Read Online Honest Doubt by Amanda Cross - Free Book Online

about, were tied up in one singer or another. I mean, if I’ve written five books on a poet, and you think he’s not only dead but gone for all practical purposes, and if you tell the students that, and furthermore, if you try to promote a young scholar who agrees with you . . .”
    â€œI get it,” he said, obviously afraid I’d never manage to finish the sentence. “But do you drop little heart pills, digoxin, into his drink because he doesn’t like what you have to say about his poet?”
    â€œWe may never get it,” I said. “But . . .”
    â€œIt would help you if I filled you in on where we are in our investigation, which isn’t far, but we’ve at least eliminated a few of the suspects, that is to say, in the faculty.”
    I took out my notebook. “I appreciate this,” I said. “I’ve talked to the department secretary, but I’m not what you’d call clued in.”
    â€œYou’d need an advanced degree for that,” he said. “Here’s how it looks: There are about twelve of them on the faculty, counting two part-timers. One of them teaches writing and the other is filling in for two courses for the professor on leave. At least we can eliminate two of the faculty, both men. One is on his ‘sabbatical’ ”—Don put the word in sneering quotation marks—“and one is on ‘paternal leave.’ ” The second sneer I rather expected was not forthcoming. “I wish I’d had paternal leave when my kids were born,” he said to my surprise.
    Great, I thought. I’m going to grab this guy and take him home for my very own. I wish. “That leaves ten,” I said. “Enough to get straight. Isn’t one of the ten Haycock?”
    â€œSure enough, smart lady. But maybe he killed himself and tried to blame it on the woman who didn’t think much of his country singer; we’ve got to count him in.”
    â€œOkay by me, but can’t we eliminate any of the others on the grounds that they weren’t at Haycock’s house the day he died? I know that isn’t supposed to have eliminated the wife, but the faculty?”
    â€œThey were all there. Start-of-term party, always given by one of the senior guys. Except: Not only was the wife absent, so was the chief suspect—if one believes the anonymous letter, the only senior woman in the department.”
    â€œThe one who made nasty about Haycock’s poet.”
    â€œThe very one. And that lady professor was there, if only for a few minutes, but after the bottle was uncorked. She dropped in to say she was sorry about not coming to the party, some important previous engagement, but she offered some dish she’d made for the party. Anyway, as far as I can see, Haycock was asking for it. He always drank retsina. Ever tasted it?”
    I shook my head.
    â€œIt’s Greek,” Don went on. “Haycock developed a liking for it when he visited Greece. Probably his poet was Greek or something. Anyway, it’s made from resin and it tastes like detergent; I tried it. You could put just about anything in it, sure it wouldn’t be noticed. No doubt he thought it clever to be known as the drinker of such awful stuff.
    â€œI knew the pills were in the retsina. But that didn’t mean pills could have been dropped in the wine bottle at any time. It was only opened that afternoon by Haycock himself, before the party. So the person who put in the digoxin pills had to have been there. Remember, the great thing about putting the pills in retsina is that nobody else was likely to drink it. It’s a wonder anyone ever did.”
    â€œRight,” I said. “But from what I’ve learned, digoxin is so potent that only tiny doses of it are needed, and it works so fast it might not have mattered if the victim tasted it or not. Maybe the murderer didn’t know that and decided to play it safe. I still