The stairs

Chapter 15

After lunch, Cassie and Lex found Phillip. He was in the lab, fast asleep. Sure, he was in sight of three others, but Cassie and Lex got in simply by asking someone to open the door.

Lex decided to wake him, and update him on the situation. Now, the only loose ends were Beryl and Rosa.

None of them had any contact information on Beryl, so Lex called Rosa. The three of them found her in her dorm room. Her hair was a mess, and her eyes were puffy and red.

Lex told her about the situation. Her eyes flashed briefly for a moment, but she said nothing. Then she asked to be left alone.

It wasn't wise, but Cassie wasn't great at dealing with people when they were emotional. Neither Lex nor Phillip appeared to want to convince her to join them. Instead, they left their contact information on her desk.

Lex tried to find Beryl's contact information, but all he could locate was social media. So he left her a message. The three of them moved to the computer lab again. Phillip immediately started work on his pet project which had kept him in the lab the entire summer. Cassie found something to read.

The day passed uneventfully. Cassie did not plan to sleep in the lab, so she went back to her dorm. Lex insisted on accompanying her.

Cassie stopped at the convenience store for dinner. She noticed a third year civil engineering student staring at the two of them. He followed the two of them as they browsed.

Cassie decided to not mention it to Lex. Sure he was Robin's classmate, but civil engineering batches were big. It could have been a coincidence. Her mind was in hyper-vigilant surveillance mode, and this could be a false positive. Besides, Cassie couldn't remember his name for the life of her. 

She decided to write it off as paranoia. The two of them moved to the counter. She billed first, and waited for Lex. Then the guy who had been staring at them joined the queue behind Lex.

He said said something to Lex, but Cassie was too far away to hear. Then Lex paid, and joined her.

"Was that a threat?" asked Cassie.

"Who is he?" asked Lex.

"Fellow third year, civil," said Cassie, "that's probably why you don't know him. What did he say?"

"He asked me whether I was Lex. I said yes, and he didn't say anything else. I don't know whether that's a threat or not, but if that's the case, he could be Robin's missing associate..."

"In which case, you dropping me off and going back alone could be dangerous," said Cassie.

"So what, are you going to sleep in the lab?" 

"No, you can go back from here. I'm going to start a call, and we'll keep talking to each other until we're both safe."

"That's a stupid idea. We're both going to be distracted. Look, Cas, let's go back to the lab. Besides, that idiot's in the lab, and he's probably fallen asleep or something. Someone might accidently let..."

"And how would us sleeping there change anything? Look, I'm going to guess my room's the cleanest out of the three of us. Why don't both of you camp in my room?"

"Are you sure about that? I mean, is there enough space for that?"

"Good question. Okay, let's go back to the lab. Only both of us aren't supposed to be there, really."

Lex sighed. "We can't use the electronics lab either, because only I'm supposed to be there because someone isn't starting their final year project for another year."