Tamarack River Ghost: A Novel

35. Confession

204 Confession 35 Randy spent two sleepless nights after his office meeting with his graduate student. She admitted she had doctored the research results she had reported at the Willow River meeting. Even more disturbing, she had threatened that if he told anyone about her manipulation of research data, she would make sure the chair of the Department of Agribusiness Studies would get an incriminating DVD. Her reasons for tampering with the data didn’t make sense. Did she really believe she was helping the citizens of the Tamarack River Valley with her actions? What should he do? For three days, he rolled the alternatives around in his mind: not say anything to anyone about Emily’s admission of changing research numbers, say that she had made an honest mistake and reveal the true numbers, or go to the department chair and tell the truth in all its gory detail. He considered the ramifications of each. If he said nothing, the phone calls about the research data would keep coming in. He would need to have an answer for these callers, and he didn’t have one. He could make a case for the second alternative. He could say that in their haste to put together the numbers for the meeting, they had simply made some honest mistakes in analyzing the survey data. He would apologize, probably get a reprimand from the department chair, and the whole thing would blow over—he hoped. But Emily was still the unknown . What would she do? She had incriminating evidence against him and could, and probably would, hold it over his head throughout her PhD program. What if she ran into difficulty with a required course—say, advanced statistics? Would she come to him and say she would tell the 205 Confession world about their little roll in the hay if he didn’t make the problem she was having go away? The third alternative would be to go to Professor Evans and tell him what had happened, that his graduate student had manipulated the numbers—on purpose. That it was not an error. He wouldn’t mention that he and Emily had slept together. That little error in judgment he would keep to himself, unless Emily filed a sexual harassment suit against him. Then everything would hit the fan. He knew the university’s rules about sexual harassment; breaking them was grounds for dismissal. He would be looking for another job, and with this blemish on his record, finding another university research position would be difficult, if not impossible. Randy knew what he must do. He contacted the department administrator and set up a meeting for the following morning with the department chair. Professor Evans sat behind his big wooden desk, with piles of paper on each side of it and on the chairs nearby and books stacked on the floor. He looked his dapper self, his signature bowtie standing out against his white shirt and his blue blazer hung behind the office door. With a corner office on the third floor of Agriculture Hall, he had a view of Lake Mendota to the north and campus buildings to the east. He stood to shake Randy’s hand. “How are things going, Randy? The research project on track?” he asked. Randy expected him to ask about the phone calls Evans had been receiving from the press and others asking about the numbers presented at the Willow River meeting. “I know you’ve been getting phone calls about the Willow River meeting,” Randy began. “Yes, I have. Do you have some answers for me?” “I do. That’s why I’m here this morning.” Randy opened his manila folder and pulled out Emily’s computer spreadsheets and his own hand-tally sheets. Evans pushed aside some of the clutter on his desk to make room for the papers. 206 Confession “These are our tally sheets for the one question on our survey that asked if the communities supported large, confined hog operations.” Evans peered at the numbers and said “hmm” a couple of times. “How do you account for the differences? Did Emily make some big mistakes along the way?” “No, she didn’t. I asked her about the numbers, and she said she first came up with the exact numbers that I did.” “What happened?” “She manipulated them. Changed them.” “Why would she do that?” Evans had a perplexed look...