Road Less Traveled by Cris Ramsay Page A

when we’re dealing with him at GD. To have him tagging along while I’m trying to track down leads—it’s even worse.”
    Carter got serious for a second. “So you don’t think he’s going to be any help to us at all? Even if we find the egg?”
    Jo went totally still. One of the things he really liked about her was that she could be brutally honest, even with herself. “No, I think he could be helpful,” she conceded finally, though he could see she was having a hard time letting those words spill from her mouth. “The only people who know more about the Thunderbird project are Allison, the two researchers in charge, and their lab assistant. We can’t ask Allison to take time away from her own work to wander around with us just in case we wind up needing her expertise, and we can’t be sure the docs or the assistant weren’t in on it. Plus, Fargo knows us, and knows how we work, so in theory he’s better at staying out of our way than the others would be. In theory.”
    â€œBut of course it’s Fargo, so he’s right in our way half the time,” Carter finished for her. He laughed, but not at her. “Sorry, Jo. I know it wasn’t fair to make you drag him around. But I do think we’ll need him when we find the thing, and that means keeping him close at hand.”
    â€œSo you drive around with him for a while,” Jo suggested.
    This time he did laugh at her. “Me? Oh, no. He’d drive me crazy!”
    He was really glad he’d gotten the ball back before he’d said that.
    â€œOkay, let’s talk about our suspects.” He switched gears. “You met Korinko—you think she’s capable of stealing her own project?”
    Jo didn’t even have to think about it. “No. She was genuinely upset when she found out what had happened. Either she’s a really good actress or she had no idea. Plus, she wanted to know all about the one that did hatch, which means she wasn’t there at the time.”
    â€œCould have had an accomplice,” Carter pointed out. “She gives him the codes, he steals the eggs for her, she’s got an ironclad alibi.”
    â€œPossible, but I don’t think so,” Jo argued. “She just didn’t strike me as the type.”
    Carter nodded. He’d learned long ago to trust Jo’s instincts. “What about Dr. Boggs?”
    â€œI’m not as sure about him,” Jo admitted. “He was harder to read, and he seemed a little more preoccupied. Like this wasn’t his biggest concern, which struck me as weird. They’ve put the last few years of their lives into this project.”
    Carter thought about that. “You met with Dr. Korinko when she arrived, right?” His deputy nodded. “And then went in to inspect the lab?” Another nod. “Did Dr. Boggs arrive before you came back out?”
    â€œYeah, he was waiting in the hall with Dr. Korinko.” She grimaced. “Which means he’d already heard about the break-in, and about the loss of the eggs . . . ”
    â€œSo he might have been preoccupied because he was going over everything in his head so they could reconstruct their notes and all that lost data,” Carter finished. This was one of the many reasons he and Jo made such a good team. They often thought along the same lines, or at least reached the same conclusions even if they started from different places.
    â€œRight. In that case, never mind. His reaction made perfect sense.” Jo sighed. “Besides, he’s really tall and really skinny. I didn’t get a good look at the thief, but I’d have noticed that.”
    â€œCould have been an accomplice again,” Carter reminded her. “But it sounds like we can rule both of them out, at least for now.” He started to toss up the baseball again, then thought better of it. “That leaves the lab assistant.”
    â€œAndee