Page 82 of Night Watch
“What about the chemistry professors?” Erik asked.
“A few that I can think of.”
“Is Professor Edwards one of them?”
“Oscar?” Purvis lifted his chin. “He has a garden, but calling him a gardener is a stretch. At least a gardener at my level. He’s an amateur.”
“So you’ve visited his garden?” Kennedy asked.
“A long time ago.”
Erik’s eyes glinted. “At that time, did he have a prickly caterpillar bean?”
“Not that I saw, but the seeds were making the rounds around here for some time.” He waved a hand. “They’re rare and hard to come by, so they were snapped up.”
“Could you give us a list of the people in the department with gardens?”
“If you give me your email address, I’ll get to it as soon as I can.”
Kennedy appreciated his helpful attitude, but he had this self-serving air, and she didn’t trust him to be truthful if it didn’t benefit him. “Do any of the labs here work with anthrax?”
He snapped his chair forward. “Anthrax? No. Why do you ask?”
“We’re exploring many lines of inquiry,” Erik said.
Purvis shifted his gaze to Kennedy. “Do you think your mother died of anthrax exposure?”
“No.” Kennedy didn’t feel a need to share the details of her mother’s death with this man.
“But you are a Responsible Official,” Erik stated, “and as such, you could request anthrax.”
“I’m the only Responsible Official on faculty.” Purvis puffed up his chest. “I take that tremendous honor seriously and wouldn’t try to procure any Select Agent that we didn’t have a legitimate reason to request. We don’t have a legitimate reason to ask for anthrax.”
“So that’s a no, then?” Kennedy prodded when he didn’t actually answer the question. “You’ve never requested anthrax.”
“Correct.” He stood, his eyes narrowed into angry slits as if upset at being pushed to respond. “Like I said. I have a lecture, and I need a moment to prepare. Please close the door as you leave.”
Erik placed a business card on the desk, tapping it a few times to get Purvis’s attention. “Thanks for agreeing to email a list of gardeners. And if you hear anything unusual regarding Wanda, we would appreciate hearing about it.”
Purvis gave a sharp nod then fired a pointed look at the door.
Kennedy stepped out before Erik and turned to him as he closed the door.
“He was either hiding something at the end, or he just doesn’t like to be questioned.”
“Could be either,” Erik said. “But I think he deserves a deeper dive into his background. As does Edwards.”
In his condo, Erik closed up his laptop, and resisted sighing. A few hours in research and he’d hoped to find something about either of the professors that would move their investigation forward. Or that his brothers had found viable suspects on the Responsible Officials list, but dinnertime had come and gone, and they were no further ahead than when they’d gone to interview the professors.
He looked at Kennedy, who was setting out silverware for a late dinner with Finley, who’d arrived a few minutes before. Finley had brought three large salads, but Erik was going to take his meal to Drake’s place to give the sisters time alone.
He piled the to-go container with a big cobb salad on top of his laptop, wishing it was a thick juicy steak with a steaming baked potato instead. He laid his phone next to it and looked at Finley. “Just call when you’re ready to leave, and I’ll escort you to the exit.”
“Thanks.” She lifted the lid from her taco salad, emitting a tangy scent.
“You sure you don’t want to eat with us?” Kennedy asked.
“You need time alone.”
