Different regions of the world have different chemi
cals in their soil and different kinds of air pollutions.
These chemical combinations show up in bones. I sent
the report to your office.’’
‘‘I haven’t seen it. You’re thinking that he thought
they might not be recognized down here, far away
from home?’’
‘‘Yes. But he might have realized we’d put their
fingerprints through a database and get a hit, so he
cut their fingers off.’’
‘‘Speaking of fingerprints,’’ said Garnett. ‘‘David hasn’t gotten a hit off any of the fingerprints
we’ve found and he’s been through all the databases
we have access to.’’
Diane realized that she hadn’t yet told Garnett
about the tasks she’d assigned to Jin and Neva. She
explained her idea about the plastic surgery discussion
boards and Neva’s idea about the tattoo discussion
boards.
‘‘It’s a long shot,’’ she said.
‘‘But that was a good idea. What did we do before
the Internet?’’
Diane ignored his comment and continued. ‘‘The
DNA results on the shed hair may take a while, or it
might not work. I haven’t heard from Jin.’’ Garnett stood up. ‘‘I feel like we made some prog
ress. It was good to talk it out.’’ He sounded surprised
as he said it, as if he hadn’t really expected he could
talk to Diane and get anywhere.
Diane’s door swung open and Star peeked in. ‘‘Star,’’ said Frank. ‘‘Ever heard of knocking first?’’ He came in behind Star and put his hands on her
shoulders.
‘‘It’s all right. We’re finished,’’ said Diane. Frank and Garnett shook hands. Star stood staring.
She suddenly held out her hand to shake Garnett’s. ‘‘Hello, I know who you are. I’m the girl who didn’t
kill her family.’’
‘‘Star!’’ said Frank and Diane together.
Garnett had a pained look on his face, muttered
something about being sorry for her loss, said good
bye to Diane and hurried out.
‘‘Well,’’ said Star when he was gone. ‘‘When you
use bad judgment, there are consequences. Isn’t that
what you are always telling me, Uncle Frank? So, can
I see the mummy and the Victorian pickle jar?’’ Frank and Diane looked at each other and sighed. ‘‘The mummy’s upstairs.’’
She took them up to the conservation lab and
showed them the amulets and the mummy. Star was
fascinated with both, but disappointed that the object
in the pickle jar had been used to get blood and tissue
samples. Frank was more interested in the baseball
collection that Korey showed him. Afterward, they
had dinner in the museum restaurant and Diane fol
lowed them home in her rental SUV.
Diane curled up on the couch with Frank and a
