Page 35 of Once Silenced

“Please, tell us anything that’s on your mind,” Riley urged.She needed to hear his story, parse his words for truth and deception alike.

Riley studied Cliff Baird as he spoke, his voice barely heard, “Nash had an enemy...Derek Aldrich.He’s an IT guy around here—spewed nothing but venom online about Robert.”

“Hostility like that doesn’t brew in a vacuum,” Ann Marie interjected with her polished tone, blue eyes probing.“Any idea what sparked such animosity?”

“An organization,” Baird replied, his brow creasing with the effort of recollection.“Aldrich is part of a group...they target academics, mathematicians mainly.Dedicated to tarnishing reputations.”

“An organization?”Riley echoed, her mind racing back to their interview with Levon Warren.

Could it be … ?She asked herself.

Ann Marie asked Baird the question that was on the tip of Riley’s tongue.

“Is the organization that Aldrich belongs to called the Cipher Society?”

Baird nodded with slight surprise at Ann Marie’s guess.

“Yes.That’s what they’re called.The Cipher Society.”

Ciphers,Riley thought, secrets,a code to disguise … what could that society be hiding?

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Ann Marie felt a palpable shift, as if the case had suddenly turned in a new direction.

“The Cipher Society,” she murmured quietly to Riley.“Could this be their doing?”

She and Riley held each other’s gaze for a moment.They both knew that the name stood for more than just intellectual elitism; it was a shadow network, capable of insidious influence.

“Aldrich is what they call a “variable” in their hierarchy, a sort of field agent, and typical of their ilk,” Baird continued.“They’ve always been arrogant, ruthless in their methods.And yet …”

He paused as if trying to absorb the implications of what he was saying.

“I’d never have thought they’d be capable of murder,” he finally said.

“It sounds like maybe they’ve escalated their activities,” Ann Marie commented.

From Riley’s expression, Ann Marie sensed that her mind was churning out possibilities, looking for further connections.And Ann Marie could guess what those connections might be.

There’s another society to consider,she thought.

Sure enough, Riley asked the question that was on Ann Marie’s mind.

“Mr.Baird,” Riley said, “did Professor Nash happen to belong to a group called the Virginia Educators for Excellence in Mathematics?”

“Why, yes,” Baird said.“He was a member of VEEM.In fact, he was once Vice President of that organization.That was many years ago, though.”

Ann Marie had an almost eerie sense that her mind was in sync with Riley’s.She knew that they were both mentally replaying all that they had learned about VEEM back in Glencoe yesterday.

“Do you happen to know who was president of VEEM when Professor Nash was vice president?”Ann Marie asked.

Baird squinted thoughtfully.

“It was a woman,” he said.“Robert talked about her often, but I can’t quite bring her name to mind …”

“Did it happen to be Patricia Warren?”Ann Marie asked.

“Why, yes, it was,” Baird said.

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