Dead Guilty

suggestive.’’

‘‘Truck drivers travel quite a bit—perfect occupa tion for someone who wants to hide what he does in his spare time. Sheriff Braden’s going to like this.’’

‘‘Would you photograph this? I’m going to pay a visit to the Rosewood Police Department.’’

Chapter 23

The Rosewood police department was housed in a new building constructed in a more modern style than the red brick 1900 courthouse to the left and the 1960s pink granite post office across the street. From the time Diane walked in, she could feel the unfriendly looks in her direction.

Even Frank’s friend, Izzy Wallace, looked sheepish when he saw her. He still didn’t like her. He no longer had a reason. Before, he at least had the excuse of the untruths told about her. Now he apparently just couldn’t break the habit. He turned from the officer he was talking to and forced a big smile onto his fleshy face.

‘‘Why, hey, Diane. What brings you here? How’s

Frankie boy?’’

‘‘He’s back from San Francisco. Convicted his guy,

so he’s happy. How are you doing?’’

‘‘Just fine. Just fine. I understand that’s quite some

crime lab you have over there at the museum.’’ He grinned, and Diane thought she saw some of

the policemen look at each other and snicker. They

probably knew she was pressured into housing it at

the museum. Diane smiled sweetly.

‘‘We’re very proud of it. Good to see you, Izzy.’’

She turned to the sergeant on duty. ‘‘I’m here to see

Chief Garnett.’’

She showed him her identification, and he nodded

and pointed up the stairs.

Homicide squad took up the entire second floor of

the building. She passed reception and entered the

main squad room. It was an open area with desks

marking each detective’s work space. One wall of the

room was a giant magnetic dry-marker whiteboard for

attaching photographs, drawing

social networks, or for simply

thoughts.

interaction patterns, giving pictures to

The board held photos of the three hanging victims from Sheriff Braden’s jurisdiction, photographs of the Chris Edwards and Raymond Waller crime scenes, a list of similarities, a photo of Steven Mayberry’s car, and a map indicating the location of each crime scene. It was not unlike the display she had in her own lab.

As Diane passed various detectives and staff, some were friendly and spoke; others frowned upon seeing her. She had no idea what motivated either of the two camps. She smiled at all of them.

Chief Garnett ushered her into his office, where Sheriff Braden sat in a chair near Garnett’s desk, twirling his hat in his hands. Diane had expected Garnett to have an ornate office, but it was basically utili tarian with faux leather and chrome chairs, metal desk and a long wood conference table. Hanging on sandcolored walls were diplomas, awards, photographs of Garnett shaking hands with numerous politicians and framed newspaper clippings. Diane wondered briefly if he had sprayed the clippings with a deacidifier so they wouldn’t yellow. She smiled inwardly at herself. ‘‘Good to see you again, Sheriff.’’

The sheriff rose and shook her hand. ‘‘I got your

fax. That’s a lot of good information about those vic tims. Impressed me. We ought to be able to identify them real quick. It doesn’t look like they were home less after all, does it?’’

‘‘No,’’ agreed Diane. ‘‘They seem to have been well off.’’

She sat down at the table, and the sheriff pulled his chair around so that he was opposite her.

‘‘You say you’ll be able to give me pictures of their faces?’’

‘‘Neva Hurley is working a reconstruction now. She says she’ll have them done quickly.’’

‘‘Now, that’ll be just real helpful.’’

Garnett sat down at the head of the table, with the sheriff to his right and Diane to his left.

‘‘We keep as up to date with techniques as we can,’’ he said, claiming a resource he only recently knew he had. Garnett looked down at the folder in front of him before turning to Diane.

‘‘I thought it would be good for you to go over what you have so far. I’ve included the sheriff because there’s a good chance the crimes are connected and I think it would benefit all of us to cooperate.’’

Of course you do, thought Diane. For Garnett and the mayor to make Rosewood the crime-solving center of the region, they had to have the cooperation of the surrounding counties. What better way than to cooperate with them first?

‘‘We’re holding Kacie Beck right now,’’ Garnett continued. ‘‘By her own admission, she was there right at the time of death. She called nine-one-one at eleven eighteen. M.E. put the time of death close to eleven. A witness saw Miss Beck drive up at a little after nine. It doesn’t look good for her. I’m thinking that if she didn’t help kill