Poisonous: A Novel by Allison Brennan Read Free Book Online

said he didn’t kill her. He said he didn’t care that she was dead, either. Very blunt, very angry.” She paused. “The day before Ivy’s murder, Justin had confronted her at a street fair downtown. According to witnesses, their meeting was a chance encounter but his verbal assault was witnessed by a dozen people. He has a temper and knocked over a display when he left. He paid triple damages to avoid charges—now he’s in prelaw at Stanford.”
    “But you think he’s capable of pushing Ivy off the cliff.”
    “I hope he didn’t, because I have empathy with him. Also, I can see him getting verbal with Ivy at the street fair, spontaneous and in the heat of the moment. But luring her up to the cliffs? I don’t see that. He doesn’t have a solid alibi—but we have no physical evidence tying him to the crime.”
    “Maybe he followed her there,” said Max. “You don’t know why she was at the preserve in the first place?”
    “No. According to her brother, Austin, she left the house just before ten thirty and told him not to tell their parents she’d left, or she’d tell them he did something. I think it was something like going into the city with friends when his mom thought he was at the movies. I’d have to check my notes.”
    “Did she tell Austin who she was meeting?”
    “She didn’t tell him she was meeting anyone. According to Austin, Ivy was on her phone using Snapchat or some similar program. One that doesn’t archive any of the photos or texts unless you request it. We got a subpoena, but the company doesn’t hold on to the data on their servers. All we could learn was the cell service provider of the individuals she was chatting with, and that she was chatting with three different people.”
    “Could you subpoena the records of your suspects?”
    “Tried, failed. We didn’t have probable cause, according to the DA. Said we were fishing. Though I suspect if the DA had pushed for the records, the judge would have ruled in our favor.”
    “So your two primary suspects have weak alibis, both have motive, but there’s no evidence to tie them to the crime and they didn’t break during interrogation.”
    “In a nutshell. The next group of suspects have motive, but the motives are weak. One we dismissed because she was in San Diego—Ivy’s former best friend, Bailey Fairstein. They had a falling-out that spread onto the Internet.” Grace shook her head. “I feel damn lucky my son was out of high school before there was Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and all those other apps. Have you read the civil suit filed by the Brocks? Bailey is the girl who gave a deposition that Ivy purposefully posted sexually explicit photos of Heather Brock as retribution for Heather allegedly stealing Bailey’s boyfriend, among other things. Those explicit photos not only showed Heather in bed with her boyfriend, but Ivy allegedly uploaded a sex video on to a porn site. You can’t get those things down. The FBI got involved and sent notices to the sites that Heather Brock was a minor and to remove the content. Some of the more … reputable, for lack of a better word … porn sites removed the video, but it’s still out there.”
    Max leaned forward. “If I understand the law on the matter, it would seem to me that Ivy could have been charged with child pornography.”
    Grace nodded. “She might have been. But Heather’s parents didn’t know about the video until after her suicide. My office didn’t investigate that matter, it’s federal, but after Ivy’s murder the FBI shared files from their investigation. Frankly, it wasn’t much. Because Ivy was a sixteen-year-old girl who wasn’t producing, selling, or buying pornographic material, prosecuting her wasn’t a priority. The feds spoke with Ivy and her parents.” Grace paused. “I don’t know that there was any real punishment. I heard from one of Ivy’s schoolmates during the murder investigation that Ivy was grounded for a month with no