Chapter 37
“So what is happening?”, asked Alice starting the engine.
“I have the feeling that today someone tried to access my computer”
“What?”, exclaimed Alice incredulous, taking the eyes off the road a second too long
“Well, I don’t know what happened exactly, but when I went back to my desk after talking with you in the cell culture lab my chair was certainly not in the position I had left it”
“I didn’t know you were a control freak when it came to the position of objects”, she laughed, not taking me seriously.
“I am not, and yet something felt wrong…”
“Probably someone passed by and moved the chair accidentally. Why do you assume that someone tried to break in your PC?”
“Because the chair was so neatly positioned close to my desk. I am sure I pushed it away rushing to see you…and when I got to the lab I found McMurrich there. She left the cell culture lab before I did…”
“Ok, hold on. Are you trying to tell me that you suspect McMurrich?”, asked Alice, arching her eyebrows.
“To be honest yes, I thought about it. Perhaps she felt something was cooking and she wanted to know what it was about”
“But do you think she actually read your emails?”, Alice said, suddenly worried
“I don’t know…I was quite excited, so maybe I forgot to log off the PC. What I hope is that it logged me off automatically before she got there. Maybe she didn’t even try to access it, maybe she just had a look at was on my desk. Maybe it wasn’t even her, but who else would want to go through my stuff?”
“Things are becoming really creepy lately, I just wish we could live like we used to…”, Alice sighted
I was looking out of the window at the landscape streaming by when I saw him. A car passed us on the right. It was only a moment, but I was sure it was him, John Wheeler. A woman was beside him in the car, she was leaning very close, it looked like she was crying.
“Don’t tell me”, I said.
What was happening all of a sudden? Was John Wheeler cheating on his wife? It dawned on me that maybe she knew and forced him to move away because of that. That’s why he had been so embarrassed and silent when I had been there for dinner.
“Don’t tell me what?”
“I think I just saw my neighbour passing by with a woman. I think he is cheating on his wife”, I said, almost mumbling to myself
“Pardon me?”
“Never mind”, I said. “By the way, I explained to Mori what we are up to and what our polymer is like. I sent him the actual structure”
“You did”, replied Alice, more as a statement than as a question, and then she was silent for a moment.
“You’ve done the right thing”, she said at last
“You think so?”
“Yes”, Alice confirmed.
We didn’t speak for a long while, each lost in our separate thoughts orbiting around the same source of anxiousness. When I focused on the road again I saw the sign for my exit, hanging up high on the highway. I looked at Alice, and she didn’t seem to notice.
“Hey”, I said
“Hey”, she echoed back at me.
“We should take the next exit”, I said
Alice signaled and moved to the right lane, smoothing into the exit.
“Thanks, I was about to drive on. Maybe that’s what we should do, drive away and leave this ugly business behind”
I turned towards Alice and looked at her. She was tense now, and yet her features still had the honest freshness that made her so good to talk to when the day was dull or the morale dim.
“You know what’s good about this situation? We can count on each other”, I said smiling.
“Sure, but it’s like blind leading blind”, she laughed, “none of us has a clue about what is happening. That’s why I am betting on this Dr. Mori you found. But if we cannot solve the arcane we will have to talk to the police…”, she said, and I nodded.