‘‘What do you mean?’’ said David.
‘‘I mean, I don’t know,’’ said Diane evenly. ‘‘David, you aren’t on call to respond to a crime scene. You’re supposed to be on vacation.’’
‘‘I am on vacation. This is one of the sights,’’ he said. ‘‘Like I was going to stay home when the crime scene Jin and Neva were called to was your place?’’
‘‘Are you all right?’’ asked Neva.
‘‘Yes,’’ said Diane.
‘‘You have a big bruise on your head,’’ Chief Garnett said. ‘‘It looks like you were attacked.’’ Garnett, as usual, looked like he had just come from the theater or a concert. Well dressed, tall, in his mid-forties, he always appeared elegant, especially with his full head of black and silver hair.
Diane started to explain to Garnett that she slipped and fell in the blood, but her voice was drowned out by the policeman telling someone they couldn’t come in.
‘‘What’s going on?’’ a woman’s voice said. ‘‘Has something happened? If there is danger, we need to know about it.’’
It was Veda Odell, her eccentric elderly neighbor across the hall who lived with her husband and attended funerals for recreation.
‘‘Just go back into your apartment, please,’’ said Officer Ellison.
‘‘I’ll talk to her,’’ said Garnett.
He clearly wanted to control the situation, thought Diane, making all the information come to him.
‘‘Let David do it,’’ said Diane. She met Garnett’s eyes. He nodded, probably remembering that David had a special rapport with the Odells, earned from a previous case they had worked on.
David shot her a you-owe-me-big-time glare as he reintroduced himself to Veda Odell.
‘‘Yes, I remember you,’’ Veda said. ‘‘David, isn’t it? We have some new photographs in our collection I’ll bet you would like to see.’’
‘‘I would indeed, Mrs. Odell. Do you mind if I ask you and your husband a few questions? I know it’s early in the morning.’’
Neva chuckled under her breath and shook her head. ‘‘He’s going to get you for this,’’ she said.
‘‘Is any of this blood yours?’’ asked Jin. He stood staring at the red pool.
‘‘No,’’ said Diane. ‘‘I don’t think so.’’
‘‘Lord have mercy.’’
The newest member of the law enforcement entourage to arrive was Lynn Webber, medical examiner for Hall County, just north of Rosewood. Like Garnett, she was never caught anywhere—even at a crime scene—without being well dressed. She was wearing designer jeans, a blue silk blouse that went great with her short, shiny black hair, and a lightweight brown embroidered jacket. She watched carefully where she stepped with her Ferragamos.
‘‘Are you all right?’’ She turned to the paramedics. ‘‘Let me see her vitals.’’
After exchanging a brief glance, the paramedics handed Lynn a clipboard.
‘‘What are you doing here, Lynn?’’ asked Chief Garnett. ‘‘A little out of your jurisdiction, aren’t you?’’
‘‘I heard on my police scanner that the paramedics were called to Diane’s....’’
Garnett jerked his phone from his pocket. He looked around for a safe place to walk and finally decided it was out in the hallway where he had entered the building. Lynn and Diane watched him go. Lynn raised her eyebrows at Diane.
‘‘A long and political story,’’ said Diane.
In an effort to protect the interests of the city and of the museum, Garnett had a standing order that any police business having to do with Diane, the museum, or the crime lab was not be broadcast on the police radio but should be called in by phone. That order certainly extended to emergency services.
Lynn nodded, a knowing look glittering in her dark eyes. Garnett returned frowning. Lynn stared at the pool of blood as if she had just noticed it.
‘‘What happened?’’ she asked. ‘‘Did someone break into your apartment? Where’s the body?’’
Then she saw the drag marks out the door. She lifted her eyebrows and looked back at the pool of blood. Diane knew what she was thinking, what Jin was thinking as he looked at all that blood.
Chapter 17
The human body has ten pints of blood. If you lose four pints you die. There were easily more than four pints on the floor. All that blood amounted to a dead body. Jin knew it, so did Lynn, so did Diane, so did the paramedics. Diane guessed that Garnett and the policemen knew it too.
Provided all the blood came from one person. Diane hoped it didn’t. She hoped that when they canvassed the area hospitals they would find two or three very anemic people who could tell her why they decided to battle it out in her home.
Garnett sent the paramedics outside. Diane didn’t hear what he said to them. When they were gone he pulled up a chair and sat down.
‘‘Was this a home invasion?’’ he asked.
‘‘If it was, they didn’t invite me,’’ said Diane. ‘‘You slept through it?’’ If Garnett, who was both
politically and by friendship predisposed to believe her, looked that skeptical, she was in for a difficult time.
‘‘Apparently I did,’’ said Diane.
‘‘You know, if someone came in and attacked you in your home, you are entitled to defend yourself,’’ said
