I Heard Animals' Voices novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Take Seven

Tierney's POV

It was me at the office door on Sunday, with a paper bag.

"Lunch," I said. "Ten o'clock lunch. Rule five."

Derrick looked at the bag, and at the phone on speaker, and at me, and he started to laugh.

I stood in the doorway and listened to a woman's bright voice say Course of study: none.

I knew that voice.

I had heard it tell me to go home and open a book.

By Monday at four, the boardroom was full.

Five board members sat at one long table, with the board chair in the middle.

Dr. Bramhall sat across from them in a navy suit, with a leather folder and a smile.

The director sat at the end, wringing his handkerchief into rope.

Derrick and I had the two chairs by the wall.

"Dr. Bramhall," said the board chair. "We have a question about your degree."

"Of course." She didn't blink. "Hollinbrook is a small institute. They don't advertise."

"What is the Hollinbrook Institute?"

"A private research body, in Europe."

"Their registrar's address is a post office box in Delaware," said the board chair.

"That is where the paperwork is processed."

"Then perhaps you won't mind if the director plays us a call."

The director set his phone on the table and pressed a button.

The bright voice filled the room, and the board was reading along by the second price.

At eighty-nine dollars, one of the board members took off his glasses.

At one hundred forty-nine, a woman at the end of the table put her pen down.

"Course of study: none," said the phone, and the board chair stopped it there.

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