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Bigelow’s tenure committee at Stanford.”
    â€œOh?” said Thackery, beginning to understand. “Wellborn Price voted against him for tenure?”
    The dog whined.
    â€œThat’s right,” said Dedie. “Dr. Price, as you so rightly pointed out, was and is a powerful, influential economist. Even at the time Professor Bigelow came up for tenure review, Wellborn Price had influence. He convinced the other members of the committee to turn down Professor Bigelow’s tenure application.”
    â€œAnd why, if I may ask?”
    â€œFrom what I understand, ten years earlier, when Dr. Price was up for tenure, Professor Bigelow’s father was on the tenure committee. He blackballed Wellborn.”
    Leaves rustled, a scratching sound as though the dog was digging.
    Despite his intent to remain aloof from gossip, Thackery was drawn in. “Blackballed him?”
    Dedie nodded. “Price was an associate professor or whatever they called it at the time. He seduced and impregnated papa Bigelow’s daughter, our Professor Bigelow’s sister.”
    â€œSeduced her,” repeated Thackery.
    â€œThaaat’s right,” said Dedie. “His kid sister Laurel, who was eighteen at the time. She kept the baby who’s now in his thirties. The baby was named Price Bigelow. When the sister married, the new hubby adopted him.”
    â€œLet me understand this. Dr. Wellborn Price, the Nobel Prize winner, as a graduate student impregnated his tenure professor’s daughter.”
    â€œNot a smart thing for a supposedly bright man to do,” said Dedie. “He wanted to marry the girl, but papa put his foot down. She eventually married someone else, but that’s another story.”
    â€œWellborn was refused tenure?”
    â€œYup. He appealed and overturned the decision. An unusual thing to happen, but,” Dedie shrugged, “Wellborn Price was a star.” She ran her hand down the front of the pink refrigerator. “This was some color scheme. Pink, maroon, and gray. This kitchen is a real antique.”
    â€œHardly antique,” said Thackery, slightly offended. His fifties childhood didn’t seem to warrant the term.
    â€œTo finish the story, papa Bigelow’s son Phillip came up for tenure a decade later. Dr. Wellborn Price was on the tenure committee.” She held out her hands. “There you have it. You can’t fight academic politics.”
    â€œThe indignity, the humiliation of Dr. Wellborn Price being told he must take a freshman-level course from a lowly Cape Cod institution.”
    â€œAh!” said Dedie, holding up a finger. “This is why I wanted to talk to you. A colleague of mine teaches that freshman ed course. I guarantee, if you’ll get Dr. Price to agree to give a lecture to the class on whatever he wants to talk about, she’ll give him an A-plus and a certificate of completion of the course.”
    â€œI understand you’re up for tenure,” said Thackery.
    She shrugged. “I face the committee next year. The pressure is building and I’m ready to quit. To hell with it all. I wanted to teach. I don’t want to fight all this adolescent-boy bullshit, if you’ll pardon the expression.”
    â€œBigelow’s revenge,” murmured Thackery.
    â€œYou could say that.” Dedie smiled. “Took him a quarter century.”
    â€œWhat happened to our Bigelow’s nephew? Wellborn’s son?”
    â€œPrice Bigelow? Our IGCOC leader, spelled with a capital B, has never had anything to do with his sister’s son.” She looked at her watch. “Gotta run if I’m going to catch that three-forty-five ferry.”
    A dog barked.
    Thackery walked her to the front door. “I’m calling the police about Walter’s loose mutt.”
    *   *   *
    On their way home from the college that afternoon in Jodi’s Jeep, Victoria tried to maintain her