Mad, Bad and Blonde - Cathie Linz [58]
“Didn’t want to risk being seen by your father, huh?”
“He was already suspicious that I took off an hour early.”
“I told you I could handle Nolan myself.”
“And I said we need to do this together.”
“Because we don’t trust one another. I see you’ve donned your undercover geek attire,” she said.
“Sometimes you talk like a show on PBS.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be. It’s kind of cute.”
She didn’t want to be cute. She wanted to be strong. “You know the cover story, right?”
“Right.”
Nolan didn’t live far from the downtown campus of the University of Chicago. It was a bit of a trek, but it was a nice day, so they walked it. Caine was unusually quiet. So was she. Her thoughts were focused on the role she’d be playing in this scenario.
They reached Nolan’s home and waited outside until he arrived. She knew from her research that he always came home at the same time every evening, which made her plan easier. Sure enough, he showed up right on time. She approached him with her hand out.
“Dr. Nolan Parker?”
He nodded and ignored her hand.
“Hello, sir,” Faith said. “My name is Andrea Morehead, and I’m writing an article about research chemists in the Chicago area who are working on biofuel projects. I’d love to interview you for the article. I tried calling you, but your voice mail was full.”
“Right. I’ve been meaning to fix that. I’ve been too busy.” With his receding hairline, rimless glasses and big ears, Nolan reminded her a bit of one of the Teletubbies. The yellow one.
“I’m on a very tight deadline for this article, so if you want to be included, I’d have to interview you right now,” she said.
“Who’s he?” Nolan pointed at Caine.
“He’s my photographer.”
“This is very unusual.”
“I understand. I just thought I’d give you a chance to be included in this article featuring the best and the brightest. But if you don’t have the time . . .”
“I didn’t say I didn’t have the time. No article about the best and the brightest would be complete without me.”
The guy clearly didn’t lack self-confidence.
“I can spare you a few minutes.” He made the simple words sound condescending. “We can talk out here.”
They stood on the brick steps leading to his building. He didn’t invite them in. Why not? What was he hiding?
“My wife has the flu. I don’t want to disturb her,” Nolan said.
“Okay.” Faith started with the easy stuff, his background, where he went to university. She’d done her research on him, so she knew a lot already. “I understand you worked at the American Research Corporation for a time.”
“That’s correct.”
“Were you in charge of the biofuel project there?”
“No, but I should have been. They put an inferior person in charge, and he ended up ruining everything.”
Faith saw the tic in Caine’s jaw. Not a good sign.
“The guy was unstable,” Nolan continued. “ARC never should have trusted him. I knew from the beginning that he was no good.”
“How could you tell?” Faith said.
“He was unstable, like I said. He ended up committing suicide, you know. Set the project back by two years. But now I’m working for a new company, and we’re really making a lot of strides in this field. Of course, I can’t give you details, because the material is classified by my employer, and you probably wouldn’t understand it anyway, unless you held an advanced degree in chemistry and had years of experience.”
“I got a C in high school chemistry,” Faith admitted. “I’m not a science person. I’m more into words.”
“Humph.” Nolan gave her a disapproving look. “We need more young people to go into the fields of math and science. We need chemists and engineers.”
“What character trait makes you a good chemist?”
“Curiosity and a willingness to experiment and the intelligence to figure out what works. You can’t be a weakling in this field. That was Karl Hunter’s problem. He was weak.”
Okay, now Caine had two tics in his clenched jaw.
“Thank you, Dr. Parker. You’ve been very helpful.”
Caine stepped forward, and Faith wasn’t sure if he was going to take Nolan’s picture or hit him with the camera.