Secrets of the Forbidden Room

       On one quiet Friday evening, Rutgers junior Jan Newsome sat in the still corner of the university library studying for her psychology final.   

     She found it difficult to concentrate–that mysterious room a few feet away kept attracting her, as it had for each of the last four Fridays she studied there.

      The bright, white sign with large letters reading “Closed to the Public. Only Open to Authorized Members of the Library Staff,” aroused Jan’s curiosity even more.  She looked up from her book every few seconds, trying to find an opportunity to get up and open the door to the room without attracting the attention of crotchety librarian James Hennessy.

     Hennessey considered it his main mission in life to prevent students from committing even the slightest infraction of the library’s many rules.

      On more than one occasion he had warned Jan and her friends about talking too loudly and spending too much time at the copier.  As for that barricaded room, he acted like he had appointed himself as the palace guard of the area. The minute any student wandered too close to the entrance he rushed to do some work at the staff desk nearest the room and glared at anyone who looked like they might sneak in.

         Finally, Jan thought of a plan to get Hennessy away from the forbidden area so she could explore it.  She charged his desk and said, “I just saw another student messing with the digital readout label on one of the library’s psychology books. He looked like he hid the book under his coat and was trying to leave without checking it out. Think you better stop him before he escapes.”

          The librarian then rushed to the circulation area.

           While he was gone, Jan quietly worked her way over to the forbidden room.  She then reached into her pocket for the small kitchen magnet she had bought with her from her campus apartment. This disabled the security alarm and she took down the sign on the door.

             The student stepped gingerly around the darkened room and shone her high-powered flashlight into every corner.  In one section of the room she found an old desk with an outdated laptop on top. To her surprise the computer immediately opened to a spreadsheet containing a long list of names. She recognized them as seniors who attended the same classes as she did, including Ida Svenson, her roommate.

     On the second column, next to each name, she found three-letter abbreviations matching subject areas of courses currently taught at the university. 

     In a third Jan found a dollar amount, followed by columns reading “paid,”  “not paid,” “scheduled for finalization” and “finalized.”

     Ida’s name headed up the list and, next to it, she found a checkmark in the unpaid column in red ink. 

      The page following the student name listing bore a shorter list of names, many of them carried over from the previous page. Each name had a date written next to it followed by “scheduled for finalization interview.”

       Jan then ran over in her mind the listed students she knew. Each of them had done poorly all year in their studies. To the surprise of even their instructors, every one of those on the list received a top grade in the listed courses.

        Campus rumors said that Hennessey had used his influence with the university administration to make the university library the sole depository for all final grades. Once instructors had submitted final grades they would no longer have access to them without Hennessey’s permission.

        The instructors suspected the university’s computer system had been hacked and the grades changed for several of their worst students.  The university had started an investigation, but the probe seemed to drag along with few conclusions revealed.

          When Jan confronted Ida about the sudden upswing in her psychology grade her roommate had refused to discuss it. She had stormed out of their room and would not speak to her for weeks.

       Back in the hidden room, just as Jan began to unravel the mystery in her head, the librarian burst in.

        “You tried to distract me so you could discover the secret of this room,” he shouted. “Now you will hear the whole story, and your curiosity will bring for you the same fate as those who refused to pay my academic advancement fee.”

          “Because the penny-pinchers in this university do not see fit to pay me the compensation that someone with my intellect and qualifications deserves, I decided to begin this little side hustle. I signed up some of the university’s underpaid computer experts as partners and promised to cut them in on the take.  It took some research and top secret negotiations, but I also recruited some muscle to act as collection agents.  Those who don’t pay will face the finalization procedure and their personal expiration dates. So far, just the threat has unclenched the fists of those who want to go back on our bargain. I hope we will not have to expire anyone.”

     Jan sat in stunned disbelief in the eerie darkness. Had her curiosity uncovered a secret in the bowels of the library that should have remained hidden? 

     Suddenly, someone knocked loudly on the door.

     Turns out Jan had many suspicions about the forbidden room. Following up on those suspicions, she had disappeared several times into the rear area of the library, getting ready to make her move.

       That Friday, the psychology major brought a digital recorder when she entered the hidden room. She also had tipped off the local and college police that she expected to produce evidence of the payoff demands, the grade switching and the death threats against those who did not pay off.

      They soon wrote the final chapter in the mystery of the hidden room.

       Several months later the university converted the area which a devious librarian had kept off limits so he could carry out his plot into a modern classroom equipped to provide extra help to students having trouble successfully completing their studies.