Page 37 of What We May Be

“Are you surprised?” Charlie said.

“No, but still, a nineteen-year-old? And for fuck’s sake, he and Trace have barely been married five months.”

Julian liked younger women. Tracy was almost twenty years younger than him, but students were off-limits as was sleeping around in a supposedly closed marriage. He growled and continued to pace the narrow hallway, Charlie and Sean staying out of his way, neither trying to contain him.

But Sarah… Julian sure could make a mess. “Do you know who her father is?”

“Whose?” Charlie said.

“Sarah Barnett’s?” Sean said, then a split second later, his eyes widened, clearly making the connection Trevor was leading him to. “Duncan Barnett?”

“Bingo.”

Sean scowled Charlie’s direction. “Conservative front-runner for Missouri’s senate seat. Saul hates him.”

She let her head fall back and stared at the ceiling. “As if Jefferson Marshall and Craig Rowan weren’t enough.”

“Possible political motive?” Sean said.

Charlie tapped her heel. “But from a political standpoint, wouldn’t it be easier to just let the affair run its course unnoticed?”

Trevor suppressed the disgusted shiver that fought its way through him. As blood boiling as all this was, there were also now more leads for him to follow at HU. He needed to get to campus. “Can I borrow your phone charger?” he said to Charlie. “I’ll charge my phone in the truck on my way to campus.”

Compassionate Charlie vanished as did contemplative Charlie who was just talking about the case with Sean. Hard-ass Charlie, the one who helped keep the department in line and who used to keep him and Sean in line, moved between him and the stairs, her arms crossed. “I think maybe you should stay here.”

“Why?”

Following her lead, like always, Sean stepped behind him and blocked the other exit.

“We’re still working out possible motives,” Charlie said. “Possible connections too, and along with the political one, the other connections we have to work with are HU… and you.”

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