Dead Secret (25 page)

The paleontologists working on the velociraptors wanted to do an exhibit of Jurassic plants in the plant room, but the botanists were balking at having another curator design exhibits in their territory, and furthermore, they had plans of their own. Diane hadn’t yet read either proposal, and she was rather looking forward to something that didn’t require her to look at the dead—at least, she hoped it didn’t come to that.

As Diane left the osteology lab, she saw Lane Emery, head of the crime lab security, at the reception desk talking to the day guard. She waved and crossed the overlook to the dinosaur room. She looked down for a moment, watching the tourists look at the exhibits of the giant animals. She smiled and walked on to the bank of elevators.

The elevator doors opened to a darkened interior. Two young men in museum T-shirts were inside. Docents, she thought. Diane started to back up to let them out when they grabbed her and pulled her in. She tried to scream, but they put a cloth over her mouth. She tried to claw at their faces, but felt suddenly weak. For a brief moment she smelled the chloroform before passing out.

Chapter 36

Diane awoke, but didn’t move. She listened. She heard audible breathing. It sounded like a broken nose that hadn’t healed properly—or a deviated septum. She still smelled the chloroform, but other odors were starting to filter in—paint, glue, pesticide, orange cleaner. They were very familiar smells. She knew where she was—in the basement of the museum. It was being renovated, but the crew was off this week. At least she was in the museum. The knowledge gave her comfort. She was sitting in a chair, her arms bound with what felt like tape. She had a blindfold over her eyes.

“She’s got to be awake by now.”

“Dr. Fallon, you awake? Just nod.”

Diane concentrated on keeping her breathing even.

“She’s awake; she’s just playing possum.”

There were two men, probably the two who were in the elevator. Neither wore aftershave or cologne, no aroma to identify. She tried to remember their faces, but they had been turned toward each other, as if one was looking at something the other had.

“Lady, we aren’t supposed to hurt you. This is kind of like a board meeting. We just want you to listen. We are going ahead and talking, and you just listen.”

Diane didn’t move.

“I’ll say this for you: You’re good at playing possum. That’s okay. We don’t need your cooperation, or an answer. We’re just delivering a message.”

He was the one with the deviated septum. Probably got it from a fight, she thought. Their voices came from different levels. Deviated Septum was sitting, the other standing. As if verifying it, the first man slid his chair across the tile floor so that he was closer to Diane.

“You control the evidence in the crime lab. All you have to do is get rid of the stuff you took from the cave and the bottom of the lake. That’s all. Just get rid of it. It’s a sixty-three-year-old crime. It’s the past. History. It’s not like you can put anybody on trial.”

“If you don’t,” said the man standing, “well, we sort of own you in a way. We own the museum. We can come and go as we please. We can reach your family.” A chill went through Diane. “We can burn down the museum.”

“So,” said Deviated Septum, “it sounds like a bargain to me. Some old bones for an entire museum full of all kinds of fascinating things.”

“You don’t have to answer. Just know that we can get to anyone. We got to your mother without having to leave our house,” said the other man.

Diane was frightened at first; now she flushed with anger. These were the hackers who had caused her mother to be arrested and put in Tombsberg. “I can’t hear,” whispered Diane through her teeth.

They were silent for a second, as if confused, as if contemplating that the entire speech went unheard.

“My ears. I’m dizzy. What do you want?”

“Well, shit. Do you know how long I’ve been rehearsing that little speech? Okay, let’s do it again.” He got close to her ear and yelled, “With stereo! You are going to lose the bones found in the cave and in the lake and all the stuff found with them or we are going to burn down the museum. Did you hear that?”

“Yes, I hear you. Why do you want me to do that?”

“Why isn’t important. It’s just the way things are. Have I made myself clear?”

Diane’s left ear reverberated with the sound.

“To a point.”

“Just as long as you know what to do. Do you know what to do?”

“Yes.”

He stood up. “Now . . .”

“I can’t hear you. The chloroform. My head’s spinning.” He got near her ear again. “We’re leaving a knife twenty feet in front of you. You can get yourself loose. Do you understand?”

Diane nodded. Then she got an extra bonus. The other man, not Deviated Septum, bent to where he could yell in her other ear.

“We got to your mother without breaking a sweat. How is she doing, by the way?”

“My mother? That was you? Why?”

“Oh, I think you can figure it out. You seem to be fair at figuring things out. Just know that we did it.”

“Did you stab me? Why?”

“No, we didn’t do that. But we could have.”

He rose, and she heard the two of them leave the room. She listened to their footfalls echoing in the empty basement. She heard the key put in the lock to call the elevator to the basement. She heard them as they got on and as the elevator rose.

She stayed there after they left and didn’t move until there were no more sounds of movement. Were they gone? Probably. They wanted her cooperation, not to kill her. She tried to rise from the chair, but was tied too tightly to it. She stood as much as she could and half walked and half scooted, feeling with her feet for the knife. She ended up kicking it and heard it bounce off the wall.
Damn
.

She dragged the chair with her in the direction of the sound and felt along the floor with her foot. Several tries and she stepped on it.

Now to pick it up. Briefly she thought about using her toes, but she had very little dexterity in her toes even without panty hose. After half a dozen failed efforts to get to it, she rocked the chair until it fell. She banged her head against the floor and cursed under her breath. Finally she squirmed around until her back was to the knife. Diane grabbed it with her hands and felt the double-edged blade.

It was a dagger. She wondered if it was the one used to stab her and Mike. But why would they have denied doing it and admitted to other things? Avoiding the cutting edges, she grasped the hilt of the dagger and maneuvered it into a position so that she could saw at the tape that bound her. It was a dull knife, not the one used to stab her and Mike. They wanted her to get loose, but to delay her escape, to give them a head start.

She sawed halfway though the tape. The other half yielded more easily. Her hands came free. She wiggled them around until she could maneuver out of the tape around her shoulders, and removed the blindfold from her eyes.

She estimated that it had taken her about fifteen minutes to get free. She picked up the knife and tape, then looked around the room for anything else that might have been left behind by her kidnappers. The chair was all she saw at the moment. She grabbed it too and went for the elevator. They had left the elevator key on the floor. She put it in the lock and rode to the third floor, carrying all the items with her.

She made it to the crime lab. Chief Garnett, Sheriff Burns and Sheriff Canfield were sitting around the table. David was giving them coffee.

“What you got there, Boss?” said Jin, rushing over to help her. “What is all this stuff?”

“Don’t touch it until you get some gloves on,” she said. She turned to her guests. “I have an emergency. I’ll be with you in just a minute.”

“David, Jin, Neva, you’re with me.” She led them to one of the evidence rooms, carrying the items with her, and closed the door. Garnett and the two sheriffs stared after her.

“What’s up, Boss?”

“I just escaped from being kidnaped, knocked out with chloroform and tied up in the basement.”

Neva, Jin and David stood with their mouths open.

“Just now? That’s where you were all morning?” said David.

“Yes. David, I want you to go to the basement and process Room . . . Room J, I think it’s called. There’s a temporary paper sign with the letter above the door. Process the far right elevator, the key, the tape, the chair. Look around and see if they’ve been using the basement as a home base.”

She turned to Jin. “I need you to process me.”

“You?” said Jin. “What did they do?” He looked alarmed.

“For one thing, my nails. I tried to scratch them, but I don’t think I got anything. I managed to get them to yell at me close to my ear and I’m hoping a good spray of spittle got transferred. One guy was on the left side, the other on the right. The left-side guy had noisy breathing. I’m thinking he might have had a deviated septum. Anyway, Jin, I want you to take the samples to Atlanta and do whatever you have to to get them processed ASAP.”

Jin went to get his kit to collect the samples. Diane turned to David. “When he gets the DNA results, run them through CODIS and any other DNA database you can get access to. Even if we are not supposed to have access.”

“This is serious.”

“They threatened to burn down the museum unless I get rid of the Caver Doe and Plymouth Doe evidence.”

Neva sucked in her breath.

David’s mouth was agape. “My God. You have to tell Garnett.”

“I will, but I’m not sure who to trust. They didn’t say it, but they seemed to know that we’re putting things together.” Diane shook her head. “I think—or they may simply have bungled the break-in and are now trying intimidation.”

Jin returned, and Diane gave him her jacket. “If you need to cut my hair, go ahead.”

“I’ll try not to make you look too bad,” he said. “How did you get them to yell in your ear?”

“I told them I couldn’t hear because of the chloroform.”

“You convinced them the chloroform made you deaf? Way to go, Boss.” Jin took samples of her hair around her ears, then swabbed her skin and other parts of her hair. “If they left their DNA, I got it,” said Jin. “You want me to leave now for the lab in Atlanta?”

“Yes.”

“You know, Boss, if we had our own lab . . .”

“You get me some usable DNA and I’ll give it serious thought.”

“You got it,” said Jin.

“Send the information directly to David’s computer when you get the results.”

“Sure thing. You okay now, Boss?”

“No, I’m not. I am very angry. They also admitted—bragged about—being the ones responsible for what happened to my mother.”

“Good God,” said David. “I see what happened now. They wanted to steal the bones before you had a chance to look at them, so they went after your mother to get you out of town. Something—or someone—important must be connected to them.”

“Yes, I’m sure you’re right. They had me blindfolded and tied up, but here’s what I gathered from their conversation. One of them said the bones are sixty-three years old—both Caver Doe and Plymouth Doe. Now we have a firm date. At least one of them is a hacker—he took the time right before they left to brag how he could get to my family. I think it is probably the one without the nose problem. He would be the one who yelled in my right ear.”

“I was trying to find you this morning,” said David, “to tell you that I’ve filled in more blanks in our chart out there. The powder from the surgeon’s gloves that we got from the keypad on your bone lab lock is the same as powder found on the photograph of the submerged car. We also found some navy wool fibers on Quarry Doe like the wool fibers we found in the basement security room. So from what you’ve told me, I’d say it was these guys who did the crime lab burglary and murdered the two guys at the quarry.”

“Jin, when you process my jacket, check for powder residue. Feel free to cut it up if you need to.”

“Don’t you worry, Boss; we’ve all but got them.”

“You guys are doing a good job.” Diane turned to Neva. “They’ve been hanging around the museum, probably wearing museum T-shirts. I want you to check the security videotapes and interview the museum personnel—especially security and the docents—for anyone seen hanging around whom they didn’t recognize. That’s not going to be an easy task, since the museum is usually full of strangers. The guys were young—in their twenties. Cocky. They have a sense of entitlement. Both were athletic in build. White.”

Diane searched her memory of the two men in the elevator before the lights went out.

“One was just under six feet. The other about six-two or -three. I didn’t see their faces, but they had tanned complexions. One had dark blond hair, short. The other had brown hair that came below his ears. He was the taller of the two.”

“Wow,” said Neva. “I wonder what they’d think if they knew how much data you got from them.”

Diane shrugged. “Neva, if anyone seems to recognize them, draw a picture. I know you haven’t had any experience doing that kind of drawing, but here’s your chance.”

“I’ll get the videotapes from security and start interviewing the docents,” said Neva. “I’ll get right on it.”

“There has to be a third person,” Diane said. “They were waiting for me in the elevator. How did they know when I was going to the elevator?” She tried to remember if there was someone in the staff lounge when she passed. She thought so, but she passed it so many times during the day. “I have no idea what this person might look like.”

“If I can get a line on the first two, maybe the third was seen hanging around with them,” said Neva.

“I hope someone remembers them, or at least that the damn security cameras worked this time. David, take a couple of the security guards with you. Do a sweep of the entire basement.”

“Isn’t there a subbasement?” said Jin. “Korey showed me some old plans of the building.”

Diane raised an eyebrow. “Yes. But it’s dank and musty. I didn’t get any sense of that aroma from them. And from my times down in the subbasement, they’d definitely come back with a scent. But we’d better check it.” She sighed, suddenly out of breath.

“I need to know if the stabbings were connected to all these crimes. They denied they did the stabbings, but they don’t have a lot of credibility with me. See if you can connect Neva’s house break-in with them. Perhaps when we find them, we’ll see that one has something wrong with a finger.

“Now, I need to ask if any of you have mentioned anything about the current cases to anyone. This isn’t an accusation. I’m having to think about what I might have said to Frank. I was with him when I called David on the cell to discuss my revelation about the cave-witch bones. Someone might have overheard me.”

“I hardly talk about what I do,” said Jin. “I never discuss anything specific.”

“I don’t know anybody,” said David.

“Sometimes I tell Mike about drawings, but only in general terms. He was up here yesterday watching, but he knows not to mention anything about the crime lab, and he wouldn’t . . . but I’ll check with him about it.”

“Okay, now I have to have the same conversation with the guys out there.” She pointed to Chief Garnett and the two sheriffs, who were waiting in suspense. “I have a feeling they aren’t going to be as nice as you guys about being questioned.”