At 6 AM I was sitting in the Suburban across the street from Patti’s apartment. I wanted to see if I could find out what was going on with her that she looked so upset in the mornings. I had stopped off at the donut shop as I came through C-ville to get a couple of bagels and a giant cup of coffee. Coffee wasn’t one of my favorite drinks any more. I had consumed gallons of in the Marines as it seemed to be the beverage of choice in the chow line and every ships galley I had ever been involved with. It was good for keeping you alert.

While I munched on the bagel and sipped on the coffee I worked my e-mails and text messages on the smart phone. I decided that I was going to get a cheap laptop to keep in the truck for times like these, along with a thumb drive. I could be working on serious stuff instead of filling my face.

I waited until Patti left for work in a cab. Nothing seemed out of the way this morning. That made me even more curious. I let several cars go by then I followed her to the office.

The construction was moving along at a good clip. The slate roof would be completed today. It looked like the brick work was also finished. The foam insulation was completed yesterday morning. They were unloading drywall this morning. My guess that they had plans to put it up today. I also noticed that two new heat pump units were sitting next to the building.

Ken Smith had started to explain the system to me yesterday before he was interrupted. He got as far as telling me that the outside units were the largest pieces of the system. There was no traditional heat exchanger and no duct work to install. There were just two copper lines to each room and a unit the size of two large shoe boxes attached near the ceiling on a wall. It did heat or AC; whichever you wanted.

The night shift had been busy. There had been two booze parties in the male dorms; both had gotten out of hand. Two male students had to be carried to the hospital for an overnight stay. No matter how hard you try, you just can not chug a gallon pitcher of beer without it getting into your lungs. Then to top that off, before the ambulance arrived two drunken students tried to take the kegs down the back emergency stairs. The unlucky students ended up at the bottom with a full keg of beer on top of them. That required another ambulance to take care of the broken shoulder and leg.To add a little humor to the situation, they were both naked.

The keg, 6 cases of beer, 6 bottles of wine, and 2 fifths of whiskey were being stored in the storage room until the owner came forward to claim it. The only problem is everyone that was there was under the legal drinking age.

That left me with a large investigation to do. Who bought it? Who brought it into the building and how many underage were there? The security tapes would provide most of the answers, plus there was the video camera and the two cell phones that Russ had confiscated. I was going to have a lot of fun watching underage students squirm while I was questioning them. It would be even more fun to watch them dump the booze down the drain. I would gain some experience with this one. The last time I had interrogated anyone by myself I shot them in the feet and kneecaps then two rounds in the head, after I got the answers I wanted.

I spent the next two hours setting up folders for each of the culprits. I had their college ID picture on the cover of the folder. Then I had pictures from the confiscated video camera and the two cell phones. Last but not least were stills from the security footage of the stairs and hall way. They were nice and clear, it was no trouble to see who was carrying the booze up the stairs.

I took the list of booze and went to the local liquor stores to see if one would own up to selling the booze. I was sure that whoever bought it was legal. I just wanted it for leverage.

After I had done all that I went over to the hospital to check on the condition of the three students there and to see if they would make a statement. As I expected none of them wanted to talk. All this was going to make for an interesting afternoon.

The first questioning was scheduled at noon and then every 20 minutes after that. I did not think it would really take any longer than that. I would give them time to either dig themselves a deep hole or simply come clean and beg for mercy over at HR – who would ultimately have the last word.

After the first one the word spread quickly that we had all the goods. They simply came in, sat down and confessed to their full participation. The only two that I didn’t get a statement from were the two injured naked keg carriers.

I instructed Patti to type up their statements and put a copy in each folder. The students had been instructed to return Monday morning to proofread and then sign them. At that time I would carry everything over to HR and let them do their thing. Lately that had been a college community service type punishment, usually accompanied with some campus probation
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I left for the day and again stopped off at the tanning saloon for just a little more all over tan. By doing that Jenny and the girls beat me home. Making the supper was in full swing; it smelled so good as I opened the door.

There was excitement in the air; I could just sense it. Every time I caught Lorrie’s eye she would blush a bit and then look away with a little smile. The suspense of what we were going to do had everyone’s interest but they just couldn’t bring themselves to ask for the details.

Hell, I hadn’t even planned out everything yet. I was sure Jenny would pump me later for any plans. The only thing that was for sure is Lorrie was going to get more roses during the day tomorrow. I loved the look on her face when she found the others. I wanted to see it again.

Edit by Alfmeister