His eyes lit on a specific fact. It was listed in the middle of the bio Nina had prepared, but it stuck out to him. “Her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.”
Nina nodded, but her eyes held a certain sympathy. “Yes, when Rebecca was nine, but from her accounts, she wasn’t told about the diagnosis until later, roughly nine months before her mother died. She spoke about it at a conference. It was a quite moving speech. She and her future stepmother cared for her mother at home until she passed.”
“Her future stepmother?” Robert asked.
“So her family life is rough, I take it.” He couldn’t imagine how the girl had taken that. Mum dies and dad marries her nurse?
“She’s quite close to her family,” Nina corrected. “She was the maid of honor at their wedding three years after her mom died. She’s close to her young sister, and from all accounts enjoys spending time with her father.”
“Must not have been close to her mum.” Owen didn’t get it. Not at all.
Ariel was frowning his way. “She was a teenaged girl who put aside her needs to keep her mother out of a nursing home. I would say she proved her love for her mother. As for being close to her stepmother, well, funny things happen to survivors. Sometimes they cling together. Until you’ve lost someone, you can’t judge how others react. Honestly, even when you have, you know damn well you shouldn’t. Grief is different for everyone.”
Tucker leaned over. “I think you should be quiet now. She looks pissed.”
She looked annoyed, but then he could do that to a woman.
He’d lost two someones, but he didn’t understand grief. How did he cry and ache for two people he couldn’t remember? “I’m sorry. I was surprised. Of course I don’t know anything at all. Please continue.”
“She doesn’t seem to have a large social circle here in Toronto. I’m surprised she has many friends at all since when she would normally have been forming her social identity, she was thrown in with much older students. She was much younger than the average student at the schools she attended. She would have been an outsider at best, a target at worst,” Ariel said.
“A target?” Robert asked. “What do you mean? I understand she’s our target, but why would her school friends want to investigate her?”
Ariel’s lips tugged up slightly. “It’s always odd to be reminded of how your memories break. You know so much about the world, so many facts, but often normal experiences are gone and with them the street-like knowledge that’s second nature to the rest of us.”
“That’s shrink talk for you’re a shiny new baby,” Big Tag explained.
“What she’s saying is Rebecca Walsh was so young she couldn’t relate to the other students,” Ezra explained. “Even though she was certainly smart enough to be in a class with them, emotionally she wasn’t ready to run in their circles.”
Sometimes he still felt like that. “You’re saying that even though she’s bridged that gap now, she still isn’t comfortable in social situations? Has trouble making friends?”
Ariel nodded. “She might be awkward at times. You’re going to have to be patient with her.”
“I don’t know about that,” Nina mused. “I’ve talked to her and I was surprised at how nice she seems. She ordered a vanilla latte instead of her normal plain latte. I mentioned it and she told me she’s on a quest to expand her horizons. She seemed enthusiastic about it. I know it’s only a shot of vanilla, but it’s outside her routine. I think she might welcome some new friends.”
“She loves animals,” Ariel pointed out. “She doesn’t have a pet right now, but I think that’s because of her long hours. She spends her breaks at a dog park, though she doesn’t own one.”
Jax gave her a thumbs-up. “Buster to the rescue. No one can resist his manly smell. No, seriously, River’s at the groomer’s right now. We’re getting rid of his stink. He thought a skunk would be a good playmate. It was really terrible.”
“Preach, brother,” Tag said. “Bud is not smart about the fuckers. They get him every time. I swear there’s a family of them living on our property and they’ve got a bet on how many times they can spray my dog. They only got Kala once. We had to go to family therapy after that.”
“What’s her financial situation like?” Fain asked, clearly ready to get the meeting back on track.
“The family is wealthy, but it was earned through white-collar jobs, not generational money,” Nina replied. “She received scholarships to pay for her schooling. Her education was unconventional, to say the least. She graduated from high school at the age of twelve. College by the time she was fifteen. She went to medical school from there.”
He glanced back at the photo. How hard had it been to always be the youngest person in class? To stand out in such a way? “What about her relationships with men? The basic info says she was married at some point.”
“Yes, but it didn’t last three years. He was a doctor, too,” Nina explained.
Dante uncharacteristically showed some interest. He was staring down at his folder like he gave a damn for once. “Why did they divorce?”
“I believe he left because he couldn’t handle her success,” Ariel explained. “She won her first Wolf Foundation Prize and when she accepted a prestigious position with the Huisman Foundation, they divorced. Her research is funded by the Huisman Foundation primarily and various pharmaceutical companies who have an interest. The Huismans are an old, venerable family here in Canada. From what I can tell, they fund everything she asks them to. She works closely with the son, Paul. He’s a neurologist as well.”
“She worked with McDonald before she joined the foundation?” Owen asked.
Big Tag nodded. “Dr. Walsh worked closely with McDonald at Kronberg Pharmaceuticals. She was brought in to assist with a project. The nature of their true relationship is unclear. It’s something I’m interested in learning more about. But I’m also interested in Walsh’s other job. How the hell does that fit into her profile?”
Ariel grinned. “Like I said, it proves she’s got a sense of humor.”
Fain hit a key on his computer and the picture of Walsh changed from a sedate doctor to…a woman in spandex and a cape. Gone were the glasses and professional bun. In its place was a superhero costume that clung to her every curve. Yep, the white jacket had hidden a nice set of breasts, and that smile on her face, so controlled before, was now wide and warm and inviting.
“Meet Captain Neuro,” Nina said with a chuckle. “She goes into elementary schools and teaches kids about brain health. She’s been doing it for about a year now, and every school in Toronto wants her to come in. There’s talk of her doing a local kid’s show about science.”
He’d sat up in his chair because he hadn’t expected that. He’d only read about her many accolades, all her intellectual awards. Somehow on paper she’d seemed cold, probably aloof, but this woman had a glint in her eyes. This woman practically glowed with something he didn’t understand.
She was beautiful. Which woman was she in real life?
Big Tag sighed. “Don’t tell my girls we’re going after a female superhero. They’re all about Wonder Woman right now. Do we think her side project offers us a way into her work world?”
Ariel flipped it back to the first picture, and Owen was surprised at how disappointed he was. “No, I just thought it was fun. And we should remember that she’s the kind of woman who spends her time helping kids. She’s not merely ambitious. She’s kind, too.”
“Or it’s good cover.” He couldn’t help himself. It didn’t make sense, that smile of hers. She’d lost so much, grown up far too fast. The smile had to be the cover. The smile hid the real woman underneath.
“Cynical,” Tag said with a nod. “I like it. Keep that healthy suspicion up, Shaw, and you’ll do fine. Still, it doesn’t hurt to know how she spends her time. Does she have a foundation she works through, or is her volunteer work done through Huisman?”