Dead Secret dffi-3

by Beverly Connor

  “It is right,” she said emphatically and laughed. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow. I just wanted you to be thinking about it.”

  “That sounded interesting,” said Frank.

  “No more crime. Let’s talk about dessert. Let’s order something really rich.”

  Diane was in early the next morning. After a workout at home, she jogged the museum nature trail and took a shower in her office suite. She felt invigorated. Her arm was healing nicely. She did some museum business and had put all the finished papers on Andie’s desk by the time her assistant arrived. They spent a few minutes discussing museum business; then Diane went upstairs to the crime lab.

  David was in the lab. So was Jin.

  “I thought I was early,” said Diane.

  “You are,” said David. “We’re just earlier. I told Jin about your revelation.”

  “I think you’re right, Boss.”

  Jin and David were writing on two whiteboards. On one board, Jin was listing each crime and the evidence they had so far. On the other board, David was making a matrix. The top of the matrix he labeled Crime Scene and listed Cave, Lake Bottom, Quarry, Lab. The side of the matrix he labeled Evidence and listed Buttons, Picture of Car, Decade, Theft. He marked an X wherever one of the pieces of evidence was linked to a scene.

  When he finished he stood back and looked at his work. An X at one intersection in the matrix indicated that identical buttons were found at the Caver Doe and the Plymouth Doe crime scenes; another showed that both deaths occurred during the same decade. Another X in the matrix confirmed that the picture of the submerged car found near the bodies of Scuba Doe and Quarry Doe linked their deaths with the car containing Plymouth Doe found at the bottom of the quarry. The crime lab break-in and the Caver Doe death were connected by the box of Caver Doe evidence stolen from the lab. Most of the connections were tenuous, but all were suggestive.

  Jin looked at the matrix David had constructed. “It’s like a logic problem,” Jin said. “If A is connected to B, and B is connected to C, then C is connected to A. All the crime scenes could be connected in some way. Isn’t that a surprise?”

  “Okay, but how?” said Diane. “What motive or driving force connects a sixty-year-old body in a cave and a sixty-year-old body in the bottom of the lake with the recent quarry murders and the crime lab break-in?”

  “My first thought would be money or something valuable,” said David.

  “If their deaths weren’t so long ago,” said Jin, “I’d say the murderer was trying to protect himself by keeping Plymouth Doe from being found and by stopping us from analyzing the Caver Doe evidence. But that seems unlikely, because. . well, everyone who was involved in the original murders, including the perp, is probably dead now.”

  “Not necessarily,” said David. “Diane, didn’t you say Caver Doe was in his late teens or early twenties, and that Plymouth Doe was about the same age?”

  “Yes,” said Diane.

  “So they would be in their eighties or nineties now,” said David.

  “What?” Jin laughed. “You thinking somebody in a nursing home is orchestrating all of this? I know the statute of limitations doesn’t run out on murder, but I really can’t see them doing hard time now, even if they’re caught.”

  “And we don’t know that Caver Doe was murdered,” said Diane. “We only know he wasn’t rescued.”

  The elevator opened and Neva rushed in, out of breath. “Sorry I’m late. I had a terrible time talking Mike out of taking a run. God, he’s going to be the death of me. Between him and that stupid caller.”

  “What caller?” asked Diane. They all looked over at her with identical expressions of concern.

  “This guy-I think he’s a guy; his voice is kind of high-pitched-he’s been calling Mike the past couple of weeks and saying he’s the top of the food chain.”

  Jin and David grinned. “What does that mean? Who’s the top of the food chain?”

  “The caller. It’s really weird. That’s almost all he says. Once he told Mike he wasn’t getting his rabbits. I think the guy’s on drugs. I wish he’d lose Mike’s number.”

  “What does the caller ID say?” asked Diane. She didn’t find it as humorous as Jin and David.

  “Mike doesn’t have it. Can you believe it? He doesn’t even have a cell phone.”

  “Could it be the person who stabbed him?” asked David.

  “That’s what I thought,” Neva replied. “But Mike doesn’t think so. He said it’s just somebody on drugs or somebody who hates vegetarians.”

  “Tell the police anyway,” said Diane. “Get them to put a tap on the phone.”

  “I’ll try to talk him into it. We first thought it was my uncle Brad-the family clown. Uncle Brad’s a stonemason and he has these really strong hands, and he likes to intimidate people with his strength. When he shakes hands, especially with my and my cousin’s boyfriends, he likes to squeeze real hard until it hurts.”

  Diane could see where this was going.

  “Mom and Dad invited Mike over for a family barbecue. When Uncle Brad heard Mike was a vegetarian. . well, you should have heard him making fun.”

  “Ah,” said David, “Real-men-don’t-eat-quiche kind of thing.”

  Neva nodded. “I introduced Mike, and Uncle Brad shook his hand and started his squeeze routine. But Mike’s a rock climber. I didn’t tell Uncle Brad that Mike often has to lift his body weight up by his fingers. Well, Mike could squeeze harder than Uncle Brad.” Neva grinned. “They stood there holding hands, Uncle Brad’s face getting redder by the second. Finally, Mike said that if they didn’t quit holding hands, people were going to start talking. Ever since then, Uncle Brad keeps talking about how he’d hurt his hand at work and it wasn’t as strong as it usually was. He’s the kind who can dish things out but can’t take them.” Neva shrugged. “But the phone calls are weird even for him.” As she spoke, Neva looked at the board with David’s crime scene and evidence chart. “What’s this?”

  Jin explained to her about the possibility that Caver Doe was the real focus of the lab theft and the witch bones had been stolen by mistake.

  “That makes sense. I have to tell you, I was having a hard time wrapping my brain around the theory that Druids broke in. So are you telling me that all our crime scenes are related?”

  “The evidence and the logic say they are,” said Diane. “It’s something to look into. We need to get Detective Garnett, Sheriff Burns and Sheriff Canfield in here together to discuss this. They’re going to love that. There’s nothing like cross-jurisdictional cases to deal with. Okay, let’s finish the trace evidence. I’ll go call Garnett and the others.”

  “I was just thinking,” said Neva. “Why don’t I use our software and age the girl in the snapshot-the one found with Caver Doe? Show what she might look like today. I could do another drawing. Maybe two drawings. One where she ages well and one where she doesn’t.”

  “That’s a good idea,” said Diane. “She might still be alive, and people would more likely recognize her face as it is now rather than the way she looked when she was young.”› “Good thinking,” said Jin, gently shoving her. “You’ve been doing a lot of that lately.”

  Diane went to her office and called Garnett, Burns and Canfield. All were surprised at the connections. Burns was skeptical. They agreed to come and discuss pooling resources. Garnett would like that, thought Diane. That was exactly what he and the mayor wanted-for Rosewood to become the place where all the surrounding counties came to get help solving their crimes.

  While Diane was at her desk, she gave Lynn Webber a belated call to thank her for working on Caver Doe.

  “Why, you’re welcome,” said Lynn. “It was interesting to work on mummified remains. I hope the bones were nice and clean when you got them. I miss Raymond every day that goes by, but my new assistant, Grover, is just precious. Have you met him?”

  “No. I haven’t had the pleasure yet. But he did a fine job on the bones. Did you know he put them in
separate boxes according to their side? Got it right too.”

  “Did he really?” Webber laughed with that mirthful laugh that Diane noticed men just loved, but she found grating. “Why am I not surprised?” she said.

  “He is obviously very conscientious in his work.”

  “Next time you’re over here, I’ll introduce you. He worked as a mortician’s assistant before he applied for Raymond’s job. He knew Raymond. I think they may even be related, like third cousins. He’s a really big guy with a large round face and hands as big as dinner plates. But he has a delicate touch with the cadavers when it’s called for. He talks to them too, and is so solemn all the time that I have to make an effort not to laugh. You know how Raymond had that great sense of humor. Grover is completely opposite. But I’m pleased with his work.”

  Lynn Webber obviously still grieved for her former assistant, who was murdered not that long ago.

  “I’m looking forward to it,” said Diane. “I won’t keep you. I just wanted to thank you for your work on Caver Doe.”

  “Anytime-well, not anytime-but I like interesting challenges. How are you? I’ve been hearing the most alarming things-that you got stabbed at a funeral? That can’t be right.”

  “I did. Some maniac, I imagine. We don’t know who did it. But I’m healing fine. It wasn’t serious. Just very annoying. Thanks for asking.”

  Diane got off the phone before Lynn started asking about the break-in and other questions she didn’t want to answer. When she hung up, she went to finish Caver Doe. She’d put him on the back burner, but if there was a connection among the crimes, he’d just moved himself to the front burner.

  She rolled the table with Caver Doe’s bones from the vault out into the osteology lab. She read over her notes from her preliminary examination. His right tibia was broken. His right heel bone and ankle bone, the bones in his right wrist and two lumbar vertebrae were also fractured.

  Diane examined the bones one by one under the microscope, looking for any minute breaks or marks that she had missed. She found nothing else. Up until the time he died, Caver Doe appeared to have been in good health and well muscled. He was probably right-handed. When he died he was in substantial pain from his broken bones. She packed up Caver Doe’s bones and stored him in the vault.

  Diane checked in on Jane Doe’s bones from the woods site that were being worked on by the dermestid colony. The beetles had made substantial progress. She lifted the skull out of the tank, cleared it of beetles, checking all the orifices, and took it into the vault. Neva was there working on aging the snapshot picture.

  “I’m going to do a laser scan of Jane Doe’s skull so we can have a picture of her when the sheriffs and Chief Garnett get here,” said Diane.

  “If I have time, I’ll do a sketch of her,” said Neva.

  “If you have time. But don’t rush.”

  Diane scanned Jane Doe’s skull, and Neva downloaded the scan data into the imaging software.

  “You say Mike’s restless?” asked Diane.

  Neva nodded. “He’s a pain in the butt right now.”

  “I’m sure he doesn’t like being weak.”

  “No, he doesn’t,” said Neva. “I think he must have been a hyperactive kid. He absolutely hates sitting still.”

  “You’re doing a good job taking care of him.”

  “I ought to just not say anything and let him do what he wants to do and suffer the consequences. I did talk him into calling his doctor and asking him what kind of activity he can do.”

  Diane left her alone with her work. Neva seemed to enjoy the solitude of the vault and the work she did there. Jane Doe’s skull went back to the insects. The sheriff and Garnett couldn’t come until after lunch, so Diane decided to go to the museum to do some work.

  The paleontologists working on the velociraptors wanted to do an exhibit of Jurassic plants in the plant room, but the botanists were balking at having another curator design exhibits in their territory, and furthermore, they had plans of their own. Diane hadn’t yet read either proposal, and she was rather looking forward to something that didn’t require her to look at the dead-at least, she hoped it didn’t come to that.

  As Diane left the osteology lab, she saw Lane Emery, head of the crime lab security, at the reception desk talking to the day guard. She waved and crossed the overlook to the dinosaur room. She looked down for a moment, watching the tourists look at the exhibits of the giant animals. She smiled and walked on to the bank of elevators.

  The elevator doors opened to a darkened interior. Two young men in museum T-shirts were inside. Docents, she thought. Diane started to back up to let them out when they grabbed her and pulled her in. She tried to scream, but they put a cloth over her mouth. She tried to claw at their faces, but felt suddenly weak. For a brief moment she smelled the chloroform before passing out.

  Chapter 36

  Diane awoke, but didn’t move. She listened. She heard audible breathing. It sounded like a broken nose that hadn’t healed properly-or a deviated septum. She still smelled the chloroform, but other odors were starting to filter in-paint, glue, pesticide, orange cleaner. They were very familiar smells. She knew where she was-in the basement of the museum. It was being renovated, but the crew was off this week. At least she was in the museum. The knowledge gave her comfort. She was sitting in a chair, her arms bound with what felt like tape. She had a blindfold over her eyes.

  “She’s got to be awake by now.”

  “Dr. Fallon, you awake? Just nod.”

  Diane concentrated on keeping her breathing even.

  “She’s awake; she’s just playing possum.”

  There were two men, probably the two who were in the elevator. Neither wore aftershave or cologne, no aroma to identify. She tried to remember their faces, but they had been turned toward each other, as if one was looking at something the other had.

  “Lady, we aren’t supposed to hurt you. This is kind of like a board meeting. We just want you to listen. We are going ahead and talking, and you just listen.”

  Diane didn’t move.

  “I’ll say this for you: You’re good at playing possum. That’s okay. We don’t need your cooperation, or an answer. We’re just delivering a message.”

  He was the one with the deviated septum. Probably got it from a fight, she thought. Their voices came from different levels. Deviated Septum was sitting, the other standing. As if verifying it, the first man slid his chair across the tile floor so that he was closer to Diane.

  “You control the evidence in the crime lab. All you have to do is get rid of the stuff you took from the cave and the bottom of the lake. That’s all. Just get rid of it. It’s a sixty-three-year-old crime. It’s the past. History. It’s not like you can put anybody on trial.”

  “If you don’t,” said the man standing, “well, we sort of own you in a way. We own the museum. We can come and go as we please. We can reach your family.” A chill went through Diane. “We can burn down the museum.”

  “So,” said Deviated Septum, “it sounds like a bargain to me. Some old bones for an entire museum full of all kinds of fascinating things.”

  “You don’t have to answer. Just know that we can get to anyone. We got to your mother without having to leave our house,” said the other man.

  Diane was frightened at first; now she flushed with anger. These were the hackers who had caused her mother to be arrested and put in Tombsberg. “I can’t hear,” whispered Diane through her teeth.

  They were silent for a second, as if confused, as if contemplating that the entire speech went unheard.

  “My ears. I’m dizzy. What do you want?”

  “Well, shit. Do you know how long I’ve been rehearsing that little speech? Okay, let’s do it again.” He got close to her ear and yelled, “With stereo! You are going to lose the bones found in the cave and in the lake and all the stuff found with them or we are going to burn down the museum. Did you hear that?”

  “Yes, I hear you. Why do you want
me to do that?”

  “Why isn’t important. It’s just the way things are. Have I made myself clear?”

  Diane’s left ear reverberated with the sound.

  “To a point.”

  “Just as long as you know what to do. Do you know what to do?”

  “Yes.”

  He stood up. “Now. .”

  “I can’t hear you. The chloroform. My head’s spinning.” He got near her ear again. “We’re leaving a knife twenty feet in front of you. You can get yourself loose. Do you understand?”

  Diane nodded. Then she got an extra bonus. The other man, not Deviated Septum, bent to where he could yell in her other ear.

  “We got to your mother without breaking a sweat. How is she doing, by the way?”

  “My mother? That was you? Why?”

  “Oh, I think you can figure it out. You seem to be fair at figuring things out. Just know that we did it.”

  “Did you stab me? Why?”

  “No, we didn’t do that. But we could have.”

  He rose, and she heard the two of them leave the room. She listened to their footfalls echoing in the empty basement. She heard the key put in the lock to call the elevator to the basement. She heard them as they got on and as the elevator rose.

  She stayed there after they left and didn’t move until there were no more sounds of movement. Were they gone? Probably. They wanted her cooperation, not to kill her. She tried to rise from the chair, but was tied too tightly to it. She stood as much as she could and half walked and half scooted, feeling with her feet for the knife. She ended up kicking it and heard it bounce off the wall. Damn.

  She dragged the chair with her in the direction of the sound and felt along the floor with her foot. Several tries and she stepped on it.

  Now to pick it up. Briefly she thought about using her toes, but she had very little dexterity in her toes even without panty hose. After half a dozen failed efforts to get to it, she rocked the chair until it fell. She banged her head against the floor and cursed under her breath. Finally she squirmed around until her back was to the knife. Diane grabbed it with her hands and felt the double-edged blade.