Kevin’s eyes returned to the student and the stack of books. Most of them were glossy textbooks, with bold, colorful typeface, but a couple of them were old and worn and had white strips of tape across the binding.
Kevin leaped out of the bench, and ignoring Erica’s surprised questions, ran over and grabbed one of the older books off the student’s table.
The student gaped at him, and Kevin said, “Sorry, this’ll just take a second.” He opened the book, but he wasn’t looking for the title. Inside the front cover, he saw it. A stamp saying “Campbell Library.”
“Can I borrow this for a second?” he asked the student and pointed to his table. “I’ll just be right over there.”
The student shook his head, but said “Sure,” with a puzzled look on his face, and Kevin rushed back to Erica, book still in hand. He was smiling.
“What are you doing?” she said. “A second ago you were wallowing in death.”
“I knew I’d seen that code before.” He tapped the note with his finger. “We were looking at it the wrong way. Can I have a pen?”
Erica rooted around in her purse for a few seconds before giving up that method. She pulled handfuls out of the purse and piled odds and ends onto the table: wallet, hospital badge, pager, keys, notepad, torn Lifesaver wrappers. Finally, she found a pen and gave it to him. He quickly scribbled on the message while she repacked her purse. When she was done, he passed the printout to her. Instead of DA483H3, the code now read DA483 H3.
She read it, then looked up. “So? It still looks like a code to me.”
“That’s because it is. And you and I both know what the code is.” He turned the book binding up so Erica could see it. On the white tape, in small black characters, was “N8107 H12.”
“You mean, he hid the notebook in the library?” Erica said.
“There have got to be over a million books in the university’s library. I bet 90 % of them never get checked out. It’s the perfect hiding place. Let me have your keys. I’ll be back in half an hour.” He started to grab for her purse.
“Wait a minute, bud,” Erica said, sliding the purse off the table and into her lap. “Don’t you think the university campus might be one place they’re looking for you?”
“I thought you didn’t believe me.”
“Let’s just say I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt.”
“Erica, I have to go. If we can get that notebook, it might be the evidence we need to take to the police. I’ll buy a cap for a disguise.”
“With your height, they could spot you from across the quad. You’d lead them right to it.”
“We don’t have a choice. I need to get there before they figure it out, too. Otherwise, we’ll have nothing.”
“You’re overlooking the obvious. I can go.”
Kevin shook his head. “No way. You’re in this as much as you need to be.”
“Now don’t get chauvinistic on me. It’s simple. They know what you look like. They don’t know what I look like.”
“How do you know? What if they traced the call?”
“Then it will take a few hours for them to get a picture of me. Besides they haven’t seen me in person.”
Kevin didn’t like it, but she was right. He would be identified too easily. And they didn’t have a choice. It was either get the notebook or…
“All right,” he said grudgingly. “Do you have your mace with you?”
She pulled a cylinder out of her purse. “Armed and ready,” she said with a smile. “Maybe I’ll even get to use what I learned in karate class…”
“Will you stop joking. This is serious.”
“I am serious. Two years of karate. I have a green belt.”
“Why are you doing this?” Kevin asked.
“Because you’re in trouble, and I help friends in trouble.”
“Thanks. Be careful.”
Erica gave his hand a squeeze. “I’ll be fine. If I’m not back in an hour, send the cavalry.”
CHAPTER 11
The closest spot Erica could find to South Texas University’s Campbell library was still a quarter of a mile away, and the temperature was inching toward one hundred. She took a barrette from the glove box and clipped her hair into a pony tail before getting out of the car.
She tried to make some sense of Kevin’s story as she hiked through the university’s main entrance. She wanted to believe him, but the idea was just so farfetched, even preposterous. No one wanted to kill a college student. Kevin admitted as much. Their relationship had never gone past friendship, but it wasn’t because he was odd. Far from it. He was one of the most well-adjusted men she’d ever met. It was just that after four months of getting to know him, there still seemed to be a barrier there. Distance. In some ways she thought he understood her better than anyone else did, but in others she felt like she barely knew him.
Despite the distance, Kevin was the best friend she had. There was potential for more. She saw that in the way he looked at her when they talked. She just wasn’t sure if she had the will to risk their friendship.
She’d almost decided to spend the hour doing something else, pretending she had gone to the library, but she knew she would never be able to look him in the face and lie to him like that. Which left actually looking for a library book marked “DA483 H3.” She still had no idea what she would do after she told him there was nothing there.
Several other people dotted the campus, mostly students enjoying the last days of the break between summer and fall terms. A few older men in suits and sports jackets strode purposefully across the quad, no doubt professors returning to their offices.
Erica reached the shadowed portico leading to the library’s main entrance and took off her sunglasses. She looked at the number scrawled on the piece of paper in her hand and shook her head as she opened the door, wondering what type of book she would be looking for.
Across the main quad, a suntanned blond in his mid-twenties, wearing a gray suit and sunglasses and saddled with the name Vernon Francowiak, watched the woman entering the main library. His gait never slowed as he saw her disappear into the library’s foyer, then he abruptly changed directions when he was sure he wouldn’t be noticed.
Franco had been posted at the university to look for any signs of the student or his girlfriend, a picture of whom he had been faxed only half an hour before from Bern. His boss, Stan Wilson, was watching the building where Hamilton did the research with Ward. At the briefing this morning, Franco had been told to roam the campus in the hopes of seeing one or both of them, in case they tried seeking help from a friend at the university. Another operative was at the hospital with the same instructions.
The woman he’d seen enter the library fit the description, but he’d been too far away to make a positive ID from the photograph he’d been given. He wasn’t going to pass up any chance he might have of making a few points with Lobec, who Franco knew had Tarnwell’s ear. He retreated to the cover of the physics building’s shadows before removing a small, but sophisticated, walkie-talkie from his pocket.
He clicked the button on the side of the device, which was set to communicate scrambled messages with one of its matched handsets.
After a second’s pause, he heard, “This is Wilson. Go ahead.”
“This is Franco. I have a possible on the woman.” A click when he released the talk button told Wilson it was okay to speak.
“Where?”
“She just entered the main library.”