Beverly Connor - Dead Past

They arrived at her house and Frank walked her to her door.

“I’m so grateful we found Star,” she said.

He gave her a kiss on the lips-a short kiss, then one that lingered. “I’m glad you were there to help,” he said when he raised his head. “I was pretty frantic. I ran into another parent in the Learning Center looking for her daughter, too. It was scary. I hope she found her.”

“Me too-and I’m glad you’re home. I missed you.”

Diane got only three hours sleep but felt refreshed when she awakened at eight o’clock. Finding Star had rejuvenated her as much as a full night’s sleep. She showered, dressed, and made a call first thing to Chief Garnett.

“Diane, I tried to find you last night. I was told that you and Frank went looking for Star. Did you find her?”

“Yes. Yes, we did. She was studying in the Student Learning Center with another missing student. It was a good end to a very bad day.”

“Good. Good. It’s bad enough when it’s people you don’t know… Everyone around here was worried.”

He paused and cleared his throat. “Uh, McNair’s been on the phone to the commissioner. He’s trying to have you and your team removed from the recovery. Says you are tampering with evidence and compromising the investigation.”

“That son of a bitch. I hope you know better than that. McNair was the one breaking the seals on the evidence bags. He’s the one who compromised evidence. I called him on it. He and I had words.”

“I’m not at all surprised. But he does have pull with the commissioner-at least his uncle does.”

“Well, you know how paranoid David is.”

“Uh, you’ve said that before, but what does that…”

“David was pretty worked up about it-as he had a right to be. It would not surprise me if he documented McNair’s misconduct by snapping some incriminating pictures with his cell phone camera. We at the crime lab are prone to that behavior. I don’t know that he did; he didn’t say, but I know David.”

“I see. I’ll be sure to smile from now on whenever I look in David’s direction.”

“If a pic does exist, I’d want to use it only as a last resort. I’d hate to expose us as the sneaky people we are.”

She heard Garnett stifle a laugh. “I’ll have a long talk with the commissioner.”

“There’s another thing. It may be perfectly innocent… ” She told Garnett her thoughts about possible drug trade at the student center and about the two girls she had seen.

“When you think about it, that would be a likely place to deal. You didn’t happen to get the girls’ names, did you?”

“Yes, I thought you might want to talk to them. They’re Jessica Davenport and Jamie Dempsey. I also have their picture.”

“Their picture? Where did you get…?”

“Yes, I, well, I took it with my cell phone.”

“I see,” he repeated. “You people in the crime lab are prone to sneaky cell phone behavior, Jeez. I’ve never even used the camera feature on my phone.”

“Well, what can I say? We all grew up watching too many James Bond movies-or Rocky and Bull-winkle. As I said, what I saw may have been perfectly innocent.”

“And it may be a lead. I’ll put a detective on it. And I’ll talk to the commissioner. McNair’s uncle has the commissioner spooked, but the commissioner doesn’t like him, and he does like us, so…”

“I’ll leave all that to you.”

After she hung up with Garnett, Diane called her assistant, Andie, to check on the museum.

“We’re doing OK. Did you find Star?” She sounded subdued. Diane guessed everyone in Rosewood did. She could picture Andie’s usually bright, happy face masked with concern. They all knew Star, and Rosewood was a small town. They were all probably waiting to find out who among their friends were dead.

“Yes, we did find her. She’s fine. She was studying on campus. She’s home with Frank now.”

“Whew, that’s so good. I can’t tell you how worried we were here.”

“We all were, but she’s fine.”

“You know Darcy Kincaid?” asked Andie.

“Sure. One of our exhibit planners,” said Diane. “Why?”

“She was at the party.”

“Oh, no. Oh, Andie. Not Darcy. Not anyone from the museum.”

“She survived the explosion and the fire, but she’s in a coma. They don’t know if she’ll come out of it. We’re all kind of bummed out around here.”

“Do Darcy’s parents know?”

“They flew in from Arkansas late yesterday. Kendel met them at the airport and I found them a hotel room near the hospital. If they have to stay in Rosewood for very long, several of the museum staff have offered them a place to stay for as long as they need.” Diane loved the museum and the people in it. She wasn’t surprised they were so forthcoming with help for Darcy and her family.

She had taken Darcy to dinner, as she did all her employees, to get to know her, and they had consulted and worked together on planning and building museum displays. She remembered Darcy liked dolphins and worked one summer with them at an aquarium in Florida. She wore a silver dolphin charm on a chain around her neck. In all of her worry, the thought had not occurred to Diane that anyone from her museum might be among the victims.

“I’ll stop by the hospital to check on her this morning.”

“I heard someone tried to steal your car,” said Andie. “With all that’s going on, I forgot to ask. Is that true?”

“It’s true. I don’t know who he was. Someone running from the fire, apparently. It ended well. He’s under arrest in the hospital. I’ll tell you all about it later. I’m glad you asked. My car is impounded as evidence. I need to use one of the museum vehicles. Would you have one parked out front in my space?”

“Of course,” said Andie.

“I’m calling a taxi and will be over shortly. Call on my cell if you need me, but it looks like you all have things well in hand.” Diane hurried to get off the phone, but Andie still seemed to need debriefing.

“How long…,” she asked. “How long will you be out there-at the scene?”

“I don’t know, Andie.”

“I guess it’s pretty bad.”

“It’s worse than that.”

“Nothing like this has ever happened in Rosewood.”

“I hope nothing like this ever happens again.”

Diane wished there were some way she could make sure that it would never happen again. Although she believed what Rankin said about not being able to stop the drug trade, maybe there was a way to stop it in her corner of the world.

When Diane arrived at the museum, one of the museum’s SUVs was waiting in her parking space. Before she went back to the circus-as she thought of the tent city-she headed for the hospital. She stopped at a toy store on the way and bought a stuffed dolphin.

Diane was becoming an all too familiar face at the hospital-visiting Frank, Star, Mike, Neva, not to mention her own time in residence as a patient. Too many hospital visits, too many violent injuries. Maybe someone she knew would have a baby and she could come for a happier visit. She rode the elevator to Darcy’s floor and walked down the stark gray corridor to the ICU waiting room. She recognized Darcy’s parents right away because Darcy looked just like her mother-dark hair, dark eyes, and dimples in her cheeks and chin. The two parents sat together on a small crimson sofa. Both were looking at the clock. Waiting for another of the timed visits to ICU, Diane guessed.

“Excuse me, are you the Kincaids?” asked Diane.

“Yes, we are.” Her father stood up, his wife after him. They looked to be in their fifties, fit, and terribly worried. “This is my wife, Edwina. I’m Jesse Kincaid.”