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“Wonderful,” he muttered. “Another distraction.”
“So what will you do?”
“About Buckland or whoever he is? I want to find this guy and make him pay, but right now I can’t. Right now, I’m going to let the officer you talked to do his job. And right now I’m going to follow you to school. Jack and I have to talk to Do
“Then we need to go, because I’m late.”
But neither of them moved. “I never got to kiss you last night,” he murmured.
“You did, at Sal’s.”
“That was a little one-sided. You never kissed me back.”
“I was too surprised,” she said, shivering when his thumb caressed her jaw.
Jack was waiting for him and they had so much work to do, but Noah needed a minute, just one minute for himself. For Eve. For both of us.
“Consider this fair warning then.” He covered her mouth with his, willing her to respond, and after a few pounding beats of his heart, she did. Lifting on her toes, she kissed him as she had in the coffee shop, nothing held back. Her arms wound round his neck and he pulled her closer, fitting her body to his. It was sweet and it was hot and he wanted so much more. But this wasn’t the place, so he forced himself to stop.
She was breathing hard, her eyes closed. Her fingers trembled as they trailed down his arms. Pressing his palms together, she rested her brow on the tips of his fingers.
“Why?” she whispered so softly he had to lean forward to catch it.
“Why which?” he asked, gruffly.
She lifted her head, her expression devastated. “Why me? Why do you want me?”
“That’s a longer answer than I have time for now. Have di
“I have to work.”
“Then after. I’ll wait.”
“All right.” She pushed his folded hands gently to his chest. “I need to get to class.”
Wednesday, February 24, 10:25 a.m.
“Detectives, I’m so sorry I missed you yesterday. Please have a seat.” Dr. Donald Do
“You’re a hard man to find,” Jack said. “We looked for you yesterday.”
Do
Noah kept his expression mild-a hard thing to do when he thought about Do
At this Do
You’d have to get another weasel to do your dirty work, Noah thought with contempt for the older man. But he and Jack were after alibis and for now would play nice.
“One of your studies has come up in the course of an ongoing investigation,” Jack said. “The study in which participants play a game called Shadowland.”
“Yes. That’s the work of one of my graduate students, Eve Wilson.” His lips thi
“You can start by telling us where you were last night,” Noah said. “All night.”
“Why?” he asked, seeming genuinely confused, and Jack frowned.
“We’re investigating murder, Professor. Four women have been killed.”
“What does that have to do with my study?” Do
“All four victims were participants,” Noah said, wondering if the man’s confusion could possibly be real. “All four were heavily into the Shadowland game.”
Do
“We don’t joke, Professor,” Jack said, “especially not about something like this.”
The color drained from Do
“We’re asking everyone co
“Of course,” he murmured, distractedly. “I was with my wife asleep.”
Noah jotted it down. “What about Monday morning between midnight and five?”
“Asleep. With my wife.”
He was becoming agitated. “All right,” Noah said calmly, and Do
“Why would you think that?”
“He uses information from the questio
Do
Noah frowned. “Don’t you read the paper, Dr. Do
Do
Okay. “The four victims are Samantha Altman, Martha Brisbane.” Noah stopped when the remaining color drained from Do
“Martha Brisbane, did you say?” Do
“How did you know that, sir?” Jack asked quietly. “You don’t read the paper.”
“My graduate student, Eve… she told me. I didn’t believe it was related to our study at the time. The others? Who were they?”
“Christy Lewis and just last night, Rachel Ward,” Jack said.
“I see.” He looked at Jack. “What do you need from me?”
“Anybody who would have had access to the list and those questio
“I… I don’t know. My assistant entered the names, but the committee separated them into groups. I only saw results by subject number. Nobody was supposed to see everything. That’s the purpose of a double-blind study.”
“What about the questio
“They’re part of a baseline measure. They form a profile, a personality index.”
“Did anybody read them?” Jack asked.
“Various students,” he said. “But nobody ever saw the subjects’ real names. They were to input the answers in a standardized protocol.”
There was nothing here they could use, Noah thought. He and Jack stood. “Thank you,” Jack said. “We’re trying to keep Marshall and Shadowland out of the press. We’re hoping the killer doesn’t know how much we know. We’d appreciate your cooperation.”
Do
“I’ll tell her,” Noah said. “If your assistant calls you, let us know immediately.”
“Of course.” They left Do
“Well?” Jack said when they were back at their cars.
“He’s too… frail to have done these murders.”
“Mentally or physically?”
“Both.”
Jack nodded. “I agree. Let’s confirm Do
Noah gritted his teeth. “Dammit, I wish I’d grabbed that little weasel yesterday.”
“I think we’ve all been a little distracted,” Jack said. “Let’s pull LUDs on both Do