“I don’t know much about math,” Bowes continued after a slurp of what was undoubtedly an energy drink of some sort, “but Princeton’s math department is one of the best in the country, right?”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Well, Tristan was a B+ student. So I did a little more digging.”
Vaughn had no idea how Bowes had done all this in a matter of what? A half hour? Twenty minutes?
“And?”
“And he was the only applicant.”
Vaughn wasn’t following and asked Bowes to clarify.
“Tristan Coates was the only applicant for the TA position. I looked back at previous years and there were dozens of them. Top candidates had perfect 4.0 GPAs, awards, etc.”
The VPNs. The remote nozzles for the gas that couldn’t be traced. The cameras.
Speakers.
“He hacked in, didn’t he?”
“Yep,” Bowes said, a little too cheerily for Vaughn’s taste. “Someone erased all other applicants, leaving Tristan as the only one. They were subtle, but not great. Wasn’t as careful back then, I guess. I traced the delete actions back to a specific computer.”
“Ivy’s stolen laptop.”
“Yeah, but here’s the thing: it—”
“Bowes, I think Ivy’s in trouble. You have an address for Tristan Coates?”
“I wasn’t done—”
“Bowes, I need an address.”
“Okay, hold on.” Vaughn looked back at Abby’s house, the dark windows, as he pulled onto the main road. “I’ve got it.”
Vaughn punched it into his GPS.
It was close, less than fifteen minutes away. A townhouse on a winding road, relatively secluded. Nearest neighbor a couple hundred yards away.
“Thanks, Bowes.”
Bowes tried to say something, but Vaughn had already ended the call. Bowes had done good work, but Bowes liked to talk.
This wasn’t time for talking. This was time for acting.
Vaughn hadn’t been willing to break into Abby Granger’s place. But Tristan Coates/Neely?
Fuck a warrant.
The door gave inward with just a few mid-strength shoulder pops.
“Tristan?” Vaughn drew his gun.
Eyes trained ahead, he searched blindly with his hand for the light switch. Turned it on, squinting preemptively so as to not be blinded by the light.
“Tristan?”
The house was quiet. Sparsely decorated. Reminded Vaughn a little of Gene’s room.
