* * *

The phone rang on Healy’s desk. “Sergeant Healy.”

“Paddy, it’s Glenn Cross.”

“Hi, Glenn. You have news for me?”

“Sure do. We enjoyed brunch with the gentleman yesterday. He’s on board with the plan.”

“Outstanding. I’ll inform O’Brien. Thanks, Glenn.”

“You bet. Bye.”

“Bye,” Healy hung up the phone. “O’Brien,” he shouted as he stood. He liked to throw the Chief Superintendent off guard on occasion.

"In here, Healy,” O’Brien yelled back.

He walked into O’Brien’s office. “Glenn Cross called. Garrett Burke is on board. He’ll monitor things in MacGowan’s class and alert Cross to anything unusual.”

“Perfect. Contact the phone company for the phone records from MacGowan’s office for the past week. I want to check for more inconsistencies. I bet we find one on Wednesday.”

“Right away, sir,” Healy stepped back to his desk. He made a call, and in five minutes, the phone records came through.

“The phone records, sir,” Healy handed O’Brien the printout.

“Thanks, Healy. Remind me to send a mouse for your cat.”

“I’ll make a note of it, sir,” Healy chuckled as he returned to his desk, conveniently forgetting to make a note.

O’Brien searched through the phone records. MacGowan and Knowlan talked every afternoon like clockwork, but again, on Wednesday morning, an off-schedule call from MacGowan to Knowlan.

“We’ve got another inconsistency,” he yelled at Healy. "And both occurred within 24 hours of the unsolved homicide.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

After Rod dropped him on campus, Wyl headed to Ailbe’s office and knocked. “Ailbe?”

“Wyl…come in.” Ailbe stood and extended his hand. “Have a seat.”

“Thanks.” Wyl shook Ailbe’s hand, sensing his damp palm.

“I’m glad you’re helping me with this project,” Ailbe said. “Every year, I do this myself, and it’s a massive drain on my time.” Ailbe sat. “Having an expert lend a hand will not only make my task easier, but also add authenticity absent in previous years.”

“I’m unsure about the authenticity, but I’m happy to help. Rod won’t want me working all the time, but I can spare a few hours daily.”

“Perfect. That's all I ask. I remember you two are honeymooning, which makes your generosity more valuable.”

“Thanks. Now, show me where I’ll work and give me a stack of projects. I believe the due date is today?”

“That's correct, and a stack you shall have,” Ailbe gathered papers for Wyl to work on. “Follow me, and I’ll set you up in the vacant office next to mine.” He led Wyl out of his office and down the hall to the right. He opened the door to the vacant office, turned on the lights, and laid the stack of projects on the top of the empty desk.

“This is fine,” Wyl said, “and a computer so I can check things if needed. Do I need login credentials?”

Ailbe handed him a small piece of paper with his network login information. “I took care it. Here are your login details.”

Wyl figured Ailbe set it up to monitor what he checked. Any email messages he sent would be archived. “Thanks, Ailbe.”

“Come find me if you have any questions.”

“Will do.”

Ailbe left the office, and Wyl sat at the desk, thumbing through the stack of projects. He arranged them in sequence order as near as possible, turned the computer on, and started working.

He worked through three projects, checking a few things on the computer as he scanned the code. Warm hands squeezing his shoulders startled him. He expected Rod, But Ailbe's voice reached his ears.

“Since it’s near lunchtime, why don’t we tour the facilities before I treat you to lunch?” Ailbe said.

“Ailbe, you're quiet as a mouse.”

“You were rather preoccupied with your work,” Ailbe’s hands still rested on Wyl’s shoulders. “You’re quite muscular under your shirt.”

“Rod likes his husband a bit on the beefy side,” Wyl chuckled before an uncomfortable realization hit him at Ailbe's intentions.

“We need to talk about the involvement of students,” Ailbe said.

“Student involvement?” Wyl asked. “I thought the submission of their projects was the goal.”

“Oh, submission is most of it.” Ailbe backed away. “But the students must input their own projects. They’ll spend time in the lab once we determine the projects will work.”

Wyl shuddered at the remaining phantom sensation of Ailbe's touch. He didn’t like being touched by any man except Rod. “Wow…so this isn’t only grading papers, it’s also production.”

“Right. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t deserve an A,” Ailbe said.

Wyl grasped Ailbe's end goal. The projects all dovetailed, but the true viability is determined only after the student works are combined. “Sounds interesting. I’m eager to check more projects.”

“Let’s take a walk.” Ailbe led Wyl down the hall to the lab. “Here is where we do much of our programming work.” The well-lit lab included 30 Mac computers.

“This is quite a setup.” Wyl studied one of the computers. “What are the specs on the Macs?”

“The best money can buy,” Ailbe boasted. “i7’s, with 64 gigs of RAM and 2 terabytes of flash storage. These computers can handle everything.”

“Impressive,” Wyl said. “Connection?”

“Running through the campus network, of course. This lab includes a dedicated fiber connection with a 10-gigabyte pipe. All thirty computers can access the web at the same time.”

Wyl never entered such a well-equipped lab outside US government facilities. "I'm happy to help the students achieve their goals.”

“We’ll begin project input next week,” Ailbe said. “This week, you and I will review each submitted project to ensure they are error-free. Next week, I’ll have them all in the lab putting their projects together and working to ensure everything goes as planned. By the 28th, they’ll have completed the data entry, and we can do a trial run of the project.”