Beverly Connor - Dust to Dust

Gauthier didn’t say anything. She stared at Lillian, but without anger. She gazed at the mask again, brushing it with her fingers, and finally spoke.

“Patsy. It seems as though I called her Patsy. The boy-I called him Steven because he reminded me of my Steven. He was quiet and sensitive. He sat so still as I painted him. He seemed to take joy in just sitting still. He liked Steven better than his name. I don’t remember what it was,” she said.

“Do you remember their last names?” asked Diane.

“No. I didn’t care what their last names were. Those were their fathers’ names,” she said.

“Why didn’t you change your name to Farragut?” asked Diane. “Why did you keep your father’s name?”

Diane had caught Gauthier by surprise. She looked wide-eyed for a moment, as if trying to understand the question.

“I don’t know,” she said finally. “I don’t know.”

“Why did you use a drawing of a bird for your signature?” asked Hanks.

She smiled. “Mother used to call me her little magpie,” she said, “and I lived in Pigeon Ridge. I liked the idea of being something that could fly away whenever I wanted.”

Hanks looked at Diane and his lips twitched into a whisper of a smile.

“How many were there?” said Diane. “How many did you turn into art?”

“Not many. Not many. Ten, maybe. Perhaps fewer,” she said.

“Where are they buried?” asked Diane.

“I don’t know exactly. Everett handled that. Somewhere nearby.”

Hanks rose to his feet. “Thank you for speaking with us.”

He said it as if it were all he could do to say the words. Diane understood.

Hanks reached to take the box containing the mask from Gauthier. She snatched it away.

“Can’t I keep it? It’s mine.”

“It’s evidence, ma’am,” he said, and took the box and put the lid back on it.

They left her there, sitting in the empty sunroom with the harsh light shining on her. No one spoke until they were almost to Rosewood. Lillian broke the silence.

“All that going on in Rosewood, and no one knew? Weren’t those poor people reported missing?”

“They must have been,” said Diane.

“The little boy she said liked to sit still. Poor little thing,” said Harte.

“He was worked hard,” said Diane. “The muscle attachments on his little bones were too developed. He’d led a hard life. He was undersized for his age. He wouldn’t have looked like the teenager he was.”

They were silent again until they were pulling up to the crime lab parking lot where Vanessa had picked up Diane and Detective Hanks.

“Is that what you have to deal with every day?” asked Vanessa before they got out.

“It’s usually not this crazy,” said Hanks. “No, I take that back. When someone gets stabbed for his shoes, or his lunch money, that’s pretty crazy. But I don’t usually deal with insanity on quite this scale.”

He put his sling back on his arm. Diane saw that he was still in pain.

“I want to thank you for the ride,” he told Vanessa. “I’ve never ridden in a limousine before.”

“Everyone should have a limousine ride at least once,” Vanessa said, smiling at him. “Thank you for putting up with us.”

“You were very helpful,” he said. “Mrs. Chapman, you made the woman connect with her past. I’m not sure I could have done that.”

“I’m glad we could be of service,” Lillian said. “It certainly gives one something to think about, doesn’t it?”

Diane and Hanks got out and watched the limousine leave the parking lot.

“I’m sure there’s fresh coffee in the crime lab if you’d like some,” said Diane.

“Fresh coffee sounds good. Will your personnel be up there this late?” he asked.

“Are you kidding? They’re waiting on pins and needles to hear the story,” she said.

“That’s the first time I’ve met Vanessa Van Ross,” said Hanks. “You say she’s the real power behind the museum?”

“Yes, she is,” Diane said.

“An interesting family. I have a ninety-year-old great-grandfather and he has to have twenty-four-hour care. Mrs. Chapman is heading to a hundred, you say? I could invite her out for racquetball.”

Hanks shook his head as he entered the lobby for the crime lab and nodded at Diane’s bodyguards, who were playing cards with the crime lab guard.

“Interesting family,” Hanks said again.

“The Gauthiers were an interesting family,” said Diane.

They got on the elevator and rode to the crime lab.

“Interesting isn’t how I would describe them,” said Hanks.

Diane was right; her team were all there, including Jin-plus Frank. Diane grinned and introduced Frank to Detective Hanks.

“I thought you would be here soon, so I thought I’d take you to dinner in the restaurant,” Frank said.

“Why don’t we all order dinner?” Diane said. “We can eat it in my office and Detective Hanks and I can debrief with you.”

“Let’s,” said Neva. “We are dying to hear about Gauthier. Could you get any sense from her?”

“That depends on your definition of sense,” said Hanks.

“How was the bar fight crime scene?” Diane asked.

“Uneventful,” said Neva.

“Yeah, the guy lying on the floor with a knife stuck in his gut kind of sobered them up,” said Izzy. “We didn’t have any trouble.”

They ordered dinner. While waiting for it to arrive, Frank, Izzy, and David moved the round table from the crime lab to Diane’s office. She, Neva, and Jin carried the chairs. Neva batted Hanks away when he tried to take one of the chairs.

“You have to be really sore,” she said.

“It’s not so bad.”

“I don’t believe that,” Neva said. “We’ve all been hurt and it, well, it hurts.”

“That’s one of the things I miss around here,” said Jin, “your way with words.”

Neva hit him in the shoulder of his Hawaiian shirt. Even with the weather cooling down, Jin still wore Hawaiian shirts and Bermuda shorts when he was off duty. Diane thought it was funny that he was critical of what Scott and Hector wore.

They put the chairs around the table and Neva sat down. “Okay,” she said. “Tell us all about it.”

Alternately, Diane and Hanks told Maybelle Agnes Gauthier’s story to an astonished audience.

“And I thought she was probably the victim,” said Jin, “living with some guy she couldn’t get away from who made crazy pots.”

“Wait a minute,” said Neva. “You mean she was here, when this was a clinic? She was an inmate?” Neva sat with one foot resting on the chair seat, hugging her knee to her.

“Yes,” said Diane. “How’s that for a really disturbing coincidence?”

“I don’t think they called them inmates,” said David.

“I’d say it’s a good word,” said Izzy. “I’ve lived in Rosewood all my life and I’ve never heard of these people.”

“This whole thing goes way off the dial on my freak meter,” said Neva.

“You should have been there with her,” said Hanks. “She’s got the strangest color eyes. Didn’t you think so?”

Diane agreed.

“She had praise for your drawings,” Diane told Neva.

“Oh, well, I’ll just quit my job and take her letter of reference with me to New York,” said Neva.

The buzzer rang on the museum side of the crime lab.

“Food’s here,” said Izzy.

He and Frank went to get it. They came back pushing the cart with their food. Frank handed it out and they settled in to dinner.

“David,” said Diane, “you were quiet during the narration. What have you got up your sleeve that you haven’t told us yet?”

“What makes you think I have something up my sleeve?”

“I know you,” said Diane. “What is it?”