Joe was waiting in the hall when Elie's class let out. "Are you Elie Whitlock?" Joe asked one of the only four girls to exit the room.

"Wish I were," the young woman replied with a regretful smile.

"I am," said the last girl to exit the room. "Who are you?"

"Joe Henderson," Joe answered. "I'm one of Professor Aliem's new assistants," he introduced himself. "I was hoping I could talk with you about the project."

"As long as it's over something to eat," Elie responded. "I skipped lunch."

"The cafeteria?" suggested Joe. "My treat."

"The Big K," she said, shaking her head. "You buy. I'll drive."

"Deal," Joe agreed at once, more than ready for something solid to eat. The donuts and eclair had been neither filling nor as good as they usually were.

Joe followed the lithe young woman out of the building. He watched blond hair, braided in the back, swing back and forth, the tips brushing her hips as she led the way to the nearest parking lot. She grinned as she glanced back at Joe, her green eyes sparkling and soft as the gentle waves near the Virgin Islands on a calm day. "I lucked out. My aunt Kaitlyn was going to school here but she dropped out when Antone proposed to her. She moved to France and I got her truck and parking sticker."

"Not bad," agreed Joe, remembering he had been given a parking spot almost a mile from campus and had to take a bus the rest of the way. Elie stopped beside a large fiery red Dodge truck and tossed her backpack in the back. She unlocked the driver's door and climbed inside. Joe waited for her to unlock the passenger side then pulled open the door and hopped in.

"What all do you want to know?" Elie asked, putting her arm across the seat between them and looking over her shoulder as she backed out of her space.

"Pretty much everything," Joe replied. "I've just started and the professor suggested I might learn faster by talking to everyone involved with the project."

"Sounds plausible," she said, turning around and switching gears.

"How did you get the position of photographer?" Joe inquired.

"Photography has always been a hobby of mine," she replied. "My dad taught me everything I know on the subject."

"Your dad?" Joe asked, something clicking. "He wouldn't be Phillip Whitlock by any chance?" he demanded, his blue eyes darkening with interest.

"You've heard of him?" Elie asked, surprised.

"Are you kidding? He's awesome! The way he filtered the red hew from the erupting volcano and used an infrared lens to capture it without that color. That was the bomb!" Joe replied, excitement in his voice.

"You know about photography?" she queried, raising an eyebrow at him.

"It's..uh...a hobby of mine too," he confessed, his tan face taking on a pinkish tinge.

"Are you any good?" she demanded.

"I think so," Joe replied. "But I'm no professional. I take pictures of my friends at important events and the like, but I've never had anything published."

"Which magazines have you tried?" Elie asked him.

"None," admitted Joe. "It's a hobby. Not a career." He paused. "Not for me, anyway."

"If you're really any good, you should at least try," she told him. "Even if you don't want to turn pro, selling a few pictures can help supplement your income and we students need all we can get."

"I'll keep that in mind," promised Joe. "But how did you end up as photographer for Aliem?"

"Dr. Anderson recommended me," Elie admitted. "He asked if I would be interested and when I said yes, he invited me to dinner at his house to meet Professor Aliem. The next day, I met with Aliem to discuss my duties."

"Is photographing the stages of research your only role in the project?" Joe asked.

"Not really," she replied, turning on her right signal. "I did some of the actually digging too," she told him with a laugh. "I do the photography but Dr. Anderson handles the actual developing. He works closer with Dr. Aliem than I do. Probably even more than Craig or Angela did," she added.

"Why do you say that?" Joe asked as she pulled to a stop in front of Big K.

Elie shrugged. "Dr. Anderson just always seems to be around Dr. Aliem. Even when they aren't working, they are usually hanging out together."

"Maybe they're just friends," suggested Joe.

"Could be," Elie acknowledged. "But every time I get within earshot of the two of them together, they are talking about some anomaly or a geologic pattern. I never knew Dr. Anderson was so into geology."

The two got out and went inside. "Order me a number five combo, please. With a coke," Elie instructed. "I've got to hit the little girl's room."

Joe ordered the requested combo then ordered two double burgers, plain, and a vanilla shake for himself. Taking a seat, Joe opened his burgers, tossed one of the buns aside and loaded the four quarter pounders onto the same bun. Opening wide and taking a bite, he closed his eyes and gave an involuntary sigh. This was what he had been craving all day.

"That good, huh?" Elie asked, her eyes twinkling as she sat down opposite Joe.

"Sorry," he apologized for not waiting.

"Forget it," Elie told him, opening her own burger topped with everything. She took a big bite. "They are good," she said after swallowing.

"Someone I talked to said a pocket of natural gas had been found," Joe commented a little later, his monster burger a thing of the past.

"Oh? It wasn't really," Elie told him. "We all thought it was at the time. The professor included. But we found out the next day we had accidentally tapped into the town's natural gas pipeline."

"I guess that set the university back a pretty penny," commented Joe.

"I hadn't thought of that," Elie said, frowning.

"How did you find out the next day?" Joe asked, his forehead wrinkling in curiosity. "Wasn't this a Friday only thing for everyone except the Professor and his assistants?"

"Angela told me," Elie answered.

"When did you see Angela?" Joe asked, hoping she wouldn't become suspicious because his questions seemed more focused on people than on the actual project.

"That Saturday," Elie answered. "I went to the lab to find Craig when I couldn't reach him at his apartment. Angela was there and she told me about the pipe."

"Did you ever find Craig?" Joe asked.

"No," Elie answered, her face becoming troubled. "And then that afternoon, the university police were looking for him saying he had stolen some research of the professor's," she ended scowling.

"You don't believe that?"

"No," Elie confirmed. "Craig had put his work off to take me out Thursday night. So he went in late to get it done. We had another date on Friday but Professor Aliem wanted the reports done by Saturday morning. I tried to get Craig to forget the date, but he insisted we keep it. He said he would go handle the work afterwards. He didn't look too happy at the idea though," she added.

"What do you mean?" Joe demanded, his blue eyes intense as they bore into her green ones.

"I know it sounds silly, but I think he was afraid of being in the science building at night."

"Large empty buildings tend to have that effect on some people," Joe said, himself included, but he wasn't about to tell her that!

"No. It was more than that," Elie insisted. "Craig asked me if I had heard anything when I had been there at night. I hadn't and told him so. He didn't mention it again until the two days later when he told me to never go to the science building unless someone was with me."

"That does sound strange," Joe agreed.