wild sections. Like you said, that would be a good
project for the club.’’
‘‘Great. How far do you usually run?’’
‘‘I usually make about twenty laps.’’
‘‘Then why are you breathing so hard?’’
‘‘I told you, trying to catch up with you. I have a
friend opening up a new gym in town. It has a great
rock-climbing wall. You might check it out.’’ ‘‘I might do that. I’ve let my weight training go
this week.’’
‘‘I wouldn’t worry. You still have some pretty hard
deltoids.’’ He reached over and touched her bare
shoulder.
Diane ran faster.
Chapter 42
While she waited for a decent time to call the Hooten household again, Diane sat at her desk, studying the map Mike had given her of the cave they were going to explore. It was not a particularly well-done map. In fact, it was amateurish. She should have suspected by his grin when he showed it to her. It had its own way of describing features, drops, slopes and escarp ments, instead of using any of the normal mapping conventions. But it also had its own charm. It was sort of like an old-fashioned treasure map. Diane had to fight the urge to copy it off on parchment paper. But it did have entrances and branches clearly labeled, and it showed tunnels and passages in ways that were probably recognizable—with names such as Fish Scale Way, the Silo, Crawl-Belly Tunnel.
The section they were going to traverse included a half mile of easy cave. Neva was a novice, and Diane wanted it to be easy. But the easy part was still inter esting. It included several turns and several different elevations. The mapper had clearly marked the branches that led to the wild parts—Abandon All Hope and There Be Dragons passages.
She looked at her watch—a little after 9:00 P.M. She picked up the phone to call, but instead of dialing the Hooten residence, she thought better of it and got the number for the Buffalo police. She called and intro duced herself and explained that she was trying to identify three bodies that she had reason to believe originally resided in Buffalo. The person on the other end listened patiently.
‘‘Is there anyone there familiar with an Ashlyn or
Justin Hooten?’’ she said finally.
‘‘Hold the phone, ma’am.’’
She held the line for a full ten minutes. Finally,
someone picked up. ‘‘Detective James LaSalle here. How can I help you?’’
Detective LaSalle had a very friendly voice. Diane hoped that also meant he would be helpful. She ex plained again what she was after.
‘‘I’m very familiar with little Ashlyn and Justin Hooten. Stereotypical ignored rich kids who get into trouble and their parents get them out, but other than that, don’t pay any attention to them. They have the reputation of being bullies. You say you think they are dead?’’
‘‘I don’t know. I’m trying to identify the remains of three individuals. Two of them fit their description. The bodies were badly decomposed and we did an artist’s reconstruction of their faces. One had plastic surgery. That’s how we got a lead.’’
‘‘Nose job on Ashlyn, right?’’
‘‘Yes,’’ said Diane.
‘‘Damn, this doesn’t look good.’’
Diane went on to describe the other characteristics
they had discovered—tattoos, heart condition. She also described Red Doe, her tattoos, ballet, back prob lems and the fact she was probably half Asian. ‘‘I realize I’m grabbing at straws here,’’ she said. ‘‘No, I don’t think you are. They have a friend.
Cathy Chu. She wore a back brace for a while. And you say the parents don’t know they’re missing. That’s not surprising.’’
‘‘I need some X-rays to make a positive identifica tion. The plastic surgeon was very forthcoming, but as you can understand, he was reluctant to send X-rays without permission.’’
‘‘I’ll see that you get what you need. Jeez, what goes around comes around.’’
‘‘What do you mean?’’
‘‘The father probably thought you were calling about an incident that happened a couple of years ago. I don’t know exactly what happened—it was hushed up—but I can give you some good bits and pieces.’’
‘‘Please do. We’ve had other murders that may be connected. Do you know if they were involved with uncut diamonds?’’
‘‘Oh, Jesus, they did get in over their heads. I knew it would happen. The three of them went to the Uni versity of Pennsylvania. Thought they were really slick customers. Got involved in smuggling contraband out of Canada. Small stuff at first—cigarettes, clothes. They thought they were really into a sophisticated racket. Had a few close calls with customs, but nothing their parents couldn’t take care of.
‘‘They started getting a little more daring and got involved with some dangerous people. This is where it gets a little murky. They got involved with something. Maybe it’s diamonds. You have diamonds, then?’’
‘‘Yes.’’
‘‘Well, damn. I thought it was tobacco. You know about Canadian diamonds?’’
‘‘Not really.’’
‘‘There’s a big diamond mine in Canada, the Ekati mine. Produces nice white diamonds, and the Cana dian authorities work hard to keep organized crime out of the rough-diamond trade. But you never can completely. Rough diamonds are harder to identify and they are easy to smuggle. On top of that, they have a high profit-to-size
