Read Online Poison Ivy by Cynthia Riggs - Free Book Online

panting, and the clothesline seemed awfully tight around his neck. Victoria loosened it.
    â€œThird body,” said Walter thoughtfully to Killdeer. He studied the dug-up patch of once-green lawn.
    Killdeer ran a hand over his smooth scalp. “Could be more.”
    â€œCertainly not, Dr. Killdeer,” said Thackery.
    â€œWith the crazies running this place you never can tell,” said Walter.
    â€œWalter,” warned Thackery. “Dr. Killdeer has—”
    â€œHow about we borrow your dog for a couple days, Walter?” asked Killdeer, snapping his chewing gum.
    Walter stuck out his purplish lower lip. “For pay?”
    â€œâ€™Course,” said Killdeer. “Who knows what your pup might sniff out?”
    *   *   *
    â€œYou seemed a bit downcast today, Jodi,” Victoria said as they were driving home after the remains had been taken away. “This business of dead bodies on campus must be terribly distressing to you.”
    â€œNo, it’s not that.”
    â€œHow is your thesis research coming along?”
    Jodi, hands high up on the steering wheel, looked straight ahead. “Okay, I guess.”
    They were driving home along the shady road that skirted Tashmoo. Jodi braked to let a flock of wild turkeys strut across the road. They reached the waterworks before either spoke again.
    â€œYou know that paper Roberta wanted me to write?”
    Victoria felt a surge of anxiety at the tone of Jodi’s voice. “For a professional journal, you said. That would be a feather in your cap.”
    â€œYeah, well.”
    They reached the stop sign at State Road.
    â€œWhat is it, Jodi? Something’s bothering you.”
    Jodi turned, pulled into the overlook, and shut off the engine. Victoria waited for her to say what was on her mind.
    The view spread out before them. The end-of-September day was unnaturally clear, so clear Victoria could make out the water tower, houses, and trees on the mainland, four miles away. Today was what her sea captain grandfather would have called a weather breeder. No wonder the surf had been so heavy at Quansoo. Foul weather was brewing, and would be here in a day or two.
    She turned to Jodi and waited. Something was wrong in the life of the bright, gutsy, too-young mother of four boys, the body-pierced and tattooed rebel, the scholar testing the waters of graduate school.
    â€œI finished that journal article, Mrs. T. I was so excited about it.” Jodi wiped a wrist across her eyes. Victoria handed her a paper napkin she’d kept from her lunch at the senior center and Jodi dabbed at her tears. “I think the article was pretty good.”
    â€œWas?” asked Victoria.
    â€œYeah, well.” Jodi made a fist, squeezing the napkin. “Roberta said it needed editing. I figured she knows best. She changed it all around and it doesn’t sound like my work anymore.”
    â€œShe was probably editing it to meet the standards of a particular journal.”
    â€œYeah. Well, I thought okay, she knows best. She’s helping me. You know how interested she is in my research.”
    â€œYou’ve been quite enthusiastic about her.”
    A tour bus pulled in behind them, and Victoria could hear the driver’s voice over the loudspeaker describing the summer homes of various celebrities. The bus left after a few minutes, trailing diesel fumes.
    â€œI don’t know what to think,” said Jodi. The bus geared up the hill and disappeared around a bend in the road. “She’s putting her name on my paper.”
    Victoria said, “It’s standard academic practice for an advisor to put his name on a student’s paper as junior author. It gives an unpublished student credibility.”
    â€œYeah, well.” Jodi had draped both arms over the steering wheel and was staring straight ahead in the direction the bus had taken. “She said, since she’d done so much work on