Dirty Secrets Read Online Free Page B

one a.m.”
    “All right. Mr. Bass?”
    Nate jolted. “I was with my girlfriend. All night,” he said meaningfully. “You can ask her yourself. Look, man, I don’t even own a car and the buses don’t run that late.”
    “Relax, Mr. Bass. I’m just asking questions.” He turned to Ian. “Mr. Delenn. I understand you’re here on a student visa from the UK. Where exactly are you from?”
    Ian clenched his fists at his sides. “I’m from Glasgow, but what does my student visa have to do with anything?”
    Harris shrugged. “So where were you that night, Mr. Delenn?”
    Ian pursed his lips. “Home. Alone. No girlfriend, no daughter, no bloody mother to call long distance, so nobody to confirm my alibi.” The last words were muttered from behind clenched teeth.
    Harris nodded benignly, as if not even noticing Ian’s anger. “Thank you all. Professor, who else has one of those key cards that you all wear around your neck?”
    Christopher shook his head. “Only us. And my boss, Dr. Stossel. He’s the department chair. But he’s out of the country at a symposium.”
    “Who can I contact for a record of key card use for that door?”
    “Try the IT department,” Christopher answered wearily. “They’re the guys who come when it breaks down and we can’t get in.”
    Harris stood up. “Thank you. Please stay available in case I have other questions.”
    “In other words,” Ian gritted, “don’t leave town.”
    Christopher shot him a quelling look. “Be quiet, Ian. You’re not helping. Detective, when can we get back to work in the lab?” The door was still crisscrossed with yellow crime scene tape.
    “When we’re done investigating.”
    Christopher held up his hand to stop Ian from making what would likely have been another antagonistic comment. “Detective. We have a contract with the US Department of Agriculture. I understand that you need to keep your scene protected, but we need to give our sponsor notice if we’re going to be late with our deadline.”
    Harris frowned. “Should be by the end of the week.” He headed for the door.
    “Thank you. And Detective?” Christopher waited until Harris turned around. “When will you release Darrell’s body? I promised his mother I would handle the burial arrangements.” Something flickered in Harris’s eyes. Controlled compassion.
    “The ME signed the paperwork this morning. The body should be released before noon. I’ll show myself out.”
    Christopher sighed. “Looks like we’re taking a break, gang. Catch up on your other classes. Get some sleep. Go down to the beach and catch some sun. But don’t talk to the press. Please. This is bad enough without us contributing more to it.”
    Tanya and Nate filed out. Ian remained and Christopher waited patiently for the young man to have his say. “Professor, something’s been bothering me. I, for one, am not surprised that the detective thinks Darrell was murdered. I knew he’d be too careful to have an accident like that and the idea of him committin’ suicide is just damn ludicrous. I was thinking . . . Do you remember last month when we had that break-in?”
    A sharp pain arced up Christopher’s neck as his muscles tensed. “Yeah, I do.” Three of their gas chromatograph machines had been destroyed, and with it countless soil samples that had been painstakingly prepared. “We haven’t regenerated that data.”
    “Professor, those samples were Darrell’s. That they may be connected is not somethin’ we can ignore.”
    The pain in his neck spiked sharper. “Hell. I’ll let Harris know.”
    * * *
    Cincinnati, Monday, February 22, 10:30 a.m.
    “Hot chocolate break?”
    Emma looked up from a box of Will’s old college books to see a tray rising from the hole in the attic floor, Kate’s hands keeping it steady. Crawling across the attic floor, Emma took the tray and set it on the floor. “You’re too tall to fit up here.”
    “Spoken like a short person.” Kate climbed the rest