He sighed. “Who made the app?”
“Two people, a graduate student who helped run the study, Greg Hammond, and one of the professors, Alice Kraft.”
Detective Bisset was silent.
“You know one of those names.”
“Give me your phone number, Professor Bassi.” Drew Bisset’s voice was grim. “If I have any other questions, I’m going to call you.”
“Are you going to look into Greg and Alice Kraft? While you’re at it, can you get a warrant or something to search the server at the behavioral science building? I think they were also using the app to data-mine the students without their permission and—”
“Your number, Professor Bassi. Please.”
She gave him the information, and he hung up the phone. “He knew one of the names.”
“My money is on Greg.” Megan shrugged. “Don’t know why; just feeling kinda anti-man right now.”
“That’s understandable. I’m leaning toward him because he’s the app administrator. So if there were special messages pushed out to only a few students, he had to know about it. But I’m not sure that Alice Kraft wasn’t involved too. She’s the one who wrote the app. She has far more experience in computer programming. It’s her specialty. So there’s no way Greg could have included all the extra data mining without her knowing about it.”
“I may have to stop hanging out with you so much,” Megan said. “My brain hurts.”
“Coffee?”
“Is it too early for wine?”
Katherine smiled. “Let’s go by North Beach Coffee and get a drink. Maybe take a walk. We’ll both feel better and we can clear our heads.”
* * *
One hot caffe latte and an iced macchiato later and Katherine and Megan were walking along the boardwalk that bordered North Beach Drive and listening to the sound of waves as the sun glinted on the water in the distance.
The ocean was at low tide, and outcroppings of tide pools and mussel-festooned rocks littered their corner of the cove. Seagulls squawked overhead, and plovers ran across the kelp-strewn beach.
“I’m starting to love it here,” Megan said. “There’s been about a dozen times since Friday where I’ve thought, ‘That’s it. I’m packing up and moving back to Atlanta.’”
“I wouldn’t blame you. When bad things happen, it’s understandable to seek familiarity. I would miss you, but I’d completely understand.”
“But then I’d be pulling the kids out of their new schools, which they like. And taking them away from their father. He wouldn’t fight me, but… I don’t know. I don’t want them to be lying, cheating assholes like him, but I also don’t want them to not have a father, you know?”
“I get what you’re saying.” She took a drink of coffee. “But don’t idealize all fatherhood. I would probably be a healthier person if my father hadn’t been a part of my life. My parents never divorced, but he was largely absent and when he was there, he was critical.”
Megan shook her head. “That just boggles my mind. Why on earth would any parent poison a relationship with their kid like that? I know Rodney. He’s gonna regret all this as soon as he realizes what he’s lost, but I’m done. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
“No shame.” Katherine felt a little awkward, but she reached over and gave Megan a one-armed hug. “You trusted someone who was supposed to love you. There’s no shame in that.”
“I’m done with him,” Megan said. “But I also don’t want to cut him off from his kids if he decides to make amends.”
“So you’re staying?”
“For now? Yeah.” Megan looked out over the ocean. “I’m selling that house though. As soon as it’s mine.”
“Maybe you can get him to buy you out of that one and you can find a fixer-upper somewhere else that you can really make your own. Probably won’t have that view though.”
Megan smiled. “I can live without the view now that I have your back porch.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I’m gonna have to start working again though. For sure.”
“I don’t know why you weren’t before.” Katherine turned to look at the rows of multimillion-dollar homes in the neighborhood they were walking through. “All these people have gobs of money and probably half your taste. Think about how many weddings you see on the beach and at the point every weekend. It’ll take some time, but it sounds like you were really good at your job. You should definitely start another business here.”
“Alston Event Planning.” She sipped her macchiato and nodded slowly. “I like the sound of it. My daddy’d be proud.” She made a face. “He never really liked Rodney all that much. Put up with him for my sake.”
Katherine didn’t have anything to say to that. Her father didn’t have an opinion about Baxter when they’d gotten married, other than to say that she’d never reach her potential as a physicist if she was a wife and mother.
“It’ll be good to be working again,” Megan said. “I think it’ll keep me—”
The sound of a car screeching on the street behind them caused both Katherine and Megan to turn. People shouted as a grey sedan jumped the curb and roared along the boardwalk, chewing up the old boards that protected the dunes.
“Is that car—?”
Megan grabbed her arm. “Run!”
They dashed across the street, only to have the car tearing up the boardwalk turn again and head for them.
“It’s trying to run us down!” Megan screamed.
“What is happening right now?”
“Run back and forth,” Megan shouted. “Maybe it’ll bust a tire!”
They ran back toward the boardwalk and jumped across the old railroad ties that bordered the walkway. The car turned to follow them and revved the engine as it careened in their direction.
“Tree!” Katherine pointed to a large and tangled cypress that arched over the boardwalk. “We can cut though there and run down the dunes!”
“Go!” Megan pushed her toward the overhanging limbs.
The sound of the engine was deafening. Katherine could hear onlookers screaming in the background, and a siren wailed nearby.
Katherine ran across the boardwalk
