“I hadn’t spoken to Kenny in a while,” Belinda said. “As I said, the affair was over…long over. It didn’t even last very long. Maybe a couple of months. I swear that’s all.”

Marge nodded. “What about Kenny, Belinda?”

“About a week ago, he came to me. He asked if we could have a drink after work. I didn’t want to go, but…frankly, he was acting strange. I thought that maybe he was going to try to blackmail me.”

The car grew quiet.

Oliver said, “Was Leonard the blackmailing type?”

“Oh no, not at all. It’s just that…” Belinda blinked tears. “I love my husband. I love my children. I made a terrible mistake when I stepped out. Luckily, Kenny let me off the hook—graciously, no scene. But I admit I was very paranoid that maybe he had ulterior motives. When he asked me out, I thought he was coming back to haunt me. But that wasn’t the case.”

Oliver said, “What did he want?”

“To talk about work…his data. He was very upset. He found a cuckoo’s egg in Curedon’s data.”

“Pardon?” Marge asked.

“A security break. Another terminal had hooked into his and was running programs from it, interfering with Kenny’s data. Computer people call it a cuckoo’s egg. Because cuckoo birds lay their eggs in other birds’ nests. Kenny told me that someone had a specific interest in altering Curedon’s data and was fudging the numbers.”

“How’d they break in?”

“I have no idea. Neither did Kenny. But he suspected it was done by someone in-house who knew the passwords. Kenny changed them right after, and the terminal shut down. But the damage had already been done. Because Kenny had made recommendations based on the fraudulent numbers. He felt that someone was setting him up to fail.”

“Who?”

Belinda swallowed. “That’s what Kenny was trying to find out. Especially after Dr. Sparks was murdered.”

“He never mentioned anyone specific?” Oliver asked.

Belinda looked up. “He felt Fisher/Tyne was behind it—the data fudging. That Fisher/Tyne was trying to stop the Curedon research.”

“Why?”

“This part is speculation, but…” Belinda cleared her throat. “Kenny felt Shockley was in secret cahoots with Dr. Sparks’s assistant.”

Long silence.

Oliver said, “Which one? Decameron?”

“Dr. Berger,” Belinda said. “He was originally assigned to the Curedon project. Then, he abruptly quit. No one knew why. But then Decameron came on, seemed to be doing a good job, and that was that. Until now.”

Marge said, “Why did Leonard think Berger and Shockley were in cahoots?”

“Because he recently saw Berger and Shockley talking to each other. Here. At Fisher/Tyne. In Shockley’s private office. Dr. Berger no longer had business here. What was he doing here?”

“That’s hardly indictable evidence, Belinda,” Oliver said.