"Why didn't you say that this morning?"
"I didn't know what he had or where he got it, so I spoke to Bob. He said he hadn't talked to Derrick, and accused me of trying to push him out of the project. There are only three copies of the journal translation that I know of; mine, yours, and Dr. Neilson's. I didn't give one to Derrick."
"If you're suggesting that he stole it, that's a pretty serious accusation, Aleksi." She heard more noises in the background, other voices. "Look, I can't talk now."
"Just ask Derrick where he got that journal, Hutch. I didn't give it to him."
"I will. Goodnight, Aleksi."
"Okay. Thanks. Bye." She hung up, unsure if she'd just done the right thing or not.
The microwave chimed, and she retrieved the hamburger. Without a thought, she ate the barely warm meat right out of the package.
Hutch hung up and turned his phone's ringer off. "Sorry." He put it away and returned to his meal.
"That sounded serious." Persephone speared a butter-drenched scallop from the plate between them and cut it into dainty bites.
"It was." He took a scallop and ate it in four bites. This place was more Persephone's style, but the food was excellent, even though the invitation had come as a shock. "Sometimes I think professors should take courses in psychology just so they can handle graduate students."
"Oh?" She sipped wine and frowned. "Nothing that'll hurt the project, I hope."
"I hope not, but it might be. Aleksi and Bob are having a disagreement over another student. Typical he said, she said situation." He shrugged helplessly. "The kid works for Quinton Neilson at the MCZ, so I can't imagine him stealing anything."
"Stealing? Really?" She put her glass down hard. "Not the specimen."
"Ha! No, the thing weighs about four hundred pounds. Just some data; the imaging and genetics results."
"The same imaging data that you wouldn't loan me?" Persephone pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes; her signature 'I told you so' face.
"Yes, actually, so if they show up on the Internet, you're off the hook." He grinned.
"So good of you to look out for me, Hutch." She speared another scallop. "Which reminds me of why I asked you out: you mentioned funding from Congressman Twain. I'd be careful about him if I were you. I know the man, and he doesn't give anything away. If he's going to get money for this project, he'll want something back."
"Like you did?" He endured her glare and sipped his beer. "Sorry, I couldn't resist."
"Well, it might be exactly that." She leaned forward. "He's got a reputation with young interns."
"Twain?" Hutch frowned and thought about Aleksi. Every time Twain spoke to him after that night at the restaurant, he'd asked about Aleksi. "I hope not. Aleksi's got enough problems right now."
"You better warn her, Hutch. A girl like Aleksi doesn't have the hutzpah to stand up to someone like Twain." She swirled her wine and sipped.
"I don't know about that." He thought about the night after the restaurant, the morning in the gym, and his sore forearm. "She might surprise you. She certainly has me."
"Oh?" She arched an eyebrow.
"Yes, which brings me back to what you said to her. That didn't turn out well, Persephone. She got the wrong idea."
"No way!" Persephone looked honestly surprised. "She did not!"
"As a matter of fact, she was very polite about it, and backed right off." He still felt a pang every time he remembered that night. It was the right thing to do. "She wasn't herself, and she apologized later. Like I said, she's got enough problems on her plate." Not the least of which was this situation with Derrick Penningly.
Hutch resolved to get to the bottom of this, and quickly; there was too much at stake. He made a mental note to email Derrick as soon as he got home. He needed to find out who was telling the truth, and who was lying to him. And with Aleksi's recent behavior, he was afraid of what he was going to find out.
21
Hutch stepped into his office early Monday morning with just enough time to get this meeting over with and make the flight to Washington. He'd emailed Derrick late Saturday night, asking him to come in, and gotten a reply right away. He hadn't told Derrick why he wanted to talk to him, nor had he told Aleksi about the meeting. He wanted Derrick's side of the story before he went back to Aleksi.
He put his computer in the docking station and turned it on. He'd done his email at home, but there were files here that he needed to back up before he took the laptop on his trip. He logged on just as there was a knock at his open door.
"Dr. Hutchinson. Good morning." Derrick Penningly stood there with a cheerful smile.
"Hello, Derrick. Come in and have a seat. I'll be one second." He started the backup process.
"So, have you had a chance to consider my offer?" Derrick took a seat, smile intact, posture perfect, seemingly oblivious.
"I have, but we've got an issue to clear up first, and I'm short on time, so I'm going to cut right to the chase." He fixed the young man with an even stare. "Where did you get the data files on Aleksi's project, specifically the copy of the translated journal?"
He looked puzzled by the question. "I told you; Aleksi gave them to me. Is there a problem?"
"Yes, there is. She told me that she didn't give you anything, and that she never suggested that you should come on board her project."
"She what?" Derrick's jaw dropped, his eyes wide in apparently genuine surprise.
"She said she doesn't know where you got those files, but that she didn't give them to you. You say she did. Someone, you or her, is lying to me, and I want to know which one. Now."
"She did give them to me! I talked to her the same day I met you, right outside this office. I went to the lab with her, she showed me the samples, then told me to come back later. That afternoon, we talked again, and she put the files on a stick for me. She said I should have a look at them and maybe we could work together. She was a little freaked out that things weren't progressing very fast, and she wanted more help."
Hutch continued to stare at him, looking for signs of a lie. Most people couldn't lie without some betrayal of facial expression or mannerism, but Derrick showed nothing. Less than nothing, in fact. His face remained perfectly neutral. But if Aleksi had given him the data that day, why hadn't she mentioned it that night when they went out with Twain? She'd been very open to discussion that evening, and it would have been the perfect opportunity.
"If you don't believe me, look at the date and time the files were created on my laptop. Here." He dug in his bag and produced a computer. He booted it up and then brought it around for Hutch to see. "See? I created a folder. I even named it Aleksi's research. I went out that night, so I didn't get home until late, but when I did, I loaded these files. See? They all went on at ten fifty-four PM."
"Yes, I see that." Hutch remembered that night all too well, and how strangely Aleksi had been acting. "You didn't come to me for a week after she talked to you. Why wait so long?"
"There was a lot of information to look over, and I wanted to make sure it was right for me." He shrugged disarmingly. "Look, it sounds like she's covering herself for stepping over the line, making me the offer before she spoke with you. She had also suggested I might find a spot with Dr. Oliver, but that didn't work out so well either."
Hutch frowned at that. It wasn't like Aleksi to do those things, but he hadn't thought she would proposition him, either. "Well, there's no easy way around this. I'll set up a meeting with both of you, but I'm out of town until Thursday night or Friday morning. I'll check my schedule and email both of you." His computer was done backing up, so he shut it down and took it out of the docking station. "I've got to catch a plane to Washington, so you'll have to excuse me, Derrick."
"Oh, sure! No problem." He packed up his computer and backed out of the office. "Don't worry, Dr. Hutchinson. I'll talk to Aleksi and we'll get this misunderstanding straightened out. I just can't believe she told you we didn't discuss this. Is she okay? She see
ms a little, um…tense."
"She's stressed, and this…misunderstanding is not helping." Hutch closed his door, wondering about Aleksi's condition. She'd as much as admitted that she was having hallucinations, and her personality had definitely changed. She wasn't the same terrified young woman he'd introduced to his other students at Grendel's. But he wasn't about to mention those things to Derrick. "I'll set up a meeting and send you an email."
"Right. Thanks, Dr. Hutchinson."
Hutch nodded and watched the young man walk away, wondering who was lying to him, and how well he really knew Aleksandrovna Rychenkna.
Wednesday was a long time coming for Aleksi. She'd emailed Derrick, copying Hutch, twice a day, but had gotten no response. She thought he would skip the Comparative Zoology lab to avoid her, but when she came in, he was already seated in the back, right next to the girl he'd partnered with the first day. The two were talking, the girl looking shocked, but they fell silent when they saw her. She glared at him, but he just smiled back as if nothing was wrong. She couldn't confront him in a class full of students. She taught the lab with little interest, enduring his smarmy smile throughout and trying not to grind her teeth. When the class was finished, and everyone started leaving, she called him back.
"Derrick, I'd need to speak with you." She had to clean up the lab before she left, but she'd be damned if she let him slip away.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Aleksi. I've got to run off to another appointment." He gave her another smug smile, and the girl he was with stifled a little laugh. "Maybe you could email me."
"No, I need to speak with you now!"
"Look, Aleksi." He turned to her with an apologetic shrug. "I'm sorry you're upset, but it's not my fault. I'm not going to play that game. I don't need a grade in this lab." He turned away and left the room.
"You what?" The rest of the students were past, but a few glanced back as she followed him out into the hall. "What are you talking about?"
"You know what I'm talking about." He raised his hands in an off-putting gesture. "I'm sorry, but I'm not going there with you."
A couple of the students were staring at her as he walked off. She had no idea what he had told them, but with her blood boiling; she wasn't going to let him get away. She dashed back into the lab, grabbed her coat and keys, and locked the door. She'd come back to clean up, but she couldn't lose him. She dashed down the stairs and looked around, but he was already out the door, walking briskly across the small quad toward the street. She hurried after him and caught up just as he reached a shiny blue BMW and opened the door.
"Derrick!" Aleksi grabbed the door before he could close it and wrenched it back. "I don't know what you think you're trying to accomplish with all this, but it's stopping right now."
"What's stopping, Aleksi?" He stood back up out of the car seat, finally meeting her eye to eye. His lips curled back from those perfect white teeth, but it wasn't a smile. "What exactly is it that you think I've done wrong?"
A scent flooded her mind. Something about him, something wrong, dangerous, set her teeth on edge. She shook her head to clear the dizzying sensation and glared at him. "I don't know how you got those files off my computer, but I've already told both Hutch and Bob that I didn't give them to you. Bob's pissed off and won't do any more work on the project until you back off, so I'm telling you to back off. Now."
"You know you gave me those files, Aleksi. Backing out now won't help you with Hutch." He gave her another toothy, skin-crawling smile. "He can't be happy that you asked me to come on board the project without talking to him first, but denying you did it now is just pathetic."
"Pathetic!" Rage flooded her. She gripped the car door between them, suppressing the urge to take him by the throat. "I'll give you pathetic, you lying piece of shit! If you ever come near my research again, or even hint that any of it was yours, or tell anyone I invited you to work with me, I'll rip out your fucking pancreas and feed it to you!" She reached over and raked her nails across the hood of his car, leaving four parallel scratches.
His eyes widened and his nostrils flared. The sense of danger slammed into her, his eyes, his mouth, lips stretched into a rictus. For a heartbeat she stared into his eyes, poised for him to strike, visions of claws rending flesh surging through her mind. She flexed her hands, felt the tips of her nails against her palms, ready.
"Bitch! That's my car!"
Aleksi banished the urge to lash out and leaned in until their noses were barely an inch apart. "You tell any more lies about me, Derrick, and it'll be your fucking throat!"
She whirled away, realizing through the haze of rage that passersby were staring. Not until she got back to the lab and her temper cooled did she notice the flecks of paint and metal under her long, sharp fingernails. She pulled a pair of heavy dissecting scissors from a drawer and carefully cut them short.
22
That evening, with Julie sitting on the couch beside her, Aleksi called Bob and laid it all out.
"I see what he's doing now," she explained. "I still don't know how he got the files; he must have hacked my computer, or maybe Quinton's, but he's told Hutch that I gave them to him and asked him to come on board. Then, when I told Hutch I didn't, Derrick's claiming I'm backing out to cover myself for not okaying it with Hutch first."
"So, you saw him today in your comp zoo class?" Bob sounded skeptical but calmer.
"Yes, and I think he's telling lies to the students there, too. They kept looking at me like I'd done something wrong. He's trying to discredit me to make it look like I'm the one who's lying." She paused, but Bob didn't reply. "I'm afraid I kind of lost my temper after class. He just walked away so I chased him down and…um…threatened him."
"You threatened him? With what, expulsion?"
"No, though that's probably what I should have done. If I can prove he's lying and stole the files, they'll kick him out."
"So, what did you threaten him with?" Bob asked.
"Well, I kind of told him I'd rip out his pancreas, and…um…scratched his car." She cringed at the memory, and saw Julie staring at her in wide-eyed disbelief.
"You keyed his car?" Bob laughed over the phone. "Jesus Christ, Aleksi, what's gotten into you?"
"I don't know. I just lost my temper. But I definitely did what you asked, Bob. Derrick Penningly has officially been told, by me, to fuck off." She took a deep breath and let it out. "When Hutch gets back from D.C. we're meeting with him. I'd like you there, too."
"Oh, I'll be there." He sounded nonplussed.
"Good. We'll get this straightened out and get things back to normal. So, you want to come by the lab tomorrow and have a look at your bone bed fossils? I've got six pieces that look good for taking samples for DNA extraction."
"Um…sure. What time?"
"How about noon? I'll bring the burritos."
"Yeah, okay." There was a pause. "Hey, is Julie around? I've kind of got to apologize to her."
Aleksi smiled. "Yeah, she's here. Let me get her." She handed the phone to Julie and left the room, feeling for the first time in days that her life might be getting back to normal.
Hutch's phone vibrated in his pocket. He was between meetings, up to his eyeballs in politics, and utterly sick of it. He glanced at the screen and saw "Vandyke."
"What now?" Wondering why he would be getting a call from the chairman, he put his bag down, leaned against a wall and answered. "What's up, Larry?"
"I need to ask you that, Hutch. I just got a formal complaint about one of your students."
"What?" He felt a knot in the pit of his stomach. "Who?"
"Aleksi Rychenkna. Seems she keyed a student's car and threatened him."
"She what? I don't believe it." He remembered Doug at the gym and thought that it might not be that far-fetched.
"Well, there were witnesses, and this student has some big guns for parents. They're screaming for an expulsion and want to sue the school."
Hutch gritted his teeth. "Let me guess. Derrick Penningly."
<
br /> "How did you know?"
"Look, Larry, there's more going on here than just a scratch on a car." He filled Vandyke in on the two sides of the story. "One of the two of them is lying, and right now I don't know who. A week ago, I'd have trusted Aleksi, but she's been sick, and stress has hit her hard. If she's telling the truth, and he stole those files, either from her or Quinton Nielson, that's grounds for expulsion. His big gun parents won't have a leg to stand on."
"You'll have to prove that."
"Look, I'll be back Friday morning, and I'm going to sit down with both of them. We'll look at their computer files and see who's telling the truth."
"Damn it, Hutch. She seemed like a really brilliant young lady. I never would have thought she could threaten someone with violence, even if he did try to steal her project. If he did, he's really stupid."
"Maybe he thought his big-gun parents could get him out of it." Hutch had seen that often enough, students who didn't think the rules applied to them because their family had money or power. "I'm in D.C. and I have a meeting in ten minutes, Larry. I'll email both of them tonight that they are officially to calm down, and we'll get this sorted out."
"Do that, Hutch." Vandyke hung up.
Hutch put his phone in his pocket and took a deep breath, trying to focus. "Aleksi, what the hell happened to you?"
The night had turned cold and blustery when Bob finally left the lab. He was tired but felt good. Things were back on track. He believed Aleksi, and Julie had forgiven his big-mouth accusations. He shook his head thinking about her, wondering how a geeky science nerd had ever gotten together with a girl like her.
"Aleksi," he murmured, answering his own question.
Aleksi had gotten them together, and he'd returned the favor by thinking the worst of her. He even owed her for his dissertation project; if she got a dissertation from the mystery specimen, the already funded bear DNA project was all his, and she had six samples ready for him to take.
Dragon Dreams Page 19
