Page 41 of What We May Be

“So what’s the problem?”

“She’s on her parents’ cell plan.”

Charlie shrugged. “So they have to consent. It’s nothing we haven’t run into before.”

Sean leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “But will Duncan Barnett allow that?”

She hung her head and cursed. “Back into the sea of politicians we go.”

“You might be on to something,” Sean said.

She righted her face. “You’ve got a theory?”

“Hold that thought,” he said. “First things first, I can swing the phone records.”

“FBI?”

“Marsh is a cyber legat. Best hacker I know and has a knack for trouble.”

Charlie shook her head, not at all surprised. Sean had already hinted at not being the most straitlaced of agents, and it sounded like his friend was no better.

He twisted in his seat toward Diego and Jaylen again. “How long were Sarah and Julian sleeping together?”

Trevor growled and munched on his drumstick.

Jaylen snickered and Diego fought not to as he answered Sean. “About a month. She’s in his summer Intro to Mythology class.”

A fifty-year-old married man seducing nineteen-year-old girls. Julian was handsome, powerful, and had a way with words, but anyone with half a brain would recognize him for the philandering bastard he was.

Swallowing her disgust, Charlie asked her detectives, “Did she have any connection to Professor Marshall?”

Jaylen shook his head.

“What about her parents if they found out about the affair?” she asked Sean.

“Can’t be dismissed.” He adjusted in the chair and crossed an ankle over his knee. “But I think you were right yesterday. Easier to let the affair run its course. And I’d be surprised if Duncan had anything to do with Jeff’s murder. They were both GOP, but I don’t think they knew each other personally. I’ll ask Marsh, though I don’t think it fits the pattern.”

“And we’re back to your theory,” Charlie said.

He grinned wide, something she was getting more used to, for better or worse. The better part—that despite what was going on for him with Saul, with her and Trevor, and with the gruesome case, Sean’s confidence and humor were bubbling to the surface. The worse part—said confidence and humor had always been a fucking turn-on, had always kept her and Trevor from being too serious.

Seeing that confidence in a professional context was even sexier. He held up the yellow book, a ragged CliffsNotes guide for Shakespeare’s Four Tragedies. “Bought it off a kid on campus.”

Trevor tossed the cleaned drumstick into the trash can and wiped off his hands. “You know I have like ten of those in my office.”

“He’ll have a nice dinner out.”

Trevor’s eyes widened. “How much did you pay him?”

“Boys.” She crossed her arms and waited for them to settle. “Sean, what did you learn from Mr. Cliffs?”

“What Trevor said about Shakespeare’s Four Tragedies earlier got me thinking.” He flipped to a dog-eared page in the book. “The clue from Jeff’s crime scene and the way he was killed pointed us to Cordelia’s death in King Lear. Cordelia was falsely accused of treason.” He flipped farther in the book to another dog-eared page. “And Desdemona was falsely accused of adultery.”

“Nothing false about Julian committing adultery,” Trevor said.

“Exactly,” Sean concurred. “And after your trip to Apex, sounds like there might be something to Jeff being guilty of academic treason. So, assuming the numbers before each clue represent Shakespeare’s Four Tragedies, what if the killer is avenging what they perceive as the wronged heroines from those four plays?”

“Four,” Jaylen said, following the train of thought she, Trevor, and Sean had worked out earlier in the day. “Two more to go?”

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