“The grad students took care of all the grunt work, so to speak.” Ansel smiled. “The majority of the information was collected remotely. Very little interaction at all. If I passed a participant on campus, I’d probably never recognize them.”
“Ideal.” It also meant that Ansel might have no idea that three of his study participants had had adverse psychological events in the past six months. “So did you end up with any Primos?”
He frowned. “I beg your pardon?”
“Sensors thrown off?” She raised her tablet with the spreadsheets on it. “Like our Primo. Data that doesn’t fit the pattern? In a group of seventy, I’m assuming some will drop out, that kind of thing.”
“Oh.” He curled his lip. “Naturally. All that is caught in the follow-up. Which again, that’s mostly on the grad students. They collect, we interpret.”
“Fantastic.” She returned to their cephalopod research. “Nine neural control centers. Nine. Fantastic. That would be like if we had five brains, each one controlling a limb independently. Can you imagine having five brains, each one controlling a different appendage? Talk about coordination.”
“No.”
“You don’t think they’re coordinated?”
“No.” He looked up, his face a complete blank. “I can’t imagine having five brains.”
God, he was boring. Too boring to be a bad guy?
That, like so much of her life at the moment, was up for debate. No matter, she’d learned an invaluable lesson, and in a small way, she’d even changed the future.
* * *
Baxter sat on the couch in his study, his feet kicked up on an ottoman, tapping his chin and staring out the window. “And he offered that information freely?”
“I framed the questions as a hypothetical for a study I was considering putting together.”
The corner of Baxter’s mouth turned up. “With human subjects? In physics? What was this hypothetical study?”
“I don’t even remember what I told him. Something about thermodynamic negentropy.” She waved a hand. “As soon as I said negentropy, his eyes started glazing over.”
Baxter threw his head back and laughed. “He wouldn’t even question it. He abhors looking ignorant.”
“Do you know what negentropy is?”
“Only vaguely, and I would always defer to my brilliant wife in anything Schrödinger posited.”
She waggled her eyebrows at him. “You do know how to flirt with a physicist, don’t you?”
“Indeed, I excel in it.” His smile waned. “So he seemed to have no idea about Abigail? Or the other two students?”
“Nothing in his demeanor said he was hiding anything or thought he had anything to be worried about.”
“He’s egotistical. Maybe he thinks he can get away with ignoring adverse reactions in his subjects.”
“I agree he’s egotistical, but he’s also very focused on publication. That much was obvious. With something like this that could potentially have so many real-world applications, he might even be looking for a book deal.”
Baxter held out a hand. “And that’s not all the more reason for him to obfuscate?”
“Hiding the truth won’t help him with the IRB. And anything that’s produced for publication—especially if it’s for a more popular publishing audience—would be absolutely scrutinized.”
Baxter worried his lower lip, which he only did when he was thinking particularly hard.
“One of the students in the Fred lab said she heard Shaver arguing with Mehdi today.”
Baxter nodded slowly. “I spoke to Anita this morning. I told her it was highly confidential, but that I had good reason to believe that Abby—whom Anita knows—was part of the study last year and that she’d recently had an aberrant psychological episode. I gave her the details of the situation, and she sounded very disturbed. I also told her that I had reason to believe two other students had been affected and she needed to look into it.”
“Did you tell her you were thinking of filing a report?”
He shook his head. “Not yet. If it comes from someone within the study, it’s better for everyone.”
“I understand what you’re saying, but where does that leave all the other students in the meantime?”
“I don’t know,” Baxter said. “But we currently don’t have any idea what’s causing this, so I don’t even know if warning them would be useful. We might send students into a panic when it’s not necessary.”
Katherine got up and rounded the ottoman to sit next to him. Baxter tucked her under his arm and squeezed.
“I don’t know what the right thing is,” Katherine said. “I hate being in the dark like this.”
“I know.” He pressed a kiss to her temple. “I spoke with Abby today.”
“How is she feeling?”
“Confused. Heartbroken. Mario is doing much better, so that helps, but he’s still got a long road of healing and she feels extraordinary guilt. Mario has been advised by the police and his attorney not to speak to Abby at all.”
“And she still remembers nothing?”
He shook his head. “If she does, she’s blocked it out.”
“Did you ask her directly if she was part of the study?”
“I did and she told me she was, but she had no idea how any of the exercises she was doing—which she found very calming—could have contributed to this. Once we start talking about that, someone took her phone away.”
Katherine took a deep breath. “The police aren’t going to be able to ignore this. That’s two students acting wildly out of character and committing crimes within weeks of each other.”
“I suppose it depends on who is investigating.”
“The detective we spoke to after the gym was named Drew Bisset.”
Baxter tapped his fingers along Katherine’s hip. “Is he investigating Abby’s case too?”
“Probably. How many detectives can there be in Moonstone Cove?” She sat up straighter and reached for her phone. “I know someone who might have an idea.”
She dialed Toni’s phone number and waited for her to answer.
The line picked up, but she only heard whispering voices on the other end.
“Henry, I told you… No, it’s not them.” She cleared her throat. “Katherine? Everything okay?”
She smiled. “Who’s Henry?”
“He’s… it’s nothing. He’s a friend.” There was a faint burst of laughter. “Is everything all right?”
“I
