Excerpt: The Strange Tale of Dolores Hen

“As my eyes, ears and hands on campus,” he began, “all you’d have to do is what I ask of you. Maybe its gather information on them,” he broke off as Katie interrupted him.
“You mean spying,” she interjected. If he had a game he wanted to play, she wanted to make it as difficult as possible for it to take root.
“Call it what you want. There is that, and also caring out acts for me on campus.”
“What do you mean by ‘acts,’ Mr. Fountine?” She added his title with a hint of malice.
“You will find out when it comes time,” he said sharply. He was wound up too tight, Katie thought. It was just a few teachers; what could possibly be so horrendous about that? “If you do that, I will pay for your apartment, your tuition, and will keep your identity a secret.” A realization came to her then. Her eyes got wide.
“Are you blackmailing me?” She asked.
“As I said before, call it what you want. What do you plan to do about it?”
“I’ll take you to court! I won’t let you blackmail me!” she stood back up and leaned forward on the desk, heat seething from her face.
“You can take me to court, but since you already stole the identity of someone because you wanted to have fun, I’d say we have a pretty good chance of discrediting your story based on mental insanity.” Marten replied. He didn’t look the least bit concerned. Her hands relaxed. She was now really truly trapped.