I pulled my headphones down so they hung around my neck and looked over at Jake. “Hey. I can look up someone’s details in another state’s database, right?”
He stared at me a moment then frowned. “Yeah. As long as it’s public. Like birth certificates and all that stuff?”
“Yeah.”
“This is the strangest thing you’ve ever asked me.”
“It’s for a project.” I grabbed my notebook and halfheartedly waved it. It was obviously enthusiastic enough to be convincing, because he didn’t question me further.
“Sure. You can get most of it for a small fee. A bigger one if you need it quickly.”
“What if it’s for college? Would they give it for free?”
He shrugged. “I’ve never tried. Or you could just get a hacker to get the information for you, but I’m assuming you’re trying to do this legally.”
“No. I’m a law student who strives to break the law.” Present circumstances not included.#p#分页标题#e#
“Call the office of the city or state and charm them. They may give you some basics. Anyone in particular?”
I lifted one shoulder noncommittedly. “We were given a list of a few members of staff who gave their permission, but we have to get the info ourselves. I could maybe charm the office people, right?”
“Or you could check Facebook…”
Damn. He was right.
“You know what, Jake? What you don’t know about history, you make up for in common sense.”
He bit his pen before pointing it toward me. “And your intellectual prowess makes up for your lack of that same common sense.”
“I’d argue that, but you’re scarily right. Okay. I’m gonna see what I can find out.” I replaced my headphones to the dulling sound of his laughter and searched for the Colorado database.
I got there after around ten minutes of searching—this hadn’t ever been my forte—and I typed in Jordan’s details. It showed me nothing. I had to have identification and pay for copies.
Damn it.
I huffed out a breath. I could have tried calling like Jake had suggested, sure, but it’d get me nowhere. I wasn’t going to waste my time. Instead, all I could do was expand my Google searches and hope I’d get something.
I peered over at Jake. He was typing furiously on his laptop with half of a Twizzler hanging out of his mouth as he chewed. I rolled my eyes and focused back on my laptop.
Dr. Jordan Keaton Ph.D., Colorado Springs, I typed into the search bar and hit enter. It got thousands of hits, and I licked my lips as I clicked the first link. Nothing. The same for the second. They were simply his accolades and achievements in his field of study followed by praise for his high standards as a professor.
Glad someone appreciated his slave-drivery.
I slumped forward, resting my chin on my palm, and continued flicking through the links. Many were mundane or unrelated, and if it weren’t for my sheer determination to find something, anything, on this bastard, I’d have given up by now.
I was reading through an article about an awards ceremony where he’d received some kind of recognition for decoding a thousand-year-old language on a stone slab when I paused and had to scroll back up a paragraph.
Dr. Keaton was accompanied by his wife, Mrs. Amanda Keaton, and his parents…
It felt as though the whole world stopped with those four letters.
Wife.
He had a wife. He was married. Married.
Beads of sweat formed on my palms, and I had to swallow back a red-hot mouthful of bile. No sooner had I done so than my stomach churned and I had to cover my mouth with my hand.
I’d never seen a wedding ring on him.
I couldn’t focus on a single thing, so I slammed my laptop shut and shoved it into my purse, ripping my headphones off in the process. I stuffed them inside too, and Jake looked up in alarm.
“Gotta go. Dentist,” I lied. My voice was stronger than I felt. My knees were quivering so badly that I felt as though they’d give way any second, and I wanted to be by my car when that happened.
“You want this?” He held my essay up.
“Nope. You keep it. It’s a copy.” I touched his shoulder with a shaky hand and stormed out of the library. I could barely keep walking. I wanted to run—run far away.
I wanted to get in my car and drive the heck away from Arsen Park. It’d been my home for two years, including the summers I’d busted my butt for extra credits to graduate early, and it’d always felt like that: home. Even when I missed my parents and my brothers, my friends, or wanted to go home just to be near to Griff. It was always home, but this final year, it felt more alien than anything else.#p#分页标题#e#