"Such a naughty subject. Who knew he had it in him, eh?"
Mary Portman was the head of the psychology department at Princeton. Her office was startlingly cold. Laura felt icicles forming on the back of her neck as the tiny old lady burrowed through a file cabinet.
"How would you describe Sebastian?" Laura said.
"He was a good professor," Portman said. "Very intelligent, well respected. It's so strange that his book has been caught up in one of those viral things. Outbreaks? Waves? Here we go." She took a folder out of the cabinet, tottered back to her desk and settled into her chair, pulling her sweater more tightly around her shoulders.
"So at the time, you weren't aware of what he was working on?" Laura said.
"No, not at all. But that's not unusual, everybody has their personal projects that I don't always know about. If I had known about it—well, personally I would have been fine with it, but we'd probably have to make sure nobody else found out, we can't let the school get dragged through this mess. Thankfully we've managed to distance ourselves from Sebastian and his work and have avoided any bad publicity so far. But I think his research was successful, I greatly enjoyed his book."
Karl said, "Did you know Sebastian very well?"
"Not that well," Portman said. "He was a bit reserved. I knew he had a passion for psychology. A little surprising where his particular passions truly were, yes? But sometimes diving into the mind, you end up in a peculiar corner." An impish expression came over her as a she looked at Laura and Karl each in turn. "A reporter and a psychologist, a sister and brother team, investigating a controversy about incest. How did this happen? Do newspapers normally have such a sense of humor?"
"I like to think that their lack of sense of humor made them unaware of the humor of the situation," Karl said.
Laura sensed that the 'brother-sister team-up' topic of discussion was going to be a popular one. They managed to avoid talking about it on the drive down, along with anything else about Sebastian and his weird book. If people were going to keep bringing it up, she really needed to come up with a good response.
"It is funny, isn't it?" she said lamely. "So is there anybody still at the university that worked with Sebastian and would be willing to talk to us?"
Portman gave a chirpy little laugh as she looked through her folder. She also typed a bit on her keyboard. "I think I can give you a few names. Former colleagues in the department. Yes, they would be the place to start, I think. They might know more than I do. Whether or not they'll open up to you, I can't be certain."
"I totally appreciate any help you can give us," Laura said.
The professor printed out the names and handed the paper to Karl, only to pull it back as he reached for it. "Now, Karl, when are you coming to another conference?" she said. "Everybody misses you."
"I wasn't kidding when I said the last one nearly killed me."
"You really have to learn how to pace yourself. You have to take breaks between the drinking and the fucking. Next time stick with me, I'll show you how it's done."
Portman handed over the paper and hugged Karl goodbye. Laura gave him a long look as they walked out of the office and down the hall.
"What?" Karl said. "You should realize that psychologists can get pretty crazy sometimes."
"I don't know anything about Sebastian and his work, and I have a family, I have kids, I can't be associated with this, even remotely."
That was the typical response. Laura thought it was a reasonable position. As they meandered through the campus, bouncing from one closed door to another, she wished she had a list of names of his former students, especially ones who might have helped him with his research. But even if she had that list, and even if she could track them all down, how many would talk to her? She supposed they had plenty of secrets they'd rather keep.
