"I can't say any more. I owe…too much."
"Money?" he asked sharply.
"Loyalty," Harrington said, meeting his gaze. "I was bailed out of a sticky situation by some powerful people, and if I were to talk, that situation would be revealed, and that would be the end of my career. That's what I told Sabrina when she asked."
"It looks like you're already at the end of your career," he said bluntly. "You're not taking a sabbatical, you're done here. It's over. Why?"
Before Harrington could answer, Haley said, "Would the career-ending issue be about changing grades for the guys in Landon's fraternity?"
Harrington's face tightened. "You know about that?"
"My brother didn't want to do it, so you did it for him. You overrode him, right?"
"I had to. Like I said, I owed a debt that had to be paid. I couldn't risk losing my job over raising a few grades for a couple of kids."
"Landon was angry with you. Was he going to turn you in?" Haley asked. "Did you kill him before he could do that?"
Matt wasn't surprised at Haley's direct question, because he'd been one second away from asking the same thing.
"No! God, no!" Harrington said forcefully. "I could never kill anyone. Never. I actually felt deeply ashamed in the face of Landon's strong ethical stance. He was barely out of his teens, but he knew what was right and what was wrong."
"He did know right from wrong. You, apparently, did not," Haley said harshly.
"What were they holding over you?" he asked Harrington.
Harrington hesitated, then said, "I had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a student. It was a setup, but I didn't know that at the time. Once they had me, they had me. I couldn't lose my job. I made a bad decision; I never thought it would lead me here. And I swear I don't know what happened to Landon."
Matt thought about that as Haley's questioning gaze met his. He turned back to Harrington. "You said you don't know what happened, but you were suspicious, weren't you?"
Harrington tipped his head in acknowledgment. "The story didn't ring true, and it occurred to me that one of Landon's frat brothers might have found out about his work and wanted to get access to it. There are many Westbridge families with ties to the financial industry, including several in Landon's fraternity, Trent Adler and Drew Sanderson, to name two of them."
"Were they the ones blackmailing you?"
"I don't know. My tormentor was disguised, but the girl in question was very good friends with Henry Adler, so I suspect he was involved."
"Henry did the same thing to Landon," Haley said. "He sent a woman to him, someone who would flirt and pretend to like him so she could get her hands on his work."
"You're talking about Brooke Mercer?"
"Yes."
"Brooke was struggling in my economics class. She was one of the ones whose grades I changed. I believe she was in trouble in other classes as well, but this one grade would keep her from getting kicked out of school."
"But Henry is a lawyer," Matt said. "He's not in the financial industry. What was his stake?"
"He could still get rich off of whatever Landon had, especially if his friends knew how to use it," Harrington said.
"Who would have known or foreseen how valuable Landon's work might be?" he asked.
Harrington thought for a moment. "I don't know. Any one of them. They all come from wealthy families with significantly large portfolios. Some work in the financial industry, others don't, but that doesn't mean they couldn't benefit from stock manipulation."
"How did the algorithm work?" he asked. "Was it a software program?"
"Landon was going to show me when it was finished. He didn't want to get into it before then, so I don't know the details."
"Was it finished when he died?"
"I'm not sure. By then, we were not in accord. He was unhappy with the grade situation, and we were barely speaking."
