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4.

The ants were still in the glass dishes in the traps the next day. No mice had been captured. The video cameras had spotted mice investigating both traps, but they had not taken the bait.

It took another two hours of work for Harmon and Nick to get their fiber-optic system into the first nest. With the video camera running, Mrs. Beloit and the three researchers spent much of the next hour watching activities in the nest. Harmon counted eight adult mice. There seemed to be two separate litters of pups, but it wasn’t possible to get an accurate count on them.

The presence of the probe in one of the nest entrances did provoke a certain amount of activity among the normally nocturnal mice. Several investigated the intruder. A couple squeezed alongside, out of range of the camera, apparently following the cable back as if searching for its origin. Except for the pups and nursing mothers, all of the mice eventually left the nest.

“We scared them off,” Cathy said, pulling back from the monitor screen.

“Maybe,” Harmon conceded. “But they’ll probably come back. As long as the mothers don’t leave their litters there’s a chance they won’t abandon the nest.”

“How long do we leave the setup here?” Nick asked. “We’ve only got the one camera for this.”

“But we do have a second fiber-optic cable,” Harmon reminded him. “We’ll leave this one in place and thread the other through to one of the other nests. The one in the bathroom upstairs will probably be easier than the other one here in the kitchen.”

The professor and his assistants were late leaving the house that evening. It was well after dark. At the door, Mrs. Beloit was still voicing misgivings about the pests in her home.

“Haven’t you come up with any ideas for getting rid of those mice for me?” she asked—a question she had voiced at least a half dozen times that day.

“We’re still working on it,” Griffin assured her—again. “If nothing else, once we’ve got all of them we can, I’ll pay to have an exterminator come and get rid of your problem. But I hope it doesn’t come to that. Your mice may be unique.” He shrugged. “The government might not even let us kill them.”

“You mean I might have to keep them?”

“I don’t know,” Griffin admitted. “If nobody finds more of them in other places, I guess it’s possible. Endangered species.” Have to have the university’s legal department check that out, I guess, he thought.

Cathy was standing apart from the others, arms folded across her chest, looking around nervously. Except for the light coming through the open front door of the Beloit house, the street was dark. There was no streetlight at the near corner. The one at the other end of the block was blocked by trees, casting night-dark shadows across the lawn. When the professor finally started moving toward the van, Cathy moved between him and Nick, almost shouldering her way in.

“I really don’t like being here after dark,” she whispered when they were nearly to the street. “This place is dangerous, even with three of us. Anything could happen.”

“It’s no more dangerous here than on campus,” Harmon replied, also keeping his voice low so that Mrs. Beloit would not hear. She had closed the screen door, but she was standing in the doorway, watching to make certain that the three made it into their van.

“I don’t go out after dark on campus if I don’t absolutely have to,” Cathy said, getting in the van quickly when the professor unlocked the front door. “And then I try to do it with a crowd. I’m still not used to living in the big city.”

Two young men came out of the shadows in the park across the street, then stopped near the far curb and stared as Nick and Harmon got into the vehicle. Griffin watched them out of the corner of his eye, careful not to make eye contact, and he locked his door as soon as he was inside. He quickly turned the key in the ignition. As the van pulled away from the curb, the two young men faded back into the shadows.