“I enjoy having a functional stomach lining and not whatever scar tissue has enveloped your gastric mucosa, thank you.”
Katherine smiled. “You driving or am I?” They only owned one car, and Katherine liked it that way.
Baxter kissed her firmly. “You risked your life four days ago to stop a criminal. Let me drive please.”
“Fine.” Katherine grabbed her messenger bag and her travel mug as she followed Baxter out the door to their small garage. Her husband opened the car door for her and waited until she was inside to shut it carefully. It was a little chivalric gesture that she enjoyed even after twenty years of marriage.
As they drove the ten miles to the university, Katherine stared out the window, watching the familiar green-and-blue hoodies of the many students on bikes and skateboards that grew more frequent the closer they got to the college.
“Have you heard any more about the young man they arrested?” Katherine asked.
“No. They’ve mentioned the basics of the incident in the newspaper, but nothing more than that. It seems the town doesn’t want to dwell on a near miss.”
“He was a student.” She glanced at Baxter’s profile. “Justin McCabe. Does the name sound familiar to you?”
“No. Was he local?” They were stopped in traffic as they approached the faculty parking lot where they parked their old Prius.
“I don’t know.”
Baxter raised an eyebrow. “But you’re going to look.”
She shrugged slightly. “Wouldn’t you be curious?”
“I probably wouldn’t be observant enough to tackle a would-be gunman in a fitness center, darling. So it’s hard for me to imagine what curiosity that would entail.” He turned his eyes back to the road as traffic started to move. “I can ask if anyone in the math department knows him.”
“Sure.”
“There might be rumors swirling anyway. It’s not as if Moonstone Cove gets much excitement.”
“I know.” She waited until Baxter parked before she opened the door. “It’s one of the reasons I like it.”
* * *
Katherine’s office was tucked away in a corner of the physics department. Because she was often loaned out to other departments, she tended to float through the building without becoming embroiled in any of the politics typical of large institutions. As cochair of the mathematics department, Baxter was constantly dealing with this grievance or that annoyance. Katherine managed to avoid all that.
She opened her office and nearly tripped over a pile of mail that had been shoved under her door.
I have a mailbox for that.
She tried to remember the last time she’d checked her mailbox in the main office. She couldn’t remember. Hmmm. That might be the reason the secretary had shoved things under her door. She kicked the mail into a messy pile to sort through later and managed to find her way to her desk.
Some professors were tidy; Katherine was not. Her brain just didn’t work as well when things were organized, or at least that’s what she told herself. If Baxter didn’t organize their house, it would be complete chaos.
Scholarly journals were piled on one chair and mail on another. Papers that needed grades were stacked on the edge of her desk, and various Star Wars memorabilia was scattered around her crowded bookshelves.
She didn’t care how many physical laws the movies had broken, she loved them. One of her grad students had 3D printed her a completely unique lightsaber based on those carried by the Jedi temple guard, and it was hanging on the wall next to her diplomas. People were usually far more interested in the lightsaber than the diplomas, and she didn’t blame them.
She tucked her messenger bag under her desk and woke her desktop computer as she called into the Fred lab.
The phone rang three times before someone picked up. “CNMS lab. This is Kaylee.”
The Fred lab was technically the Center of Neuroengineering and Marine Sciences, but no one called it that except for whoever was answering the phones that day.
“Hey, Kaylee, it’s Professor Bassi. Is Job or Britt available?”
“Oh my God, Professor B! Everyone is talking about what happened last week! How are you? Are you okay? Did you really tackle that gunman? I mean, you were kind of my hero before this, but wow!”
Katherine was a little taken aback at Kaylee’s enthusiasm. The young woman was usually friendly but very focused on her work. She was one of Professor Shaver’s graduate students and a great asset to the lab. “I’m fine, Kaylee. Thanks for asking. Just a little sore.”
“I bet.” A door opened and closed. “Britt just walked in. Do you want to talk to him?”
“Please.”
“Hey, Britt, Professor B is on the phone.”
“Katherine!” The timbre of the call switched to speakerphone. “Do you mind if you’re on speaker? I haven’t eaten yet.”
The break room of the Fred lab was usually overtaken by various tanks of water, the occasional dead fish, and often elaborate puzzles for Fred. Those unfortunate enough to have to eat meals at the lab had only the front office to use.
“No problem. I’m in my office today. I have hours this afternoon and a lecture at ten. Are you and Job still working on the prototype?”
“Yeah, he’s having trouble with some of the joints.” There were crunching sounds on the speakerphone. “I don’t think we’ll be ready for you until next week at the earliest.”
“That’s fine. I’m trying to take it easy this week, so that’s kind of a relief. Did Ansel get the last numbers back to you?”
“I think he maybe sent them to Maria, but I didn’t see a copy.”
“I’ll email him.” She’d need that before she started on programming for the prototype. “So I can be out this week with no problems?”
“Yeah.” He was speaking with his mouth full. “We’re good over here. How you feeling? I read about what happened. That’s crazy shit.”
Katherine logged into the university’s internal server and immediately saw two dozen messages pop up. She clicked on the messages and found the usual business
