Chapter 32: A False Alarm?

October 2, 1983, McKinley, Ohio

I was totally unsurprised when Angie didn't show up for a ride to church. I was also fairly sure that she and I would have the conversation at least one more time. It didn't strike me as likely she was going to give up THAT easily, though, at some point, I'd simply tell her I wasn't going to consider it. I contrasted Angie's approach with Kimiko's, which was very different, mostly due to disparate cultures.

The previous evening, Clarissa and Glenda had excused themselves, saying they were going to bed, and Kimiko and I exchanged three soft kisses, similar to the previous time, and she'd made the same oblique offer — 'If I stay... '. As with the previous time, I broke the hug, and she'd left my room. She was more or less putting the timing in my hands, which made perfect sense from her cultural perspective. But that cultural perspective was one thing which gave me pause — could we EVER truly be together, and if not, was it right to take our relationship to the place she implied she was willing to go?

When I arrived at church, I donned my cassock, went inside, and went about my tasks. I saw Angie in the nave just before Matins started, which also didn't surprise me. I did my best to put the situation out of my mind and focus on worship and my duties assisting Father Nicholas and Deacon Grigory. I was largely successful, and when the Divine Liturgy ended, I removed my vestments and went to the church hall for lunch.

"Hi, Subdeacon!" Angelina and Yuliana exclaimed when I walked in.

"Hi!" I replied.

I fixed a plate and went to sit with them and Oksana, Serafima, Viktoriya, and Elizaveta. When Father Nicholas came into the room to give the blessing, I saw him shake his head slightly, roll his eyes, and smile ruefully at me with six High School girls. But they WERE High School girls which meant that I wouldn't even think about asking them out until they graduated, and the soonest that would happen was in June, and then it could only be Angelina, who was a senior.

The girls chattered mostly with each other but sometimes with me, though there were lots of looks and smiles and bats of eyelashes and flips of hair, which represented flirting. As usual, Angie sat with the college kids and other young adults, and never made eye contact, though I saw her looking my way several times out of the corner of my eye. That alone told me I was right that she'd try at least once more.

After we finished our light lunch, we all went to Sunday school, and when that finished, I headed out to my car, removed my cassock, put it in its bag, and then drove back to campus to spend the afternoon with the gang, as Tasha had chosen not to come to McKinley due to what she called 'nature'.

After dinner, we had our usual Sunday evening study time, and when we finished, what had become our basic foursome — Clarissa, Glenda, Kimiko, and I — went back to my room to listen to music and relax. As had become the pattern, Clarissa and Glenda left, and Kimiko and I exchanged three soft kisses before she left. I said my prayers, undressed, and climbed into bed.

October 3, 1983, McKinley, Ohio

I awoke with a start to a klaxon and, after a few seconds, realized that it was the fire alarm. I couldn't leave the room naked and didn't smell smoke, so I quickly pulled on underwear, sweat pants, socks, shoes, and a T-shirt, then grabbed my jacket, baseball cap, and keys and went out into the hall where students were slowly coming out of their rooms.

I pulled the door to my room shut, and then, as we'd been taught, I went room to room, using my master key to open each hallway door and bang on the room doors that were closed, calling out 'Fire Alarm'. Most rooms were already empty, but a few people did respond groggily, and I chuckled at the obviously hurriedly-dressed couples. When I finished my rooms, I checked the bathroom, then met up with Teri, confirmed she had finished her rooms and the other bathroom, and then we followed the last stragglers from the floor down the stairwell, joining the stream of students.

In the lobby, I grabbed the folder with the manifest for our floor, went to the assembly area, and began checking off names as several fire engines and the police arrived. The police began doing what they called 'crowd control', which actually made my job more difficult as they moved people around, and the firemen went into the building. I completed my checklist, then, as per our training, confirmed with Teri that she had completed hers.

There were missing students, so we went to the student who had been in the lobby and checked the 'sign-out' book as well as the 'sign-in' book, and we agreed that everyone who lived on the eighth floor was accounted for. I noticed two girls signed in who hadn't signed out, so I went to find the guys who were in those rooms. They both confirmed the girls had left and with my checklist completed, I looked for the campus security officer. I found him and handed in my checklist.

"Now what?" Teri asked as she came to stand next to me.

"We wait for McKinley's finest to tell us it was a false alarm," I replied.

"You think so?"

"Do you smell any smoke? Or see any flames?"

"No."

"And they didn't take hoses in with them yet, so unless they're fighting it with just the hose reels they have on each floor, I'd say some joker pulled the fire alarm handle."

"I'll fucking kill them!" Teri growled.

"Sleeping or fooling around?" I asked.

"Oh, shut up!" she growled, answering my question.

Several other RAs came to stand with us, and their assessment matched mine. About an hour later, our suspicions were confirmed — someone on the sixth floor had pulled the fire alarm, but there was no sign of any fire or any other problem. The fire department and campus security gave the all clear, and the throng of students began filing back into the dorm.

"That jackass better hope I never find out who he was!" Pete threatened.

"What?" Jason teased. "You don't like being woken up at 2:28am and then standing outside for an hour?"

"No!" came a chorus from half a dozen students around us.

We took the stairs rather than wait for the elevators, despite it being eight floors, and when I got back to my room, I began undressing and was just about to remove my undershorts when there was a knock at the door and a male voice called out 'Mike!'. I sighed, pulled on my sweats and T-shirt, and went to the door.

"Ken? What's up?"

"My wallet is missing! So is Jake's!"

"«Сукин сын» (Sukin syn)!" I growled.

"Sorry?"

"Russian for 'son of a bitch!'. Let me call campus security."

I walked to my desk, picked up the handset, and dialed campus security. When the female officer answered, I explained what had happened, and she said she'd send someone right over. I hung up, and there were two more guys at my door reporting the same thing. I told them I'd called for campus security, then went to Teri's room where, unsurprisingly, I found two girls complaining small purses and billfolds had been stolen.

Teri and the two girls came with me, and we met Campus Security in the lobby. There were reports from the sixth and seventh floors as well, but so far, none lower. To me, that made sense based on when the Fire Department had arrived. By the time the McKinley PD arrived, there were nine students on our floor, six on the seventh floor, and eight on the sixth floor reporting missing money. Every single one of them had left the door to their bedroom open.

By the time all the reports were taken, it was far too late for me to go back to bed, as I'd need to be up to run and do my work in the lab. That meant, with class, the first opportunity I'd get to sleep was around 11:00am, but there wasn't anything I could do to fix that. I was definitely going to need a nap instead of lunch. I took a shower, made myself some strong black tea, and put on 80/81 by Pat Metheny. I'd finished my homework over the weekend, so I really had time just to relax.

At 4:30am, when I normally would get up, I made another cup of tea, ate a quick snack of Pop-Tarts and a banana, then changed into jeans and a T-shirt, grabbed my jacket and baseball cap, and headed to the lab. Once I arrived, I put on my lab coat, checked both the 'order book' and the chalkboard for any changes, and finding none, picked up a clipboard, got a fresh reporting sheet from the pile, and got to work.

At 6:00am, when the grad student arrived, I confirmed I'd completed all the necessary tasks for the day and then headed back to the dorm. I changed into my running clothes, and when I left my room, I was surprised to find Angie waiting for me. Rather than try to start a conversation, I just said 'Hi' and walked towards the elevators.

We rode down in silence, then ran together at our usual joint pace, which was a bit slower than the pace I ran alone, so when we finished our last joint circuit of the campus, I picked up speed and ran a half-circuit, taking a shortcut through the field next to the dorms to return. Angie had waited for me, and we rode the elevator up in silence. Nothing was said before I went into my room to shower and get dressed for breakfast.

"I take it you all locked your doors when you left for the fire drill?" I asked when our usual 'early morning' breakfast gang assembled.

Everyone nodded their heads.

"How many people lost stuff?" Sandy asked.

"Around twenty-five," I replied.

"It had to be more than one person!" Clarissa declared.

"The cops suspect somewhere between three and six, and then they just filtered out with the rest of the students and disappeared."

"So, off-campus folks?"

"The police are checking everyone who signed in last night," I replied. "But it could have been someone in our dorm as well."

"That would suck!" Jason exclaimed. "I guess we have to keep our doors locked from now on."

"I'd say," I agreed.

We finished our breakfasts, I got an extra-large cup of coffee to go, and we headed back to the dorms to get our books for our first classes. I managed the morning, just, and when I got back to the dorm just after 11:00am, I crashed hard. I'd told Clarissa not to wake me, and thankfully, I managed a nearly three-hour nap before our stats class.

October 4, 1983, McKinley, Ohio

When I arrived back at the dorm after my shift in the lab on Tuesday morning, I found a bunch of students outside milling around.

"What's going on?" I asked a small group of my friends.

"She got her fucking wish!" Melody growled.

"Who?" I asked.

"Who do you think? Dean 'Rug Muncher'! They issued a search warrant for the entire building. Every room."

"You do remember that I like to perform oral sex on women, right?" I chuckled.

"You were competent," Melody replied with a smirk.

"Gee, thanks," I replied deadpan. "So, now what?"

"They're making everyone leave the building, and then a bunch of McKinley cops are going to search."

"You know what that means..."

"Yeah," Melody sighed. "Easily dozens of suspensions or expulsions for booze or pot. I already called my uncle. Some lawyer based in McKinley who works with the ACLU will be here within the hour. They can't stop the search, but they can sue the school, which would put all the expulsions and suspensions on hold while the case is dealt with."

"You clean?"

"Yes, and I know you are. But Jeannette and Marie have booze in their room. And Mike, so does Sophia."

"«Говно» (gavno)!" I spat. ("shit")

"Whichever word that is, I hope it's as strong as the one I used."

"Strong enough. Where's Sophia?"

"She, Robby, and Lee went to lunch."

"I guess nothing panned out with the people who weren't from the dorm?"

"I have no clue. I'm betting Dean Parker used this as an excuse to do what she wanted to do before. That'll be part of the lawsuit — that she used this event to basically get an unconstitutional 'general' warrant without probable cause. And this is a State school, so they can't force us to agree to anything which violates the Constitution."

"I have a vague memory from American history about warrants," I said. "The British would basically write a warrant that said soldiers could go anywhere looking for anything illegal."

"Exactly. We fought a fucking war to make sure that didn't happen again."

"Hmm, I don't recall anyone teaching me about a fucking war," I chuckled. "That might actually be a fun way to decide political disputes!"

Melody laughed, "You're way more fun than when we dated, Mike. You just weren't ready, and that was my mistake."

"We're friends now, so don't sweat it. Chalk it up to experience on both sides. I think I'm going to get some lunch."

"OK. I'm waiting for the lawyer. Oh, and Mike?"

"Yes?"

"You were more than competent."

I smirked, stuck out my tongue, wiggled it around, then turned and headed towards the cafeteria, leaving Melody behind me, laughing hard. When I sat down at the table with my lunch, there were several long faces, including Sophia.

"Who has a problem besides Sophia, Jeannette, and Marie?" I asked.

"Glenda," Clarissa sighed. "She's calling her parents right now. She's twenty-one, so she can legally have it, but Dean Bitch is going to nail everyone."

"I saw Melody, and she said her uncle arranged for an ACLU lawyer to come help. Hopefully, anyone who is already twenty-one will be OK because the cops would have to prove you were under twenty-one, right?"

"I think so, yeah."

"I'm no expert," I said. "But if you don't break the law, the police can't do anything, and the school doesn't have the right to search EVERY room. Melody said even the police need probable cause, and they don't have that for my room, for example."

"That sounds right," Fran said. "I'm no expert either, but that makes sense! How can they search my room when they have no real suspicion I personally did something! I remember that from American History and government classes!"

"Me, too," I replied.

"Yeah, and I'm nineteen," Sophia groused.

"But Sophia," Fran said, "if I remember right, if they didn't have probable cause, the evidence has to be excluded, and there won't be a ticket or anything. I don't think the school could do anything based on what a court calls an illegal search."

"You think?" she asked.

"Let's finish eating and see what Melody's lawyer says before we all freak out," Fran counseled.

We did as Fran suggested and headed back to the dorm, where we found Melody with a young female attorney who was talking to other students and taking notes. We still weren't allowed into the dorm, so those of us who didn't need the lawyer's help decided to go to the student union and have coffee.

"We don't have our stats books or homework," I said. "We should probably see if we can talk to Professor Lund before class."

"You think they'll still be searching?"

"Eight floors? And not letting anyone in until they finish? I'd say."

At 1:30pm, the police still weren't allowing people into the building, so Clarissa, Sandy, and I went to Professor Lund's office to let her know we wouldn't have our homework assignments to turn in, and she granted permission to turn them in on Wednesday. We thanked her and then headed to the classroom to wait for class to start. We had notebooks from other classes, so we all had pens and paper to take notes.

When class finished, we headed back to the dorm and were finally allowed in. We all went to our rooms, and when I got into mine, it was obvious it had been searched, but it wasn't overly messy. I didn't see anything missing, nor anything horribly out of place. I went to check on the others and found similar situations. The real question was what would happen with Sophia, Jeannette, Marie, and Glenda.

We finally heard from Melody around 4:00pm. She told us the lawyer had been to the courthouse and obtained an emergency preliminary injunction, which meant there would be no immediate consequences. She said the lawyer was very confident that there would be no consequences for anyone who was over twenty-one who had alcohol, and she said she had already informed the Chancellor that the search was illegal because the warrant was an unconstitutional 'general' warrant.

We all went to dinner, had our usual study time, and afterwards I simply went to bed, still tired from the effective all-nighter I'd pulled on Sunday night.

October 8, 1983, McKinley, Ohio

By Saturday morning, not much had changed. Dean Parker was on a rampage, but ultimately, there was very little she could do. The preliminary injunction had become permanent until the status of the warrant was resolved in Federal court. The investigation had, to nobody's surprise, turned up exactly nothing, which the ACLU lawyer said helped our cause tremendously.

The thieves had gotten away with nearly $1000, taking only wallets, billfolds, and loose bills. While the money was an issue, the bigger concern for most of the victims was replacing driving licenses, student ID cards, and, in a few cases, credit cards. I could easily have been a victim had I not locked my door when I left to respond to the fire alarm.

I had felt a bit guilty about unlocking hallway doors and leaving them open, but that was the procedure we were taught and was supposed to serve as a sign to firemen that a room had been checked. That policy hadn't been changed, but the student safety handbook had been quickly updated to state that everyone should bring their keys and their wallet, billfold, or purse with them when evacuating.

Saturday, at least so far, had been spent doing what I normally did so far during the current semester — lab, running, breakfast, mentoring Kimiko, computer lab, lunch, and the computer lab again. Karate, too, was part of the norm, but there was a major difference — a brown belt test. As I walked with Robby, Lee, and Angie, I tried to clear my mind in preparation. I wasn't having much luck.