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sandals and a blue seersucker suit over a white T-shirt.
    â€œThank you, Cosimo,” said Professor Bigelow. “Any suggestions as to a successor?”
    Dedie Wieler piped up immediately. “Dr. Petrinia Paulinia Kralich, mathematics.”
    The tip of Professor Bigelow’s tongue protruded as he noted the name on the white pad in front of him. “Other suggestions?” He glanced around.
    â€œMs. Kralich is a mathematician. No experience in overseeing anything,” snorted Hammermill Jones.
    â€œ Dr. Kralich,” Dedie corrected.
    â€œWe are listing names at this point, Hammermill,” said Professor Bigelow. “We’ll go over qualifications once we’ve done that. Any other suggestions?”
    â€œDr. Kamil Chatterjee of the sociology department,” said Noah Sutterfield.
    Bigelow noted that and looked up again. “Others?”
    â€œRon Smith of the Department of Psychology.”
    This went on until Professor Bigelow had a list of eight names. “If there are no other nominations, we’ll go down the list and discuss the qualifications of each.
    The list was narrowed down to Dr. Petrinia Paulinia Kralich and Dr. Kamil Chatterjee.
    â€œWe already have one female on the committee,” said Hammermill. “And one black.”
    â€œDr. Chatterjee is not black,” said Professor Sutterfield. “He’s a person of color.”
    Dedie stood up and leaned both hands on the rickety card table. “One female! If we’re going by quotas, the committee should have three of us, at the very least.”
    â€œPlease,” said Professor Bigelow, patting the table. “We are looking for qualified persons regardless of gender, race, religion, or sexual preference.”
    â€œBaloney,” said Dedie. “One token female. One token black.” Her voice was louder than she’d intended.
    Professor Sutterfield held his hand up to his mouth so only Dedie could hear. “Tenure,” he whispered.
    â€œOh, shit,” said Dedie and sat down.
    *   *   *
    Victoria was still sitting in the green resin chair making notes when Jodi approached. Victoria looked up. “Hello, Jodi. I didn’t realize you were still here.”
    â€œYeah, well, I should’ve thought of this before.”
    Today Jodi was wearing cut-off jeans with ragged legs that stopped above her knees. Her midriff T-shirt exposed yet another gold ring in her navel, and the missing sleeves gave Victoria an opportunity to examine the tattoos.
    Jodi continued, “I got back to the parking lot and I thought, you know, I go right by your house on my way to the college. I can, like, give you a lift to class, if you don’t mind riding in my Jeep.”
    She crossed her arms, and a colorful corn snake writhed around a vine. Or possibly a coral snake. The two had similar markings.
    â€œThank you,” said Victoria, looking away from the tattoos. “That would be wonderful.”
    *   *   *
    â€œThackery,” said Professor Bigelow after the committee invited him back to the meeting. “The police have not yet arrived, and we’re running out of time.” He looked at his watch. “We have a major issue we are concerned about, and that is your choice of Dr. Wellborn Price as adjunct professor of economics.”
    â€œWhat conceivably can be wrong with him?” asked Thackery, still upset at his dismissal a couple of hours earlier. “Dr. Price is a Nobel Prize–winning economist.”
    â€œTrue, but we question his teaching skills.”
    â€œWhat?!” sputtered Thackery.
    â€œWe care about teaching at Cape Cod University,” said Bigelow, licking his lips.
    â€œHe taught at Stanford, Harvard, and Princeton. His Ph.D. is from Yale. He has honorary doctorates from Berkeley, University of Washington, Wellesley, Oxford, and Trent University. How can you possibly question his