'I reckon so.' I recounted this morning's conversation with Jack Yarrow and Winona, and how Wally Easton had silently observed.
Pen was thoughtful. 'Oscar was always on about Jack Yarrow, but I believe the really poisonous one is Winona Worsack. One look at her career and you'll realize she's a ruthless, cold bitch. Nothing and no one gets in her way. She'd definitely take any threat to Yarrow's academic standing as a personal affront.'
'The Lady Macbeth type?' I said.
'Exactly.'
'Erin thinks Yarrow's wife hates her because Yarrow and Erin are in love,' I said.
This got a contemptuous snort from Pen. 'Everyone in the faculty-knows Yarrow goes through female graduates like a hot knife through butter. Erin Fogarty's just another besotted idiot. Winona wouldn't bother hating her.'
'She's been very useful to the Yarrows,' I said. 'I encouraged Erin to tell me every little detail, starting from when she was out in the field studying quokkas with Oscar in Western Australia. She not only stole every copy of Oscar's research notes for Yarrow, before she left for the States, she destroyed the hard drive on Oscar's computer so there was no electronic version either.'
Pen looked morose. 'Oscar wouldn't hear anything against Erin Fogarty. He continued to have feelings for her, even though she betrayed him in the worst possible way.'
'She did it for love,' I said. 'Jack Yarrow actually flew to Australia and met up with her in person. He persuaded Erin that Oscar was the one who had stolen his research.'
'She's a credulous fool.'
I had to agree with Pen. 'She didn't even question the extra incentive Georgia Tapp gave her to use on Oscar if he balked at the idea of a secret meeting.'
'Which was?' said Ariana.
'Erin was to say she'd overheard something about Dr. Penny and a stalker and that she thought she could find out more before tomorrow night. From what she says, Oscar would have met her anyway, but that was the final clincher.'
'Jesus!' said Pen, dabbing at her eyes, 'That was what Oscar meant when he told me he had a lead on my stalker. And I laughed at him…'
To switch to another subject before she broke down, I said, 'My theory is that the meeting between Erin and Oscar on Friday in the parking structure was deliberately set up at that location so there was an excellent chance she'd be seen with him.'
It worked: rage flooded Pen's face. 'Jack Yarrow believes he's thought of everything, that it's working out just the way he planned.' She leaned over, seized my shoulder and actually shook me. 'Kylie, the ball's in your court. Bring the bastard down!'
After I'd seen Pen off, I came back inside full of purpose. I'd go to Ariana and say something about last night. I wasn't sure what it would be, but I'd play it by ear and hope for the best.
I had a moment's amusement at these two cliches, beloved by my mum, but then I squared my shoulders and walked quickly to Ariana's door before I could change my mind.
She opened it as I put my hand on the latch. 'Kylie, I was just coming to see you.'
'Your office or mine?'
She smiled faintly. 'Yours, I think.'
We walked in silence down the hall. Once there, I didn't take shelter behind my desk, but sat down opposite her at the low coffee table.
'Ariana, about last night-'
'I shouldn't have been so hard on you, Kylie, at the end.'
She was calm and contained as always, but the stress showed in her voice. I gazed at her face, her dear face, and said, 'Please forgive me, Ariana. It was I who was hard on you. You knew I'd never give up until you told me.'
'Will you give up now?'
'Give up what? My share of Kendall & Creeling? Or give up you? I haven't got you, Ariana, so there's nothing to give up.'
She looked away from me. 'If things could be different…'
A dreadful feeling of loss flooded through me. 'But they're not. I understand that.'
She brought her blue laser eyes back to me. 'So where do we go from here?'
I fought to keep my voice steady. 'As friends? Colleagues.'
'Can you do that?'
'I can do that,' I said.
TWENTY-TWO
At three-thirty in the morning, Diana Niptucker called. The office number, as usual, was switched through to the phone on my bedside table. I was startled awake by the noise of its ring, which sounded so much louder in the darkness. Groping around, I found the handset and mumbled a hello.
'Kylie? Kylie Kendall? This is Di Niptucker, calling from Australia.' Her voice was brisk.
I sat up, disturbing Julia Roberts, who'd been dozing by my side. 'Dr. Niptucker! Thank you for getting in touch with me.'
'What time is it there in the States?'
I squinted at the illuminated dial of my bedside clock. 'Around three-thirty in the morning.'
'Oh, then I woke you. Sorry, but I just picked up my e-mails, and saw your message. Been incommunicado at a dig in the middle of nowhere for weeks, and have just got back to civilization. Had no idea what was going on in the world. Oscar's gone, is he? Dead?'
'Yes, I'm afraid so.'
'Shame. Talented man. We were intending to publish a joint paper on the quokka megafauna link.'
'Tided 'The Quokka Question'?'
Di Niptucker gave a snort of laughter. 'Good grief, no. That was Oscar's name for it, but I, of course, would have insisted on the correct scientific language, both in the tide and in the body of the paper. No point in dumbing down things, that's what I say. I believe 'The Quokka Question' was what he was calling his keynote address to the GMS, however.'
A hope sprang to life. 'Dr. Niptucker, if you were writing a joint paper with Oscar Braithwaite, perhaps you had some of his latest quokka research notes.'
'All of them,' said Di Niptucker. 'I insisted on it. Oscar had a fine mind, but he was scatterbrained with it. No telling if he'd include everything relevant, so I asked for a copy of all his recent research.'
'I think I'd better tell you what's been happening here,' I said. I gave her a brief outline of the situation, and she listened without a single interruption, until I mentioned my suspicions about Jack Yarrow and Oscar's death.
'Revolting man,' she snapped. 'I know him. Academic fraud. Capable of anything.'
'If we had a copy of Oscar's research notes, they could be compared to the material Professor Yarrow is using for his keynote address this Friday.'
'Say no more,' she said. 'What's your fax number?'
After I'd given it to her, Di Niptucker said, 'I'll send them straight away. And keep me posted. I'd love to see Yarrow cut off at the knees.'
After I'd thanked her and she'd hung up, I bolted out of bed and went to check that the fax machine had plenty of paper. Jules took this as an indication it was time for breakfast, so I indulged her with six prawn pieces and made a cup of tea for myself while I waited for the pages to come through.
I took my mug with me and watched greedily as the fax machine spat out each page of Oscar's research notes. They were indubitably genuine, as Di Niptucker had scrawled across the top of the facing page: 'Comments in spidery handwriting mine. Illegible writing, Oscar's.'
