David. ‘‘I’ll release it when the parents get to town.’’ ‘‘All right,’’ said Diane. ‘‘The mummy thing went
well. Found a tumor on one of his kidneys.’’ ‘‘Poor fellow,’’ said Jin. ‘‘Suffered all those ab
scesses, a tumor, lower back pain, and the indignity
of a Victorian unwrapping party.’’
‘‘Kendel did find the amulets that were inside his
wrappings and acquired them for the museum.’’ ‘‘Cool,’’ said Jin.
‘‘When I was little,’’ said Neva, ‘‘my grandma used
to have these party favors she called surprise balls. It
was a crepe paper streamer wrapped into a ball. As
she wrapped the crepe paper, she’d put little trinkets
in the wrapping, so that we’d find things as we un
wrapped the ball. It sounds like the idea came from
the Egyptians.’’
‘‘I’ve heard of those,’’ said David. ‘‘Be interesting
if the idea did come from the Egyptians—by way of
the Victorians, maybe?’’
Diane looked at her watch. ‘‘Damn, I’ve got to get
Andie’s car back to her so she can go home.’’ ‘‘Need some wheels, Doc?’’ asked Jin.
‘‘I should have some coming from the insurance
company. If not, I suppose I’ll be spending the night
at the museum.’’
‘‘If you need a ride, we all have cars. Doesn’t the
museum have a fleet?’’ said David.
‘‘Yes, but they are not for my personal use. Neva,
we’ll have the CT data on the mummy sometime to
morrow. I’ll show you how to use the data in the facial
reconstruction software.’’
Neva grinned broadly. ‘‘That’ll be fun. I’m looking
forward to seeing what he looked like.’’
‘‘How do you feel about doing a sculpture of him?
The museum will pay you.’’
‘‘Yes. I’d like that very much.’’
‘‘Cool,’’ said Jin. He waved and went to his car. Diane rushed back to the museum. Andie was busy
at her desk.
‘‘I hope you didn’t think you were going to be stuck
in the museum,’’ said Diane.
‘‘I knew you’d show up sooner or later.’’ Andie
grinned and grabbed her purse.
‘‘Andie, thank you so much for letting me use
your car.’’
‘‘Not a problem. Glad to do it.’’ She handed Diane
a set of keys. ‘‘Ford Explorer down in the lot. Bright
candy apple red. Can’t miss it.’’
‘‘Is this from the insurance company?’’
Andie nodded. ‘‘Nice. Only a couple of years old.
Very clean inside.’’
‘‘Thanks. I appreciate everything you do, Andie.’’ ‘‘Good. I’m working on being indispensable.’’ ‘‘You are. I’ll see you tomorrow. Oh, did they tell
you about the mummy scan?’’
‘‘Kendel and Dr. Briggs came up and told me about
