Kendra could see Olivia was touched, and her friend didn’t make the mistake of refusing the offering. “That’s kind of you.” She lifted the hydrangeas and breathed in the fragrance. “It’s a lovely gesture and it makes me feel very special.”
“You are special.” She turned toward Kendra as if suddenly remembering she was there. “You’re both special and it’s wonderful that you’re friends.” She went still, and then she was suddenly beaming. “I bet you email back and forth all the time.”
Oh, shit.
“No!” Kendra said sharply. “We live in the same building. We hardly ever email. We just run back and forth when we have something to say.”
“Really?” Ariel said, disappointed. “But I’d think it would be more convenient to—”
“Wrong.” Olivia stepped in, as she sensed there was more to Kendra’s answer than appeared on the surface. “Sometimes it’s good to forget about technology and just reach out and touch.” She glanced at Kendra. “You’re right, we should get Ariel back to her residence hall so that you can fill me in on what’s been going on.” She turned back to where Ariel was petting Harley. “But not until we get Harley to be a little quieter before he disturbs the entire campus. He likes her entirely too much.” She put her hand on his muzzle and said firmly, “Hush, Harley. No more.”
He gave a low growl and then was silent. But he ambled contentedly beside Ariel until they got to the residence hall. Ariel gave him a pat and then turned to Kendra. “You’ll tell everyone I helped and the FBI won’t arrest me for the hacking?”
“I believe they’ll let you be on probation,” Kendra said solemnly. “As long as we see you’re on good behavior.”
“I thought so. Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” She had another thought. “Providing that you tell me why you called yourself Praxidike in that email.”
“Oh, I ran across that name in Greek mythology. Praxidike was the spirit of Justice.” She frowned. “Though maybe I shouldn’t have called myself that when I always thought the name should belong to you, Kendra.”
Olivia choked.
“You will not mention that to Lynch, Olivia,” Kendra murmured between set teeth.
Olivia was trying to smother a smile. “We’ll see…”
“It seemed perfect for you.” Ariel grinned. “But I couldn’t resist using it for our first big case together. And maybe I’ll deserve it myself someday.” She gave Harley one final pat. “Goodbye, Harley. He’s really a great dog, isn’t he, Kendra?”
“You wouldn’t want to adopt him, would you?” Olivia asked. “You’re really getting along well with him.”
Ariel laughed. “Don’t be silly, Olivia. Anyone can tell that he’s your dog.”
She turned and ran into the residence.
“I thought she was a very bright little kid until she said that,” Olivia said. “Did you bribe her?”
Kendra held up her hands. “Innocent.” She turned and started back toward her car. “But she was bright enough to understand nobody should be afraid of Harley but the bad guys. Maybe all her other instincts are equally good. A police dog he’s definitely not. But from what Ariel just told me, it could be that we were right about Harley being more familiar with the campus than we thought. Maybe today he was recognizing the scent of the murderer who killed Mr. Kim.”
Olivia was remembering something else. “Hacking? You were afraid she might hack our emails to each other?”
“I thought it might be a possibility that I wanted to discourage.”
Olivia smiled slowly. “It would be interesting to see if she could do it. I’d like to see how much technical skill she acquired and could apply from my lecture last year.”
“I’m not sure that I want to know. Now stop trying to gauge if she has the ability to be a future Olivia Moore and I’ll tell you what else I found out while I was grilling our hacker. Then we really have to call Metcalf and Griffin and let them know the same information, and tell them about Harley’s sudden transformation into Ariel’s idea of a police dog.”
* * *
Lynch didn’t arrive at Kendra’s condo until almost nine, and it was clear he was not in a good mood.
He used his key to open the door and then slammed it behind him. “Don’t say it. I don’t want to hear it.” He bent down and did a series of hand signals to Harley that instantly quieted him. Then he went over to the bar and poured himself a whiskey. “The only thing I want to