New Release Sample: SEMI-PSEUDO-SUPERHEROES

"Anyway," she continued, "it's been quiet, all around. Maybe we've all been concentrating so much on the problem with those professors…" She frowned, eyes going distant.

"What did you just think of?"

"Just gossip." She shrugged and took a sip from the tall paper cup, her eyes hooded, her gaze pensive. "Despite every effort to keep that whole mess covered up, it's impossible to keep secrets on a college campus. Other departments know. Especially when the head of the psychology department looks daggers at his underlings who forged his signature and claimed they got approval and permission from him, even though he and the other leaders of the department never met to discuss the experiment."

"So you've overheard other professors talking about the mess when they come here, or come to the diner?"

"Diner. They don't talk about school politics here on campus. You have to admire them for that. It's best to put on a united front for the students." She took another sip. "What comes to mind now, and I have to wonder why it didn't register at the time, is that the two ringleaders in the whole mess, Tudderman and Winghast, have been seen making regular visits to a house in Darbyville. The street straddles the border with Neighborlee. It's near a main street, so the professors who live in Darbyville and take that route see them on a regular basis, coming or going, and never together. Someone finally remarked on it, and someone else said they had seen it, and I guess they started asking questions and…"

She shrugged, her lower lip sticking out as she visibly thought it over. "What made it memorable is that the house has had a for sale sign in the front yard for more than a year. The grass is high and some of the windows are boarded up. If either of them were planning on buying the house, maybe they don't know the other is looking at it."

"Maybe they're waiting for the price to go down more?" I shivered as I said it. It sounded stupid, but Stephanie didn't react, still deep in thought.

"Something strange is going on. I know that I've heard people talking about it, multiple times, yet none of those times… I don't know, the incidents didn't stick in my memory until just now." She sat up and looked around the Student Center. "Do you have time for a field trip?"