Andrew broke me out of my daydream. “Hello? Are you still on this planet, Mason?”

I shook my head a little to bring myself back to the present. “Yeah. Just thinking about last night. I’m going to have to keep an eye on Amber for a while to see if she’s as innocent as she acts. I’ll have to investigate her further in order to discount her from the list of suspects.”

“We don’t really think she’s involved,” Andrew said, draining his coffee cup. “Just dotting our ‘I’s and crossing our ‘T’s.”

“Sure thing.”

“I have to go. I have a meeting with the higher-ups in an hour, so it gives me just enough time to get back to the office.”

“I’ll stick around here for a while. I have to call my number one source.”

Andrew frowned. “Is everything okay on that front?”

I sighed. “Not really, but there’s not much I can do about it.”

Andrew nodded. We shook hands and gave each other a couple hard claps on the shoulder before parting ways. Not only was he my partner, but he was my best friend too.

I took out my phone and called my source. He answered on the first ring.

“Hey…”

“Hi. How are you doing?”

“Ah, you know. As well as can be expected.”

I heard a long sigh on the other end of the line. He sounded depressed. I wasn’t surprised.

“The sooner we get to the bottom of this, the sooner you can go back to normal.”

“I guess so.”

“I made contact last night.”

Silence.

“What did she say?” His voice perked up.

“Nothing much. It’s too early to tell.”

“I’m telling you, she didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“I understand what you’re saying, but I have to follow procedures to make sure she can be discounted. Do you have everything you need? I can come by later this week.”

“No. I’m fine. I’ll call you if I need anything.” He paused. “How did she look? Is she doing okay?”

“She seemed okay. She was studying at the library when I struck up a conversation.”

“Was she with anyone?”

“No, she was by herself.”

“Do you know if she’s seeing anyone?” His voice cracked.

I closed my eyes for a few seconds. “Uh, I don’t think so. But I didn’t ask her directly, you know? It was just a friendly chat – kind of a meet and greet.”

“Oh right, that makes sense. I’m just worried that’s she’s going to find someone new before I can get out of this situation. I don’t want to lose her.” The worry in his voice was evident.

“Right.” I didn’t know what else to say.Mason, you’re a shithead.“Anyway, I wanted to let you know I also made inroads with Professor Owens. I got an invitation to some kind of mixer party on Wednesday.”