Free A Faint Cold Fear by Karin Slaughter Page A

told Richard, 'I imagine they're both pretty broken up. Their son is dead.'
    Richard twisted his lips to the side, openly appraising Lena. He was very perceptive for a self-involved asshole, and she hoped she wasn't giving anything away.
    He asked, 'Do you know them?'
    'Who?'
    'Brian and Jill,' he said, glancing over Lena's shoulder. He gave a silly little-girl wave to someone before turning his focus back to Lena.
    She stared, not answering his question.
    'Have you lost weight?'
    'No,' she said, though she had. Her pants were looser than they had been last week. Lena had not felt much like eating lately. 'Was he one of your kids?'
    'Andy?' Richard asked. 'Sibyl had him for a quarter right before-'
    'What kind of kid was he?'
    'Nasty, if you ask me. His parents couldn't do enough for him.'
    'He was spoiled?'
    'Rotten,' Richard confirmed. 'He nearly failed Sibyl's class. Organic biology. How hard is that? He's supposed to be the next Einstein, and he can't pass OH?' Richard gave a snort of disgust. 'Brian tried to lean on her, call in some favors to get the grade bumped up.'
    'Sibyl didn't do favors like that.'
    'Of course she didn't,' Richard said, as if he had never called it into question. 'Sib was very polite, as usual, but Brian was ticked.' He lowered his voice. 'Let's be honest. Brian was always jealous of Sibyl. He lobbied night and day for her position as department head.'
    Lena wondered if Richard was really being honest or just stirring up shit. He had a habit of putting himself in the middle of things. At one point during the investigation of Sibyl's murder, Richard's big mouth had nearly talked him onto the list of suspects, even though he was as capable of murder as Lena was of sprouting wings.
    She tried to put him on the spot. 'It sounds like you know Brian pretty well."
    He shrugged, waving at someone else behind Lena as he said, 'It's a small department. We all work together. That was Sibyl's doing. You know her motto was "Teamwork."'
    He waved again.
    She was half curious to turn around and see if anyone was really there but decided she would be better served pumping Richard for information.
    'Anyway,' Richard began, 'Andy ended up dropping out, and of course Daddy found a job for him at the lab.' He puffed an irritated breath. 'Not that I'd call sitting on your ass listening to rap music for six hours a day a job. And God forbid you complain to Brian about it.'
    'I guess he'll take the news pretty hard.'
    'Who wouldn't?' Richard asked. 'I imagine both of them will be devastated.'
    'What does Brian do?'
    'Biomedical research. He's working on a grant right now, and between you and me…" He didn't finish, but Lena knew that it was between Richard and the entire school. 'Well, let's just say that if he doesn't get this grant, he's out of here.'
    'He doesn't have tenure?'
    'Oh,' Richard said knowingly, 'he has tenure.'
    Lena waited for more, but Richard was uncharacteristically silent. She had worked on campus for only a few months, but Lena could guess how the school would get rid of a professor who was underperforming.
    Richard, who taught remedial biology to drooling freshmen all day, was a perfect example of how the administration could punish professors without exactly firing them. The only difference was, someone like Richard would never leave.
    She asked, 'Was he smart?'
    'Andy?' Richard shrugged. 'He was here, wasn't he?'
    Lena knew that that could be taken a couple of different ways. Grant Tech was a good school, but any geek worth his salt wanted to go to Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Like Emory University in Decatur, Georgia Tech was considered one of the South's Ivy League schools. Sibyl had gone to Georgia Tech on a full scholarship, and it had given her instant cachet on staff. She could have taught anywhere she wanted to, but something had drawn her to Grant.
    Richard sounded reflective. 'I wanted to go to Georgia Tech, you know. For as long as I could remember. That was going to be my way out of