Matt's phone was vibrating on the nearby counter. He looked at it, then back at her. "I should?—"
"Get it," she finished. "It could be important."
As he stepped away, she let out a breath and pushed her messy hair behind her ears as she moved around to the other side of the island.
"Hello?" Matt said, a question in his voice. "Who is this?" He paused. "Anthony?"
Her pulse jumped. Anthony was the name of his whistleblower, the one whose phone had been disconnected, who'd given Matt's name to Sabrina. She motioned for him to put the phone on speaker.
"Anthony?" he repeated as he did as she requested. "Where the hell are you? I've been looking for you."
"You're not the only one. Someone broke into my apartment on Saturday. I think it had something to do with Sabrina Lin's murder."
"You heard about that?"
"Hell, yeah, and I can't believe she's dead."
"You sent her to me. Why?"
"Because she needed to get help from someone in law enforcement she could trust. And the only person I knew was you."
"Why did she need help?"
"She was looking at a corporate fraud case and thought it tied into a murder at Westbridge University. She was killed the day after she went there to talk to Professor Harrington. She thought he had information she needed."
"What information?"
"It's a long story. I told her to stay away from Westbridge, that it was too dangerous. She needed to get your help before she did anything else. Obviously, that didn't happen."
"We need to talk, Anthony. You need to tell me everything, so I can help."
"I want to meet, but I don't have a good feeling. I spent a lot of time reinventing myself, getting a place to live under a new name, starting over in a new job as someone else, but I made a mistake. I gave Sabrina my real name so that she could give it to you, and now, dammit, someone is after me?—"
Silence followed his abbreviated sentence. "Anthony? Are you there? Talk to me," Matt said.
"I think someone is here. I'll be in touch," Anthony said in a hushed tone. And then the call disconnected.
Matt swore as he set down the phone.
"Do you think he's okay?" she asked with concern. "He sounded scared."
"I don't know. I hope so."
"He said Sabrina went to Westbridge to talk to Professor Harrington. We need to talk to Harrington, too." She was surprised when Matt didn't instantly agree. "You don't think that's a good idea?"
"I don't like that we just got a clue dropped into our laps. It could be a trap."
"But Anthony is the whistleblower you worked with, the one who recommended you to Sabrina. Would he try to entrap you?"
"I don't think so, but I can't completely discount the possibility."
"We were going to talk to the professor anyway. We need to find out what he knows about the grade-changing scheme, and now we can ask him what he said to Sabrina."
Matt's lips tightened. "I can't keep taking you into dangerous situations, Haley. I need to get you into a safehouse with guards at the door."
She saw the determination in his eyes, but she couldn’t let him lock her away. "I'm not going to hide. You just said you admired the way I fight for my brother. Let me fight."
"I don't want anything to happen to you. In case you haven't noticed, I'm starting to like you quite a bit."
