by Lucy Ludlow

Created on: September 17, 2008

The Professor Chapter One

Nestled comfortably in the mountains near the quaint little hamlet of Butte, Montana is a lake, scenic Delmoe Lake to be exact, a tourist looking spot at the end of a serpentine dirt and gravel road that extends some 10 miles off I-90 East. The landscape is filled with tall pines, aspens, poplar trees, Douglas firs, to name a few; shrubs like choke cherry, sumac, and silver buffalo berry; and oh, the flowers: wild sunflowers, phlox and columbine. There are boulders-huge boulders of every shape and size; some so large that one could build their own Stonehenge, if they had a mind to.

But getting back to the water. There are several waterlogged areas in this part of the state, such as Georgetown Lake and Homestake. However, this lake, Delmoe Lake is particularly important for it marks the spot of the beginning of evidence pointing to murder, the perfect murder.
I say it's perfect because no one in this whole state knows who killed Professor Ian Milton, or why. In this small town tech college, he was just an insignificant professor that had gone missing at first. Although the college is elite for its kind and the students are topnotch, this professor would not be considered a typical candidate for murder. He was not famous or infamous. He was neither a high-level official nor high profile in any way. On the other hand, who is a typical candidate these days where murder is concerned? Hmm?
Professor Milton was 42, not gorgeous, but handsome in an offbeat rugged manner and of course, mysterious, the latter told by some of the young ladies on campus that I spoke with when I first arrived here. (I think it was his mellifluous English tongue.) I would say he was likened to a Hugh Laurie type, given the description by several women to whom I spoke. They described him as having dark curly hair that was not excessively long, maybe to his collar and his eyes were a piercing, mystical green surrounded by long, thick lashes, and he seemed to send all of them into fits of giggles, turning red faced, and yes, sometimes even clumsiness would ensue when he was around. If Professor Milton even ran his hand through his hair, there were audible sighs in the room. He would often smile at the reactions, sometimes give a raised eyebrow, (another "oh my gosh" moment), maybe he would even wink, and that just made the women more...sickening. One of the girls even went as far as to say that his walk was (and I quote) "a smooth, calculated stride, steady; confident,

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