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He listened for a long time, then said, “Yeah, sure. That’s fine. Do you need… Oh, yeah. Of course you do. See you in a bit.”
He ended the call and looked over at him and Sierra in the far corner of the living room. “Dr. Chang’s coming over to talk to me.” He hunched his shoulders. “She doesn’t want me anywhere near the lab or her office right now. Not while Aaron’s around.”
Cody murmured to Sierra, “We’ll talk about this later. When we’re alone. Now that we know who Jack’s intruder was, we know he’s not involved in the mess with the Bratva. Why don’t you pack your stuff and we’ll leave?”
But before they could get out of the apartment, Cody heard a knock at the door. Jack jumped up to open it, but at the last minute saw Cody and stepped away.
Cody opened the door. “Dr. Chang. Come on in.” He scanned her tall, slender body, seeing no weapons or places where she could hide a weapon in her skinny jeans and French-tucked Oxford shirt. “Do you mind if I check your bag for a weapon?”
Instead of looking annoyed, she lit up. “That would be cool. You need to search me, as well?”
“No, just your bag will be fine.” He stared into her tote, slid his hand inside to make sure there wasn’t a gun or a knife, then handed it back to her. “Thanks, Dr. Chang. Sorry I had to do that.”
“Hey, it’s your job,” she said, her gaze flicking between him and Sierra. “I understand.”
From the knowing gaze when she looked between him and Sierra, he suspected Dr. Chang understood a lot. “I appreciate your cooperation,” he muttered.
“Great story to tell my friends,” she answered with a smile.
“Just so you don’t use any names,” he said.
“Of course not.” Chang turned to Jack. “Quite the setup you have here, Jack.”
He shrugged one shoulder. “I need to visualize everything I’m doing. This helps.” He motioned to the chair beside him. “Have a seat.”
“We’ll get out of your way,” Cody said. “Give you a little privacy.”
“No, stay,” Jack said, surprising him. “You went out of your way to come here to protect me. You figured this out. You should hear this, too.” He glanced at Chang. “Is that okay?”
She shrugged one shoulder. “Fine with me.”
Cody pulled the ottoman from the couch close to Jack’s desk and sat down on it. He turned to find Sierra and patted the cushion.
She hesitated for a long moment, then perched on the edge of the leather, trying to stay as far as possible from him.
“I spoke to Aaron.” Chang sighed. “He admitted immediately that he’d tried to break into your apartment.”
“Why?” Jack asked.
Chang puffed out a breath. “He’s jealous of you, Jack. Jealous of your success. That you’re doing so well in spite of the fact that you’re four or five years younger than most of your cohort. He’d had too much to drink that night, he said, and I suspect he was nursing his grievances. He thought he’d do better in our program if you weren’t in his way.”
Jack reared back. “He planned tokillme?”
Charlotte Chang sighed. “He swore he wasn’t going to hurt you. Just destroy your data. But…” She took a deep breath. “I have no idea if he was telling the truth. What if he broke in when you were home? What would he have done then? You wouldn’t have stood back and let him wreck your computers. So, yeah. Don’t know what he had planned, but it wasn’t going to end well for you.
“I talked to an Evanston police officer, and she said he couldn’t be charged with a crime. He hadn’t actually broken into your apartment or damaged any property.” Charlotte scowled. “It’s not against the law to knock on a door while wearing a ski mask.”
She studied Jack for a long moment, and Sierra saw both anger and concern. “The dean and I agreed he couldn’t remain in our program. His continued presence would be a danger to all the students. We also made it clear to Aaron that he needed to move away from Evanston. We suggested he go home to Florida, and strongly recommended that he seek counseling. Any future recommendations would depend on him getting counseling.”
Chang tightened her mouth. “I’m so sorry this happened, Jack. Aaron is a talented man, but he’s clearly troubled. I failed you and the rest of the students in the program by not realizing that.”
“I can’t believe he flipped out like that,” Jack said, frowning. “He seemed… normal. Like all the other grad students.”
Charlotte leaned toward Jack and touched his arm. “It’s hard to see what’s behind a person’s outward persona. Aaron was maintaining a normal front. But he let it slip when he came after you. Most people are trusting. They accept what they see. In Aaron’s case, we all missed the signs.”
“What happens next for Aaron?” Jack asked.”
“I’ve spoken to the police department in his Florida hometown. He’ll be under court-ordered supervision. And one prerequisite of being allowed to go home is that he has to get therapy. I hope it helps him,” Chang said. “But he’ll have to put in the effort. Aaron’s therapist will keep in touch with the person who’s supervising him. He won’t be released until they’re both certain Aaron has changed.”
