The Family Gathering (Sullivan's Crossing #3)(93)

“Thanks,” Dakota said.

“If you see her around here, even at a safe distance, you best tell me. I think the woman has an evil streak.”

“Obviously,” Dakota said. “Trust me, if I see her coming, I’m running in the other direction. Now, you think you ran her off just by embarrassing her on some social media network?”

“Not exactly,” Stan said. “In fact, I doubt she has the capacity to be embarrassed. She’s really cold as ice, isn’t she? But the woman likes an audience for her stories and just about everyone around here is all done believing anything she says. Poor thing can’t even get a club soda at the bar down the street. She needed a fresh field to plow.”

“What the hell do you suppose she wants?”

“I bet she doesn’t even know what she wants. I suspect she enjoys keeping people off balance and the attention she gets from stirring things up. I suspect a personality disorder.”

“You ever run into anything like this before?” Dakota asked.

Stan laughed. “In law enforcement?” he asked. “Hell, boy, liars and troublemakers is just about all we got!”

When Dakota left the police department, he walked down the street to the bar. It was almost lunchtime and Rob was watching the bar. “How’s it going?” Dakota asked.

“Not bad. How about you?”

“Up and down. I just got some good news from Stan. It seems Neely has blown Dodge. Looking for new friends and playmates.”

“That is good news,” Rob said. “Something to drink? Eat?”

“How about a Coke,” he said. “Have you talked to Sid lately?”

“A couple of days ago. She sounded kind of tired.”

“But happy?” Dakota asked. “She sound happy to you?”

“I don’t know that I’d characterize it as happy. She did sound kind of, I don’t know, satisfied? I’m just guessing here, but I think that work makes her feel more self-confident than slinging drinks and packing lunches for the boys. Haven’t you talked to her?”

“Not as much as I’d like,” Dakota said. “I’m surprised. Busy as she was while she was here, she seemed to have plenty of time. Are they working her to death?”

“While they have her,” Rob said.

“And she likes that?” Dakota asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Rob said with a laugh.

“She said that kind of work overwhelmed her,” Dakota said. “She said she ran into big trouble not having balance. It takes her longer and longer to answer a text or call me back. I’m wondering if she’s coming back. Did she tell you she’s coming back?”

Rob leaned on the bar. “Dakota, I didn’t ask her.”

“Okay, I need a little enlightenment,” Dakota said. “I want her to be happy. I want her to have whatever she needs to be happy. But I’d sure like to know if I fit into that plan.”

“Ask her,” Rob said.

“Ask her to choose between computer programming or us?”

“Yeah, that was romantic,” Rob said. “It’s not computer programming exactly.”

“Then what is it? Exactly.”

Rob just stared at him for a long moment. “What do you know about Sid?” he finally asked.

“That she worked in computers. That she was overworked in computers. Writing code, she said. Software not hardware. That it could be intense and lonely. I guess I just don’t get why it had to be her for this project. Don’t they have plenty of programmers in California? This Faraday—he have a special interest in her?”

Rob looked at him in shock. Then he stuck his head in the kitchen. “Trace,” he yelled. When the boy came from the kitchen, Rob said, “Man the bar. Do not serve alcohol. I’ll only be ten minutes.”

“Okay,” Trace said.

“Dakota, my office. Come on through.”

Dakota followed. Rob’s office was very small. He had to move a chair out of the way to close the door. “Sit,” Rob told Dakota.

“Why do I get a bad feeling?”

Rob didn’t answer. “Listen, I don’t know why the two of you haven’t talked about this but Sid is special. She’s a genius.”

“I don’t have a problem believing that,” Dakota said. “She must be the best programmer in the west.”

“She’s a physicist. A PhD. A Rhodes scholar. She might be writing some code but it’s far more complicated and exceptional. They’re working on quantum computing, the sort of high-speed, complex, intuitive computing that can lead to artificial intelligence. The computer they’re working on is processing and analyzing DNA. It can process millions of pieces of information in seconds. Less than seconds. She can explain this much better, not that you’ll understand it any better than I do. Molecular genetic research will change the world, save lives, wipe out disease, and they’re creating and constantly refining the quantum computer that’s doing it. She’s working with a Nobel laureate. Do they have a lot of people with her qualifications? I don’t think so. She is so important in this field it’s mind-boggling.”

Dakota gulped. “Hang on,” he said. “Let me scrape my chin off the floor.” He shook his head as if to settle the pieces in place. “Man, look at what can happen when a kid is in an accident and can’t go out and play.”