He came closer, his brows drawn tight. “Or should I say Cass?”
Kathleen stiffened. “There’s no need to be cranky with me.”
He put the coffee down on the edge of her desk, crossed his arms. “I told you about her. The woman I met at the movies, remember? The one I said I really liked?”
She nodded.
“Now I find out she was with you the whole time. What the hell, Kathleen?” He let out a bitter huff. “Shit, she was good. Got me talking about work, asked all these clever questions like she actually cared. I thought she was into algae and sci-fi. But all the time she was playing me.”
She flinched at the sharpness in his voice. “She played me too, Ted.”
Ted stared at her. “How did you meet her? You never go out."
Kathleen rubbed her brow. “Ted, I can’t get into this with you.”
“Why not. Is it some big secret?”
“Because it’s not any of your business,” she said tersely.
“Really?” he demanded. “She made me feel like an idiot. I told her things.Personalthings.”
Kathleen shook her head. “You think I didn’t tell her anything personal?”
Ted made a huffing sound.
“She took me out a few times,” she said. “And if you’re feeling bruised because she didn’t fancy you, maybe think about how I felt when you told me you had a date with someone and it turned out to beher.”
That shut him up for a second.
“I didn’t know she was your…whatever she is,” he muttered. “She used me.”
“And you used her,” Kathleen shot back. “You wanted to impress her. So, you talked about the one thing that makes you feel important—this lab.”
He flushed. “I didn’t tell her about the plants. The only thing I said to her was you were nearly finished ‘cause they had stabilized.”
She sighed and softened slightly. “Ted, I get it. You’re angry, but you’re not the only one who got blindsided.”
He looked at her for a long beat. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, Kathleen. I worked my guts off here and you didn’t have the courtesy to tell me you were publishing.” He picked up his coffee again. “I’m going out for some air.”
Kathleen slumped back in her chair as the door clicked shut behind him. The silence left in his wake pressed in heavier than before.
She'd turned Veronica away with barely a second thought and now she’d driven Ted off too. For a long moment she sat there, staring at the scuffed edge of her desk. So much for partnership and trust. The worst part wasn’t the isolation; she was used to that. It was the dull, sinking knowledge that she had brought it on herself.
But she wasn’t going to fall into that old spiral again—not this time.
She exhaled, long and slow, and reached for a pen. No more wallowing. No more curling inward and hoping someone else would fix it. Veronica was gone, Ted was pissed off, and someone had stolen her research.
She was going to find out who.
Kathleen grabbed a clean sheet of paper and wrote across the top:Who had access to my system?Then beneath it, she drew a line and wrote:
Must understand science, or know what to look for.
Must have access to the lab.
Must have a motive—or be used by someone who does.
She made a list of surnames that started with W. There weren’t that many.
