Document of Expectations

Tuesday, 1:15 p.m.

137 the three watched clipper make his way to the door. “You know, guys,” said meg as she eyed clipper and crunched her mouthful of cheetos. “that rear end looks awfully familiar.” tuesDaY, 1:15 p.m. monique and clarke had discussions with more faculty members after their taco Bell lunch. they all said the same thing: roxanne and tony were privileged people who wouldn’t be published if not for their race and who refused to socialize with their well-meaning colleagues. rhonda cartwright was the most evasive. she arrived looking tired and fidgety. Her baggy clothes were wrinkled, and her hair hung limply around her pale face. fleshy and frumpy, she looked the physical opposite of the thin and tidy Belinda rinds. “and what was the trouble between you and roxanne?” monique asked. they’d been at it for twenty minutes, asking how she found out about tony’s death, how long she had been at cHu. the two detectives were growing tired just being in her presence. she sat leaning forward, speaking slowly as if on a sedative, her hands clutching her hemp purse. clarke sat with his arms folded, watching her closely while monique did the talking. “Well, roxanne is hard to get along with.” “Hard how?” “she’s demanding.” rhonda’s eyes roamed around the room. monique thought her eyes were light brown, but it was hard to tell. “What did she demand?” “she always wanted new equipment. i remember once she wanted a phone with caller iD on it. none of us have that.” “people usually request caller iD for a reason,” monique said. “mainly because they get too many calls, or they get calls that aren’t important.” rhonda sat without speaking. “tell us about tony. How well did you know him?” “i didn’t. not really. He wouldn’t talk to me.” “Why’s that?” rhonda shrugged. “i don’t know.” 138 “Did you talk to him?” “Well of course i did. But he never initiated any conversation.” other than the issue at hand, neither detective could think of anything they’d want to talk to her about. “Where were you sunday night between ten and midnight?” “in bed. i go to bed early.” neither detective doubted that. “You got a witness?” “uh, no. But i did order a pay-per-view movie at nine-thirty. it lasted almost until midnight.” “What was that?” “the new Harry potter one.” monique licked her lips and thought about what to ask next. “What is your field of study, Dr. cartwright?” “i do earth mother.” “earth mother?” clarke stifled a laugh. rhonda heard him and turned her head sharply to look at him. “and what’s funny about that?” “uh, nothing. Go on.” “all women are goddesses, detective.” “Yeah, sharon stone . . .” “no. We’re the nurturers. We are the propagators, the first ones and the—” “sorry,” clarke interrupted. “first ones?” “of course. every tribe began with woman. every tribe was sustained by women. each tribe also—” monique interrupted. “What tribe are you?” “i’m not.” clarke’s eyebrows bunched together. “You don’t understand,” rhonda said. “i used to be indian.” monique asked, “used to be?” “Yes. in my former life. my former self was iroquois.” “Which one?” monique asked. “Which self?” “no, which iroquois? that’s a group of tribes, not one tribe.” 139 rhonda licked her lips. “You don’t get it.” she looked at her feet and held her purse tighter. monique thought, How in hell did you get hired? she leaned back and propped her arm on the table. “How many graduate students do you have?” “um, maybe six. Belinda rinds has most of them.” “Why’s that?” rhonda bit her lower lip. “You can tell us. We won’t tell her what you said.” “Well, uh, Belinda likes to pamper her students. she has them over to her house a lot. i won’t do that.” “What do they do at her house?” “i hear they drink and gossip. that’s not appropriate for a professor to do that with students.” monique watched rhonda as she chewed a ragged nail. “Why didn’t roxanne and tony have graduate students?” “they’re essentialists.” monique and clarke already knew where this was going. “meaning, they think that only indians can write about indians,” she said. “Yes.” “Have you ever heard them say that? i mean, that they believe in essentialism...