Law School Murders: ‘Rah Doc

The next day in class was a bit weird. Kim gave no indication that one of her students wanted her dead. She just scanned the faces in the lecture hall. It felt as if she were closing in on someone and then had to switch her glance.

“Today we will talk about one of Delaware’s most infamous mass shooters.” Her eyes cut across the room. She looked at the noses, chins, cheeks, foreheads, and the eyes. She took seriously her prospects for catching whoever it was who sent that term paper in to be graded.

“Paul Hooverton opened fire in the Mystic Mall here in Newark. He killed fourteen people and injured another twenty before dying by suicide via police fire.” Her eyes looked over the collective of pupils.

“He had been trained in the US Army and was a decorated soldier before an experiment on his brain with various drugs made him lose his sanity. He never recovered from the government experiment. He purchased a thousand rounds of ammunition completely legally along with a high powered rifle, two shot guns, and three pistols.” A hand raised.

“Yes.”

“If he had been a subject of an experiment like that, there would be a database of people with the same condition, right?”

Kim felt a surge of confidence. “Not at that time. This is the early 1980’s. That period didn’t have as robust a system of screening people for guns. Hell, do we even have one now?” Some laughs. Kim’s anxiety eased slightly.

“But seriously, this man murdered over a dozen people in broad daylight while they shopped for Easter outfits. It still is the deadliest mass murder in the state’s history. At the time, it was the largest mass murder but since we see one it seems every day that record has been eliminated.” Kim’s grim joke didn’t go over as well as her previous effort. She laughed though and that was enough to quell the raging forces of darkness churning in her spirit.

“Your assignment: Write eight pages on why Hooverton’s drug experiment was seen as a scapegoat to his grisly murder spree.”

She looked out at the class. “Dismissed.”

Once the lecture hall was clear she walked through the rows of seats. and inspected whether there had been any leftover pages or any scraps that would point to the person who wrote the paper. Nothing. She took her materials and left the hall.

At her walkup she looked at her phone. Maryallene called.

“Please tell me you have something.”

“I’m sorry to report, nothing out of the ordinary came up,” Maryallene lamented.

Kim sighed and closed her eyes. “Thanks, though, Mary. I appreciate your efforts.”

“Keep looking.”

“Roger.” She hung up the phone.

Kim took a trip into Wilmington to a bar. She never had been to that bar but because of her media exposure, everyone knew her name. Folks came up for autographs which she simply signed without hesitation.

She asked for corn liquor, top shelf. She asked for a ninety dollar double of Rustic Lands whisky. She drew attention from hat and full sleeve tattoos.

“Hey, Kim?”

“Ding Ding Ding.” She said and sipped.

“I always knew you were innocent. I’m a Navy corpsman.”

“Rah, Doc,” Kim mentioned.

“Yeah, I got out around the same time as you,” he mentioned.

“Is that right?”

“I wanted to see if you wanted to get out of here and get to know each other a bit?”

“Why can’t we get to know each other more right here?”

“I’m talking about a more private setting.”

“I’ve already got someone, so….”

“I didn’t see a ring so I,” the doc started stumbling and fumbling.