Beverly Connor - One Grave Too Many

“Really, he wasn’t,” said Melissa. Diane thought she saw fear in Melissa’s dark eyes as she glanced from Mike to her.

“Your argument is spilling from the stairwell out into the museum. It would be better if you take your disagreements off museum grounds.”

“Oh, I didn’t know. I’m sorry, Dr. Fallon. Really. It won’t happen again.” Melissa hurried up the stairs and out of sight.

Mike remained, however, and turned to face Diane. He was a few inches taller than she, so she moved up to a higher step to face him.

“I don’t want anything like what I just saw occurring in the museum.”

“We were having an argument. That was all. I know we shouldn’t have been arguing here, and we won’t again. But that’s all that was going on.”

“I’ve noticed Melissa has had bruises in the past few days.”

“They haven’t come from me. That’s what you’re thinking, isn’t it?”

“If I find they did, you’re out of here.”

“Look, Dr. Fallon, I need this job. Assistantships in geology are hard to come by, and this has been a fortunate opening for me. I don’t want to be fired because of something I didn’t do.”

“Then do we understand each other?”

“Yes.” He turned and headed up the steps, then stopped and came back down to Diane’s level. “Korey Jordan said he found old maps, rocks and fossil collections in the basement dating from the mid-to late-1800s?”

“Yes. This was a museum, then a clinic and now a museum again. There are some exhibits left over from that earlier time.”

“Were any of the maps geologic maps?”

“I’m not sure.”

“What’s going to happen to them? I mean, is there any chance I can look at them?”

“Korey will have to assess any damage to the materials and stabilize them first. Perhaps do some repairs, if that’s possible. After that, they can be examined.”

“I have an interest in old geologic maps. They could make an interesting exhibit, especially if the rock and fossil collections can be matched up with the maps.”

“I don’t know if we have any provenience on the rock collection. Many of the things Korey is finding in the basement and attic were stored without much thought to organization or archiving.”

“I’d be glad to take a look at the rock collection. I may be able to determine where they were collected.”

“I’m not sure if it would be worth the time it would take. We currently have an extensive collection, as I’m sure you’ve seen.”

“Yes, I know. But I might find something interesting. Sometimes a specific kind of rock can get mined out and disappear. And who knows about the fossils? Sometimes new species have been discovered in museum collections.”

“By all means. Take a look at them.”

“Thanks.”

He disappeared up the stairs. Diane stood for a moment wondering about him and Melissa before she went back down to ground level and to her office. Through the adjoining door of her office, she heard Andie talking to someone.

“Yeah, they’d rather chase down somebody trespassing on some taxidermist’s place or some dog peeing on Mrs. Crabtree’s flower bed than investigate anything really illegal,” Andie was saying.

Diane opened the door between the offices and saw that it was Korey talking to Andie.

“We didn’t have another breakin, did we?”

“Oh, hi, Diane,” said Andie.

“No,” said Korey. “Just telling Andie about the non-action posture the police took. And I was delivering these.” He handed Diane an envelope. “They turned out pretty good.”

Diane opened the envelope and took out photographs of the fingerprints. “How about your office, Korey? Was anything missing?”

“It had been searched, but nothing missing. Somebody was looking for something, that’s for sure.”

“I’ll see if I can get these prints run through the system. Korey, do you know Mike Seger very well?”

“Just met him. He was looking around in the conservation lab the other day, and I showed him some of the geology stuff we found in the basement.”

“What kind of guy does he seem to you?”

Korey shrugged. “He seemed an all right guy. You don’t suspect him of breaking into the lab, do you?”

Diane was taken aback for a moment. She’d been thinking about Melissa and not the breakin. “No, not at all. There are a lot of new people coming in from the university, and I just wondered what your take on him was.”

“Fine. I like him. Seems to know his business.”

“Thanks, Korey. I’ll let you know if I find out anything about the fingerprints.”

Diane went back to her desk and pulled out her calendar, skimming over today’s schedule. There was no urgent business. Dylan Houser wanted to meet about her computer. She could put that off for another day.

She called up her E-mail. Jonas Briggs had sent his next chess move, pawn to queen four. Diane thought a moment, visualizing the chessboard in her mind’s eye. The beginning game moves weren’t hard to remember, but before long she would have to go up to the second floor and look at his board before she moved. She E-mailed him to move her knight to the queen’s bishop three position.

It hit her suddenly. She jumped up from her computer and hurried into Andie’s office.

“Andie, what were you saying when I came in?”

“Hi, Diane?”

“No, before that. When you were speaking with Korey.”

“Oh, he was telling me how the police weren’t the least interested in finding who broke in to the lab, and I said they were more interested in finding out who peed on Mrs. Crabtree’s flowers-oh, and finding trespassers.”

“You were more specific than that about the trespassers.”

“Some taxidermist?”

“Why did you say that?”

Andie shrugged and looked wide-eyed. “I don’t know, I was just making conversation.”

“No, I mean why did you use those examples?”

“Oh. I like to read the sheriff’s incident report in the paper. Sometimes they’re real funny, like this woman who reported that someone broke into her house, messed up her bed and left an unused condom on her dresser. Why?”

“Can you tell me more about the taxidermist and the trespassers?”

“Let me see.” Andie rolled her eyes upward, thinking. “It began as a complaint from a woman. Her neighbor was shooting off a gun. The neighbor-a taxidermist-said he heard someone trespassing. Apparently, they were disturbing the cows in his pasture, or something like that, and he fired a shot in the air. That’s all there was to it.”

“When did you read this?”

“Just a few days ago. Why?”

“Do you know his name?”

“Something sort of funny.” Andie thought a minute. “Luther, Luther Something? Why are you asking me all this?”

“Tell you later.” Diane went back to her office, closed the door and dialed Frank’s cell phone number.

“Diane, how you doing this morning?”

“I’m fine, really.”

“That’s good. I was worried.”

“It was good to share Ariel with someone. She was special.”

“Yes, I can see that she was.”

There was a distance in Frank’s voice that puzzled her. If she hadn’t known him better, he sounded like someone who didn’t want to hear from a one-night stand. As she started to speak, she heard a pinging in the background, then an intercom voice calling for a doctor.

“Frank, where are you? Is everything all right with you? How’s Kevin?”

“Kevin’s fine. But I’m at the hospital. I got a call when I got home. Star tried to commit suicide this morning. She’s not good.”

“Oh, Frank.” Diane’s voice trembled. This is not the time to collapse, she scolded herself.