“Why don’t you scoot in and close the door so you can keep warm,” he suggested quietly.
“I’m waiting for Dan Digby from the state.”
“Do you know him?” He barely waited for her nod. “Then you’ll recognize him as soon as he gets out of his car.”
He had a point. “But what about you?”
“I’m fine. I ran over here. It warmed me up nicely. If I get cold, I’ll run around the parking lot.”
So she pulled her legs in and let him close the door for her. Then he went over and shook hands with Jake Madison, and was clearly introduced to Sarah and Ben. She wondered briefly if they’d be suspicious of him because he was a newcomer, but body language belied that. Finally impatient because she couldn’t hear what was going on, she climbed back out into the cold.
They were beginning to collect a small crowd of gawking students as Jake dutifully covered the back end of her car with black fingerprint dust. She figured the students wouldn’t be here long. The wind seemed to be growing more bitter by the second.
“Well?” she asked as she approached the knot of cops.
Jake looked at her with amusement. “You want a complete forensic analysis in ten minutes?”
“No, but a short one would do.”
“Blunt object. And Ben’s probably right about it being a bad prank, or some kind of hazing. Unless you gave someone a failing grade recently?”
He was serious, she realized. “Not recently. Whether they like the subject or not, no one is taking chemistry who doesn’t need it for a reason. Almost everyone works hard. It’s been a couple of semesters since I last failed someone.”
Jake nodded and looked at Sarah. “It doesn’t look angry.”
She agreed. “Angry would have involved more than one heavy swing. I’d expect your entire tailgate and maybe other parts of the car to be involved.”
“Unless,” said Jerrod, “they got scared away by something.”
Allison looked at him. “What’s that mean?”
“Probably nothing at all.”
But Jake and Sarah didn’t take it that way. “That’s a possibility. It happened since you got here this morning, right?”
“Some time in the past three hours.”
Just then a car pulled into the lot. It bore the state emblem on the side and parked close before Dan Digby climbed out. A balding, slightly portly man of about fifty, he quickly pulled on a fur hat and looked around. “What the hell?”
“Vandalism,” Ben Herbert said, stepping forward. He’d been quick enough to call the police, but apparently he wasn’t going to relinquish all authority here. Allison felt a flutter of amusement run through her, despite her anger about her rear window. Watching men could sometimes be downright amusing.
Dan ignored Ben and came hurrying over. “Are you all right, Allison?”
“Of course. I wasn’t here when it happened. And it really does look like somebody’s bad idea of a prank.”
“Hazing,” Ben said knowingly.
Digby glanced at him and nodded. “Just so long as everyone’s okay. But I suppose my samples are in there.”
“Yes, they are,” Allison answered. “You’d suggested that. Are you in a hurry?”
He flashed a surprisingly charming smile. “Only to get out of this cold.”
“It’ll only be a few more minutes,” Jake told him. “We’re almost done. Why don’t you keep warm in your vehicle?”
“Because this is more interesting,” Digby answered frankly. He pulled down the earflaps on his hat, then snapped the strap under his chin.
“Allison?” Sarah said. “Walk around your car and make sure nothing else appears damaged.”
She did as asked, but didn’t see one ding or scratch that she didn’t recognize.
Jake shook his head. “Protocol says we should dust the entire car in case someone tried to enter it, especially the driver’s side. But who’d be out here without gloves?”
“Skip it,” Allison said. “Only a lunatic would pull his gloves off to try a car door latch. Not today. Can we get Dan’s samples now?”
“Before we all freeze to death?” Sarah said with a humorous smile. “I think we’re done. No prints. Of course, the cold isn’t helping with that, either.”
“I guess I’m going to find out if duct tape sticks at this temperature,” Allison remarked as she opened the tailgate. Five minutes later, Dan Digby drove away with the samples, leaving her fresh core tubes to use, as well as additional sets of gloves and booties. The parking lot emptied out and she turned toward Jerrod, who was now bouncing from foot to foot to stay warm.
“I’m rescuing you,” she said. “Climb in. At least you’ll be out of the wind.”
It was picking up again, as if the air wanted to snatch the last heat it could from them.
In the driver’s seat, turning the engine over, she realized that she could hear the wind whistling inside the cab of her car now. Apparently some of those cracks had gone all the way through even though it was safety glass. Hell, she hoped the damn thing didn’t fall out.
Given that the last temperature she had seen said it was about eighteen degrees out, she let the engine warm up again. “Guess I’m going to have to plug in tonight,” she remarked.
“Plug in?” Jerrod asked.
“Engine block heater. I can tell you’ve never had a vehicle in a climate as cold as this.”
“Not usually. Once I was inserted, I hoofed it.”
That told her a lot, she supposed, or maybe nothing at all. “Back in the old days, when it got really cold, people would drain the oil from their cars and bring it inside, then put it back in the car in the morning. The block heater is a lot more convenient, but you can use an electric blanket under the hood, too.”
“Things I never thought about.”
The engine was starting to put out some heat, so she figured it was warm enough to drive. “It’s kind of you to want to take me to lunch.”
“Well, given a choice of eating alone or eating with you...” Then he laughed. She looked at him, wondering how to take that and then saw the heat in his gaze. Instantly, she blushed. He wanted her. Wow. Too bad he didn’t have any idea what he might be getting into. She dragged her gaze from him, telling her body to shut up. She knew this could lead nowhere good. Maybe she should have refused the lunch, but the rudeness... She sighed and gave in. No way could she insult him by refusing his invitation. She was going to have to find another kind of armor. Trying to sound businesslike, she asked, “Where did you want to have lunch? It’s not like we have an abundance of choices.”
“The diner downtown is pretty good.”
“Sure, if you can take Maude.”
He chuckled quietly. “She doesn’t bug me.”
“She’d be disappointed to hear that.”
The whistling from her back window worsened as she drove. She hoped it wasn’t an omen. She hoped she was right, that no one would have a reason to come after her just for taking soil samples. That no one was stupid enough to think she could find out who had done this thing.
She hoped the uneasiness that Jerrod had inadvertently wedged into her life with his comment about grudges was unnecessary.
She hoped