her reputation was becoming something of a joke. The one thing though that she struggled with on a daily basis was her assistant's ineptitude.
Oh, the girl meant well certainly, a large heart beat beneath the huge sweater encased breasts that seemed ready to topple her petite frame over face first on a constant basis. No, it wasn't intentional or from a lack of effort that her problems as an assistant lay, it was her total lack of scientific knowledge that was the nub of the issue.
However, the blonde girl's father was one of Victoria's few remaining donors and he had off loaded his twenty-seven-year-old daughter into Professor Finkelstein's care in the faint hope that some of the older woman's intelligence and poise would rub off.
Victoria patted her dark red hair back into place, fingers threading errant locks back into the sensible bun she had adopted for the evening. Finished she finally acknowledged Inga's presence, giving the hovering girl a brief nod.
"Everything ready?"
"Yes Professor, delivery from the coroner came this afternoon."
"Show me."
Inga led the Professor down a darkened corridor which led to the basement stairs. Descending them the two women came to a windowless steel door that required a card swipe to open.
Victoria impatiently tapped her right hand against her leg as Inga fumbled at the card hanging about her neck on a "Hello Kitty" lanyard.
Finally, the door swung open and they stepped through, the heavy door swinging shut behind them. Three more doors now faced them, these were regular wooden affairs with windows set at head height. On the left was Lab 2, in the middle an office space which doubled as a sleeping area for when Victoria was just too tired to walk back to her on campus accommodation. Finally on the right was Lab 1, the door to which Inga opened, holding it for Victoria to step through first.
There was a steel examination trolley in the centre of the room, lying on it, a corpse.
Victoria stepped over to it, running her trained eye across the still naked form. There were a number of wounds visible, bullet holes by the look of them but no marks from an autopsy.
