The Billionaire Professor 2 (2015)

Chapter 16

Jazmin

Professor Howard poured his soul out to the police. He recounted how he had been at the auction because of the school acquiring the Van Gogh. When he saw the vitriolic nature of the subsequent bidding between Max and Daphne, he was reminded of a similar situation in France years ago, which ended in one dead ex-wife.

While he had wanted Max out of the department for ages, he finally saw a foolproof way of getting him out of the picture.

“I had already stolen the gun the night of the department mixer,” Professor Louis said. “So it was just a matter of follow up.”

“But why?” the detective asked. “Why did you want Professor St. James ‘out of the picture’ as you said.”

“Don’t you see?” Professor Howard, exclaimed, displaying a hostility I’m sure no one expected from such a mild-mannered individual. Everyone except Max shook their heads indicating their perplexity. Max, though, seemed to understand what he meant even before he explained it.

“Max was the star of the department. No offense, Max, the students love you. And I have to admit you know your art. The coeds all fell in love with you whether they were art history majors or not. And their boyfriends took your classes just to keep an eye on their girlfriends.

“Every term your classes were packed. I taught the same damn classes and barely had enough students to prevent them from cancelling. I could go one and one with your knowledge. By God, I spent a lifetime following my passion. But when it came to charisma and presentation, I was woefully deficient.

“I thought if I got you out of the department, maybe I would have more students, more respect from them and greater respect from our colleagues as well.

“I suppose my actions appear extreme to all of you.”

Max

I had to admit that I’ve plenty of ex-wives who wanted me out of the picture, but were never quite that clever enough to think of that. The man was brilliant, in a warped sort of way.

“For what’s it worth, I’m sorry. I’m not quite sure I intended it to go this far. Even while I pulled the trigger, I knew I was doing something tremendously stupid. But by then my mind was in full-blown revenge mode.”