From jain@cs.cornell.edu Wed Jan 30 16:17:23 1991
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Date: Wed, 30 Jan 91 16:17:16 -0500
From: jain@cs.cornell.edu (Neel K. Jain)
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		A Midwinter Weekend's Short Story 
 
James Caldwell sipped his coffee as he walked back to his office. It
tasted funny. This was going to be one of those mornings.

Walking into his office, he set the cup down on Tom Yan's desk, where
his coffee sat and clotted for the next hour. Radha came in to return
the CD he had borrowed the other day. ``Cate around?'' he asked.
``Naah'', replied Caldwell, ``she isn't going to be back till
Tuesday''. ``Hmm, I thought I saw her around''. Radha shrugged and
left. Caldwell returned to his Logic homework, wishing Tom would show
up. He hated to go to lunch alone.

Tom hadn't shown up by noon, so he walked across the hall to see if
any of the other guys were around. Neel was in 5151, and no, he hadn't
seen Daniel or Nikos in ages. Not only that, Neel told him over lunch,
he had gone up the bell tower, and somebody had actually tried to push
him out a window. No, he couldn't tell who it was. It had been a large
crowd. At least the incident had made Neel a little quieter, and
Caldwell was thankful. Neel did grate on his nerves so, at times.

Tom didn't show up at all that day. Or Saturday. Caldwell took his
rest on Sunday, and came in late on Monday. A uniformed policeman told
him he couldn't get his coffee from the lounge. Sorry. Apparently,
Kozen told him, they'd found Nikos in the closet that morning, his
throat slit from side to side. He must have been there some three
days, and was quite a sight. ``And smell. Lord, the place smelled'',
Kozen muttered.

Penny was a little early, when she came to pick him up, so she had
talked to Amy while he had been in class. ``She was very worried. She
hasn't seen Daniel since Thursday'', she told him as they drove back.

Tuesday morning's paper told him they'd found Tom Yan in his
apartment, with a bowie knife in his heart.

Cate walked into the office that afternoon. ``So, how was your
vacation?''  Jim asked. ``Quite satisfying'', she smiled, ``I feel
much better now.''

They found Neel at the bottom of Stewart Ave bridge that evening.
Sunday's snow had covered him up well.