She reached for the one right at the back – a young and smiley Hunter in his college graduation gown. His father was standing next to him. The expression on his face told the whole world that on that day no one was a prouder dad than he was. She smiled at it and placed it back on the sideboard before facing Hunter again. ‘You don’t remember me at all, do you?’
Thirty-Three
Hunter didn’t flinch, didn’t say a word. His stare was chained to Alice. His mind was chasing a memory but he had no idea where to find it.
The first time he saw her yesterday morning, something about her had struck him as familiar, but he couldn’t place her. Things had happened so fast yesterday that he’d never had a chance to check her out. He played it as calm as he could.
‘Should I remember you?’
Alice flicked her hair to one side.
‘I suppose not. I’ve never been very memorable.’
If she was looking for sympathy or pity, Hunter gave her none.
‘You were a prodigy kid,’ she said. ‘You went to Mirman, a special school for gifted children. If I remember correctly, the words that were used were “his IQ is off the charts”. Even for a prodigy kid.’
Hunter leaned against the window and felt the bulk of his pistol press harder against his lower back.
From a very early age it had been easy to see that Hunter was different. He could figure things out faster than most, and while the average student was expected to graduate from middle school at the age of fourteen, Hunter had finished the entire lower- and mid-school curriculum by his eleventh birthday. It hadn’t been long before his school principal had referred him to the Mirman School for the Gifted in Mulholland Drive.
‘But even a special school’s curriculum wasn’t hard enough for you. You finished all four years of high school in what, two?’
His memory of her was returning to him. ‘You went to Mirman as well,’ he said.
Alice nodded. ‘I was in your class when you first started.’ She smiled. ‘But you didn’t stay long. In a matter of months you’d completed the entire year’s program, and they moved you up to the next grade. You made Mirman’s curriculum seem so easy that they found it hard to place you. So for you, four years of high school became two, right?’
Hunter gave her a subtle shrug.
‘I know because my father was a teacher there.’
Hunter watched her. Her eyes became melancholic.
‘He taught Philosophy.’
‘Mr. Gellar?’ Hunter said. ‘Mr. Anton Gellar?’ Suddenly the clear image of this girl – petite, chubby, dark hair, cheeks full of freckles and shiny braces on her teeth came to his mind. He remembered talking to her a couple of times when he was fourteen or fifteen. She was terribly shy, but very bright and sweet.
‘That’s him,’ Alice replied. ‘Mr. Gellar, that was Dad. You remember him then?’
‘He was a fantastic teacher.’
Alice looked down at her feet. ‘I know.’
‘You changed your hair.’
Alice laughed. ‘I’ve been a blonde for over fifteen years now.’
‘Your freckles are gone.’
She looked at Hunter with a pleased expression, as if saying –
Hunter said nothing.
‘I heard you went to Stanford University on a scholarship and flew through their curriculum as well. You got your PhD in Criminal Behavior Analysis and Biopsychology when you were twenty-three.’
Still silence.
‘Now that’s impressive, even for a Mirman student. My father used to say that you’d probably become the President of the United States someday, or a scholar of some kind. Definitely someone famous.’ She shifted her weight from leg to leg. ‘But I guess you preferred the thrill of chasing psychopaths, huh?’
No answer.
‘You also passed on five invitations to join the FBI. But your PhD thesis paper became, and still is, mandatory reading at their NCAVC.’ She paused and looked at Hunter’s graduation photo again. ‘When I left Mirman, I went to MIT.’
Most people would’ve said those words with a massive injection of pride. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is the most prestigious and famous research university in the USA, and probably the world. Alice seemed almost embarrassed.
‘I’ve got a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.’
‘I guess you preferred the thrill of working as a research specialist for the Los Angeles DA, huh?’ Hunter said.
Alice chuckled. ‘Touche. The truth is I got tired of hacking into systems for the government. That’s who I worked for before.’
‘Special branch?’
It was Alice’s turn to be silent. Hunter didn’t push.
‘Don’t kid yourself,’ he said. ‘You still work for the government.’
‘I guess I do,’ she admitted. ‘But the cause is different.’
‘More noble?’
She hesitated for an instant. ‘I guess you can say that.’
‘But you’re still hacking into systems,’ Hunter challenged.
Alice tilted her head to one side in a subtle but charming way. ‘Sometimes. And I’m sorry. That’s how I know so much about you. And about what you did after you left Mirman. When DA Bradley told me I’d be working with a homicide detective named Robert Hunter, all these memories from Mirman came rushing back into my head. I just had to find out what you’d been up to since then.’
‘You hacked into the FBI database?’ Hunter asked. He knew the fact that he’d passed on precisely
‘Not all their files are kept under the most secure encryption algorithms,’ Alice said. ‘In fact, very few are. Getting into any system isn’t that hard if you know what you’re doing. Once inside, it’s just a question of knowing how to navigate.’
‘And my guess is that you are a pretty good navigator.’
Alice shrugged. ‘We’re all good at something.’
Hunter finished his Scotch. ‘How’s your father?’
Her eyes went sad. ‘He’s not with us anymore.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that.’
‘It was ten years ago, but thank you.’ Her gaze moved to a new picture frame – Hunter as a young kid, maybe ten or eleven years old, she thought. Shorts, skinny legs, white T-shirt, ultra-skinny arms, and straight hair that was way too long. Just like she remembered him. ‘You used to be geeky, and as thin as a stickman. Your nickname was . . .’
‘Toothpick,’ Hunter helped her.
‘That’s right. Gosh you bulked up like the Hulk.’ Her eyes settled on his pecs. ‘What do you bench press, the whole gym?’
