The only thing that had bothered Ivy was the fact that Tristan had used Zeke’s cell phone.
Acquiring the phone had been easy enough—he had access to all the students’ cells before class. But to take the video, Tristan would have had to have known the man’s passcode.
Tristan was good with computers, knew how to hide his tracks. To break into a cell, though?
Ivy was skeptical that her TA had that sort of skill.
What Vaughn had told her at dinner solidified her theory. Tristan and Zeke had been working together. Henry Lane, too. Probably Devon Godfrey. Everyone wanted the goddamn laptops. And now she had Dr.Neely’s, with his half of the Riemann hypothesis, which her father wanted to give away while Steve intended to sell it to the highest bidder.
That was the reason for the fight that night, when they’d finally solved it. Opposites attract.
Ivy set down her beer and swapped it for the chess board she’d taken from the DAL residence. Flipped it over. Picked at the sticker of the 8x8 alternating black and white squares. Peeled it off in one piece.
Tristan had broken into the DAL looking for the laptop, probably broke into her home, too. But it had been there all along, right before his eyes.
Ivy lifted the lid of her father’s laptop.
Save the work... save the laptop, Ivy... it’s more important than any of us.
Ivy opened Steve’s laptop next, set them side by side. Finally, both pieces of the puzzle. The Riemann hypothesis solved. Thought impossible.
Abby got out of her chair and put her arm around Ivy’s neck from behind. Squeezed her. Ivy patted her friend’s hand.
“What are you going to do with it?”
Ivy continued to stare at the two computers in reverence, in awe.
“I don’t know,” she said honestly.
“Well, whatever you decide, I’ll always have your back, bitch.”?
?Chapter 84
Ivy felt refreshed.For the first time in a week, her sleep had been sound and dreamless.
She awoke just after ten.
When was the last time she’d slept in past ten o’clock?
Couldn’t remember.
Not even as a kid. Her late father had always touted the importance of getting up early, having a routine.
Ivy yawned, stretched a little. Laid in bed for a good five minutes before finally getting up.
She took her time in the shower. Finished with a blast of cold water.
It wasn’t until she was making her way downstairs that she remembered that she no longer lived alone.
Ivy had a roommate.
Abs had said that Steve Neely was no longer her responsibility. True. But she still felt obligated to look after the man.
And despite his inability to communicate, their relationship was far from one-sided.
For three years, Steve Neely had acted as a stand-in father to her. And before he’d started wandering, the predictability of the man’s routine had offered her comfort.
He couldn’t talk, but Ivy could still speak to him. And when they were alone, she did just that. Shared things with him, things that only Abby knew. About that night, sure, but about other stuff, too. Her struggles with her work, with balancing everything on her ever-widening plate.
