Rachel and Felix gaped at Jacob. "You know her?" Felix asked.

"Yes." Jacob shook his head in annoyance. "You know, if you would let me answer my own door, things like this wouldn't happen." Rachel opened her mouth to protest, but Jacob cut her off. "Later, right now, could we please attend to Gina?"

Between the two of them, Felix and Jacob got the unconscious woman onto the bed. Jacob vanished into the bathroom and retuned shortly with a damp washcloth. Sitting on the bed, he began to gently bathe the unconscious woman's face.

"Ok, Hood, so exactly who is she? What did you mean when you said she was the reason we were in Sacramento?" Rachel asked.

"She's a former student of mine. She's at Cal State Sacramento now and working on something for the USDA. Something's gone wrong and she, well, the USDA asked Frank to send me, us out here to look into it."

"But what is 'it' exactly Doc?" Felix wanted to know. He leaned over Jacob's shoulder peering worriedly down at the woman on the bed.

Jacob shrugged. "I'm not sure. The USDA didn't tell me much before we left. Said that Gina would fill us in when we arrived." He looked up at his companions in annoyance. "Which is most likely what she was trying to do when you two terrorized her."

Felix's protests were cut short as the unconscious woman began to stir.

Her eyes opened slowly. They widened in shock at the sight of Felix looming over her. She gasped and struggled to rise.

"Shhh, you're fine Gina." Jacob tipped her face toward him. "You're safe." Jacob murmured as he pushed her hair behind her ears.

Relief floored her face. "Dr. Hood! I'm so glad you're here." Her face crumpled and she looked as if she was about to cry. "I'm in so much trouble."

"Now Gina," Jacob chided as he helped her sit up, his arm around her shoulder. "I've told you before, you're not my student anymore, you're a colleague. Call me Jacob."

Rachel snorted at the way the woman blushed and smiled at Ja… at Hood. She resisted the urge to smack him on the back of the head.

"How did you where to find us, know which room Hood is in?" Rachel asked sharply.

Gina's started gaze flew to Rachel's face. "Uh, the guy working the desk? He's one of my students. He told me which room."

"That is hardly important, is it?" snapped Jacob. "Gina's had a shock, I think…"

"It's ok Doctor, I mean, Jacob." Gina interrupted. "I'm fine, really." She gave Jacob a shy smile and leaned into him. "I just, I mean, I been under a lot of strain the last few days." She burrowed into Jacob a little more, "and I don't think I've even seen a real gun before."

"Hey, I'm sorry about that," Felix cut in. "But you gotta understand…"

"What you need to understand is that an unexpected visitor may constitute a threat to Dr. Hood's safety," Rachel interrupted. "Now, if you feel up to it", she continued sarcastically, "maybe you can fill us in on what brings us to Sacramento."

Gina and Jacob both turned to stare at Rachel. Jacob was about to chide Rachel for her unsympathetic treatment of the girl, but the words died on his lips. He flushed slightly at the look of amusement on her face. Jacob abruptly dropped his arm from around Gina's shoulders and stood up.

He brushed past Rachel with a muttered "This is not funny." He took a position on the far side of the room, leaning back against the window, hands buried in his pockets.

"Um, yes, I guess I should perform introductions. Gina, these are Special Agents Young and Lee," he nodded to the two agents. "They're my FBI colleagues."

"Hey, call me Felix," the big man stuck out a hand. "And I'm real sorry about before. But like Agent Young said, we weren't expecting anyone."

Gina was about to answer when another knock sounded at the door. She gaped as two guns once again appeared.

"Oh for pity's sake," snorted Jacob. "It probably is our dinner this time. What, you're going to try to scare the crap out of the pizza delivery guy now?" He pushed off the window and took a step toward the door.

Rachel blocked him easily. "Damn it Hood," she growled. "Don't push me, floor." With a sigh, Jacob grabbed Gina's arm and pulled her down beside him on the floor. Rachel motioned to Felix, who made his way to the door, checking to see who was on the other side.

"Kid with pizza boxes."

At Rachel's nod, he holstered his weapon and slowly opened the door. Rachel moved to keep a clear line of fire. Gina looked at Jacob with wide eyes, he merely shook his head. "You get used to it."

The delivery was concluded without incident. Sitting around the small table, Gina slowly began recounting the situation that had brought them to Sacramento and threatened to derail her fledgling academic career.

"It's about a new strain of alfalfa I'm developing," she began.

"Alfalfa, that's like wheat, right?" Felix wanted to know.

"No." Gina chewed her pizza slowly. "It's more like a plant, a member of the legume family. It's not generally grown for human consumption. It's mostly used for cattle fodder."

"Yes, that's right," Jacob contributed. "Your dissertation was on possible genetic modifications of various food stuffs. Is this a continuation of that work?"

"In a way. Right after I started at Cal State, I was approached by Dairy Cares. They're an organization that works on environmental sustainability issues in the dairy industry. They were interested in finding a food source for cows that was more readily absorbed by their digestive systems. I was able to get funding for my work from the USDA."

Rachel's lips began to twitch. "You mean you got a government grant to develop a food that would make cows poop less?"

Felix snorted. "Talk about the government funding a load of crap!"

The two agents dissolved in laughter, while Jacob looked on disapprovingly. Gina looked irate.

"It's hardly a laughing matter." Jacob said coolly. "You may not be aware of it, but in a day one cow produces almost 120 pounds of manure. The pollution of rivers and streams in rural areas by the run-off of animal waste is a major environmental problem.

In addition to polluting the groundwater, in states like California this waste is making its way into the ocean, where it's causing problems for the fishing industry. Several species of fish are almost extinct."

Rachel and Felix tried to control their snickers. "So, what's the problem," Felix "Someone dose your alfalfa with a laxative?" He and Rachel broke down once again.

"It's not funny," snapped Gina. "Someone must have done something to my alfalfa, 'cause the cows that ate it died. And they said it's my fault." At this she burst into tears.

Jacob reached across the table for Gina's hand, but Rachel stopped him with a raised eyebrow. She laid a hand on the woman's shoulder. "I'm sorry; we shouldn't have mocked your work. Obviously we need you to explain to us exactly what happened. How you think we can help."

Gina shook off Rachel's hand. "I doubt that you could help, have any idea of what could have happened."

Rachel bristled at her tone. "Ok, shall I take a guess? You think some has deliberately sabotaged your research; maybe someone working on a competing project? You think that person is orchestrating things to make your research look like a failure and maybe cooking the data to make his or her own research look better?"

"Uh, yeah, pretty much. How did you know?"

"Yes, we've uh, dealt with a few situations like this before." Jacob smothered a smile. "Now Gina, tell us exactly what happened. And who do you think may have sabotaged your work?"

"It started last week," Gina began. "I'm working with one of the local dairy farmers. I had gone out early in the week to check up on the cows being fed my alfalfa. The farmer had reported that a few of the cow's milk production was down. I didn't think it was anything. They seemed fine."

She looked at Jacob miserably. "But by the end of the week all of the test subjects were dead. And the farmer is blaming my alfalfa. He was furious." She took a deep breath. "He threatened to kill me."

"That's a pretty extreme reaction to a few dead cows," Felix frowned.

"It's more than a few," Gina replied softly. "He lost half his herd, 100 head."

Jacob blinked. "My god, with the price of milk…" He did some quick calculations in his head. "He must have lost nearly a quarter of a million dollars."

"More," nodded Gina. "His cows were high producers. This may wipe him out, no wonder he wanted to kill me."

"I can see where he was upset, but why did he think the alfalfa was the cause?" Jacob's forehead creased in confusion. "Surely they did a necropsy?"

"What's a necropsy?" Felix broke in.

"It's what they call an autopsy when the subject's an animal," Rachel put in absently. Gina's eyebrows rose in surprise.

"Why do they call it a necropsy?" Felix persisted.

Rachel shot him an irritated glace. "They just do, ok." She looked at Gina, "so what were the results?"

"The cows died from an excess of troponin in the myocardial tissue. They were unable to maintain isometric tension."

Felix and Rachel looked blankly at Jacob.

"The cows died of heart disease. The myocardial, or heart tissue, couldn't maintain sufficient tension to keep beating." Jacob shrugged. "The heart is a muscle. Muscles work by expanding and contracting. A lack of isometric tension means the muscle got soft. It's the same principle as pulling on an elastic band. Eventually the band gets played out, it won't snap back into shape."

Rachel and Felix nodded in comprehension.

"But why blame you?" Rachel wanted to know. "How can they be sure it was the alfalfa that damaged the cows' hearts? Maybe the cows ate or drank something else that was contaminated?" She shrugged, "Or maybe someone doctored, poisoned the alfalfa before the cows ate it."

"Don't you think I suggested that?" Gina burst out angrily. "I'm not an idiot. The only feed the dead cows had was my alfalfa. And they all drank from the same water source. There were no contaminates in the water. Nothing else showed up in the necropsy. Nothing to explain the excess troponin. The hypothesis is that something in the alfalfa, some genetic mutation, caused the cows to produce excess troponin which damaged the their heart muscles.

But there can't be," Gina said. "I've been working on that strain for months and I've never had a problem before."

Jacob tilted his head, a look of surprise on his face. "I have to say I agree with Rachel. Why blame the alfalfa? They can't have had enough time to do a thorough examination of the cow's tissue to determine exactly what caused the damage."

"They aren't doing any more tests. They said that the solution is obvious." Gina gave a ragged sob. "This means the end of my career. The government is pulling my funding, the farmer is threatening to sue Cal State, Cal State is threatening to fire me. Everything is going to hell. They all felt sorry for me, that's why they agreed to have you come out, Jacob. They want it to look like they're being fair."

Jacob and Rachel exchanged puzzled glances over Gina's head. It seemed odd that the USDA was rushing to judgment. It was even odder that no one was investigating Gina's claims of sabotage. It wouldn't be the first time competition for federal research dollars got nasty.

Rachel had thought it strange that they weren't given any contact information for local law enforcement or the local field office. Couldn't understand why the government wasn't even considering foul play.

Jacob was puzzled by the reaction of Cal State. It was his experience that one's academic colleagues always circled the wagons when accusations were brought by outsiders. Jacob narrowed his eyes as he regarded Gina.

"Gina," he began softly. "What aren't you telling me? Why is everyone so quick to blame your research?" He thought back to what she had said earlier. "What did you mean when you said you haven't had trouble with that strain of the alfalfa?"

"This alfalfa is my second generation growth." Gina muttered. "The first generation, it, it had problems."

"What kind of problems?" Jacob was inflexible.

"Absorption problems. The test subjects I was feeding it to kept losing weight, became anemic. It turned out they couldn't absorb the nutrients from the alfalfa."

"So basically the animals were starving to death, eating the food you developed," Rachel said.

Gina shot her a furious look. "They weren't starving. None of them died or anything. Research doesn't work like that. Sometimes your first results aren't perfect. When you're performing genetic research, the path isn't always clear. I wouldn't expect you to understand."

Rachel narrowed her eyes in dislike. Felix gaped at Gina in surprise. He couldn't believe that the woman was being so rude to Agent Young. Rachel opened her mouth to respond, but Jacob hurried into speech.

"Uh, yes, we do understand. Even so, why blame this strain? You said that you thought someone did something to your alfalfa. That someone sabotaged your work. Why? Is there a competing project? Have you been having problems with another researcher?"

Gina began to push the half-eaten pizza around on her plate. "Um, there's not a competing project, exactly. And yeah, I've been having a, ah, problem with my department chair. He's the one who conducted the necropsy, said the alfalfa triggered the troponin."

"Your chair?" Jacob looked surprised. "Gina, you must be one of the most junior members of your department. Why would you be having problems with your chair?"

Gina flushed lightly. "He, uh, he wanted me to serve on some bullshit University committee. I told him I had better things to do with my time." Gina hurried on at the look on Jacob's face. "Well, you didn't bother with that crap at Stanford. You always said it was a waste of time."

"Yes," he acknowledged. "I did. But I was a tenured professor who had developed some lucrative patents before I took that position. I can see that he would be annoyed with you. But he wouldn't retaliate this drastically. More likely he'd schedule all your classes at inconvenient times."

Gina's flush deepened. "Well, uh, it was during a faculty meeting. The committee was about work/life balance issues and I told him that not only was it a bullshit committee but that he was being sexist in suggesting that I be the one to serve."

"Obviously I failed you as an advisor Gina. I should have prepared you better for faculty politics. I'm not surprised he's out for your head."

Felix was baffled. "How come Doc? I mean yeah," he looked at Gina disapprovingly. "She was rude, but is that really a firing offense?" Rachel snorted in agreement.

"It's not just the rudeness," Jacob explained. "She challenged his authority, showed her contempt in a public forum. It's one thing for junior faculty to bitch and moan about the senior faculty to each other," he shook his head. "It's another matter to openly criticize them."

"So who else did you piss off?" Rachel smirked. "What's the other project? The one that isn't really your competition?"

"It's another project dealing with genetic modifications."

Jacob was confused. "There are two botanical geneticists working in your department? How did that happen? Your department can't be that large?"

"He's not working on plants. He's working on animal genetics." Gina scowled. "The chair acts as if his project is vital to the department, even though it's frankly derivative."

Felix and Rachel once again looked to Jacob for a translation.

"There are two different tacks research can take." Jacob explained. "You can refine on someone else's ideas, take them further than the original researcher. Your work derives from someone else. Or, you can develop something new. Generally, original research is the more prized route."

"So how come your chair prefers the other guy's work, if yours is original and his isn't?" Rachel asked. "Because he's a lot more pleasant than you are?"

Gina shot Rachel a dirty look. "No, more like because he's a he. And he sucks up to Dr. Robinson, the chair. His name is Wyatt Payne. He was hired the same year as me."

"And?" Jacob inquired gently.

"And they all treat him like he's some kind of golden boy." Gina said bitterly. "This was the first time my work, my research was surpassing his. I wouldn't put it past either him or Robinson to try to damage my work, my reputation."

"So what was he working on?" Felix wanted to know.

"He was working on improving the cows. Making them better milkers." Gina shrugged. "Like I said, derivative. People have been working on that for years."

"Well, not..." Jacob began. He was cut off by a peremptory knock on the door. His eyes flew to Rachel. She met his surprised look with a small smile.

She and Felix immediately stood and drew their weapons. As Felix headed toward the door, Rachel looked down at Jacob. "Stay right where you are," she hissed.

As Felix approached the door, the knock sounded again. An impatient voice called out. "Damn it Gina, I know you're in there. Answer the damn door."

"Guy, medium height, blond hair, glasses. Hands visible," Felix breathed.

"That sounds like Wyatt." Gina snorted. "What the hell does he want?" She started to rise from her chair when Rachel put a hand on her shoulder and shoved her back into her seat.

"What part of stay where you are don't you understand?" she spat out. She carefully stepped between the table and the door, blocking Hood from view.

Rachel nodded to Felix. The big man carefully lowered his weapon to his side. He looked back to confirm that Rachel was in position and slowly opened the door. "May I help you?"

The man at the door gaped at the sight of the large, black man confronting him. "Uh, I must have the wrong room. I'm looking for a Dr. Jacob Hood."

"Yeah?" Felix cocked his head. "Then how come you were yelling for Gina to open the door?"

Rachel joined Felix at the door. The man opposite them blinked and held up his hands when he finally noticed their guns. "Uh, look, I don't want any trouble, I, uh, was…"

"Why didn't you point your gun in his face?" Gina asked waspishly. She was trying to peer over Rachel's should. "What are you doing here Wyatt?"

Rachel gritted her teeth. "I thought I told you to stay put."

The younger man brightened. "So I am in the right place. May I come in?"

Rachel and Felix looked at each other and shrugged. They holstered their weapons and Felix pulled the man into the room.

"Don't tell me, the kid at the desk is one of your students too?" Rachel asked in exasperation.

"How did you know?" Wyatt asked in amazement. He smiled broadly and looked at Gina. "So that's how you found out what room Dr. Hood was in? You leaned on Jimmy too?"

"Remind me to have 'Jimmy's' ass fired." Rachel rolled her eyes.

"Oh, hey, don't do that!" Wyatt protested. "He really needs this job. He might have to drop out of school if he loses it." He turned to Jacob, holding out his hand. "Dr. Hood, I'm Wyatt Payne. I'm honored to meet you sir. Your body of work is impressive."

Jacob winced slightly at the 'sir' as he took the hand the younger man offered. 'Please, Wyatt, call me Jacob. While I don't know how much of an honor it is, I must say that our meeting is a little unexpected. Why are you here tonight?"

"It's simple Dr. Hood." Wyatt cast an amused glance in Gina's direction. "I was hoping that if I didn't actually beat Gina here I'd at least get here in time to make sure you got a balanced picture of what's happening."

"Are you implying that I would have lied to Jacob?" Gina bristled.

"Not exactly," Wyatt replied coolly. "But I wouldn't put it past you to shade the facts to your advantage." He turned to Jacob with a grin. "Bet you she told you my research is derivative."

Rachel laughed. "That's one bet you'd win Dr. Payne."

Wyatt turned to her with a smile. "Oh please, call me Wyatt, …?"

"Agent Young," Rachel returned his smile. "This," she gestured to Felix, "is Agent Lee."

"Call me Felix, Wyatt." He grinned at the young man in turn. He could see where people would prefer this guy. 'Man, that student of the Doc's is something of a bitch.'

"Well, now that the introductions are out of the way," Rachel said. "Why don't you give us your version of what's going on here?"

"I'd like to hear about your research first," Jacob cut in. He sat on the edge of his bed and looked at Wyatt expectantly.

Wyatt perched on the credenza opposite Jacob. Rachel smiled to herself as she noted that Gina not only sat next to Hood, but that she leaned into his shoulder. Felix caught her eye and raised an eyebrow, a slight smirk appearing on his face. Apparently she wasn't the only one amused by Gina's actions.

Wyatt looked thoughtful for a few minutes. Finally, he focused, not on Jacob, but on Rachel and Felix. "For you to understand my work, and Gina's, you need to understand dairy farms. Now what do you think of when you think of a dairy?"

Felix and Rachel exchanged glances and shrugged.

"I guess that place in Wisconsin," Felix offered. "We had a case that involved a dairy farm once."

"Great," Wyatt encouraged. "What struck you about the place?"

"Rolling hills, lots of grass, a couple of cows in the meadow." Felix replied

"Cow shit everywhere," Rachel frowned at the memory.

Wyatt laughed. "That's the image most people have of dairy farms. The reality of commercial dairy farms is a little different." He smiled at Rachel. "But you are right about the cow shit….?" He cocked his head inquiringly.

"Rachel."

"You're right about the cow shit Rachel. You see, what with the price of milk a commercial dairy has literally hundreds of cows. The dairy where Gina's been testing her alfalfa is a small one and they have, well, had 200 head. That one dairy is creating a ton of manure a day."

"Whew, that's a lot of shit." Felix whistled.

"Right, and there are two ways to deal with that problem." He pointed to Gina. "You could come up with a way to decrease the manure output. Or," he pointed to himself. "You could work on a way to decrease the number of cows."

"Why do you have to work on reducing the number of cows?" Felix objected. "Just have fewer cows."

"Fewer cows means less money, right?" Rachel asked slowly. "Is that why the farmers don't do it?"

Wyatt kissed the pad of his thumb and leaned over to press it against Rachel's forehead. "Gold star for Rachel! That's the problem in a nutshell. Fewer cows' means less milk, less milk means less profit. So there's no incentive for the famers to downsize their herds, even if it is the environmentally sound thing to do."

"Gina said something about you trying to make the cows better milkers." Rachel continued. "So basically, your project is trying to develop cows who give more milk?" She cocked her head. "Fewer cows, the same or more profit?"

Wyatt once again kissed his thumb and pressed it against Rachel's forehead. She grinned at him. "Another gold star for Rachel. That's exactly what I'm trying to do. Preserve profits and the environment in one fell swoop."

"Which is completely derivative." Gina exclaimed. "People have been working on the genetic markers for good milkers for years."

"Not exactly," Jacob corrected. "Most of the work done on milk production genetics has been in the area of identifying high producing calves."

Wyatt nodded in agreement. "That's right. My work is different. I'm not looking for the genetic markers, I'm trying to identify the underlying genome, identify exactly how the genes control milk production."

He gestured to Gina. "Like I said, there are two ways to go about this project. Gina's way is simple and expedient. Change the environment in which the cow exists. Mine is long-term, change the cow. Frankly, it will be years before we know if my research pans out."

"My research is not simplistic!" Gina began.

"I didn't say simplistic," Wyatt retorted. "I said…"

"No, it's not simplistic," Jacob agreed. "It's simple, elegant, and has immediate applicability."

Gina dimpled. "Do you really think so, Jacob?

"Umhm," Jacob looked abstracted. "It's for that reason that it is highly unlikely that Wyatt here would sabotage your project."

"Thanks, Dr. Hood." Wyatt shot Gina an irritated look. "I've been trying to tell her that for months."

"Why isn't Wyatt her competition?" Rachel asked.

Jacob shrugged. "Gina's research is not only on a different subject, but on a different time line as well. Her success will be, well, measurable almost immediately. But Wyatt," Jacob shook his head. "It will be years before he knows if his research is successful. He'd be looking at totally different funding sources than Gina. There's no way they could be considered to be in direct competition."

Gina shook her head stubbornly. "Maybe he's doing it for spite. All I know is that someone had to sabotage my alfalfa. It was fine up until two weeks ago."

"Maybe it took that long for the effects to manifest themselves." Wyatt said patiently. "Be sensible, no one is out to get you."

"That's easy for you to say," Gina exclaimed. "No one has threatened to kill you."

"What, you're talking about Rico?" Wyatt snorted. "He'd never hurt a fly. You know how emotional he gets."

"Yeah? Well you weren't the one he was swinging a pitchfork at." Gina retorted.

"Wait a second," cut in Rachel. "He had a weapon? I'm sorry Wyatt, but in my experience, people who threaten violence while armed usually carry out their threats." She turned to Gina. "What's his full name. I think we should check him out."

"Rico Cipriani." Gina replied. "He's the owner of Orchard Hill Dairy."

Wyatt rolled his eyes. "You're wasting your time. Trust me, the guy's harmless."

Gina opened her mouth to argue, but Wyatt cut her off. He had noticed Rachel trying to suppress a yawn. "Come on Gina. We've each had a turn to plead out cases to Dr. Hood." He smiled at Rachel. "My star pupil looks like she's dead on her feet. We'll catch up with them tomorrow." He dragged the still protesting Gina from the room.

Rachel sighed in relief as she closed the door behind them. Giving in to the yawns she had been suppressing earlier, she turned to Felix and Hood. "Thank god! I thought they'd never leave." Checking her watch she turned to Felix, "So, breakfast tomorrow?"

"Diner next door, opens at 6:00 a.m." He replied promptly.

"Right, breakfast at 8:00." Rachel considered the matter. "After breakfast Felix, Hood and I will check out the situation with the cows. I want you to get full information on Rico Cipriani and financials on him and the dairy."

"Right ma'am." Felix answered. "Want me to call my sources now?"

Rachel yawned again. "Nah, no need to start tonight. We could all use a good night's sleep. You can wait until tomorrow."

"I'll say goodnight then, Doc, ma'am."

Rachel saw him out of the room, flipping the deadbolt on the door. She turned to find Hood standing right behind her.

His arms went around her and he pinned her against the door. Rachel gasped at the feeling of his body pressed tightly against hers, his mouth on hers.

"Hood, no, we can't do this," she moaned as she broke off the kiss. "I told you, it's too dangerous."

"Be realistic Rachel," he murmured. "Felix is safely tucked up in bed. Neither the local cops nor the local field office knows or cares that we're here. No one else is going to bother us tonight."

"We can't take the risk, I mean…" Rachel was interrupted by a knock on the door. She and Jacob froze for an instant.

Jacob leaned his forehead on Rachel's and whispered, "I swear to god, I could almost believe you planned this."

Rachel giggled and twisted in Jacob's arms to peer out the peephole. "It's Wyatt."

"What the hell does he want now?"

Rachel pushed Jacob away from her. "I don't know, but I'm sure he'll tell us."

Jacob grumbled as he moved away from the door. Rachel took a few deep breaths before opening the door to Wyatt.

"Uh, hi, Rachel, Dr. Hood. I'm sorry to bother you again." The young man was obviously uncomfortable.

"Yes, well, what is it?" Jacob demanded.

Wyatt's eyes widened in surprise at the irritation in Jacob's voice. "Ah, yeah, I'm sorry, I know you both must be tired. But I wanted, needed to tell you something and I didn't want Gina to know I told you."

"No." Jacob held up his hand. "I didn't let her complain about your behavior and I'm not going to listen to you complain about her."

"I don't want to complain about her! It's nothing like that."

"Well what is it?" Jacob demanded impatiently.

"Uh, did Gina mention any problems with Dr. Robinson, our department chair?" Wyatt asked.

"A little," Rachel shrugged. "Something about her being rude to him in a faculty meeting?"

"It's more than that," Wyatt said grimly. "Robinson is a real pig. He made a pass at Gina, right after she started at Cal State." He colored slightly. "The way I heard it, he cornered her at the welcome reception. Had his hands all over her. Gina made it clear that she wasn't interested, but she didn't leave it at that. Sort of made a joke of it with some of the other juniors and a few of the female grad students."

Rachel's mouth dropped open. "She didn't report him? Or call the cops?"

Jacob and Wyatt exchanged a look. "No, she wouldn't report it," Jacob said. "She would consider that professional suicide." He shrugged at the outraged look Rachel gave him. "It happens."

"Robinson makes passes at new female faculty and grad students." Wyatt said. "From what I hear, he doesn't usually try to retaliate if they turn him down. But Gina was pissed, told people that she turned him down 'cause she wasn't that desperate."

Jacob winced. "She not only ridiculed him as a man, but then she challenges his authority in a faculty meeting. I'm surprised she still has a job."

"Robinson was already engineering her firing before this shit with the alfalfa," Wyatt replied. "Now, Gina will be lucky if she can finish out the semester."

"Why are you telling us this?" Rachel wanted to know.

"Look, I honestly don't think anyone sabotaged Gina's project." Wyatt looked at them both levelly. "But if someone did, then I think you should take a hard look at Robinson."

He turned to leave, but paused as he reached the door. "Look, don't tell Gina that I told you. I don't want to embarrass her; I think she was more shaken up by Robinson than she let on."

Rachel closed door behind Wyatt. She turned and smiled at the disgruntled look on Jacob's face. "I think we could both use a good night's sleep Dr. Hood."

"Right," Jacob growled. "As if I'm going to get any sleep tonight."

"Mmm, maybe you should try a shower," Rachel suggested. "A nice cold one." Laughing softly she disappeared into her own room.