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GSU service.” It wasn't, but this made for a nice story. “How
is she doing?”
    Her father
answered, “As well as can be expected.” He paused, awkwardly, then
continued, “Dr. Sharpe, we've heard that you're not just a physics
professor, are you?”
    My reputation preceded me. “No, I have 'other
interests'.”
    “ One of
those is a private investigator, isn't it?”
    “ Yes.”
    “ I want to
know who did this to my baby.”
    “ I'm working
on it. It would help if I could ask your 'baby' a few
questions.”
    “ Sure.”
    “ Tamika, do
you feel up to answering my questions?”
    “ Yes.”
    “ What
happened?”
    “ I collapsed
in class. Then woke up here.”
    “ No, I
should be more specific. What can you remember from the day it
happened. Was there anything unusual?”
    “ Oh, there
was that scratch.”
    “ Scratch?”
    “ Someone
scratched me as I was coming into Classroom South. It was a big
crowd, so I don't remember who.”
    “ Can I
see?”
    She pointed to her arm, and there, still faintly
visible was a mark. “Do you think that had anything to do with
it?”
    “ Well,
maybe. You didn't, by any chance know Jane Phillips or Sam
Green?”
    “ Sam, wasn't
he the one who collapsed in class too?”
    “ Yes.”
    “ He was
another tutor in the ESL program, I think Jane was too.”
    “ Were you a
tutor, then?”
    “ Oh yes.”
She confirmed that we had a common thread between at least a few of
the cases.
    “ How did
that work?”
    “ It was fun,
we'd Skype someone and help them talk well in English.”
    “ That
all?”
    “ Usually. It
wasn't normal Skype or chat. We'd have to enter some funny numbers
first.”
    “ Really? Do
you remember what the numbers were?”
    “ There were
either four or six of them. Numbers and letters. It was like
AF.86.54.FF. Not that it was the same all the time.” It sounded
like an IP4 or IP6 internet address, but I'd have to ask a friend
to confirm it.
    “ Funny thing
was once I made a mistake and this man came up. He was really
upset.”
    “ Could you
identify him?”
    “ Maybe. He
had a funny accent. I could barely understand him.”
    “ If you'll
wait a second.” I called Laura on my cell. “I'm busy Will, what is
it?”
    “ Not much,
can you send me that picture?”
    “ What
picture?”
    “ The man we
saw in the airport, the trafficker?”
    “ Why?”
    “ I need to
see if one of the students recognizes him.”
    “ Students?”
    “ One of the
ones who had an attack. She said she made a mistake while tutoring
ESL students and this man came up.”
    “ One of your
'hunches', darling?”
    “ Of
course.”
    “ I'll get it
forwarded to you. See you tonight. Bye.”
    I told Tamika and her parents that I'd need to
show them a picture of someone, after I received it.

7. Hillbilly Heroin.
    Meth
synthesis is so mundane. Dr. Isabelle Carling was producing it
without using pseudoephridine or anything the DEA would consider
unusual via a Grignard reaction from Benzyl chloride, acetaldehyde
and methylamine. A relatively simple synthesis for a skilled
organic chemist like her, it was an excellent way to supplement her
income. Since the state legislature forbid the Board of Regents
from raising salaries for “lazy good for nothing Godless academic
scum”, she had found her own solution to those pressing financial
needs. Her contact, a janitor, routinely picked up her high quality
product on Friday and put her share of the proceeds in her top desk
drawer early Monday morning.
    This
symbiotic arrangement proceeded in a mutually advantageous manner
until the drug gang that was the distributor had a 'change in
management'. The body wasn't found, but the DEA suspected he had
been taken deep sea fishing. Or else he was helping to prop up the
new 17 th street
bridge in the manner that a 'watching man' was used in Viking
construction. In any case, instead of a polite request for another
few grams of clean Methamphetamine, the order came for some more
difficult to