He shook Diane’s hand and introduced himself, his wife and friends. ‘‘You spoke at my club for lunch last month.’’
‘‘Good to see you again,’’ Diane began, but was cut off by the wife.
‘‘So, you run the museum. What about this crime lab attached to it? That is just so strange. Should you be doing that?’’
‘‘Evelyn.’’ Her husband sighed and smiled. The other couple examined the granite floor around their feet.
‘‘Well, I want to know,’’ she said, still looking at Diane for an answer.
‘‘Rosewood had a need, and I was happy to be able to help,’’ said Diane.
‘‘I’m sure, but to think of autopsies being performed at the museum while people are looking at the exhib its. That’s not going on now, is it?’’
‘‘We don’t do autopsies. They are performed at the hospital. We examine trace evidence—fibers, finger prints, that kind of thing.’’
‘‘I know I heard someone say that you examined bodies here.’’
‘‘Perhaps they meant skeletons. I’m curator of the primate skeletal collection and I’m also a forensic an thropologist. I do look at bones here.’’
‘‘Bones. I see. Well, we are so glad to have a restau rant of this caliber here, but I have to say—’’
‘‘Evelyn.’’
Evelyn ignored her husband, which, Diane imag ined, was something he was accustomed to.
‘‘I can’t say I like those computers there.’’
‘‘We have a number of students who come here and use them during the day.’’
‘‘In the restaurant? Why don’t you give them a room to do that in?’’
‘‘I’ll ask the staff to look into it,’’ said Diane.
The woman smiled brightly. ‘‘You see, Burt, it never hurts to ask.’’ They turned and walked down the hall to the restaurant.
‘‘You did that well,’’ said Mike. ‘‘I thought we were going to be stuck here in the hallway the rest of the night.’’
‘‘She just wanted me to tell her she was right,’’ said Diane.
‘‘See, that’s what I like about you. You know how to deal with things.’’
They were seated in a booth on the opposite side of the restaurant from Evelyn and Burt’s party. Diane liked the low lights and quiet of the room. She was more tired than she realized.
‘‘This is good. I was afraid we were going to be seated near that woman,’’ said Mike.
Diane eyed him over her menu. ‘‘That wouldn’t have happened.’’
‘‘Why? Oh, they always seat you away from every one else, don’t they?’’
‘‘When they can. They know I like calm with my meals.’’ She looked at the flow of restaurant customers coming in. ‘‘It looks like the restaurant is filling up quickly tonight.’’
The waitress came, and Diane ordered steak. Mike, it turned out, was vegetarian. He ordered a portobello mushroom, spinach and cheese dish.
‘‘Really,’’ he said. ‘‘You handled that well. I wouldn’t have been so patient.’’
‘‘A visitor to the museum is like a guest in my home.’’
‘‘Nice sentiment, but it’s good you know how to handle people.’’
‘‘Actually, I don’t, but I picked up a few things from my last boss, who was a diplomat. What was it you wanted to talk to me about?’’
‘‘The caving club.’’ Diane was surprised. She’d ex pected something personal.
‘‘What about it?’’ She was a member of the Rose wood Speleological Society, but she often wasn’t able to attend the meetings.
‘‘We lost our meeting place at the student center— we weren’t a big enough group. Somebody needed the space and the administration chased us out of our room. Of course, one of our more prominent members could have spoken up for us, but she doesn’t attend meetings that often.’’
‘‘We have a prominent member in the club?’’
‘‘Yeah, we do. Big director of the museum in town. Anyway, in the absence of this director, we all came up with the idea of meeting in her museum.’’
Diane nodded. ‘‘At least I would be able to attend the meetings if we met here.’’
‘‘That’s a yes, then?’’
‘‘We can meet in the main auditorium or one of the geology rooms. It would mean that you will have to meet the group at the door to let them in. I can alert the security staff to watch out for latecomers.’’
‘‘Great. I think the earth science room would be a good place to meet. We already have that small auditorium where we show the Volatile Earth series.’’
Diane hadn’t realized she was as hungry as she was until her meal arrived. She was going to have to re member to eat more. She took several bites of her fillet and baked potato before she said anything else.
