AUTHOR'S NOTE: In Chapter 25, the mysterious "Shadow" helped Shep and Miranda break into David Zhang's Cloud storage documents. Now they believe they have information that could lead to finding the missing grad student. They are about to share it with Professor Clarkson. Enjoy Chapter 26 of The Mammoth Murders.

Friday morning

The three people meeting in Win Clarkson's office had not slept much for two nights in a row. Shepard, Miranda, and Win had each stayed up until early pre-dawn hours, going over the documents uncovered by Shep's hacker friend on Thursday afternoon. Miranda took another personal day off from the library, after a second night with no sleep.

When they gathered at an agreed time Friday morning, they consumed cup after cup of coffee from the pot on the professor's credenza. The caffeine may have been superfluous, however; their nervous worries alone probably would have kept them awake and alert.

Shepard recounted for Win the events of Shep's arrest and incarceration as a murder suspect, and the false evidence someone had planted using David Zhang's cellphone.

"That is absolutely unbelievable!" said Clarkson. "Who would go to all that trouble to incriminate you, of all people? They had to know their scheme would fall apart in the long run. The Montgomery-Krausse lawyers would guarantee it, even if the evidence weren't so flimsy."

"I'm glad it didn't get as far as my mother's lawyers, but I agree the attempt to frame me for abduction or murder is an extreme measure. I'm sorry to say it, Win, but it really makes me think David is dead. Especially after what happened to Tom Rigby."

Clarkson shook his head slowly. He removed his glasses and wiped his eyes with a tissue from the box on the corner of his desk. "I'm not ready to believe that yet. There's still hope we'll find David alive somehow."

Shep said, "I think we can all agree he is not on some short-notice university dig in China."

"What do you mean? What university dig?" Clarkson said, replacing his glasses and leaning forward.

"The one he mentioned in his email," Shep answered.

"You got an email from David?"

"I didn't; you did. Felicia wrote me about it. I'll play it for you." Shep's laptop was already open on the edge of Win's desk, and in moments Shep had located his archived message from Felicia Harper. After a series of voice commands from Shep, his computer read the message aloud.

The voice told Win and Miranda the same story it had initially told Shepard: David wrote that he was leaving in a hurry to accept a position with a dig in China, time was short, sorry to leave, thanks for everything, goodbye.

"I never got a message like that!" Clarkson almost shouted. "I never got any message at all from David himself. All I ever got was that email from his mother, saying that she was worried about him because neither she nor his fiancée had heard from him. He'd even missed a Skype date, and that almost never happened. I had Felicia forward it to you, remember?"

"I didn't get it. She must have sent a fake summary instead."

Miranda began snatching tissues from the desktop box and daubing at her skirt.

Shep reacted to the sounds. "You okay, Bean?"

"When you said, 'his fiancée,' I spilled coffee on myself." She tossed damp tissues into a nearby trashcan. "David had a fiancée ... in China?

"According to his mother," Clarkson answered. "I admit, it surprised me, too. I always had the impression from Felicia that she and David were spending time together, socially."

Miranda sat back in her chair. "Hmh!"

"What, Bean?"

"At the picnic, at Tom Rigby's place, ... remember what she said?"

"I didn't hear her say anything. As I recall, I went with Miz Martha to check out a— to do some birdwatching. So, I could've missed something."

"She wanted you to climb something, didn't she! What was it, a rock? A tree?"

"We were investigating a nest she thought might have eggs in it."

"So, it was a tree."

"Right."

"And you sneaked off to do this because ..."

"I know you don't like me climbing, so ..."

"Listen, mister: I don't like you climbing, but I hate you lying to me! See the difference?"

"Right."

"We'll talk about this later," she promised.

Clarkson gestured to Miranda to continue her story. "At the picnic, Felicia told you something about David's fiancée?"

"That's just it, she didn't," said Miranda. "In fact, it was exactly the opposite. Felicia told me point blank, in so many words, that she, Felicia, was engaged to David — or about to be engaged to David. I forget how she phrased it exactly, but in Felicia's version, she and David were an item. There was no mention of a fiancée in China."

Win said, "Maybe she didn't know about the fiancée in China."

"Didn't you just say how close the two of them were? Surely, if David was engaged to be married, Felicia would've known about it," said Shep. "Unless you think he would hide it because he was interested in Felicia."

Win shook his head. When Shepard didn't respond, Win spoke up, "No, I can't see David lying or cheating. He was a man of excellent character."

"Was?" murmured Miranda. "That's how we're really thinking of David now, isn't it! Was. Not is."

The room went silent under the weight of Miranda's conclusion.

Win got up and fetched the coffee pot. He refilled all three cups, replaced the pot on the credenza, and dropped into his desk chair. The chair gave a sad squeak.

Shep took a sip of the freshened coffee before he said, "Could Felicia have had access to David's cellphone?"

Clarkson exhaled a mixture of grief and fatigue. "I don't know. But after looking over David's notes and drafts last night and comparing them to Felicia's draft I reviewed a few days ago, I'm certain she has stolen David's doctoral dissertation to submit as her own."

Miranda gasped. "She plagiarized the whole thing?"

Shep said, "She must've been pretty sure you wouldn't be reading David's work, if she was brave enough to give you her draft to review."

"She would've been right, too," said Win, "if your hacker hadn't broken into David's Cloud storage. With David's laptop missing, it was likely nobody would ever read his work, nor ever compare it with hers."

Miranda said, "But, if all she wanted was to win the fellowship, would she have to get rid of both David and his computer? Why not just steal his computer? There would be no need to harm David."

"Yeah, there would, Bean," said Shep. "If the laptop went missing, David would do just what we did: he'd pull his saved document down from the Cloud. Or, with some hard work, he'd recreate his dissertation."

Miranda grasped his reasoning instantly. "Even if it wasn't exactly the same as the stolen document," she mused, "it would be close enough."

"That's right," Shep said. "Then, if Felicia had copied his paper from his laptop, everyone would know what she'd done as soon as they saw both papers side by side."

Clarkson said, "And she couldn't submit her own work against David's, because her skills as writer and researcher were noticeably inferior. Anyone looking at both of them would choose David every time."

"Yep. From Felicia's point of view, only one paper must be submitted," Shep concluded. "And the one paper must be submitted by Felicia. Ergo, both David and his computer had to disappear."

Silence blanketed the room once more. No one even took a sip of their coffee.

Miranda was first to speak. "Is this real? Are we really accusing someone we know of a murder — the murder of someone else we know? This sort of thing happens to strangers."

"It might be worse than we think," Shep said. "Win, do you still believe Felicia had no reason to go visit Tom at the farm?"

"No. There would be no reason for her to see Tom. I haven't even asked her to telephone him in quite a while."

"Well, she was out there. We have photographs to prove it."

"But where is she now?" Miranda asked.

Clarkson said, "I still don't know. I've kept trying to phone her since I heard she'd visited Tom, but every call goes straight to voicemail. And, naturally, nobody calls me back."

Shepard produced his cellphone and, using voice commands, sent a text message to Rocket Man. Moments later, the phone vibrated, and Shep activated the audible response.

"Female subject's apartment is wrecked like she left in a hurry," the electronic phone voice told them. "Judging from what's gone and what's left, she ain't coming back. Male subject has left his place, also. They got past me during the night, Chief. Sorry. I'll keep looking. Rocket out."

Nobody spoke for a minute, as they processed this new information.

Then, Win said, "Why now? Why choose last night to make a run for it? And what 'male subject'? Is she with David, after all?"

"The male Rocket was following is Maynard, David's former roommate," Shepard told them. "Remember when Carlo told you on Saturday, Felicia had been seen visiting Maynard secretly? Since then, Rocket has been tailing her. She might've realized she was being watched, so she and Maynard ditched Rocket and took off."

Win took this in and added his own conclusion. "If she discovered your man right after she gave me her draft to review, she probably thought — with her guilty conscience working overtime — that I recognized her plagiarism somehow and told the University. In her panic, she may have assumed the University's investigators were stalking her."

"If they're really gone," Miranda said, "Felicia won't be submitting her doctoral dissertation. Apparently, David won't either."

Shep said, "So, no Ph.D. in archaeology this semester, and no fellowship awarded to jump-start a career. Also, if Felicia is running, she's undoubtedly running with little or no money — students are always broke."

"Plus, she has a junkie partner," Miranda added, "and probably a boatload of student loan debt."

Clarkson added, "They won't get far with no money."

"You're right," Shepard murmured. "They desperately need money. And I know where they can get a three-hundred-thousand-dollar mammoth fossil."

AUTHOR'S NOTE:  Have Felicia and Maynard kidnapped or killed David Zhang? Have they done away with Tom Rigby as well?  Are Shep and Miranda back together officially, or are they merely collaborating to solve this mystery?  More answers - and maybe more questions - are coming in the next installment of The Mammoth Murders.

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