Beverly Connor - Dead Secret

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.