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I don’t need to hear how lucky she was. There was no luck involved. Malice and cruelty? Absolutely. Luck? I think the fuck not.

“Thanks, Gerard. I appreciate the identification and the disposal. I owe you.”

“All good, Eli. I hope your students are okay.”

Dean Grundy faffs around with the laptop, trying to bring Amber Donnelyn into focus when, in reality, the issue is at her end. I don’t want to look at her anyway.

“We don’t need to see her; we know what she looks like. As long as we can hear her, and she us,” I bark.

“And a good morning to you too, Professor Wyldan,” she sneers, just as her face fills the screen.

“This is a faculty meeting, not a fundraiser. I don’t need to play nice, Amber.”

“I agree, why start now, Elijah?” she scoffs.

I force myself not to sweep the laptop off the staffroom table. I cannot stand this woman. Even ten hours away she’s fucking painful.

“I think that’s the best we’re going to get at short notice. Unless you want to adjust the focus, Elijah?”

“No. Let’s go. I don’t care if we can see her or not. There has been another… situation. Black widow spiders—live, female southern black widows to be exact—were sent to a dorm room. Following on from Merda Ferado’s passing, this is being taken seriously and the police are involved.”

There are sixteen faculty members present, plus the professor dialed in remotely. The silence that greets my delivery is born of abject horror.

“Did you say southern black widows?”

“I did, Vanessa. Multiple specimens. Not all of them survived, but enough did to do some actual damage. These traumatized students are now being relocated.”

“Relocated where?” Donnelyn asks.

“Off campus while the dorm is fumigated.”

She scoffs. “Can I ask who this parcel was sent to?”

“Why is the student important?” Jack chimes in, knuckles white as he grips the edge of the table for support. He’s hardly said a word since we arrived at the dorm to find Fox consoling a distraught Tail and Aspen near the rotunda. She refuses to sit on anything unless someone checks under and around it first for any lurking spiders that, of course, are not there. As a Botanical Science student, they’re both aware of what lives in nature, whether microscopic bugs, caterpillars, insects, moths, and other crawly critters. The issue here is opening an insulated package addressed to yourself with multiple live, poisonous arachnids inside. None of this was a random encounter, and she’s terrified.

“She’s not,” Donnelyn stammers, and Jack pounces.

“How do you know a female student was involved, Amber? No mention of gender was made.”

“I just assumed.” Her eyes dart around before she calmed herself.

“That’s interesting,” I add. “You assumed because Merda was female that the spiders were also sent to a female.”

“I can’t fathom a guy freaking out over a few spiders,” she chortles. “Unless this student wasn’t studying science and has an aversion to nature, I mean.”

Oh, nice save, Amber. But I’m onto you, and so is Jack. Even the Dean is unusually fidgety.

“Thank you, Elijah. And I wholeheartedly agree that the affected students be moved, along with the surrounding rooms, so that fumigation procedures can take place. This adds another layer to the investigation around the Ferado lass. My God, in all my days as a student and teacher, I’ve never come across anything like this.”

From the laptop, Donnelyn remains quiet. She was briefed by the Dean regarding Merda’s death and subsequent investigation. I didn’t ask for a blow-by-blow account as to her reaction to another fatality, nor when she planned on returning. That’s between her, the Dean, and the payroll administrator sorting her leave payments. She can stay in Anchorage for all I care.

“Thank you, everyone. That is all,” I say, closing the meeting before this drags on any longer and I’m required to suffer Donnelyn’s fucking whiny voice. She is not aware Jack and I were told about her visit to Tali and Aspen’s accommodation; that’s a bridge we’ll navigate when, and if, we need to. I close the screen as the bulk of the room gets up to leave for classes.

“Be careful and vigilant,” I offer, looking at every face. “I want you to bring any student concerns to the Dean, or myself, immediately. We cannot afford another student fatality or injury. Anything, no matter how minor or inconsequential it appears, I want it documented, and I want me or Fred to know right away. Got it?”

Jack, the Dean, and I remain behind while everyone files off to take classes. Jack and I are both scheduled now, but they can damn well wait. I need to get this off my chest. Fred and I started the conversation earlier, but once other faculty arrived, it was abandoned. I don’t want anyone knowing where Aspen will reside unless they need to. Sixteen faculty members do not need to.

“Are you planning on telling me where Aspen and Tali are living from now on?” Fred’s brow wings up, the arctic white clinging to the last vestiges of gray, and losing the battle.