Morbid - 191 The Unexpected

It was technically against the rules to suborn the work of someone else, so he added his name as a contributor to add legitimacy to the submission. He felt a little guilty about that, because the only contribution he did was adding his name and submitting it; but, it should garner a bit more attention than Arnold submitting it by himself. Amy helped him copy the data over onto another USB thumb drive and then he sent it off.

Hamil just hoped they listened to his last missive and they got off their duffs to actually review it within a reasonable time. He always hated having to wait for their response. Little did he know that was exactly why they did it. He was the top in his field and it was a little petty of them to do it, and they did it anyway. They couldn’t have him be too full of himself.

*

Beth was suffering from the worst frustration she had ever felt. Her neighbour had monopolized Arnold all weekend and she never got the chance to talk to the boy, let alone get him to do her like she wanted. She ended up calling an old boyfriend to try and relieve some of it, and all it did was create more frustration. She had even asked the man for what she wanted and he still messed it up. It bothered her that she had to speak about it and he didn’t automatically know what she wanted, like Arnold did.

Oh, Arnold. Beth thought with a sigh as she watched him leave the house next door on Sunday night. She sincerely hoped that she could get him alone next weekend, not realizing that he was going to refuse and say no, even after she apologizes for ditching him, which she still hadn’t done. She wanted to do it in person, not understanding that it was much too late now.

It had been cemented in Arnold’s mind that she would leave him for another man and that was all he would remember about her. He never took betrayal lightly.

*

Detective Olivia Tanner watched the video footage of Arnold with his mother out and around town and she just couldn’t make the proper connections. Her contact at the college kept reporting him in his classes, in his dorm, and when he left. None of them could possibly be matched to the crimes Officer Hallman committed. She was frustrated that she couldn’t even come up with a plausible explanation for when they could have met to arrange the crimes to be committed.

Her scout reported him getting on the bus to the college and she thanked him for the hard work and to head home. She sat in her living room and looked at the restored white board and there were a lot more people and more crisscrossing lines as connections… except for the floating picture of Charlie Hallman. He barely had any connections to Arnold and only a couple to Arnold’s mother, Annie.

“Why would he go rogue for a chance to be with her?” Olivia asked and tapped Annie’s picture. “What’s so great about her?”

“Maybe she’s as good in bed as her son?” Mark asked as he came into the room and gave her a kiss.

“Bye, sweetie.” Olivia said and looked back at the board. “No, she… wait. If she did sleep with Charlie, then he… well, it’s possible that… Annie could be calling the shots instead of Arnold.”

Mark chuckled. “See you later.” He said and put on his police hat, then left the house. He wasn’t going to tell her that she was reaching, because she had to consider all the possibilities and then work backwards to see if any of the evidence matches her conclusions. If it didn’t, all she did was waste a bit of time. If she stumbled onto anything, then it was worth the effort.

He doubted Annie was responsible, even knowing about the reports of her vehement defense of her son against several police officers. She might be a spitfire like Charlie had told the other officers; but, that didn’t lead to cold and calculated murder. It took a certain mind to accept ending someone’s life like that and going through with it.

Mark climbed into his patrol car and called in to dispatch to start his shift. He drove off with the knowledge that his sexy detective girlfriend was still going to be awake when he came back.

*

Kristy lay in the king-sized bed at the fraternity with six guys around her. They had just had another orgy and she had loved every second of it. Every single second. She felt so needed, so loved, and so desired, that she knew she would do anything for the fraternity and to keep things the way they were.

She was also smart. She had been tested and she made everyone else get tested, too. She was clean, as was everyone else, to her surprise. She had thought that at least one of them would have picked up something from the girls they had dated. She was extremely happy that they hadn’t, though. Saying no to one of them would have made her feel so bad, especially just before joining everyone in bed.

Kristy felt a hand caress her side and she turned her head to look at David. “Again?”

David nodded and she smiled, then she rolled onto her side to face him and spread her legs. He kissed her and slid inside and took his time this time. He had rushed the last time and he wanted to savour each and every squeeze, touch, and kiss that their hot communal girlfriend would give him.

“So beautiful.” David whispered into her ear and he felt her shiver and come a little. He was definitely going out and buying her flowers tomorrow. Maybe chocolates, too. He thought, because he needed to thank her for everything she did for him.

*

Dalla laid in bed later that night and she waited in anticipation. She knew Arnold was coming back soon and she couldn’t wait to surprise him. She almost trembled as she imagined his reaction to what she had planned and then she took a deep breath to calm down. The dorm room door opened and closed again, then she watched him. When he pulled up the blanket on his bed, he stopped and stared at the woman in his bed.

It was Ida.

She stared at Arnold and expected him to tell her to get out of his bed, because he had expected Dalla to be there, then he climbed in with her. He kissed her and made slow and passionate love to her, just like he did with Dalla.

It was the most frustratingly wonderful sex Ida ever had. He didn’t pound her like he had before or was rough in any way. He even gently and lovingly caressed her breasts and suckled her nipples briefly. It almost drove her crazy that he could do something like that and not lose control of himself as he slid in and out of her, so agonizingly slow, and then the orgasm suddenly hit her like a ton of bricks.

Ida’s whole body locked up and she shook as she came hard and her arms and body gripped Arnold tightly. He stopped moving to let her recover for a few minutes, then he kept going. She almost glared at him for doing that to her and making her react like that, then he bit her nipple and she came again. She didn’t think about protesting at all after that.

*

“Good morning!” Pam exclaimed when Arnold came into their room for breakfast. “Kisses!”

Arnold gave her several quick ones.

“Thank you.” Pam said and dished out scrambled eggs for everyone. “Janet next.”

“Good morning.” Arnold said and gave a slightly laughing Janet the same quick kisses.

“Toast.” Janet handed them to him and he put them on their plates. “How was your long weekend?”

“Quick.” Arnold said and the three of them sat down at the table to eat.

“I can imagine.” Pam chuckled. “I bet your mom was ecstatic to have you home for so long and took you everywhere.”

Arnold nodded. “She told me to thank you both for taking care of me and for having my back.”

Janet looked at the time. “We’ll have to wait until after first class for you to make love to us.” She said and gave him a kiss. “Your mom is the best.”

“I totally agree.” Pam said and kissed him, too. “I bet this biology prep class is going to be interesting.”

Janet chuckled. “A full week without having Arnold around? I bet the whole class is going to welcome us back.”

Pam laughed. “Won’t that be funny if we are the highlight of the class? Ha ha!”

Arnold smiled and both women leaned over and kissed his cheeks.

“We know it’s all you.” Janet said. “You make everything that much better.”

“Definitely.” Pam said. “I even got another raise at the theatre!”

“Wow.” Janet said. “You’ve been kicking ass over there, haven’t you?”

Pam snorted and then laughed. “I think it’s because I stopped doing that to get them off their asses.”

Janet laughed, too. “They definitely like you a lot more, then!”

Pam nodded and they finished eating breakfast. They cleaned up and gathered their things for class and left the dorm room.

*

Hamil was surprised when a large manila envelope was delivered to his office by hand. He accepted it and then went to his desk. He sat down and saw that it was from the review board, took several deep breaths, and opened it. He gasped at the contents.

“Good morning, professor.” Amy said as she came in. “I’ve got the materials you requested.”

Hamil didn’t say anything as he stared at the things on his desk.

“What is it, professor?” Amy asked and put the things he wanted on the side of his desk.

“Get Arnold in here.” Hamil said. “If he’s not in class already, wait for him and bring him to me.”

Amy glanced down at the things he was looking at and she caught her breath. She left the office at a fast walk and went to the lab. Arnold wasn’t there, so she went to the stairs and went down them, then walked over to the front door of the building.

Come on, come on, come on! Amy thought with excitement, then she saw Arnold approaching with his two girlfriends. She stepped out through the door and waved to him. “Arnold! Get your ass over here! The professor wants to see you right now!”

All three of them walked faster and Amy thought about saying only Arnold was needed, then shrugged. She held the door for them and they went by. She followed them inside and up the stairs and over to the professor’s office.

“Ah, Arnold.” Hamil said and stood. “Thank you for coming.”

Arnold stepped into the office with Pam and Janet flanking him and Amy came in behind them. She stepped around them and stood beside the professor.

“I’m not really sure how to say this without making myself sound like an ass, so I’m just going to say it.” Hamil said. “I put my name on your digital model as a contributor and submitted it to the review board.”

Pam and Janet took in sharp breaths and Amy’s mouth dropped open in shock. “Professor!” The three of them exclaimed at the same time.

“I know, I know.” Hamil said and held his hands up in surrender. “I forgot to give Arnold the praise his work deserved and wanted to make it up to him…”

“…by stealing his work?!?” Pam accused. “How the fuck is that making it up to him?”

“Please, hear me out before you rake me over the coals, as the old saying goes.” Hamil said.

“Can’t we do both?” Janet asked.

“Now hold on…” Amy started to say and Hamil touched her arm.

“You all have every right to be angry and I am sorry that I did what I did… to an extent.” Hamil said.

“What does that mean?” Pam asked.

“I felt very bad that I had to add my name to it, just to make it legitimate, and to give it the clout it needed for the review board to consider it.” Hamil said. “I thought it was worth the risk, just to see what they would say.”

“They think it’s your work and you’re the top of your field of study.” Janet said and shook her head. “How is that a risk?”

“Because of this.” Hamil said and picked up a half inch thick stack of paper.

“What is it?” Pam asked.

“It’s a university grant.” Hamil said and handed it to Arnold. “The review board wasn’t quite fussy over the subject material of the submission.” He held up the cover letter. “That is, until they looked at all of the features that Arnold had included with it. Once they saw the detail and work that went into the creation of a digital specimen, they rushed through this grant approval.”

“It’s a grant for you.” Arnold said as he read the top few pages.

“No, it’s for us.” Hamil corrected. “Not the biology department as a whole, because it is an adjunct and not a direct biology field.”

“What does that mean?” Amy asked, a little confused.

“The first part of the grant is for the construction of a computer lab for the creation of digital specimens.” Hamil said. “The second part is for creating or recreating the specimens themselves.”

“Oh, my god.” Amy said. “That… that’s…”

“Years of digital work.” Hamil said with a nod. “The initial grant is for two hundred thousand dollars to either rent or buy space from the college and to build the equipment needed.”

“Good lord.” Janet whispered and held onto Arnold’s arm.

“I know that’s not much, especially for an endeavor this huge.” Hamil said to Pam’s surprise, because she thought it was a lot of money. “We will have to make due and scrimp as much as possible.”

“What about the follow up grant?” Amy asked.

“There is literally no other college or university creating digital models for dissection purposes. They are already discussing how much the college is going to make from selling them to every other college, university, school, and business that needs them.” Hamil said. “The second grant comes into effect when the lab is completed and only has a starting annual budget of a million dollars.”

“A million dollars?!?” Pam asked, completely shocked, and gripped Arnold’s other arm tightly.

“Yes, I know it’s not much, especially once we start recruitment and training assistants to handle the sheer workload it’s going to entail at the beginning.” Hamil said, a little sadly. “In fact it’s one of the cheapest grants the college can fund.”

“They don’t want to risk too much, in case it doesn’t take off like they hope.” Amy said and he nodded.

“However, I think they are short-sighted.” Hamil responded. “I believe that once it gets out that it can be done, lots of colleges and universities will try to out-perform us.”

“Patent it.” Arnold said. “If anyone wants to duplicate our work, they have to pay us or get sued.”

“That is an excellent idea, Arnold.” Hamil said and let a smile spread across his face. “We won’t even have to take it out of the budget. The university will cover it, especially if we grant them exclusive usage rights to the patent and the digital models as they are created.”

Arnold nodded. “Is this going through the bank or is it a private investment?” He asked and handed the papers back.

“I’m tempted to leave everything private, just to keep a lid on things.” Hamil said. “I assume you want this to go through your bank?”

Arnold nodded. “They helped my family get through a really rough time and then made sure we were debt free after my father’s life insurance settlement.”

“Then I’ll leave this to you.” Hamil said and put the things into the large manila envelope and handed it to Arnold. “It’s going to be your project and only has my name on it, so I’ll only be around for administrative purposes and recommendations.” He said. “Oh, and from now on, you are excused from both the class work and the lab work for the official course.”

Arnold frowned a little and didn’t say anything.

“Don’t worry. You’ll get the course credits from your project, because you’ll have to dissect the specimens first to create the digital copies.” Hamil said with a smile.

Arnold nodded. “I’ll be hiring my first two assistants right away with a potential third assistant to help me with the lab creation.”

“Who do you have in mind for the first two?” Hamil asked and pretended that he didn’t know.

“They are holding onto my arms right now.” Arnold said.

“Arnold!” Pam and Janet gasped.

“I want my best friends in on this, because you helped me and have my back.” Arnold said.

“You will also be excused from attending my normal classes and labs and will have full credits.” Hamil said. “As long as you attend Arnold’s dissections and file the proper reports.”

“Arnold can count on us, sir.” Janet said.

“Well, then.” Hamil said and smiled at the trio. “I think if you head over to the administration building, they can give you a list of available spaces and their costs for rent and purchase.”

“Yes, sir.” Arnold said and led Pam and Janet from the office.