One Grave Less (39 page)

“Why did you think I could kill him without hesitation?” asked Diane.

Liam was quiet a moment, chewing on a bite of candy. “I didn’t know,” he said. “But I’d already seen the policemen were too slow and inclined to either hesitate or to act rashly. And your museum security staff work in a museum every day.” He held up a hand. “I know they are trained and they are competent, but they are still museum guards. I’m sorry. I mean no disrespect. This guy wouldn’t have taken them as any kind of serious threat, and he was way faster than they are. You, on the other hand, had already shown him you were fast.”

“He was toying with me,” said Diane.

“Yes, he was. If he hadn’t been, I wouldn’t have been in time. However, I’m pretty sure he didn’t mean for you to get a swipe at his forehead. Good move, by the way. Blood in the eyes, always good.” He smiled. “He had pissed you off and he knew it. He knew you didn’t hesitate. He believed you would shoot without any indecision. That’s why I chose you. It’s not because I believe you are a natural-born killer.”

Diane nodded. “Thanks for that.” She shook her head. “What a mess. Star must be terrified.” She smiled. “She’s tough, though. You’d never know she was scared.”

Korey and Jonas wandered into the room, talking in low tones to each other.

“What are you two doing here?” Diane said.

They looked at her, startled. She hadn’t meant to sound so sharp.

“Jonas and I just came over from a project we are working on at Bartram,” said Korey. “Kind of took all night. We thought we’d stop by here.”

“My God,” said Jonas, “you look terrible. Did you get beat up?”

“Yes,” said Diane. “We had an incident.”

“Here in the museum?” said Korey.

“Yes. I’ll tell you about it later,” said Diane. “I’m sorry I snapped. It happened on the second floor and I was afraid . . . just afraid.”

Jonas and Korey pulled up chairs. As much as she liked them, she wished they would go somewhere else.

“It must be the phase of the moon,” said Jonas. “Lots of bad things happening.”

Diane looked at him. He looked worried.

“We have a friend who may be in serious trouble,” said Korey. “You probably know her; she’s a forensic anthropologist, but mainly a professor of archaeology at the University of Georgia. She wrote me a letter of recommendation for this job.”

“She’s missing in the Amazon rain forest,” said Jonas. “Her department is afraid she’s been kidnapped for ransom, but they haven’t heard anything. They didn’t realize anything was wrong until she missed a couple of lectures in Cuzco. We are all deeply worried.”

“Her boyfriend is a fairly coolheaded dude,” said Korey. “But I talked to him yesterday and I can tell he’s pretty distraught. The Peruvian authorities are looking into it.”

Diane stared at them.

“What?” said Jonas.

“Forensic anthropologist from Georgia in the Amazon,” she said.

“Yes,” said Jonas. “You heard something?”

“Damn,” said Diane. “Damn.”

She stood up quickly and swayed. Liam put a hand on her arm and guided her back down to the chair.

“You think it was her?” said Liam.

“It was the one rumor that didn’t make sense.” Diane spoke to Liam, forgetting about Jonas and Korey.

“All the others were insubstantial, lacking detail. The thing from Interpol was just so strange and could be so easily verified,” she said. “There has to be a connection.”

“Well, if it is her, she’s damn tough,” said Liam. “If she’s the one who killed those four men.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” said Jonas. “Let’s back up and act like Korey and I are still sitting here worried about our friend. What the hell is going on?” His crystal blue eyes glittered in anger.

Diane looked over at them a moment, her forehead creased in a frown. She put a hand on Jonas’ arm.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean be so insensitive. Something just clicked into place,” she said. “I’m really sorry.”

“She’s not dead, is she?” said Korey. He and Jonas exchanged glances.

“Please don’t tell us that,” said Jonas. “What do you know?”

“I don’t know if she’s dead. I have no information about that. But what happened to her may have something to do with me.”

“What?” said Jonas.

His face was red. Diane worried about his blood pressure.

“Interpol put out a warrant on me for the murder of four men. Liam investigated and learned that the dead men worked for the criminal element in the area—people who might be kidnappers.”

“Dear God,” said Jonas.

“Is that all you know?” asked Korey.

“No. We know the warrant originated in Brazil. That may be where they took her. We need to alert the Brazilian authorities. We also have a short timeline of events that have occurred and some locations—and a path of where she was heading maybe. She may have escaped.”

“What can we do?” said Jonas.

“I can let the authorities in Brazil know, for starters. I can call the embassy there. Gregory and I used to have contacts.”

“I can start working on it,” said Liam.

Diane nodded. “You were just speaking with people down there. Maybe you could speak with them again. I’ll talk to Gregory and see if some of the people we knew are still working there.”

“If you could do something,” said Jonas, looking from Diane to Liam. “She’s a great kid.”

“She sounds resourceful,” said Liam.

“You have no idea,” said Korey. He put an arm on Jonas’ shoulder. “If anyone can get out of trouble, it’s Lindsay. You know that.”

“But lost in the jungle with people like that . . .”

“She managed to crush a man to death in the middle of the jungle,” said Liam. “The people who pass for authorities down there were trying to figure that one out when I talked with them.”

Korey stared at Liam. “Crushed a man to death? You’re kidding, right?”

Liam smiled. “No, dead serious. The whole thing was so peculiar I wasn’t sure what to believe. This puts a new twist on it.”

Jonas nodded. “I’m glad we came up here. They are looking in Peru for her.”

“Why don’t the two of you go home and get some sleep?” said Diane.

“Good idea,” said Jonas.

Jonas was about to stand when Star, Frank, Gregory, and Chief Garnett walked into the break room.

It was almost morning and Diane’s head hadn’t yet touched a pillow. Neither had anyone else around her been to bed.

The museum’s basement meeting room was decorated like a club lounge, with stuffed chairs, dark oak tables, large viewing screen, walls lined with bookcases and sofas. It was all brand-new, part of the recent renovations. It was a room Diane liked. Now it housed refugees from attacks Diane still didn’t quite understand.

There was so much to talk about with everyone there, but she needed to speak with Frank first while she still had the courage. They sat in two stuffed chairs near each other but away from everyone else.

“Are you all right?” he asked. “You’ve been through a rough time.”

“Liam is a good field medic,” she said. “He patched up my arm again.”

She paused, trying to control the tears threatening her resolve.

“Look, Frank, I can’t do this to you, damn it. Look at Star over there, clutching the bug-out backpack David gave her. She can’t even get to sleep. Your house . . . and you . . . what you’ve been through. Not to mention your neighbors . . . what they must think . . . a war breaking out in the neighborhood.”

“What are you saying?” he said.

Diane could see in his eyes, he knew what she was getting at.

“How can I marry you, knowing the kind of things I bring down on your head?”

“Are you going to quit your job at the museum? The crime lab? Are you going to go live on a remote island away from everyone?” said Frank.

“Perhaps. I may lose my museum job anyway. Vanessa has lost confidence in me.”

“I doubt that,” he said.

Diane shrugged, trying hard not to reach for Frank.

“This is a pretty good sign I shouldn’t get married. I’ll never know what kinds of things in my past are going to come back and kick me and everyone around me.”

“You don’t believe in signs,” he said.

Diane’s lips turned up the smallest amount. “I should.”

“Before you make a decision, wait until this is resolved. Who knows, perhaps there will come a sign that we should marry,” he said.

“I can’t imagine what that could be,” she said.

“Don’t make a decision today. And when you do, include me in it,” Frank said.

“Aren’t you afraid of me?” said Diane.

“I’m afraid of that vanload of supersoldiers running loose,” he said. “They are the problem, they and whoever hired them. That’s who I want out of my life. Not you.”

Diane watched Frank for several long moments. “I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you, or Star, or your son, Kevin. Thank God he’s with his mother right now.”

“I know. But we also can’t let the worst of humanity have that much say over how we live our lives. That is also unacceptable.”

“You already had to build a panic room because of me,” she said.

He smiled. “And it works pretty well. Look, Diane, I’ve had my share of bad guys wanting to get even. You aren’t the only one who draws fire. Your enemies are just more over-the-top lately.” He reached over and took Diane’s hand, rubbing the top of it with his thumb. “Just wait before you make a decision.”

“Wait for a sign?” she said, smiling.

“Or at least until things have calmed down,” he said.

Diane didn’t say anything. She was pretty sure she would not change her mind. Her own family wasn’t speaking to her because of what was brought down on her mother by someone who wanted to hurt Diane. She didn’t want anything to happen to Frank and his family for the same reason.

“You said I’m high maintenance. That hardly covers it, does it?” she said.

“Hardly,” he said, grinning for a moment, then frowning. “We were all terrified when we discovered you were missing. Gregory and Garnett included. I knew then I didn’t want to lose you . . . ever.”

Diane looked over to see Gregory, David, and Steven deep in conversation. Neva had called David in for help, and he and Liam had processed Megaman’s clothes, collecting an amazing array of weapons.

Garnett had contacted the GBI for help with the terrorists, as he described them. After hearing details of the wave after wave of assault on Frank’s house, the GBI agreed with the classification. This put all kinds of things into play. If the guys were smart, supertrained or not, they would lie low, thought Diane.

She nodded to Frank. A rather noncommittal nod agreeing at least not to talk any more about changes in their plans until the drama ended. Frank went to see about Star. Diane walked over to Gregory and the others. She had yet to tell them about the information she had gained from Martine and from Korey and Jonas.

“My girl, you look bloody awful,” said Gregory.

“I feel bloody awful,” Diane said. Her head and arm throbbed. She would really rather go to her office and curl up on the couch.

“Liam told us about the ninja guy,” said David. “He said you acquitted yourself quite admirably.”

“I basically got my butt kicked. Had it not been for Liam, there would have been a much worse outcome,” said Diane.

All of them frowned. “This is just way out of hand,” said Steven. He rubbed his hand through his damp hair. Diane remembered he and David said it was raining and looking as if it would get worse. Perhaps everyone could hole up until the storm was over. Perhaps some things would solve themselves by then.

“Gregory said you discovered what is going on right before the shit really started hitting the fan,” Steven said.

Garnett came over and drew up a chair.

“I thought I would join the secret detective club you guys have organized,” he said.

He didn’t look mad, but Diane could see he was determined. She had purposefully not included him in what they had been doing. But now she could hardly keep him out of the loop, especially if there was a connection with the death of Madge Stewart. She still couldn’t wrap her brain around that one. She nodded to Garnett.

“In the beginning we just wanted to find out who was trashing us. That wasn’t anything we could really worry the police with. And now, as Steven said, things have gotten way out of hand.”

“So,” said Gregory, “what did Martine have to say?”

Diane shifted her attention back to all of them. She didn’t bother to explain who Martine was to Garnett. He would figure it out as they went along.

“Martine didn’t know she had any information. I asked her if there were any odd conversations she’d had with Oliver, anything that didn’t make sense at the time but might be more understandable now. She remembered this one time when they were watching the birds.”

Diane told them how a pensive Oliver connected up cruelty to animals and cruelty to children.

“I don’t follow,” said Steven.

“Did you know that the illegal trafficking in wild animals is second only to drugs in terms of money generated? Then you have slavery—particularly child slavery. Oliver must have just discovered something when he spoke with Martine.

“The items we found in the museum—the ones we think Simone brought with her—have to do with endangered parrots and other animals that smugglers prey on. There was also the bone of a child. At first I thought . . .”

She hesitated a moment. Still trying to stop the tears from coming.

“I thought she may have found Ariel.” Her voice cracked and she stopped again.

“Oh, Diane,” said Gregory, putting a hand on her arm.

“I now think perhaps it has something do with the trafficking of children, either for sex or domestic slavery or both.”

“But it was a bone—its owner was dead,” said Steven. “That indicates something else.”