“Lovely.” He closed the book.
“So, this doesn’t look like something stolen from the university?”
“No. I would have been aware of that.”
“That’s good news. Any idea what a whole set would be worth?”
“I could only venture a guess, but I imagine the medical school would pay handsomely.”
“That’s good to know,” I said as the phone on his desk rang.
“Excuse me.” He picked up the receiver. “Dr. Eban,” he said in a clipped tone. “I don’t understand … Call security…” He turned his chair and looked out the window. “I don’t see anything. Where? All right, one moment. I’ll be right out.”
He hung up the phone and stood. “I apologize. There’s something going on outside the building. Excuse me a moment, but I’ll be right back.”
I held my breath as he left the office.
I felt terrible for the trick, and surprised he’d fallen for one of the oldest ones in the book, but extra grateful that Joshua had agreed to help, that he had access to Dr. Eban’s direct office number, and that he knew how to make the call look like it came from an unassigned number. I’d thought maybe Dr. Eban wouldn’t answer, but he had.
I had disembarked the bus briefly. I’d stopped by the museum on the way to the medical school and asked Joshua for some help. He’d been more than willing to play the part. He’d called Dr. Eban and said there seemed to be some sort of issue outside the building and that those involved said they wanted to speak only to him. Joshua was outside now, presumably watching Dr. Eban and hiding behind a tree.
It was a terrible and probably somehow illegal thing to do, and the fact that I’d gotten a young person involved was making me feel awful.
Nevertheless, I hurried around the desk and touched the mouse pad sitting on Dr. Eban’s laptop, bringing the machine to life. As I’d hoped, his email was open and easy to see.
I didn’t want to read any of the emails. I just wanted to see who they were from; at least that was what I kept telling myself.
I held my phone at the ready. Joshua was going to text me the second he saw Dr. Eban come back into the building, but our quick calculations had led us to think he’d be away from his office for about three minutes.
I quickly scrolled through the in-box list, seeing many names, most of them female (though that wasn’t what I was looking for, and I didn’t think it mattered), but not one that looked familiar. Most of the names were followed by @edinmed.org.
But then, about twenty emails down, I saw one that didn’t seem to be from a university account. There was another reason it caught my attention. The moniker was Glasgowgirl50, and the server wasn’t part of the school’s network. And I knew this address.
I didn’t have a lot of time to think about what I was doing. I knew it was bad enough that I’d done this much. I didn’t know where in the spectrum of lawbreaking my actions fell, but I was at least invading privacy.
The email from Glasgowgirl50 was in the group of already read emails. He’d never know if I opened it.
I opened it.
Dr. Eban, I need to talk to you about our deal. Meet me Friday night, after pub hours. Same place.–R
It was dated the day before Mallory had been killed. My heart sank. The email was from Rena, or at least from the address she’d used to send me a few emails.
My phone dinged.
He’s back in the building.
I closed everything I’d opened and scrolled everything back into position. But when I got to the top a new email appeared, lit blue as it bumped the rest of the emails down a line.
It was from [email protected].
I only had about twenty seconds, and he would know the email had been opened if I clicked on it. As tempting as it was, I took my hand off the mouse and hurried around to the other side of the desk, taking my seat a mere moment before he came into the office.
I noticed two things as the door opened. I’d left my phone on the other side of the desk, and Dr. Eban’s chair was still turning as a result of my rushed exit from it.
I stood just as he came into the room and made a move toward the door, hoping to make our dance look like awkward bad timing.
“Oh, excuse me, I was just coming out to check on you,” I said. I hoped I’d hid the moving chair. It had stopped when I turned around and leaned over for the book, grabbing my phone as I did so, but I didn’t know what he’d seen. “I’ve taken up too much of your time. You have work to do.”
We danced around each other another moment before he stepped around the desk and sat down again.
“I apologize for the interruption. I have no idea what was going on out there, but it was over by the time I could observe.”
“No problem,” I said with a smile. I knew my face was flushed with guilt, but I hoped he interpreted it as me just being flustered over the awkward moment.
He didn’t look at his laptop screen. He didn’t behave as if he was even a tiny bit suspicious.
“Please sit again. I still have some time,” he said.
I sat and silently told my heart to quiet down.
“All right, back tae the books. Do you think your boss would allow the school tae purchase them? I have authority tae do such things, and could offer this.” He took a small notepad out of a desk drawer and wrote down a sum.
“Oh my. That’s quite generous. I’d be happy to ask him,” I said.
“Excellent.” He paused. “Do you think I should
