Beverly Connor - Dead Secret

Dr. Lymon shook her head.

“Why don’t you stay here and collect yourself before you go home.”

“Why did you give him this job?”

“I need a curator, and he had an excellent proposal with several good ideas for the museum.”

“I’ll bet that was the reason. I know about you and him.” Her eyes glittered as she stared at Diane.

Stay calm, Diane said to herself. It doesn’t do to exchange barbs with a madwoman. Nor is it a good idea to become defensive. Diane ignored Lymon’s remark and took her own cell phone, dialed the nurses’ station on the first floor of the museum and asked them to send a nurse up to the geology lab.

“Dr. Lymon, I don’t feel comfortable leaving you alone in a state like this, and I’m ill equipped to give you what you need. I’ve called one of the nurses and she is going to stay with you until you are ready to go home. She’ll drive you, and I’m going to ask one of the security guards to follow in your car.”

Dr. Lymon didn’t say anything. Diane hoped that meant she agreed.

“Can I have your car keys?” Diane held out her hand.

“My keys?” Lymon looked at her as if she’d asked for a frog.

“Your car keys. For the guard. You don’t need to be driving home. I’m having someone take you.”

Dr. Lymon still had her keys in her hand from when she had arrived and saw Mike. She handed them over without a fuss. When Diane heard the nurse enter the lab, she got up and met her with a great deal of relief. It was Mrs. Pierce. She was a very motherly woman with a knack for comforting children. In a low voice, Diane told her the problem.

“It sounds like she’s had a break with reality, doesn’t it?” said Mrs. Pierce. “I’ll stay with her until she’s ready to leave, then take her home. Don’t you worry.”

“Thank you. I’ll have one of the security guards follow in her car.”

Diane led the nurse into the office and introduced her. Glad to be out of there, she walked to Shelly’s office to fetch Mike. She felt like taking one of his ears and pulling him down to his car.

“Look, Doc. I’m really sorry. I didn’t know she would be here. She hardly ever comes to the museum.”

“One of the nurses is taking her home.”

“One of the nurses?” said Shelly. “How about the police?”

“She’s confusing Mike with her husband at the moment. I’m trying to get her some help right now.”

“You mean she’s totally flipped?” said Shelly.

Diane called museum security, explained the situation to Chanell, her head of security, and asked that a guard be sent to escort Dr. Lymon when she was ready to leave.

“Damn,” said Mike. “Did she think I was him when-”

“No. I think it’s rejection that’s sending her over the edge right now. Anyway, Mike, while she’s in the office, I want you to come with me. I don’t think it’s a good idea for her to see you.”

Mike followed her out, and Diane resisted the urge to grab his ear.

“I’ve really pissed you off, haven’t I, Doc?” said Mike when they were alone in the elevator on the way to the third floor. “I had no intention of getting into it with Dr. Lymon, especially in front of visitors.”

“That wasn’t your fault. What I’m concerned about is your being out so soon. Does your doctor know?”

“You’re worried? Really?”

“Yes, and so is Neva.”

“If it were up to her, she’d tie me to the bed-not that that doesn’t hold a certain appeal-but really, if I’m going to get stronger, I have to be up and about.”

“Driving? Coming to work? Look, Mike, this is really none of my business, but as a friend, I do worry that you are pushing it too soon.”

The elevator doors opened, and they stepped out into the lobby in front of the staff lounge and headed toward the osteology lab.

“I know my limits.”

“No, you don’t, Mike. You don’t know your limits until you exceed them. And that’s what I’m concerned about.”

“It’s just that I have so many ideas. Shelly and I have talked about a lot of things, but Dr. Lymon never wanted to listen. There are so many ways we can really improve the geology exhibits.”

“And I’m looking forward to hearing those ideas. I’m also looking forward to going caving again, and I’d like you to be well so you can go too. You can’t do any of those things if you reinjure yourself.”

“Okay, I take your point,” Mike said. “I’m really sorry about Dr. Lymon. She’s not taking her husband’s leaving well, is she? Did she really think I was her husband? We don’t even look alike.”

“I believe she was mixing up the two rejections. Anyway, have you been to the osteology lab?”

Diane was anxious to get away from Dr. Lymon’s problems. She kept thinking that she should call the university, but she didn’t want to make Lymon’s problems any more public than they were.

“No, I haven’t,” said Mike.

“Neva is reconstructing a face from one of the skulls; you can watch her if you like. I also have a comfortable couch in my osteology office, and you can rest there if you need to.”

“You are so good to me, Doc.”

Diane unlocked the lab door. Plymouth Doe, covered with the wet cloth and sans head, was lying on the table.

“Yes, I am.”

She unlocked the bone vault. Neva was there. The skull was turning on the stage of the laser scanner, shafts of red lasers measuring the contours of the facial bones.

“Mike,” Neva said. “You doing okay? Was that Dr. Lymon?” She came over to him. He hugged her and kissed the top of her head.

“I’m fine. I’ll tell you about Lymon later. Show me what you’re doing. Looks high-tech and flashy.”

Diane left them and went back into the outer lab to the bones of Plymouth Doe. She uncovered them and resumed her examination of the ribs. She found no nicks on them; nor did she find anything on the long bones. She did find that the feet showed evidence of bunions. Her toes had a marked deformity where the big toe drifted toward the smaller ones. Diane guessed that Plymouth Doe during her young years had spent a lot of time on her feet in tight shoes.

Neva, followed by Mike, came out of the vault carrying the skull, put it in the alcohol tank and washed her hands. Mike held the picture generated by the software from the laser scan.

“I haven’t drawn her yet, but I thought you’d like to see the face generated by the computer.” She took it to the table where the other drawings were still laid out and put it beside the drawing of Caver Doe’s snapshot.

The computer image showed Plymouth Doe with a wide jaw and forehead, a straight nose and wide, almond-shaped eyes. Both Plymouth Doe and the woman in the unidentified snapshot were very pretty women, but they were not the same.

“Okay, not Caver Doe’s girlfriend,” said Neva. “So what is the connection? Black-market button seller?”

Diane shrugged. “Maybe the trace evidence will tell us something. Nice job, Neva.”

“When I do the drawing of her it’ll look better. Let’s do a newspaper article soon. I’d like to find out who these people were and why they have the same rare button.”

Diane smiled at her. “That’s the first thing we’ll ask the next of kin.”

When Neva and Mike left her lab, Diane went back to the bones, examining them one more time under a magnifying glass, making sure she hadn’t missed something that might help identify Plymouth Doe or indicate what happened to her. She found nothing more. Diane put the Plymouth Doe bones in the alcohol bath and walked to the crime lab.

David was on the phone and taking notes. Neva was at the light table working on her drawing. Jin came bouncing in, still elated over the buttons.