said.
“Not them.” Tiffany indicated Ostermann and the cameraman. “I don’t want to be on camera.”
Ostermann started to object.
Jana cut him off. “All right. Fine. It’ll just be you and me.”
“No, not fine,” Ostermann objected. “We need a film clip.”
“Wait for me in the van,” Jana said to him.
Ostermann began to object again. Jana shut him down with a glance. Letting loose an exasperated huff, he stomped away. The cameraman didn’t seem to care one way or the other. He shrugged and lugged his equipment down the hallway.
“Out here.” Tiffany led Jana to an open courtyard with trees planted in six-foot-square wooden boxes. The perimeter of the planters were benches.
Tiffany set her books down, then sat beside them. Folding her hands in her lap, she stared straight ahead. Jana reached for a recorder in her purse, then thought better of it.
“What do you want to know?” the girl said. “You were at the press conference. I have nothing else to say.”
Jana suppressed a grin. It wasn’t unusual for people she interviewed to attempt to control the direction of the interview, especially if they were hiding something. Tiffany didn’t know it, but she had just confirmed Jana’s suspicions.
“The press conference gave me the facts about the discovery,” Jana said. “I want to know what it was like for you—a student and a young woman—to make such an incredible find.”
Tiffany shrugged. “I got lucky, that’s all.”
She folded her arms defensively. Jana noticed the girl’s shoulders. Swimmer’s shoulders, wide and strong. This close to her, her freckles were prominent.
“OK, so you got lucky,” Jana said. “A bored shepherd boy threw rocks into a cave and found the Dead Sea Scrolls. Sometimes that’s how discoveries are made.”
Tiffany turned away. She fought her emotions. “I just wish I’d never gone on that trip. I wasn’t even their first choice, did you know that? A guy in Ft. Lauderdale was supposed to go, but he crushed his leg in a motorcycle accident. When they called me I thought it was a lucky break.”
She chuckled at her unintended pun. Her grin faded quickly.
“But now—I don’t know.”
She began to weep.
Jana handed her a tissue and waited patiently for her to compose herself. Softly, she said, “Tiffany, something is obviously troubling you. With all the attention these manuscripts are generating, you know it’s going to come out. What are you afraid of?”
CHAPTER 4
D ark mahogany wood dominated the décor in Dr. Whitson’s office, complemented by forest green carpeting and drapes. It was as dim as a cave.
Four chairs had been arranged in a semicircle facing a laptop computer on the conference table. The professor had wheeled himself between the two middle chairs. Dr. Whitson sat to one side of him. Sue Ling took the chair on his other side.
As I maneuvered into the remaining chair next to Sue, the professor said, “Your girlfriend betrayed us.”
“Former girlfriend,” I corrected him. “Jana and I haven’t dated since high school. And she didn’t betray anybody. She was doing her job.”
“Her job?” Whitson roared. “Blindsiding us in front of the cameras is her job? I thought you were going to talk to her be-forehand.”
“Didn’t have time. She arrived just as the press conference was getting started.”
“Well she certainly came loaded for bear,” Whitson complained. “Do you have any idea what I looked like up there? I call on her, thinking we have an ally in the media, and the next thing I know I’m being blasted out of the water.”
“Let it go, Marvin,” the professor said. “What’s done is done. The question now is, Where do we go from here?”
The professor was himself again. I’ve seen him get angry before. He has a summer squall temper. It passes quickly.
Sue, however, is a sulker. She slouched in her chair, her eyes fixed on things only she could see.
“Did you really think you could keep the