Flowers in a Dumpster by Mark Allan Gunnells Page A

is. If you want to hold it against me then so be it, but I know I did what had to be done.
    What killed Dirk was possession, plain and simple.

THE LOCKED TOWER
    Alec Stevenson pulled into a space in the school’s small visitor’s parking lot and cut the Cadillac’s engine. He sat there, staring out the window at the campus. Several years had passed since he’d been to his alma mater, Limestone College, but he marveled at how few superficial changes had occurred. There were, of course, little differences—the old wrought-iron sign at the main entrance was replaced by one that looked like a tall brick wall, the driveway had been repaved, a few of the buildings renovated—but for the most part it looked like it had fifteen years ago, when Alec had been a student.
    Making sure he had his cell phone with him so he could take a few digital photos, Alec stepped out of the car. The clear sky promised a bright afternoon. The activity on-campus was minimal, which was the reason he’d chosen to come so late on a Friday afternoon.
    He started across the quad, past the library and the auditorium, making a direct line for Winnie Davis Hall.
    In Alec’s day, Winnie Davis had been in sorry shape, closed off to students. Alec, however, had been inside once. On a dare during his sophomore year, he’d broken through one of the ground level windows and crawled through, taking a tour of the first two floors. He didn’t risk going any higher because the floorboards bowed dangerously under his weight. Each step felt like it could send him plummeting to the basement. The whole place smelled of mildew and rot. When he stood in the rotunda, staring straight up to the tower, he’d seen the skeletal framework of a skylight that would normally have separated the tower from the rest of the building, only there was no glass.
    Of course, those days were in the past. Alec recently read on the Limestone website that a massive restoration project for Winnie Davis, costing millions of dollars and lasting many years, had been completed. Apparently the building now boasted such state-of-the-art amenities as an elevator, a flat-screen television mounted to the walls of each classroom, and even automated shades that would lower themselves over the windows at the push of a button. From the outside, Winnie Davis still looked the same, gothic and a bit like a miniature cathedral, but from what he’d read the inside was new and modern.
    This was why Alec returned to Limestone after so long.
    Winnie Davis Hall had lingered in the back of his mind ever since that dare all those years ago, but reading about its recent renovation brought the memories to the foreground. Inspiration seized him by the balls. As always he had no choice but to follow where it led.
    Alec stood before Winnie Davis for a moment, on the newly paved courtyard, appreciating her refurbished beauty. The buildings at Limestone were truly magnificent, both architecturally and historically. Many of them dated back to the early 1900s, some even earlier. That was why so many were on the National Registry of Historical Places. But Alec had eyes for only Winnie Davis Hall.
    He climbed the stone steps that led to the double doors, feeling weird about entering this way. He still identified the place as off limits. Once he stepped inside the entryway, he knew this wasn’t the Winnie Davis of his past. Fresh paint, hardwood floors buffed to a shine, marble busts of historical figures housed in alcoves behind Plexiglas—the building had gotten a serious facelift. To either side of him staircases twisted their way to the top floor. Alec stepped to the circular railing of the rotunda. Since the main doors of the building opened onto the second floor, he could look down to the ground level below. Nothing to see but a wooden table with a vase of flowers centered on it. He craned his neck and looked straight up, into the tower. Only he could no longer see all the way into the tower. The skylight had been