style="font-size:15px;"> Momentarily diverted when the elevator stopped, he strolled into one of the huge laboratories that peppered the building and grinned at the elderly form bent over a microscope. That familiar sight had greeted him every time he’d come here during his tenure as a special agent.
“Hello, Bartholomew,” he greeted.
The old man looked up, and smiled with delight. “Nick! How nice to see you! Can you stay a while?”
“At least long enough to let you identify something for me,” Nick teased. He shook hands with the amused laboratory chief. “How are you, Bart?”
“I’ve been better. When you get to my age, even arthritis is encouraging. It means you’re still alive enough to feel pain!” He chuckled. “Why are you in town? Come home, are you? We could use a good special agent…”
“No. I’m on vacation. I’m working as a private detective these days. It’s a little less fraught than working for the agency,” he added with a chuckle.
“You look as if it agrees with you. What can I detect for you?”
“This.” Nick pulled out the small plastic bag with the strand of hair. It looked odd now that he was out of the influence of Tabby and her snobbish boyfriend, and he scowled as he handed it over to Bart.
The older man lifted an eyebrow as he opened the bag and took out the sample. “Losing your touch, aren’t you?”
Nick let out a sharp breath. “I must be. My God, that isn’t human hair!”
“Bingo.” Bart studied it and shrugged. “Animal fur. Someone has a dog, right?”
He wasn’t sure if Tabby had one or not, but she’d mentioned going into the biology lab on the way over to the college. Probably she’d picked it up there, where they kept rats and mice and dogs and cats and such, and it had come off on her desk.
Nick took the sample back. “A dog or a rabbit or some such thing,” he agreed. “Funny I didn’t notice that it wasn’t human.”
“I can run it for you and tell you exactly what it is, if you like.”
He shook his head. “No need. I’m getting careless, I guess,” he said with a rueful smile.
“Something on your mind?”
“Yes. A lady,” Nick replied. His broad shoulders rose and fell. “I’m sorry to have bothered you. There’s been a theft. Nothing major, to my mind, but I’m trying to help a friend catch the culprit.”
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