Three Rivers (35 page)

"Thank you. I have to get dressed. I'll see you tonight?"

"Okay," he whispered and she walked out of the room — fear and hope fighting with each other at every step.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Griffen was crawling out of his skin after leaving Althea's place. This was the first time in his life he'd asked a woman to commit to him and it hadn't gone exactly well. Instead of going crazy for her answer, he drove his car to
CMU
. He knew if he wanted to have something real with Althea he had to have this investigation resolved. It was bad enough he'd kept it from her this long. So he unclenched his teeth and refocused on figuring out what had happened to Jack, or — God forbid — find out what Jack had done.

He stepped out of his car and walked across the manicured grass of
CMU's
campus. Just a quick shot up a hill from Pitt, it felt like another world. Pitt was every bit a school in a city, with crowds and noise and urban skyscrapers, while
CMU
was a quiet refuge dotted with open spaces, traditional architecture, and quiet understated beauty. It was a sunny, pleasant day, attracting numerous students to picnic, read, and play Frisbee throughout the entire quad.

The school was especially known for its programs in high-tech business, robotics and theater — and it was easy to peg the students running past him to their respective departments. He ignored the few beautiful people trying to be the next Matt Bomer or Joe Manganiello and instead grabbed a skinny, geeky looking guy with a homemade Yoda T-shirt on that said, "
Longer Last Taking a Picture of Me Will
."

Oh yeah, this power-nerd knows where to find the robotics department.

"Hey man, I'm here to meet someone in the robotics graduate department. Can you tell me where that is?"

"Uh sure," he looked up at Griffen and seemed more than a little intimidated. He gave him directions and hurried off, his backpack smacking his slight form with each step.

Griffen headed to his meeting with an associate professor from Jack's days in the department. He figured talking to David made more sense, but the guy bothered him, it was probably just because he clearly had feelings for Althea. That also made him more likely to spill the beans to Althea about Griffen's poking around. Either way, he needed to find another way to get information.

Jack had always had a lot of friends and here at
CMU
was no different. He'd delicately asked Carol about who he'd hung around with and she'd been accommodating, believing he was simply working out his grief.

He knocked on the door that said Alvin Pendergraft.
Seriously? This guy never had a chance of being cool
. The door opened to reveal a chubby ginger haired guy who would've barely seemed old enough to be a student if Griffen didn't know he was in his thirties. "Hi, I'm Griffen. We spoke on the phone."

"Yeah, Jack's friend, right?"

"Yep. I grew up here with Jack, but I left a long time ago and never made it back before, or after, he died. I'm here for a while and I just wanted to take the opportunity to reconnect with his memory, you know?" Griffen tried to make himself sound as nonthreatening as possible. No need to spook the guy.

"Sure, come in. It was so awful when Jack died, I totally understand you wanting to know more. Not sure what I can tell you, though."

"It will just be nice to talk to someone that knew a different side of him. His death was pretty sudden, huh?"

"I'll say! One day he's here, then the next he's gone, just like that."

"I would like to collect mementos from around his death. Did you guys have any memorial activities for him?"

"No, I hate to say it but it was crazy around here. We had a, um, a lot going on around here around the time of his death so he didn't get the attention he deserved. It was a real shame."

"A lot going on?" Griffen chose to play dumb on this one. "I thought you guys just built cool robots and taught class and stuff?" The engineer was viewing him with obvious condescension. Arrogant
and
a big mouth. Perfect.

"Well, that may have been true for Jack and David. Have you talked to David yet? He and Jack were really close, he knew everything Jack did."

"I'll be sure to catch up with him. What did Jack work on?"

"I forget his project, I think it was that map one that we did. That's right, because David finished it on his own. And Jack was also the go-to guy to fix our servers and any other glitches that came up. We're all computer guys, of course, and the school has people — but man, he could fix anything, so everybody just always called him when there was an issue."

"What other stuff was going on here that he was working on?"

"Oh yeah, well we definitely work on some crazy sensitive stuff here.
Cade Jackson
type shit," he winked.

"A fan? How great."

Yeah, seriously, how great
, he thought sarcastically.

"I'm definitely a big fan. Could you..."

"I'll mail you a couple signed copies after I get back to New York."

"Great!"

"So what was the crazy sensitive shit?"

"We'd scored some government grants to do work for the military. It was a huge deal. David and Jack didn't work on it, but a bunch of us were all wrapped up in it. Couldn't focus on anything else."

"Did you need security clearances?"

"We did." He looked nervous for a second. "This wasn't public but there was actually a scare there was a breach right around when Jack died," he lowered his voice to a whisper. "But nothing came of it, so it just blew over."

"And you've wrapped up that project?"

"Yeah, got a couple new ones. You should set a book here!"

Griffen stood and reached out his hand. "I just may do that. Thanks man."

Griffen left Alvin's office and stalked across the quad, his heart heavy with the added weight of evidence against Jack. He grabbed his phone to call Trey.

"Hey, Griffen, what's up?"

"I'm at
CMU
. I confirmed Jack didn't work on the military robotics projects, but he did help out with working on their tech issues and servers. Could that have given him access to information on another project?"

"Hard to know without looking at the servers, but yeah, it should have. It's not the only way to get the materials, but it would work."

"Shit. And Althea said he was working in the office after hours."

"Yeah that matches up with the timing of when he saved the documents — when no one would have been around. I'm sorry but it doesn't look good, man."

"Any word on the rest of the files or your other searches?"

"I should have the files, bank account information, and phone records sorted out soon."

"Thanks, Trey."

"No problem."

Griffen hung up and tried to ignore the tight fist squeezing around his heart.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

"What do you think Tea?"

Dammit
. She'd been preoccupied all day, not with preparations for the upcoming Crenshaw Mining case depositions. Nope. Griffen had occupied her brain all day, ever since he'd dropped his bomb of an offer.

After lamely participating for twenty more minutes, Althea finally hung up on her conference call and tried to focus. She stood and walked to her office window and its view of the Monongahela River.

She watched the river rush beneath a bridge and caught sight of a log snagged on a red buoy. The river was swollen and the current quick from last night's storm and the powerful water rushed around the log, paying it no heed. Its plight reminded Althea of her life after Jack's death.

The river was so high and dark today — but for this one buoy, time had simply stopped. For so many years she too had remained still while these damn rivers kept flowing, the only movement in a life halted by the swift hand of loss and death.

After Jack died, barges continued to trudge along delivering goods like they had for hundreds of years in this murky water highway. People had met, fallen in love, worked, gone to school. All unaware of the snagged log of a woman holding still while the world rolled, buffeted, and moved right alongside of her. Nothing changing for her but the date and the growth of her beautiful son, the only connection to a love long ago lost. She clutched onto Johnny and her memories with all the strength she had as the currents of life rushed powerfully past her.

Althea was honest enough with herself to recognize what she had wasn't really a "life." It was more like an "existence." It was getting by. It was one breath...then another.

She wondered if she hadn't had Johnny if she would've chosen no breaths. She knew it sounded crazy, but often she wondered if Jack was trying to protect her even after death, sending Johnny to her so that she could make it through — giving her a reason to keep moving forward.

The only thing to free a snagged log is to break it from its tethered point. What if she did that? Cut herself free of the guilt and loss and let herself float along with the world to her future?

But what about the memories and love? She couldn't let the guilt go and keep those too, could she?

Then again, logs can't stay snagged forever. Eventually, change comes.

The log breaks free or the current simply tears it apart and pulls it under.

Althea knew something had to change but had been so scared of that for so long. Yet somehow this thing with Griffen, whatever it was, felt like a good change. Felt like something different that she needed to follow through with. The only alternative was to continue being swept away and eventually sink under.

Maybe she shouldn't fight her feelings for him anymore? What if she cut the snag and simply let herself flow with the current? What if it took her somewhere close to happiness?

But for every bold thought Althea had, a much stronger jolt of fear took her.

What if this didn't work and she was more brokenhearted than before? Look how twisted up she was after a matter of barely two weeks — wouldn't more time with Griffen just leave her more exposed to hurt?

Then there was the guilt — the feeling of betrayal for wanting a future with another man. After she'd failed Jack so terribly, how could she be so selfish?

And just like that the snag yanked her back and Althea felt the waters rushing by her and life passing her by again. Disgusted with her own indecision she grabbed her purse to leave and pick up Johnny.