Little Acorns Become Mighty Oaks, Part Four

[hallolujah]

I've finally had time to write and update this. This is more of an exposition chapter but I think this will still leave you intrigued. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for reading (and commenting if you would be so kind).

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three

Little Acorns Become Mighty Oaks, a Thurston Calder Mystery

Four

The sounds of the water cascading onto me pounded in my ears. Any sound being made in the room was only heightened. That?s what happens to you when you?re pinned against a linoleum wall of a shower room by a man that might want to kick your ass.

I thought about trying to make a run for it, but instead my mouth started to run instead. ?What do you want??

?Shut up fag, and listen to me,? the voice ordered gruffly and unrecognizably.

Before I could stop myself, I uttered, ?Says the guy who?s pinning a naked man in the showers to the wall.?

?Hey, shut the fuck up,? the aggressor ordered and pinned me harder against the wall, taking the breath out of me. ?You need to stop asking questions around here.?

?Is this about the guy who hung himself?? I asked anyway, in between catching my breath.

I was shoved even harder against the wall and felt that any harder and I would have broken one of my ribs. The attacker simply said, ?If you know what?s good for you, you?ll stop.?

The harasser let go and pushed me to the floor. My head down, I struggled to get my bearings once more underneath the steady flow of running lukewarm water. When I was finally on my feet, my attacker was gone. I rushed to grab my towel and I looked in the locker room to see if anyone else was there. Nope. Not another soul. It was as if the guy I pissed off was really just a ghost.

I went back to the shower and shut it off, now too weary to finish. I needed to get back to the dorm and try to push this off. How does one cope with being threatened of their life?

---

I was studying on my bed when Trevor walked into the room from the bathroom, a white cotton towel wrapped around his waist. He?d just gotten out of the shower and I could see his tight body. ?Hey there,? Trevor greeted. I had arrived back from the dorm while he was in the shower.

I waved back and tried to get back to my studying, while sneaking glances as he gathered his glasses and clean shorts to put on. I couldn?t help it when beads of water would stick to his body and hang precipitously over the crevices of his abdomen. God damn I was horny.

The textbook lying at the foot of my bed beckoned me to continue my prestigious studies and, knowing that it had to win, I continued back to reading all about the Krebs cycle. Meanwhile, Trevor had put on clothes and was at his computer, checking his email. He broke the silence in the air with, ?Son of a bitch!?

Surprised, I looked up to see him flustered. ?What?s wrong?? I asked.

?You know a guy yesterday hanged himself?? Trevor told me. I nodded my head, prompting him to continue his explanation. ?Well, I knew him. He was a friend of mine.?

?What?? I exclaimed in surprise. ?Who was he?? I asked anyway.

Trevor motioned with his hand to come out of the bed and to his monitor. I did so and read from the first paragraph of a news article, ??Grad student Dr. James Whipple committed suicide yesterday afternoon on campus. Dr. Whipple was finishing his final year of grad school in bioengineering.?? Connections clicked in my head and I told him, ?He was a classmate??

?Not exactly,? Trevor clarified. ?I worked for him in one of his experimental studies.? After admitting that, Trevor slunk back in his chair and realized his words. ?I shouldn?t be telling you about it. It?s supposed to be confidential.?

?What?s supposed to be confidential?? I pressed. ?You knew the guy, Trev. Maybe it was something you two were working on that??

?No,? Trevor immediately denied and looked away from me. He felt the warm breeze through the window and said, ?It can?t be.?

?Trevor, listen to me,? I tried to reason with him. ?If whatever you?ve been doing with James could have caused him to kill himself, then you need to tell me.?

Trevor took a moment before turning around, looking straight at me with his sapphire blues. ?Why do you want to know??

I didn?t know if I should tell him the entire truth, that I was satisfying some delusion that I could be an ace detective and solve a murder when everyone else thought otherwise. It certainly wasn?t the smartest thing in the world to be considered about, especially if my roommate was somehow involved, even though it would be hard to believe. Trevor couldn?t do anything to cause harm to anyone. At least, I hoped so. But regardless, if Trevor was involved in any deep shit that caused James?s murder, I needed to know. And he couldn?t know I was on to him.

?I?m concerned,? I said to him. ?If James was doing something to make himself feel guilty, then we can learn from this. It will explain why he could have done such a thing and give those closest to him closure. It?ll give you closure.?

Trevor thought about that for a moment, tilting his head down, emphasizing his pointy chin. He seemed to have come to a decision and opened the desk drawer. He rummaged through notebooks and pulled out a black leather folder. He handed it to me. ?We were working on a project for several months and would still be working at it had he??

?I get it,? I said, not wanting him to have to say the words. I turned over the cover and began to read the pages inside as Trevor spoke.

?I was working with him as an assistant on a drug to cure muscular dystrophy,? Trevor explained as I was reading. ?We were isolating genetic sequences to create a myostatin inhibitor that would help end this disease.?

I flipped the next page and saw at the top, ?You guys were holding a trial run? And what exactly is myostatin??

?It?s a gene that inhibits muscular development and growth in skeletal muscle tissue. We tested the compound on mice and they improved drastically, so we moved onto human subjects,? Trevor elaborated.

?So what does this have to do with him committing suicide?? I asked him. ?This drug looks remarkable and could change the world. With such an ambitious project, why cut yourself short??

?That?s what he had intended,? Trevor said. ?Turn the page.?

I turned the page to see a subject data sheet. In for name, it read Hugh McClury. How familiar. ?What about this person?? I said as if the name was unfamiliar.

?He?s the star kicker for the football team,? Trevor told me.

?He doesn?t have muscular dystrophy though if he?s a football player,? I said.

Trevor nodded. ?We needed a control and our fellow lab assistant suggested him. We thought that he could be trusted to not abuse it, but Hugh was making large gains. His lean weight increased drastically and before we knew it, the coach came to us to offer us a cut of the experimental drug.?

?He sold his drug to the football team,? I shook my head.

?You?ll see in there our other lab assistant in there,? Trevor pointed to me. I flipped through the folder a couple of pages and nearly dropped it on the floor.

Paper-clipped inside the folder was a picture of Dr. Whipple, Trevor and Silas, all clad in white lab coats, smiling with each other. Silas towered over them, his lab coat fitting like a glove over his massive body. I looked away to Trevor to avoid any awkward reactions from my own, ahem, body, and said, ?That guy??

?Yeah, real nice guy that one,? Trevor scoffed. ?Star of the football team and we actually thought he wouldn?t try to get the rest of his team hooked.?

?You really think that?s what happened?? I asked. ?Dr. Whipple was so ashamed that his product became abused that he offed himself??

Trevor shrugged. ?Dr. Whipple had ambitions. When he saw his Nobel prize become a bastardized steroid he got depressed.?

?I would be too,? I said distantly. My entire world on Silas seemed to have shattered. Granted, I barely knew the guy and I always knew in the back of my mind that he could have been behind this. But I still could barely believe what Trevor had told me. Silas didn?t look bigger in person than when this photograph was taken. How could he have done something like this? I needed to talk to him, even when the sun was already down.

?Thank you for telling me,? I told Trevor as I got up to go out. Trevor simply nodded, as if he somehow understood what I now had to do.

---

There stood one obstacle between me and confronting the biggest man I had ever met; that damn call box outside Appleman Hall. All the smokers had already had their evening smoke and were inside coughing out their lungs. Any late night cravings for fried foods at the dining halls were already satiated. Booty calls were happening right now. No one would be outside at this hour.

?Shit,? I swore. Maybe this would have to wait for tomorrow, but goddamn it, I was angry. And when I?m angry I don?t think things too clearly through. Well, I?m here, I might as well try it.

I hit the red button that would call the front desk. Crackling noises came out from the wire meshed speaker and I heard a voice I did not want to here at this very moment. ?Can I help you?? Silas.

Fuck.

?Hey, Silas,? I emphasized the greeting. ?Can you let me in??

?You again,? Silas chuckled. ?I checked to see if you did in fact live next to Wendy on the second floor. I figured you were fibbing when you saw me.?

Double fuck.

Sighing, I replied, ?I need to talk to you.?

?Oh yeah?? Silas responded. ?Well you can stay out there. I?m not letting you break university policy again.?

?You were Dr. Whipple?s lab assistant,? I told him.

Silas didn?t respond right away. I heard crackling but it was soon abruptly ended and the doors to Appleman Hall swung open to the big man, wearing a tight white wifebeater, barely able to contain his massive pecs and a pair of tight black workout shorts, hugging his thighs and showing a prominent bulge. ?What did you say??

I was transfixed on his body and had to shake myself away to look up at his handsome face to tell him, ?You worked for Dr. Whipple, the man who killed himself.?

Silas pondered what I said, and possibly what he thought I knew, and led me inside the Hall. ?Come with me,? he ordered and I obediently followed, not knowing if something horrible would befall me.

And wouldn?t you know it, even in the face of possible danger, I was looking at his ass, so pert and the epitome of a bubble butt. I?m such a fool.

At the front desk was a mousy girl with glasses and she looked at the both of us curiously. ?You?ll take over for me, right, Jeanine?? Silas asked the girl. She nodded and went back to her textbook. Silas led me down the halls to his room and brought me inside. He closed the door behind him, the sound seemingly magnified from my morbid thoughts and looked down at me over his massive pecs. ?You have something to say to me??

I gulped. This was going to be a doozy.

[Vallance]

Awesome job, I really enjoy your writing style! Can't wait to see where this goes!

[michaelv2]

Another cliff hanger, perfect for a mystery. Love the twists and turns so far!

[Mad Dog]

More pleeeeeeeeeeeeease.

[philat99]

Keep up the great work!