Blood Will Tell Read Online Free PDF Page B

of harassment these days. Only one in a million tries to gun down the teacher."
    “But it does happen,” said Brandy. “If this is murder, it's certainly more subtle than using a gun!"
    Martin shuddered. “Is there a poison that causes a person to die of old age in a few hours?"
    “Not that I know of, but I can't rule out the possibility that someone's invented one. What genetic experiments are going on on campus?"
    “None. Purchase is a regional university, not a research institution—at least not at that level."
    “Well, I'm not a medical expert, either,” said Brandy. “Land could have had some disease we've never heard of. If I start to think I know what happened I could ignore clues that don't fit the theory.
    “Dan,” she continued, “you're a computer expert. I need to access Dr. Land's medical insurance files to locate doctors who may have treated him, tax files, previous employment and education records, friends or family—"
    “Start with Rett's own computer,” said Martin. “His e-mail directory will tell you who he corresponds with, and the programs on his hard disk will tell you the things he's—he was—interested in. His correspondence file will give you his snail mail contacts. As campus postmaster, I can access outgoing or incoming mail still in the mainframe."
    Land's office was as Brandy had left it, but when they turned on Land's computer they found that the hard drive was not functioning. “It's been formatted,” said Martin.
    Brandy thought that that would destroy the data—but Martin said, “Not necessarily,” and went to his office for a boot disk and a program that would unformat the fixed disk. “If whoever formatted it either didn't know to replace the data with zeroes, or didn't have time, we'll get it back."
    The utility program worked; soon Land's hard drive was back in working order.
    Because Martin had set up Land's computer, he was familiar with the utilities. He quickly searched out every data file the man had stored. To Brandy's disappointment, nothing was of obvious value.
    “You do know one thing,” said Martin.
    “I do?” asked Brandy, staring at a directory of .EXM files, which turned out to be examinations.
    “You know that what killed Rett wasn't radiation. Or if it was, it didn't happen in this room or anywhere nearby. Radiation would have wrecked his computer too thoroughly for us to restore the data."
    Brandy smiled. “I don't seriously suspect radiation. We just can't rule out any possibility at this stage."
    Land's correspondence files yielded letters in a number of languages, dealing with travel arrangements, scholarly conferences, and publications. To Brandy's surprise, Dan was able not only to outdo her limping Spanish, but to translate French and German as well. Neither of them could cope with Italian, Greek, or Hebrew, though, so they simply printed those letters out to be translated later.
    “Professor Land would have been our source for Greek or Hebrew,” said Brandy. “I can send the Hebrew to a rabbi in Paducah, but I'm not sure who can help with the Greek."
    “Let me use Rett's PC,” said Martin. “I'll e-mail the files to a friend at Columbia."
    None of Land's outgoing e-mail was left in the mainframe, but they printed out letters other people had sent him. One concerned the business of some state academic assessment committee, and another was an enthusiastic response from a professor at Yale to a proposed section of papers for a national conference. The last piece said simply “Queen to Queen's Bishop 3."
    “Chess?” asked Brandy.
    “That's odd,” said Martin. “If Rett was enough of a chess enthusiast to play by mail, why didn't he join the university Chess Club? I never even knew he played."
    “We should send his correspondents the bad news,” said Brandy. “Possibly Land's closest friends were at other institutions—after all, how many people do you find in Murphy, Kentucky, who speak six different languages?"
    “Seven,