Mystery at Whitewood College

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         Beth Loggins stood on the cobblestone walkway, looking up at the bell tower of the two-hundred-year-old administration building. I can’t believe I’m really here, she thought, feeling a surge of happiness and no small sense of pride. Whitewood College was not the smallest institute of higher learning in Massachusetts, but it was close to it. While it was no Harvard, Amherst or MIT, it did provide several thousand students with bachelor degrees and even handed out a few masters and doctorates every year. Had she wanted to, Beth could have attended one of the more prestigious colleges. Yet while her grades were good enough to get into an Ivy League school, the young introvert preferred the smaller, quieter campus at Whitewood College.

         As she walked toward the girls’ dormitory, Beth passed several groups of students. Some were laughing, some were discussing their class schedules and some were talking on cell phones, but none stopped to speak to Beth. No one waved or called a friendly hello. They all walked past the shy freshman without so much as a casual glance in her direction.

         Beth watched a group of girls headed toward their sorority house. They all wore the unofficial school uniform: tight-fitting jeans and tops that enhanced their figures and made them more desirable to members of the opposite sex. Then she looked down at her own outfit and feared she’d never fit in with the other students.

         When Beth opened the door to her dorm room, she saw her roommate’s belongings on the bed beside the window, but there was no sign of the young woman herself. It’s not a bad room, she thought. At least there’s plenty of space on the shelves for my books. That pleased her, for books were what mattered most to her. Dickens, Poe and Hawthorne were her best friends, her only friends, for that matter.

* * *

         Beth was curled up in the overstuffed chair reading Gulliver’s Travels when her roommate finally came home. Like Beth, Sabrina Madsen didn’t dress like the other students on campus. She wore an ankle-length black skirt, a black corseted blouse and a black velvet ribbon tied around her neck, from which hung a silver pentagram.

         Sabrina was startled when she discovered the other girl in her room. “You must be Beth Loggins,” she said after she recovered from her momentary fright. “I’m Sabrina Madsen. I hope you don’t mind that I took the bed by the window.”

         Beth shook her head and smiled shyly.

         “I think this might work out, us sharing a room,” Sabrina concluded as she began unpacking her clothes, all of which were black.

         When Beth didn’t reply, her roommate turned to her and asked, “Can you talk?”

         The timid student nodded the affirmative.

         “Just the quite type, huh?”

         Again Beth nodded.

         “That’s okay,” Sabrina decided. “I’m not exactly Miss Congeniality myself. As you can plainly see, I don’t fit the mold of the preppy college student. I suppose that’s why they put me up here in the attic room.”

         Sabrina noticed the copy of Gulliver’s Travels on the bed. “You like to read? Me too. I read this book in high school.”

         Although Beth watched Sabrina’s every move and listened to her every word, she, herself, didn’t speak. In light of her roommate’s silence, Sabrina decided to forgo the rest of her unpacking, take a shower and go to bed. With classes beginning the following day, she wanted to get a good night’s sleep.

* * *

         Sabrina soon found other outcasts to socialize with, and Beth, as usual, was left alone most evenings and weekends. Even when she sat in the classrooms and lecture halls, she remained apart from the others. The isolation didn’t bother her much; she had her books to comfort her. The campus library was more a home to her than the girl’s dormitory. During the first half of the semester alone, she read (or in many instances reread) The Great Gatsby, The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables, The Main in the Iron Mask, A Tale of Two Cities and The Time Machine.

         Exams were held the third week of December, and afterward nearly all of the staff and students went home for the holidays, but Beth remained behind. On the afternoon of December 24, Christmas Eve, the weather was unseasonably cold, and there had been scattered flurries throughout the morning.

         Wanting to escape her chilly room, Beth walked across the deserted campus to the library. She passed the classic literature section and headed toward fiction. She was in the mood for a whodunit, believing that a mystery might take her mind off the loneliness of the holidays. She was about to select an Agatha Christie novel, when she spotted a book entitled Mystery of the Missing Coed.

         That looks interesting, she thought. The author, Evelyn Harvey, was not one she was familiar with, but she decided to read the first few chapters to see if the story was any good. She went to the reading room, sat down on one of the wing chairs and opened the book to the first page.

         The setting was a small New England college similar to Whitewood, and the main character was a pretty, vivacious freshman. Given her good looks and outgoing personality, it was no wonder the coed—she was given no name in the book—became one of the most popular students on campus. The pretty student dated frequently, usually young men from good families, those who would become lawyers, doctors or bankers and earn six-figure incomes.

         Although the main character’s life was so different from her own, Beth found herself identifying with the coed. Perhaps she secretly longed to be popular, to go to football games and parties, to be one of the pretty girls in the tight-fitting jeans.

         “No!” she told herself. “That’s not me. I enjoy being an introvert. I’m happy with who I am.”

         After completing the fifth chapter, in which the coed meets a local boy who works at a nearby gas station, Beth closed the book and left the library. There was no sign of life or light outside. The dormitories, lecture halls and service buildings were all dark and empty and reminded Beth of the dead animals that one found on the side of a highway. She thought about the students and faculty members who were spending Christmas Eve with their families. A number of them had no doubt traveled to warmer climes to play in the sun, while some had gone on skiing trips. The girls in the tight jeans were now wearing either skimpy bikinis or tight-fitting ski pants and having a wonderful time.

         Beth suddenly wished her roommate hadn’t gone home to Puritan Falls for the break. The black-clad Wiccan was the only person at Whitewood College who ever took the time to speak to her.

* * *

         On Christmas morning there were five inches of snow on the ground. No footsteps or tire tracks marred its perfection. Beth looked out the attic window and turned away in sadness. The blanketed landscape accentuated the absence of people. Huddling under Sabrina’s comforter, Beth returned to her book.

         The coed had gone to a party at a fraternity house and did not return. She was last seen with the third basemen from the college’s baseball team, but her date told police the coed had driven away with another young man after the party. When questioned, the athlete could not give a detailed description of either the young man or his car.

         Weeks passed, and there was no sign of the missing student. Her parents offered a reward for information leading to the girl’s discovery, but no one stepped forward. Eventually, the students stopped discussing their missing classmate and turned their attention to their studies, love lives and future careers, and the missing coed was forgotten except for when upper classmen frightened freshmen on dark, stormy nights with stories of having seen the ghost of the missing girl.

* * *

         New Year’s Eve was another bitter night. Whitewood College was again blanketed with snow, almost a foot this time when added to the previous accumulation. Beth didn’t even venture out of her dorm room to go to the library. Instead, she sat in the attic, watching the snow fall and listening to Sabrina’s clock tick.

         In three more days classes will resume, she thought. Then I won’t be so lonely anymore.

         When the clock on the administration building chimed midnight, Beth made a New Year’s resolution to be more outgoing, to do her best to make friends with the other students, even the stuck-up girls in the tight jeans.

* * *

         All day Sunday the students of Whitewood College returned from vacation. In an effort to keep her New Year’s resolution, Beth periodically went outside and greeted her classmates. Young men and women alike bustled past her without a word. The girls with the tight jeans, bundled in thick, warm parkas, giggled and joked amongst themselves and swapped stories about their Christmas vacations. None had a word to say to Beth. Dejected, she returned to the attic room where she found Sabrina talking on her cell phone.

         “I’ve gotta go,” Beth overheard her roommate whisper. “She’s back.”

         “Hi,” Beth said cheerfully when she walked into the room. “How was your holiday?”

         “It was good,” Sabrina replied. “I spent Christmas with my folks in Puritan Falls, and then I went to Connecticut for New Year’s to visit my grandparents. What did you do?”

         “I read. I found this great mystery novel in the library. It was written by a woman named Evelyn Harvey.”

         A startled look crossed Sabrina’s face, and she dropped the pair of shoes she was taking out of her suitcase. “Evelyn Harvey?”

         “Yeah. Have you ever heard of her? Perhaps you’ve read the book yourself. It’s about a college student who disappears one night after a party.”

         Sabrina’s face became paler than usual, and she sat down on the bed, trembling.

         “What’s wrong?” Beth asked.

         “Nothing,” Sabrina hastily assured her. “I’m not feeling too good, that’s all. I think I caught a bug or something.” Suddenly, she grabbed her coat and headed for the door.

         “Where are you going?”

         “I’m gonna go see if the nurse is in. Maybe she can give me something.”

         Beth, watching from the attic window, saw her roommate head toward the administration building, which was in the opposite direction from the nurse’s office.

         “I could fall off the face of the earth, and no one would care,” she cried in a fit of despondency.

         As she reached for a magazine on the night table, she saw the overdue library book peeking out from beneath Sabrina’s woolen scarf.

         “What if I really were to disappear?” she wondered. “Would the other students then begin to worry about me? I know I’m not popular like the coed in the book, but there would have to be a search if people thought something had happened to me. My photograph would be circulated around the campus, and people would finally know who I am.”

         During the next two weeks, Beth left her “mark” on Whitewood College, scattering clues to her fake disappearance in the library, the cafeteria and several classrooms, and even on the ground in the parking lot. Soon teachers and students alike, even the popular girls in the tight jeans, were whispering her name. Still, no one seemed interested in locating the missing student.

         She was so frustrated by their lack of concern that she stood in front of the administration building and screamed at the top of her lungs, “I’m here! I didn’t really disappear. It was all a hoax to get you to notice me.” The other students continued on their way to class, to the dorms or to off-campus jobs. No one took notice of the hysterical girl. “What’s the matter with you?” Beth cried, attempting to stop several of the girls. “Why won’t you look at me? Why don’t you answer me?”

* * *

         The winter day was short, and by dinnertime darkness had settled on the small New England college. Most of the students were working, eating or studying. Beth was alone on the steps of the administration building, searching the night sky and thinking of happier times: sunshine, laughter and friends. Her high school days were the best in her life. Why was college so different?

         When the temperature began to drop, she headed to the girl’s dormitory. She paused on the attic stairs when she heard voices coming from inside her room.

         “And when did you first see her?” a strange voice asked.

         “The first night I got here.” That voice Beth knew well. It belonged to Sabrina, her roommate.

         “And you’ve seen her how many times since?”

         “Almost every night, except when I went home for the holidays.”

         “Have you seen her any place else on campus?”

         “Only once. She was outside the library.”

         Beth opened the door a crack, peeked inside and saw Sabrina talking to strange woman. I should have expected this. The first thing the school would do when there’s a missing student would be to call the police. “I’m sorry, detective,” she said. “There’s been a mistake.”

         Sabrina was startled at the sound of her roommate’s voice.

         “She’s here now?” the other woman asked.

         Sabrina nodded. “Come on in, Beth. There’s someone I’d like you to meet. This is Evelyn Harvey.”

         “Is that you, Beth?” Evelyn asked. Although she was speaking to the student, her eyes were focused on the door.

         “What are you doing here?” Beth demanded to know. “What do you want?”

         “Are you sure she’s there?” Evelyn asked Sabrina.

         “Of course, I’m here,” Beth retorted. “Can’t you see me?”

         “I don’t think she can see or hear you,” Sabrina explained.

         “Do you remember me?” Evelyn asked.

         Although it was a simple enough question, the words frightened Beth.

         “It’s been more than thirty years….”

         Beth turned to leave, not wanting to hear Evelyn’s recollections, but she couldn’t move her legs.

         “We shared a room down on the third floor. I remember you brought a denim beanbag chair with you, and we used to sit in front of my old portable television and watch movies on your VCR.”

         Beth suddenly recalled watching Love Story and eating Jiffy Pop with a much younger Evelyn Harvey. “We both cried when Ali MacGraw died.”

         Sabrina, who had no difficulty hearing Beth, conveyed her roommate’s words to the older woman.

         “Yes,” Evelyn laughed. “We cried every time we watched that movie.”

         “Why did I forget that?” Beth asked through Sabrina. “Why is it so much of my past is a blur?”

         “You disappeared,” Evelyn replied. “You went to a Halloween party one night and never returned.”

         “The book you read,” Sabrina further explained, “the one you said Evelyn wrote? There was no such book. You were reading a journal full of blank pages.”

         “But I remember it all so clearly. It was entitled The Mystery of the Missing Coed.”

         Sabrina walked to the night table, picked up the journal and handed it to Beth. “It was your own life you were remembering, your own disappearance.”

         “I remember the party now,” Beth said, after briefly thumbing through the journal. “It was a Halloween party, and everyone was dressed in costumes. Darren Cullum, my escort, was the type of boy my parents expected me to date: clean cut, good family, bright future. The only problem was I didn’t care for him. I was crazy about Jerry Treibel, a local boy with no money, no education and no prospects.”

         “Treibel was the one you left with that night, wasn’t he?” Sabrina asked.

         “Yes. I had every intention of being an obedient daughter and breaking up with him, but I couldn’t.”

         “Was he the one who….?” Sabrina couldn’t bring herself to finish the question.

         “When Jerry brought me back to campus later that night, he kissed me goodbye and told me he’d call me the next day. I stood in front of the library and watched until the taillights of his Maverick disappeared. Then I turned and walked back toward the girl’s dorm.”

         Beth fell silent. Memories long buried in her subconscious suddenly resurfaced. Her eyes filled with tears, and she buried her face in her hands. “I never made it back,” she sobbed. “Darren Cullum was waiting for me near the administration building. He insisted I stop seeing Jerry, or he would tell me parents. We argued and…and….”

         “There’s no need to finish,” Sabrina said, feeling compassion for the dead student who had haunted her attic dorm room.

         “I have one question,” Evelyn announced. “Where is your body? Where did Darren hide it?”

         Beth’s ghost led the two women to the crawlspace in the attic storage room. Sabrina pulled up one of the loose floorboards and found a skeletal hand clothed in a rotting Halloween costume.

* * *

         For the next two weeks, Sabrina became a quasi-celebrity. Word spread quickly that the strange girl who dressed in black and lived alone in the attic of the girl’s dormitory had actually seen and spoken to the ghost of Beth Loggins, who had reached the level of legend at Whitewood College. Sabrina was inundated with phone calls, emails, text messages and old-fashioned face-to-face questions, all asking the same thing: is Whitewood really haunted by the ghost of a murdered student?

         Sabrina answered all such inquiries truthfully with two words: not anymore.

If you look in the library, you'll find Salem under 616.89, the Dewey Decimal number for books on abnormal behavior.