‘‘I think I can secure the outer loops without cutting
them, but I’ll have to cut the loops on the handcuffs,’’
said Diane.
She took a blue cord and secured all the loops to
gether and tagged each one. She treated each loop
around the wrist in the same way she handled the
noose around the neck—tying them off before cutting
the loop free.
‘‘It’s like cutting an umbilical cord,’’ said Lynn. As Diane slid the rope free, a cool breeze eased
through the autopsy room.
‘‘I don’t believe it,’’ said Lynn. ‘‘They got someone
to fix whatever was wrong.’’
‘‘Just needed a little motivation,’’ said Raymond. ‘‘Oh, it feels good,’’ said Lynn. She took in a deep
breath, as if the cool air made everything smell better.
‘‘Let’s get this done. What do you say, Raymond?’’ She turned to Diane. ‘‘I hope you don’t mind me
running you off to the other room. I like to have as
few people as possible in the room when I’m working
on a body this decomposed.’’
‘‘Believe me, I don’t mind. I’ll take these ropes back
to the lab and start my team working on them, and
then I’ll come back. Do you intend to do the other
two victims today?’’
‘‘I’d like to try. Raymond and I will collect the in
sect samples.’’
As Diane was going out the door, Lynn started the
Y incision.
RiverTrail Museum of Natural History was housed in a beautiful gothic three-story granite structure that began its life as a museum in the late 1800s. The build ing was converted into a private medical clinic in the 1940s, and was now converted back to a museum. It had large rooms with Romanesque moldings, polished granite floors and rare wall-sized murals of dinosaurs painted at a time when everyone thought the huge animals dragged their tails behind them.
Diane had a sense of peace as director of the mu seum. It was a place of scholarship, learning and fun— and she ruled. Thanks to the late founder, there were no bureaucrats between her and what she wanted to do for the museum. It was idyllic, a dream career. She couldn’t imagine going back into forensics—working with death and evil in places where evil won often and was rarely punished. But she’d found, oddly enough, after helping Frank Duncan find justice for his murdered friends, that she enjoyed the hunt, the puzzle. Good thing too, for it kept the wolves from the ornate wood doors of the museum.
It was 10:00 A.M. when Diane carried the evidence from Lynn Webber’s autopsy lab to her crime lab on the third floor of the museum.
‘‘Start on the clothes,’’ she told Jin. ‘‘Wait on the rope. I’ll bring more clothing and insect specimens later.’’
‘‘Sure thing.’’ Jin took the boxes and attached crime lab tracking labels to them. He and Diane signed the labels, and he locked the boxes away. ‘‘This is a big case. People are talking about it.’’
‘‘We’re going to be watched closely on this one. Both the mayor of Rosewood and the chief of detec tives are going to be riding us pretty hard.’’
‘‘We’ll be brilliant. I’ll start on the clothes right away. We can have some results for the sheriff by the end of the day.’’
Only a couple of technicians were in the lab, filling out papers. David’s insect-rearing chambers sat in en vironmentally controlled containers in the entomology work space.
‘‘David and the others in the field?’’ she asked. ‘‘You know how he likes to take a final walk through. He’s got Neva with him. You’ve got her very nervous.’’
‘‘I have?’’
‘‘She said you’re the one who got Detective Janice Warrick demoted last year.’’
‘‘Not me. Janice botched a case and contaminated a crime scene. She’s responsible for her own career situation.’’
‘‘I guess Neva only knows what she’s heard in the police department.’’
‘‘How’s she doing?’’
‘‘She’s scared all the time.’’
‘‘Of me?’’
‘‘You, but mostly the chief of detectives. Afraid she’s going to screw up. She didn’t want this job. He assigned her to it.’’ Jin shrugged, clearly not under standing why anyone wouldn’t want a plum job like this one. ‘‘David’s got her out now. Showing her how to look for things. David’s a good guy.’’
‘‘Yes, he is.’’ Diane didn’t like hearing that about Neva. This was the kind of case they couldn’t mess up. ‘‘I’m going to check in with the museum, then I’m going back to the autopsy.’’
