A Butterfly in Flame by Nicholas Kilmer

next.”
    When Fred led Abe Baum into the office Harmony said, “Later,” into the phone and hung up. “Well?” she demanded.
    “I’ll use the desk,” Fred said, sitting on a corner of it and moving a vase of flowers aside to make room. “Take a chair, Abe. Here’s what I propose.”
    “I make the proposals in this room, at this desk,” Harmony started.
    “You’re making a move for accreditation,” Fred pushed on. “Even before this mess you suspect, between a missing teacher, male, and his missing student, female, even without this you’re in trouble. I’ve been here a few hours. If I can spot this, and I know blame all about whatever the accreditation honchos do, I know you’ve got problems.
    “Item: You lost your old director or you fired him, or her, I don’t know which. Item: the chairman of the board is filling in, and are you looking for a replacement? Item: you have no admissions director. No admissions means no school. Q. E. D. And during class time you don’t even have a student at the receptionist’s desk. Item:…”
    Abe Baum broke in, “I’ll call the officers to remove this man. Trespassing, public nuisance, hell, Liz, for all I know he’s already started molesting students.”
    “And I can tell there’s not much agreement between the academy’s board and administration (such as it is) and the students and faculty,” Fred persisted.
    “The faculty has been stirred up,” Liz Harmony announced. “That’s one reason…”
    “That’s been dealt with. It’s being dealt with,” Abe Baum interposed.
    President Harmony frowned and pursed her lips as if seeking an appropriate place to spit.
    “What are they doing, threatening to stop shopping at the company store?” Fred asked. “It’s not enough you keep your faculty barefoot and pregnant; you want them to love you too?”
    “The faculty is nothing to you,” Abe Baum growled.
    “Wrong. I have the honor to have been appointed to the faculty of Stillton Academy of Art. To date it is the high point of my academic career, and I take the position seriously. Whatever is going on here, it’s more than a missing teacher and a missing student. I said I had a proposal. You might as well listen, since I’m not going away.”
    “We are listening,” Harmony said. Fred’s looming presence on the corner of her desk had caused her to edge her chair back.
    “The first thing is, look like you want me here,” Fred said. “I’ve gotten you upset. Fine. Forget it. You gave me a job, I’m doing it. But my hands are tied. I can’t move. As a mere member of the faculty, there’s too much I can’t get next to. If I’m going to find out where that student is, and Morgan Flower, supposing they are together—and I don’t buy the double suicide by the way; it’s too easy—here’s what we do.
    “There’s a faculty meeting this afternoon. You introduce me as—I’m teaching, yes—but my real function is, I’m a trouble shooter, an independent eye, here in disguise. My real mission is to study this place inside and out and tell you if it makes sense to go ahead with accreditation or, if not, what you should do instead.”
    “You said yourself you don’t know a thing about…” Harmony objected.
    “I’ll handle that. You whistled and I came to you. I’m here. I don’t like it. You don’t like it. Still, I’m not going. Not for a week.
    “What you’ll say is, I have your go-ahead to look anywhere, ask any questions, look at whatever I can find, and all with the blessing of the powers that be.”
    “It’s unheard of,” President Harmony said, not for the first time. “Abe, it was a crazy idea to bring in a stranger. I want him gone.”
    “It might not be as bad an idea as Fox News,” Abe Baum reminded her. “It’s quiet so far.”
    “What time does the faculty meet?” Fred said.
    “Step outside. I’ll confer with my client,” Abe Baum said. “I’ll call you. Don’t leave the reception area.”
    “Hell, I can