Chapter 13
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At the university, Andrea and Hayden were stopped by security when they asked to go into the offices.
Hayden showed his ID, and Andrea provided a copy of her driver’s license that Mason had been able to email to her, since her wallet had been taken by her kidnappers.
The security guard’s expression changed immediately.
“Let me escort you,” he offered. “I was told that you were missing and to keep a lookout for any signs of you. Are you okay, miss?”
“I am. Thank you.”
With a glance around, he quickly led them to Arlene’s office on the third floor. He added, “I don’t know what’s going on, but I sure as hell hope that the little bit I’ve heard is wrong.”
“I hope so too,” she agreed, with a look in his direction, “because none of this is good.”
“But you? … You’re okay?”
“I am now,” she confirmed, trying not to let on too much. “I wasn’t earlier. I already know of three dead bad people and two who are recovering.”
His face paled, and he whispered, “Good God.”
“Yeah, good God is right.”
At that, she looked over to see Hayden frowning at her. She sighed and thanked the security guard. “I’ve got to go.” Then she quickly followed Hayden into the office.
“We don’t want people knowing any of that,” he whispered.
“Why?” she asked, and then it struck her. “Oh. Because we don’t know who else is involved. Sorry.” She stared at him for a moment and then shook her head. “But he’s the security guard.”
“Yeah, so who has better access to everything on campus than a security guard?”
She stared at him, and then spun around to look behind them. Of course she saw no sign of the man who’d let them in. She whispered, “Okay, that would have been good to know beforehand.”
“Yeah, it would have been,” he muttered sarcastically, turning to stare at her. “We need to move fast. Now, this is her office then?”
“Yes, though we don’t know if anybody has taken over in here, since she’s been gone and all.”
“As soon as your security guard sends the word, the university will tear down and dismantle her office, since they need to figure out if anything here pertains to the ongoing cases,” he explained.
“In the meantime, I want first dibs at everything.” She turned to him, and he smiled.
“I just need to know if any information is here. Other than that, we’ll have to find it elsewhere. ”
“Of course,” she muttered. She stared around the office. “It’s hard to imagine Arlene working in a college and getting away with doing what she’s been accused of.”
He gave her an incredulous expression. “What she’s accused of?”
“Right. I know she was involved.” Andrea shook her head. “How could she have done that?”
“She’s likely the one who placed the order for your kidnappers to keep you from talking.”
She grimaced. “I get that. It sucks, but, yeah, you’re probably right.”
He gave her a stern look. “Don’t start pulling any weird shit that makes you seem to be suddenly playing for the other team.”
She stared at him in horror. “Not at all. I just can’t see one woman doing this to other women.”
“Don’t,” he snapped. “She’s likely been hurting a lot of people for a very long time. That’s what you need to remember. She was the flesh-eating virus injected into an otherwise healthy bloodstream, causing all kinds of severe damage.”
She went quiet after that. He had a point. She turned to study the bookshelf. She walked closer. “I always wondered about the books here.”
“Which ones?”
“All of them. I did ask her about them once, and she snapped at me to leave them alone, how they were precious.”
He looked over at her from the computer chair where he had logged into the system. “That’s an interesting comment. I don’t know what she would have found to be precious or expensive or whatever in that lot, but feel free to take a look.”
She picked up a couple books, pristine, the binding never been broken.
These books seemed to be here more for looks than for anything else.
And it hit her. Looks. Looks for everything.
It was all fake. Nothing here was real. Nothing here revealed who Arlene really was at all.
And here Andrea had started to feel sorry for her, and yet it appeared that absolutely everything in Arlene’s life was a lie.
Andrea picked up several more books, and, when a piece of paper fell out of one, she picked it up, read it, and then whistled softly.
He looked over at her and asked, “What did you find?”
She brought it over to him. “A list. Look. The name Tricia Forman is on one side.” She turned the note over. “I don’t know what language this is.”
*
Hayden got up, walked around the desk, and Andrea handed him the note.
“Where did you find it?” When she pointed to the one book in question, askew on the shelf still, he picked it up and shook it out, causing several more notes to fall from it.
After that, they shook out every book on the shelves, trying to get as much of whatever Arlene may have had hidden as possible.
All the notes were only in the one book, however.
He laid them out on the desk and took pictures of each side of them and sent every one to Mason and Tesla. “Now we need to get this translated.”
“We can at least get some of it translated just on our phones.” She took a picture and started getting a rough translation while he went back to the computer.
“Eureka!” he muttered, trying to not yell.
Surprised, she looked over at him. “And?”
“And,” he replied, with a big smile, “I just got into her second email account. I know her computer was picked up and gone over and returned when they didn’t find anything, but one of these notes you found in that book sure looked to be a possible email.
This new email address is the one I just got into. ”
“Anything good?”
“All kinds of emails.” As he skimmed through them, he picked up his phone, and called Mason. “I’m logged into her computer, and I’m sending you her private emails. All kinds of shit is here.”
“We need everything sent over.”
“Way ahead of you. Watch for earlier photos of notes we found in a book here in her office, which need to be translated. I’ve also sent you the passwords to her two email accounts, if you want to get somebody on that.
I don’t know how long we have before somebody from the university comes in here to stop us. Could be no time at all.”
“You smell trouble?”
“Maybe. I was hoping to just tie up a few loose ends here, but …”
“I’ve got Tesla here. She’ll give us a hand.”
“Perfect. She can hack into Arlene’s second email account and download all of these immediately.”
Tesla’s voice came though the phone. “I’m in. You get out, and I’ll get all this. I believe the first email is her work one, and that one was checked over already.”
“I also sent Mason some photos. They appear to be all kinds of notes but in another language. One of the notes had this second email listed and another had Tricia Forman’s name listed.
We found those inside one book in here. Google didn’t give us an instant translation, so not sure what this is about. ”
“Which isn’t unheard of,” Tesla noted. “I’ll get those images from Mason.” With that, she ended the call.
Hayden logged out of the accounts, stood up, and walked around the desk just as several men walked into the office.
Hayden faced the newcomers, knowing he and Andrea were about to be removed.
One of the men came in ahead of the others and greeted them.
His demeanor projected how important he thought he was, and the fact that he brought so many people with him was also interesting.
“I understand that you have permission to be here, but we need to confirm that the university information is secure.”
“Of course.” Hayden smiled expansively. “Feel free to contact my boss, since I’ve been directed to come here.”
“I know that, and I understand this is some top-secret security mission.” Even as he repeated the words, a twang of disbelief and general disgruntlement accompanied them, most likely because he’d been kept out of the loop.
“However, I must still confirm who you are and what you have been doing in here.”
Hayden shrugged. “That would depend on your security clearance and your ability to understand the actual depth of the problem you have here.”
The other man glared at him. “I don’t see that there is a problem. This poor woman is away because her brother had an accident, and she’s likely to be gone for a few more weeks. We surely don’t want unauthorized people in here.”
“Of course not,” Hayden agreed, still with a cheerful smile. “I assume you have spoken to the dean and to the president of the university lately?”
He frowned. “No, I have not.”
“Expect a phone call from them at any moment,” Hayden told him. “It should have come before now, but I guess I can give them a little slack if they are a bit behind.”
“What do you mean, behind?”
Just then, President Keating walked in with two other men. Mason had already sent the photo confirmation for Hayden. Keating frowned when he saw Hayden, double-checked the photo provided to him as well, and then he introduced himself. “I gather you got here before me.” His tone was stiff.
Hayden gave him a smirk. “Yes, no time to waste.”
Keating turned to the other man and his entourage. The first man to arrive then flushed. Clearly a dispute existed between the two of them as to what exactly was going on.
Andrea snapped at the petty tension in the room.
“Gentlemen, this is not negotiable any longer,” she declared, glaring at them.
“Put away the ruler and put aside this competition you have going on between the two of you because comparing the measure of your junk will not address the issue at hand. You have a serious security problem here.” She turned to Hayden, waiting for him to give her the go-ahead.
He smiled and nodded. “Please proceed.”