“Look,” said Apgar. “I know you feel like we’ve kicked a hornet’s nest. And we have. But this will blow over before you know it. I’m sure it will.”

“Yeah, I’m sure it will also. Because I’m pulling Erin from her project.”

Erin’s eyes widened. “What!” she said. “You can’t do that.”

But even as she said this, like half of a schizophrenic personality, a weary voice whispered to her to let it go. That this would be for the best. She was so tired. Tired of deception. Tired of guilt. Tired of wrestling with issues of ethics and morals so thorny the densest rosebush seemed like a downy pillow by comparison. How easy it would be to cave, to use this as an excuse to stop what she was doing and bring the one foot she had hanging over the abyss back to firm ground. But something in her wouldn’t let her. Not after she had come this far. Despite the severe price it was extracting, she couldn’t leave matters unfinished.

“Look … Erin,” said the dean. “I’m doing you a favor here. You have more than enough data to get your Ph.D. and move on. Write up what you have and then find a nice university—one not named the University of Arizona—to do a postdoc. Jason should have forced you to begin writing up your thesis six months ago anyway.”

“But I’m at the most important part of the research,” said Erin, fighting to keep her voice calm.

“This isn’t a discussion,” said the dean.

Erin’s mind raced. Ideally she could use two or three months of further study. To confirm, and polish, and refine, and measure. To get her scientific arms fully around the phenomenon. But she could get to a quick and dirty confirmation fairly quickly. It wouldn’t be ideal, but it would have to do.

Erin blew out a long breath. “Okay,” she whispered. “You’re right.” She paused for a few seconds to make sure the dean digested the fact that she was surrendering without a protracted battle. “Just give me two weeks to wrap up what I’m doing,” she added casually, as though this was a request that was beyond reasonable. “And then I’ll pull the plug.”

“No. You’re off the project. Effective immediately. When this meeting ends, I have to return dozens of calls. And you can bet your ass I’ll be telling them you were removed from this project the instant I became fully aware of it. This will be just the beginning of damage control. God knows how I’ll explain why I wasn’t aware of it earlier.”

Dean Borland shook his head. “Consider yourself lucky that I let you go on this long,” he added. “You were a hair away from being removed from the project a year ago. I don’t know if you’re bad luck or what. But as good and dedicated a student as you are, trouble follows you. There are a number of groups around the world visiting prisons and studying psychopaths. So how is it that all of them combined have had one test subject die during their studies, and you’ve had three? In the past two years. This project was damned from the beginning.”

Erin was speechless, but Apgar didn’t have this same problem. This decision impacted him as much as it did his student. As her advisor, Apgar would be a coauthor on the scholarly papers that would come from the research. “Richard, these unfortunate deaths are a separate issue,” he insisted. “Having nothing to do with the Wall Street Journal piece. So I hope you didn’t factor them in to reach your decision. Two prisoners had a stroke and died in their sleep. Yes, it was one in a million, but one-in-a-million events happen. Every day. The pathologist verified their strokes had nothing to do with Erin’s research activities.”

“Okay, two deaths are one in a million,” responded the dean. “But then add in her being attacked in the trailer. I don’t believe in curses, but if I did, this project would be cursed. Three inmate deaths. What are the odds of that?”

“Would you have preferred I let him kill me?” said Erin angrily. “Would that have helped the odds? Two inmates and a grad student dead?”

“No, of course not. Although you could have told us you were a female Chuck Norris earlier. Before this happened, Jason and I used to wonder if we were insane for agreeing to let you do this project in the first place. If we would have known how easy it was for the hundred-and-twenty-pound damsel to strike a lethal blow against the two-hundred-pound, weight-lifting inmate, we could have saved ourselves the trouble.”

“I didn’t mean to crush his windpipe,” said Erin. “It was self-defense, and I struck harder than I realized. But why rehash any of this? I can only second what Dr. Apgar has said. The prison conducted a thorough investigation of all three deaths, and I was exonerated. If I hadn’t been, the prison wouldn’t have let me continue. So that’s in the past. It isn’t fair to link that case and this one.”

“Yes it is,” said Borland. “Because I’ve already been asked about these deaths today by the media. The media and the ACLU don’t have to do much digging into your research to learn about these incidents. It’s not like they’re hidden. They just pop right out. I have no doubt some people will wonder if you’re studying inmates, or picking them off one by one, Ten Little Indians style.”

Erin frowned deeply. “The thing about the wireless psychopath detector was a mistake. I admit that. But one I made years ago and didn’t repeat. The other incidents happened, but I had nothing to do with them. Please don’t do this,” pleaded Erin. “Not now. Just give me a single week.”

The dean shook his head, his expression even grimmer than before, if this was even possible. “I’m sorry,” he said in a tone that suggested he really wasn’t. “But you’re done. As of this second. And no power on earth is going to change that.”

5

“GOOD MORNING, ERIN,” said Alejandro cheerfully as she entered the prison grounds and the heavy steel door slid shut loudly behind her.

“Morning,” she said, adjusting her hideous and useless glasses and trying hard not to look as nervous as she felt.

She had ended her meeting with Dean Borland by making sure he knew how much she disagreed with his decision, but also making it clear that she was prepared to respect it. She would halt her current study and begin writing her doctoral thesis. He was right. This was long overdue, and she had enough data for two doctorates.

She had assured both the dean and her advisor that she would inform prison authorities immediately that her study had come to an end, and make arrangements for the mobile lab to be removed from the yard once and for all. She had also told them she would be taking a two-week vacation to sort things out in her head and get a new lease on life, starting immediately. She would get a fellow grad student to fill in for the two missed teaching days this would entail.

After they had left the dean’s office, Apgar had apologized profusely for what had happened, and told her she was the most impressive graduate student he had ever had. She thanked him for trying to defend her and reassured him that her thesis would make him proud.

But she had no intention of pulling up stakes. Not when she was this close.

“I know you won’t believe this,” she said to Alejandro, “but I’m actually taking a vacation soon.” He had often told her she spent more time on the prison grounds than the inmates, and encouraged her to do just this.

“No!” said the guard in mock horror. “Say it isn’t so.”

Erin forced herself to smile. Her actions needed to appear perfectly normal, no matter how nervous she was on the inside. “I’m afraid it’s true. I finally decided to take your advice, Alejandro.”

She sighed. “But here’s the bad news. I have a lot I want to accomplish before I go. So I’ll be working far more hours than normal for at least the next few days. And seeing far more prisoners.”

“Is that even possible?”