Chapter 90

As soon as they left I was bombarded. I asked them to wait just a second. I asked Jenny for the phone numbers. I called the first number and turned on the speaker.

It rang three times before it was answered, "Hello, Dr. Shelly Moore, how may I help you?"

"Hi Shelly, I don't know if you remember me, Roberta Jones, my friends call me BJ or you may remember me as Sergeant Jones. You helped me through a problem at the hospital in Germany," I said.

"Yes, I remember you and your family. You were having a tough time dealing with the death of your best girl friend; she was also your half sister if I remember correctly. You were both shot in the ambush and she died in your arms. Are you having trouble? Do you need to see me again?" she asked. "I see you on the news every now and then. You are one of those heroes that just can't ride off into the sunset."

At this revelation every eye was on me. It was more information than I had told anyone. I knew I would have to explain later.

"Yes, that is correct. No, I am fine. I have a friend of a friend that was assaulted. She is taking it really bad." I filled her in everything that had happened that I knew of about Misty Black, the bathroom episode, the dream and breakfast this morning.

Then I said "Dr., my concern is that in all of the leadership training classes that I had that dealt with severe depression or extreme personal crisis it was always stated that a prayer request and then being relaxed and happy and a huge breakfast were signs that the person had decided to commit suicide."

Now all the eyes were on me and they were filled with concern.

Shelly said," That is only partially true. She could have made that decision or she could have finally come to grips with it and has decided to fight it. The things that she says and does over the next few days will be the key. She does not need to be alone for a few days. I would need to put her on the couch and evaluate her to see where she is going mentally."

"Where is your office? You never told me where you were going to set up shop," I said.

"Dr. Rich and I are partners in the practice and our office in on Route 50 between Annapolis and Washington. We do a lot of contract work at Walter Reed hospital for the men coming back from the sand box." She said.

I laughed and said, "We are less than 75 miles apart. We live on Kent Island on Summers Road."

Then she was the one to laugh. "We have a professional retreat at Ocean City on Monday and Tuesday. We can leave a day early and spend the day there with you. Can you get her there?"

"We will damn well try. I will call you back when we know for sure." I said. With that I cut the connection. I looked at the girls and said, "Can we, do you want to?

Lorrie said, "You know the answer to that one, you don't have to ask."

"Misty does not get to be alone for anything," I said. All the heads nodded.

The maintenance crew started bringing in the mats, Homer and Jr. It was amazing how much alike all the college auditoriums were built. The architect must have sold a generic plan to everyone. The mats were down in a half hour. By the time they were finished the Mike's Nursery truck was outside with 25 live Christmas trees that were to provide a place for Jenny to hide behind to do her part.

The maintenance people were done. I thank them for their help and sent them on their way. Kate reviewed the disc she was to use and it was playing on the big screen. It was the new one that Ching Lee had put together to use when we went commercial with the program. She came to me and asked, "Are you sure this is the one you want to use?"

"Yes it is. I will say, 'Kate' each time you are to play a new part. I have a cheat sheet to keep me in place. Lorrie or Vicky will be sitting with you to help you. They will want you to stop and start during their parts."

We still had a couple of hours before the class started. I discussed the lack of security we had seen with Jenny and we thought that it would be prudent to ask a few questions. Just when we were going to find Mr. Skaggs, he came walking through the door with three well dressed men that I figured to be from the board.

We went through all the introductions then he asked if we had everything we needed.

I replied, "Yes, but there are several things that I would like to talk to you about."

"I was wondering where your college security is? We were here for a couple hours last night and in one of the dorms and have been here a couple of hours this morning and no one has asked who we were or what we are doing here." I said.

"At KCC no one is on the property without first checking in with security or being immediately challenged by a security officer. Nor are they allowed into a dorm without a student notification. All contractors, even those that are only on the property just one day, must submit a photo ID to get a contractor pass. The only exception to that is a major construction project and then we assign a full time auditor. We cross check their ID against the sex offenders list and any watch list. Their payment is held until we get the day pass back. We don't take any chances anymore. The times have changed, so must we" I said.

"We used to put the security department operation out for bids every two years. That kept them on their toes so to speak. The board, along with input from the sheriff's department, decided that things would be more consistent to stay with one company. They have been here six years. The cost goes higher every year along with a reduction on what we get in return. Every request we make for changes takes months and adds additional cost. We are spending over a million for what we are getting," he said. "I think there may be two people on during the day and one on at night."

"I have ten full-time officers and a pool of 30 part-timers to pull from. The day shift has a secretary; she does scheduling and payroll plus phones, two patrol persons plus myself. Then the other two shifts have two full-timers plus two part-timers. There are four people on duty at all times. My budget is 1.5 million but I keep at least 400 thousand of that for special events. So the normal expenditures are around 1.1 million," I said. "Starting in January we are going to send armed security on all college sports outings"

I went to my laptop and pulled up the KCC security system and walked them through all the security features. I showed them the list of all vehicles that had been on the campus today and a photo ID of all visitors.

"You are not playing around, are you?" he said.

"No, and neither should you be. Bad security makes your students easy targets. And they have already paid the price and unfortunately it may not be over," I said.

Mr. Skaggs looked at the other two board members then said, "If we can convince the complete board to upgrade the security will you be willing to help design a new security department?"

"I will do everything I can to help you, even if my team has to start a security company to manage it for you." I said.

The female students and staff were filling the auditorium seats for the program. Vicky, Lorrie and Kate and her laptop were setting in the center of the front row. As the students came in I selected several to participate based on how they were dressed as I did at the KCC program. Jenny was in the corner room behind the row of trees, in disguise for her part. The program I was going to use was the one that the girls had put together to use when we went commercial.

At one PM sharp I turned on the mike and rapped on the podium that I had moved against the wall to be out of the way.