Dead Guilty

‘‘Spoke with him? Not for a long time. He left a message on my voice mail about a week ago. He wanted to go out, said something about having a ship come in. I have no idea what he meant. I didn’t call back. I really don’t like him very much.’’

Ship come in. That was the first sign that anything was going on. She was surprised at the sense of relief she felt. Finally, something.

‘‘Did Chris or Kacie mention anything about what he might have meant?’’

‘‘I didn’t tell them. It was just a voice message. It didn’t really mean anything.’’

‘‘Did you get a sense that Chris was about to come into some money?’’

‘‘Well, he got the ring—but then, I just thought he charged it.’’

‘‘He’d need one big credit limit.’’

‘‘When you’re a student, that’s pretty easy. They send you cards in the mail by the dozens with huge limits. My dad’s an accountant, and he’s lectured me from the time I was three about owing money, so I don’t use them big time, but some people do.’’

‘‘Did Chris seem especially happy about something?’’

Her face brightened. ‘‘Yes, now that you mention it. Kacie did mention that he’d been really happy lately— almost manic. She didn’t know why—she figured he’d gotten a really good job and was going to surprise her.’’

‘‘Did any of them seem to be frightened of anything?’’

‘‘No. Just after—you know—Chris died, Kacie was a basket case, as you can imagine. She had nightmares and was taking Valium.’’

‘‘Were her nightmares about anything specific?’’

Madison looked at Diane as if she were an idiot. ‘‘She found Chris.’’

‘‘I know, but I thought her dreams might have some clue that her subconscious was trying to bring to the surface.’’

‘‘She didn’t say. It was always about finding Chris like—like that.’’

‘‘Madison, if you remember anything, however

small, give me a call.’’ Diane fished a card out of her purse and wrote on it. ‘‘I put my cell number on here, and the number of Chief Garnett. He’s the detective in charge. Call him or me if you remember anything or need to talk.’’

Madison took the card, turned it over and looked at the numbers. She nodded. ‘‘I will, I promise.’’

Her tears had dried and her nose had stopped bleeding, but Madison looked profoundly sad. Diane wanted to say something that would help, but she felt completely helpless in the face of grief. She should know a lot about grief, and she did, but she didn’t know how to make it go away.

‘‘Do you have someone to stay with?’’

‘‘I think I’ll go home—to Columbus. Jerry, the cameraman, will drive me. He’s been after me for a date. I guess I’ll see what kind of stuff he’s made of.’’

They were almost finished with the CT scan when she returned. The image on the monitor was of the abdominal cavity.

‘‘We’re thinking he had a tumor on his kidney,’’ said Lynn. She pointed to the screen. ‘‘You know, if we could just get a piece of that tissue.’’

‘‘I can try again with the endoscope, now that I know where to look,’’ said Korey.

‘‘We’ll have you a great three-D image of your guy,’’ said one of the doctors. ‘‘You going to do one of those facial reconstructions?’’

‘‘Yes,’’ said Diane. ‘‘It’ll be a lot of fun to know what the guy looked like.’’

‘‘Well, we are happy to be of help. Interesting case.’’

Before she left, Diane thanked the hospital person nel for their help. She thanked Lynn and asked her if she had time, if she’d like to write a report. Diane had a couple of motives. One, she genuinely wanted her expert input. She also wanted to pat down her ruffled feathers. As long as Lynn stayed at her job, Diane would have to work with her. If she could build up some good interactions, when the inevitable dis agreement came about time of death, or whatever else that ticked off Lynn, they’d at least have established a good rapport.

Diane went from the hospital to Kacie Beck’s apart ment. Garnett was there, along with David and Neva. The body had been removed. We probably passed somewhere along the way, she thought.

Kacie had a small one-bedroom apartment close to campus. Diane had seen it from the outside, but hadn’t gone inside. Perhaps she should have. Was someone waiting for Kacie in the dark? The thought sickened her.

Diane shook her thoughts and looked around the room. Kacie’s decorating tastes included import shops. She had carved end tables with a scroll design, a carved wooden elephant coffee table with a glass top, several colorful silk throws of fuschia, lime green and blue tossed on the chairs and sofa along with a multi tude of ornate throw pillows. The apartment smelled of death and incense.

Kacie had been found in her bed—strangled, beaten and raped. This one didn’t look anything like the oth ers. Except someone had gone through her drawers. They had also taken her ring and had skinned her finger pulling it off.

Diane told Garnett about Madison Foster and re lated the information she had gained from her.

‘‘She was at the hospital reporting on your mummy?’’ He shook his head. ‘‘It’s about time some of the coincidences worked in our favor,’’ he said.

Diane was relieved. She feared that she was going to have to explain to him just why she was inter viewing witnesses.

‘‘So there was something the boys were into,’’ said Garnett, almost to himself.