Beverly Connor - One Grave Too Many

“I was refreshed by the adrenaline rush I got from Dean.”

“How did you find him?”

“He surprised me upstairs. Knocked me on my ass and threatened me with a knife.”

Diane said it so calmly it took Frank a second to respond. When he did, it came out as an explosion.

“What! Why didn’t you say something?”

“I thought he had a lack of resolve.”

“Lack of resolve? Are you crazy? The kid’s probably on or coming off drugs, and he’s desperate. You can’t take chances like that.”

“Like what? We were alone in the house. He had a knife. I talked him down. Was that dangerous? Yes. However, I didn’t really have a choice.”

“You should have said something to me.”

“He was disarmed. I thought we might get some information from him. As it was, he didn’t know anything. Or won’t tell. The knife’s up in the guest room on the dresser, if you would like to have a look, get some prints or something.” Diane took the last bite of her pastry, wiped her hands on a napkin and stood up. “If you clear up our trash, I’ll water these plants. Then I have to get back upstairs.”

The sun had been up a couple of hours when Diane finished. The last thing she did was to collect blood samples. She had photographed, drawn and diagramed the impact and cast-off spatters. She had measured and located the point of origin of the medium-impact spatters, so that now the trajectory string displayed an eerie blow-by-blow scene of the events that took away George and Louise Boone.

“It looks like a giant cat’s cradle.” Frank stood in the doorway with a box under his arm.

“Do I look as tired as you?” Diane asked.

“Not a bit.”

“Liar.”

Frank surveyed the crisscrossed string from different angles. “What can you tell me?”

“Can you get me the autopsy reports first-and get these samples analyzed at a crime lab?”

“I’ll get you the reports tomorrow. About the samples, that’ll take longer.”

“I’m going to plug my numbers into a computer program.” She gestured toward the bloodstained wall. “It will show us a three-D image of what the string is showing us. Come to my office tomorrow with the report and we’ll talk. What’s in the box?”

“You were right. I found a couple more bones in the garage.”

“Let me see.”

Diane took the box from him, set it on the dresser and opened the flaps. Inside was a deer skull and what she thought was a racoon skull-items Jay probably thought were cool enough to keep. The Boones probably believed the bone they showed Frank belonged to this deer.

“Let me take these back to the museum.”

“Sure. Diane, I know this has been a pretty big favor. I appreciate what you’ve done for me.”

You have no idea, she thought.

Diane stopped by her apartment and took a long shower-as hot as she could stand it. She soaped up and just let the water run over her body. She didn’t realize how long she had stayed until the water started getting cool. She stepped out of the shower, dried off and went to the closet to select clothes, giving the bed a longing glance as she passed by. Damn Frank and his favors. Her dreams would probably recur after this. She selected a maroon pantsuit and pulled it onto her still-weary body.

Out in the hallway, Mrs. Odell came charging out of her apartment. “I want you to know, I took Marvin to the hospital today. Allergies. If you don’t get rid of that cat, I’m going to sue you for every penny you’ve got.”

“Mrs. Odell, I don’t have a cat. Have you talked to the landlady?”

“Humpf, a lot of good that does. She refused to let me search your apartment.”

“Good for her. Do you think maybe someone else here has a cat?”

“There’s the upstairs people, the downstairs people and us. It has to be on this floor, and we are the only ones here.”

“I can’t help you, Mrs. Odell. I don’t have a cat, but I do have to get to work. I hope Mr. Odell gets better soon.”

“Poor man. I got some funeral home brochures for him to look at while he’s there. It was the only thing that cheered him up.”

Diane started to say something, but kept her mouth shut. She didn’t even want to know. She headed for the stairs.

When she arrived at the museum parking lot and got out of her car, she saw two spaces over that Alix Nils seemed to be involved in an argument with Mike Seger, the geology student who supplied the content for the computer animations.

She heard Mike say, “Why don’t you get a life, Alix-or help-and leave us alone?”

Alix fixed a stare on Mike that would have killed him had it been bullets. “Don’t. .”

“Is there a problem, Alix?” said Diane, stopping next to the car.

Both of them turned abruptly and stared at her.

“Problem?” said Alix, recovering her composure. “No. Just having a word with Melissa’s boyfriend.”

Melissa’s boyfriend. Diane looked over at him sharply. He must have noticed her expression, for he narrowed his eyes very slightly. It was then she noticed that both he and Alix were wearing museum tee shirts.

“Are you working here?”

“Part-time,” he answered. “Dr. Lymon is my major professor, and she asked me to assist her here.”

Alix and her boyfriend-and his father, and now Melissa and her boyfriend. This was getting to be one big family affair.

“I guess I’ll be seeing more of you around, then,” said Diane.

“I guess so.”

“Are the two of you coming or going?”

“We just arrived,” said Alix.

Alix and Mike avoided looking at each other as they walked into the museum with Diane. Alix stepped into the elevator to go to the third floor where the docents’ office was located. Mike watched the closed elevator doors for a moment, then turned to Diane.

“Dr. Fallon, Dr. Lymon wanted me to ask you about the office space.”

“What do you think of the office space?”

“Me? I, uh, I like it. It’s near the rock lab and the exhibits.”

“Good. Then perhaps you can persuade her of its good qualities.”

Mike made a pained face. “She was thinking maybe a larger office is available.”

“No, one isn’t.”

“All right, I’ll try to sell her on the one we have.”

“I would appreciate it.”

Mike took the stairs to the second floor, and Diane headed down the hallway to her office. Instead of using her private entry, she went to Andie’s office.

“Andie, how is everything this morning?”

“Great. Some more of the Bartrum faculty curators are moving in today. So far, most of them like the facilities, especially the lab space. So did you and Frank go out last night?” Andie sat behind her desk, grinning, her hypercurly hair held on top of her head with Japanese hairpins.

“In a manner of speaking. He asked me to examine the house where his friends were murdered.”

“Oh, great. Dinner and a crime scene. I’m going to have to give him lessons on romantic evenings. He did at least feed you, didn’t he?”

“We had takeout from Krystal.”

“Lessons, definitely needs lessons.”

Korey burst into Andie’s office looking winded. “Dr. Fallon, we had a break-in in the lab.”

“A break-in? What was stolen?”

“Nothing-that I can find. The drawers are pulled out, things scattered. It looks more like a vandal, or someone looking for something.”

“Have you called security?”

“I thought I’d call you first.”

Diane had a pang of guilt for having not yet hired a chief of security. It was time she did that. She and Korey walked up the stairs to the second-floor conservation lab. On the way, Diane stopped at the security office and asked the guard on duty, Chanell Napier, a slender, round-faced black woman, to come with her.