Read Online Poison Most Vial by Benedict Carey - Free Book Online

too heavy. Scraps of conversation, but that was all. She scampered back, motioning Rex into the stacks to watch the conference room.
Time to get some real evidence
, Ruby said to herself.
Should’ve done this a long time ago
.
    Where to start?
    Wade’s cubicle was neat, the books stacked by size, notebooks labeled. Victor’s had his boxes of exotic tea, his packs of gum, his index cards full of tiny scrawl.
    Take something.
    Grace’s books and notebooks were busy with doodles, her pens chewed. Lydia’s space was by far the messiest, with empty diet soda cans, candy wrappers. Among the debris she found little except two exams stuffed into a textbook, both marked
Unsatisfactory
. One of the exams had a note in green pen—Rama’s writing—that said,
Please come see me
.
    Ruby noted all this in her sketchbook, feeling like she was sneaking around someone’s home.
    Lydia’s backpack was lying there, practically asking to be unzipped. Ruby reached for it, stopped herself, looked up. She saw Rex circling a finger in the air. “Like
now
,” he whispered. “Hurry up, they’re almost done in there.”
    She had thirty seconds, maybe twenty. Her heart was doing cartwheels. This was it, surely her last chance at these unattended backpacks and books.
    She collected anything with numbers on it: a sheet of Grace’s doodles, the numbers from two ID cards (she wrote them down), several Post-its; Rex mumbled, “Time’s up,” and Ruby’s hand reflexively reached out and grabbed one more thing before she darted into the stacks.
    She found Rex on all fours, peering through the books at the grad students’ legs now headed toward the cubicle area.
    â€œThat was too close. Here they are,” he said. “I hope you got something good.”
    Ruby peered through the books back at the cubicles. “You know, I got pretty much nothing. The problem is—
aaaagh!
”
    A face pushed through the space between the books: Lydia!
    Ruby fell backward, hitting her head against the shelves behind her, and Lydia’s big face now loomed above her. “What you doing in here?” asked the older girl. Lydia shot a disgusted glance at Rex, who was still struggling to his knees, and looked back at Ruby. “Answer to me. I saw you near to the desks. I’m asking you now.”
    â€œOK, right,” said Ruby, light-headed, reaching for her backpack to retrieve the things she’d pilfered. “It wasn’t hardly anything.”
    Rex stood and moved between the two girls, his face close to Lydia’s. “We’re in the library. This is our library, too—what are
you
doing here?” he asked.
    â€œThis is the forensics section,” Lydia said. “This is for the graduate forensics students—”
    â€œSo you’re the owner?” Rex said, his shoulders rising and falling, and now Ruby had a hand on his shoulder, talking in his ear: “Rex, Rex, Rex . . . ” She had to calm him, or he’d endup sitting on Lydia and bringing down a pile of books. That would be the end of their library privileges.
    â€œHow much you pay for this shack?” Rex continued, same tone, a little quieter.
    â€œRex, third period—c’mon, third period,” Ruby said. “Let’s get back. She’s done bothering us.”
    And she was. Lydia, pointing at Ruby, in retreat now, her face colored with—what? Fear. Not just of Rex’s anger, either. Lydia had to be involved somehow. If not, why would she care so much about their snooping?
    Ruby had no chance to talk it over with Rex. The two had to hustle back to class to beat the bell between periods.
    â€œNow, now, no running in the hallways, please,” came a voice from behind. “Oh, it’s Miss Rose. And her friend.”
    Ruby turned to see Dean Touhy. The dean; he’d been there that night, too. Another suspect. He looked terrible, Ruby thought,