It was the Criminal Justice major, with the magnifying glass, in the Library

When I came to Pensacola Christian College as a freshman last year, I took a while to explore the campus. During the first few weeks, I didn’t know that there was an elevator in the library. I didn’t know there were six floors either, but even when I figured out about the floors, I still didn’t know about the elevator.

As I was descending the six flights of stairs one day, I came to a halt mid-staircase. What was that? I’d seen a flash of something yellow on the 2^nd floor.

I pressed my face up to the glass of a little-enclosed room on that floor and did a double take! A length of “caution” tape was strapped around a little folding table inside! The floor was scattered with trash, and a large chalkboard stood crookedly in the corner with strange writing all over it. What caught my attention most, however, was a large spot on the linoleum of the floor. I strained my eyes to see what it was. Paint? Juice? Another individual might have left it at that.

Not me.

Trying the doorknob, I was delighted to find that it turned. Call me Nancy Drew. I could almost hear my own little epic theme song playing. I twisted my head around slightly to see if anyone was watching. Nope.

I turned back to the door and opened it, slipping into the room noiselessly.

Inside, a musty glow from the wide panes of the library windows settled upon the room. The silence hung so thickly about the room that I held my breath so as not to disturb it.

I knelt closer to the spot on the floor. Now, what in the world could it…

My breath caught. The spot was a puddle of something red—or at least it seemed so in the dim light. My eyes followed the tracks to a tarp in the corner of the room and—

“AHHHHH!” I must’ve jumped a foot.

There was a body sprawled across the tarp!

And then everything else happened in a moment. I jumped to my feet just as the door behind me swung open. I had just enough time to take a closer look at the body before it registered that someone else was standing next to me.
Is that…a dummy?

“What are you doing in our display room?” a student’s voice asked. “Are you a Criminal Justice major?” My little epic theme song came to a screeching halt.

Well, you can guess the rest. I had crept my way right into an investigation scene set up for the Criminal Justice majors to evaluate.

Call me Nancy Drew, I thought again, sheepishly this time, as I cleared the scene of the crime and descended the final flight of stairs to the 1^st floor. Oh well. I had other places to go, other stairwells to climb, other—is that an elevator in our library? Yes!

Since then, I have had time for my pride to heal and to think about that little room. All CJ majors can go apply the skills that they’re learning and evaluate a specially designed crime scene—almost made me want to major in Criminal Justice!

Anna Grace

Major: Performance Studies

Home town: “This world is not my home, I’m just a-passin’ through...” Also, my dad is in the Air Force.

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