Chapter Text
Charlotte gathered her notes, anxious to get to the meeting. She hoped the group she had gathered to assist her with this project would work well together.
James Stringer, her bestie at the university since they went through faculty orientation together, had always been a part of it; she knew she could count on him. He’d play whatever role she needed and do so amiably.
The two new additions this year – Georgiana Lambe and Sidney Parker – Charlotte was less confident about.
She got along well with Georgiana, a lecturer going into her second year in Media Studies, whose blunt opinions were especially refreshing in the inescapably patriarchal world of academia.
Sidney Parker, however, was not well-liked by many of their colleagues. From what Charlotte could tell, much of it was envy. Parker had a lot of publications, presented at a lot of conferences, and was popular with the students. Particularly the female students, of course, he’d be perpetually topping the hot pepper list on Rate My Professor, were that still a thing.[1]
Charlotte shook her head at that thought. No, she reminded herself firmly, she had not asked Sidney Parker to take part in the project this year because she found him attractive. His area of expertise was the only reason she’d asked him. Did she pick the theme this year because it aligned with his area of expertise? Umm… better not dwell on that.
When she arrived at the conference room, her three accomplices were ready and waiting. Georgiana and James were sitting at the table and Sidney was standing by a window, staring into the distance.
“Sorry to keep everyone waiting,” Charlotte apologized despite not needing to. She had arrived early, everyone else was simply earlier.
“No worries,” James, always the helpful soul replied. “We’re excited to get started and see what ideas you have.”
Georgiana smiled in agreement. “I was honored to be asked,” she set her phone down on the table, now that the meeting was about to start. “I’ve heard such good things about how the project’s gone in previous years.”
As Charlotte set her stack of materials on the table, Sidney unexpectedly came over to hold her chair for her in a truly old-fashioned manner. Not sure if she should accept the gesture as intended or rebuke him for being a misogynist, she mumbled thank you while awkwardly sitting down and readjusting the chair on her own. Sidney then took a seat himself, a fair distance from the rest of them. It was as though he’d rather observe the meeting than take part in it. He remained as silent as the dead.
Not wanting to appear flustered by the interaction, Charlotte proceeded with her agenda. “Thanks for agreeing to do help out,” she began reciting her pre-planned introduction. “It’s always challenging to come up with new angles for this lab,” she moved her personal notes to the side so she could hand folders to the other three. “Even if I ask students not to share the details with those who take the class in subsequent years, I like to mix up the type of crime they’ll be investigating.”
Once they opened their folders, Charlotte continued, “As you can see, this year’s focus is going to be crime reporting – so along with trying to solve the case, the students will also have to think about how it might be portrayed accurately or inaccurately across various types of media.” She gave them a few moments to scan the page.
“Do you want me to work with them on poetry again this year?” James asked.
“That’s up to you,” Charlotte encouraged. “It’s gone over well before, but if you want to change it up you absolutely can.”
“I can have soooo much fun with this,” Georgiana sounded delighted. “Along with how news reports are edited, we can debate whose mugshots they release to sway public opinion into a rush to judgement.”[2]
“Absolutely,” Charlotte agreed. “Anything about media bias, really, so they learn to question what they’re being told rather than blindly trusting it.”[3]
Turning to the silent fourth person in the room, Charlotte addressed him directly. “And Sidney, some historical perspective on how crimes were portrayed in newspapers in the 19th-century will show them that not much has changed,” she paused. “Or, at least, I don’t think it has, from what reading I’ve done on the subject.”
The last tidbit got a reaction from him, though it was only a slight raise of one eyebrow. It was like the man was determined to be unknowable.
“Will Dr. Fuchs be pitching in again this year?” James again framed his question with a reference to having participated in the past; it was starting to feel like he was reiterating that a little too much, though she could not imagine why.
“We’ll see,” Charlotte equivocated. “He trusts me to carry on now that he’s retired, but the students would certainly benefit from his years of wisdom about anatomy and physiology. I’ve asked him to make a guest appearance, maybe via Zoom, but he hasn’t gotten back to me about it yet.”
“It’s great how interdisciplinary this all is,” Georgiana praised Charlotte again. Like James’ attempts to establish himself as a recurring participant, Charlotte thought she might need to pull Georgiana aside and tell her the flattery was unnecessary.
“Thank you,” Charlotte accepted the kind words. “No crime will ever be solved by a single discipline, so it’s important that the students appreciate that. And since many of them may never have the interest in science to pursue careers in that side of an investigation, it’s good for them to remember how many other pieces there are to the puzzle.”
“My brother could do a guest lecture,” Sidney said from out of nowhere. When all eyes turned to him, he must have realized more explanation was required. “My apologies,” he looked chagrined, “I should have prefaced that with, my brother, Arthur, is a sketch artist. He’s done courtroom work before, since he’s got a good memory for detail, or he could give them a lesson on sketching the crime scene itself if that would be better.”[4]
“That would be wonderful,” Charlotte was genuinely pleased by the suggestion. “If you could extend the invitation, I’d appreciate it.”
Sidney merely nodded in response, apparently retreating behind his wall of protection. From what Charlotte dare not speculate.
“I’m willing to be the dead body again,” James offered. Again, with the again, Charlotte sighed internally, keeping herself from rolling her eyes. What’s with James today?
“I’ll do it,” Sidney countered quickly, a second unexpected offer from him in as many minutes.
“Oh yes, kill Sidney!” Georgiana exclaimed. “The students would have the most fun investigating his death.” Charlotte wasn’t sure if that was meant as a compliment or not. “For my part, I’ll happily play the murderer or a suspect, but I won’t play the victim. Women get enough of that in real life.”
“Okay, well,” Charlotte processed all that information as rapidly as she could. “Thanks for the enthusiasm one and all. James, since you’re usually stuck being the victim, how about you do something different this year now that Sidney’s said he’s prepared to be the one to die.”
“Sure, fine,” James did not sound glad about that, but Charlotte felt he’d contribute positively to the scenario regardless.
“Next we need to think about what sorts of evidence we’ll plant,” Charlotte moved to the next item on the agenda. “We need something that you might be carrying, Sidney, that provides a good surface for them to try to lift prints off. You know, like a deck of playing cards or a flask.”
“I think my friend, Crowe, might have those,” Sidney noted. “I can ask him if I can borrow them.”
“And some jewelry that could be easily mistaken for someone else’s,” Georgiana suggested, seeing where this was going. “Like a signet ring, maybe?”
“Great idea!” Charlotte was pleased they were coming up with so many ways to confuse the students; that was half the fun of this project, after all. Taking out her pen, Charlotte began scribbling everyone’s ideas on her copy of the agenda, jotting down who said they’d bring which props when it was time to stage the crime scene.
By the time they finished, they had a good scenario scripted that should challenge the students’ deductive reasoning skills appropriately. It wouldn’t be too difficult to figure out, but it would make them think.
Charlotte tasked her co-conspirators with developing the assignments they’d add to the project in the second week; the students were to be subdivided into small groups for that purpose. Everyone agreed there was no need for another in-person meeting before they reconvened to set up the crime scene itself the following week.
A successful meeting done and dusted Charlotte walked back to her office. Although she’d picked up on some weird vibes initially those seemed to ease as they continued talking. Hopefully the collaborative place they ended at would hold as the project moved forward.
[1] For those unfamiliar with it - https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/juliareinstein/rate-my-professors-hotness-chili-pepper-sexist
[2] Some examples - https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/metropolitan-police_uk_603fa18ec5b617a7e411ffc5
[3] Some examples - https://theconversation.com/misinformation-and-biases-infect-social-media-both-intentionally-and-accidentally-97148
[4] Fun fact: Not only were cameras not allowed in UK courtrooms until very recently, it was not okay to sketch in courtrooms either. The artist watched the proceedings then had to go outside to do the actual drawing. For more see - https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-51110206