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crew turned the campus inside out, from
     its serene late-night ambience to a loud and busy scene. I hadn’t noticed the small
     crowd gathering, approaching as near as they could get to the fountain without interfering
     with the workers or battling with the police.
    I stepped back and surveyed the groups. I saw studentsin various sleepwear outfits huddled together, most of them texting or speaking on
     cell phones and snapping pictures. Some of the students waved at me, but I kept my
     head down and pretended not to see them. It didn’t seem the right occasion for meeting
     and greeting, and they did have the good sense not to make their way over to me. I
     couldn’t tell whether it was clear to any of the spectators that the body sprawled
     out on their campus lawn was that of the mayor, the man who’d addressed them from
     a stage only a few hours ago. But I wouldn’t have been surprised if the scene had
     already gone viral, no matter who they thought the victim was.
    My lovely white sweater was now in an evidence bag, as was other detritus of the mayor’s
     plunge. After conferring with the police and dispatched crew, Bruce had jogged across
     the campus to my office, unsolicited, to pick up a jacket for me. There was no reason
     for my chill other than the rupture of my quiet campus, but I was grateful as he wrapped
     me in my own hooded sweatshirt. It wasn’t the freshest item of clothing I owned, the
     garment of choice after my occasional bout of exercise, but at least it wasn’t bloody.
    “Did the mayor say anything while you were…down there with him?” I asked Bruce.
    Bruce shrugged. “He said, ‘Sophie, something something.’”
    I took a quick step back, recoiling from Bruce’s response, nearly tripping on an uneven
     patch of grass, and almost ending up sprawled on the ground. “What? What something
     something?”
    Bruce shrugged. “I couldn’t get anything else.”
    “Was he asking for me? Do you think he wanted to talk to me? Or was he just pointing
     me out? What did he mean?”
    Bruce took my hand to steady me. “I don’t think he meant anything by it, Soph. Just,
     maybe, you were in his field of vision.”
    “But you were the one rushing to help him.”
    “He doesn’t know my name; he knows yours.” Bruce took a breath and, I was sure, called
     up the protocols for distraught witnesses in his MAstar handbook. “You know, he was
     mumbling. He might not even have said your name, Soph. I don’t know why I sounded
     so sure. Now that I think about it, he might have said, ‘Off me,’ like ‘Get this knife
     off me.’” Bruce made
off me
sound uncannily like
Sophie
, but I wasn’t buying it.
    “You said—”
    Bruce patted my hand before he let it go. “I’d better run back and see if I can be
     of any help to those guys. You’ll be okay for a little while?”
    I nodded, as much as I hated for him to leave. I glanced up at the back of Admin and
     saw that whatever offices had been lit up a few minutes ago had gone dark. Probably
     whoever was working over there realized there was more excitement down here. No kidding.
    I took a deep breath and turned from Admin, which now looked like an enormous haunted
     house.
    I didn’t believe Bruce’s
off me
theory for a minute. Did the mayor think I was the one who’d stabbed him? I felt
     a new chill. I zipped my jacket all the way to my neck and threw the hood over my
     head. Had the mayor been on his way to see me when someone put a pseudo-knife in his
     back? Why would he want to see me? Why would someone stop him by stabbing him?
    I wanted answers, but I’d have to wait until he was recovered enough to ask him.
    It seemed the mayor was still in my life for a while longer.

The weeks after graduation, before the start of summer school, were supposed to be
     the most relaxing for the faculty. Sure, there was research to get back to, and prep
     for the interim classes and the fall term, but there was also time to bid the