smiling. ‘‘But that’s where I had closet space. Go take
a nap. Who knows, this thing may have resolved itself
by the time you wake up.’’
Diane took a shower, the second within just a few hours. The guest bathroom had a large showerhead that made the water feel like rain. She stood under the warm water for a long time. When she was clean and dry she slipped on a nightshirt and lay on the down-filled mattress. Frank was right—what she needed was food and sleep. Things would be better when she awoke.
As Diane stirred awake, she heard the muffled sound of Frank’s telephone ringing in another part of the house. She got out of bed, dressed, and put on a minimal amount of makeup. Neva definitely deserved a bonus, she thought, looking in the mirror.
Frank was in the living room standing by the fireplace when she emerged. He kissed her cheek and took her hand—but didn’t smile.
‘‘Neva called,’’ he said. ‘‘The marshals want to talk with you again. It was Clymene O’Riley’s blood in your apartment.’’
Chapter 20
Diane stood staring at Frank in disbelief, barely aware of how tightly he was holding her hands.
‘‘It was Clymene’s blood in my apartment?...
How?’’ she said.
‘‘I don’t know. But Garnett arranged for the mar
shals to speak with you at the crime lab and not downtown,’’ said Frank. ‘‘They’re waiting for you.’’ ‘‘Why the marshals? If Clymene died in Rosewood,
jurisdiction now falls to Garnett,’’ said Diane. ‘‘Garnett will be there. So will the district attorney.
I imagine the marshals are just tying up loose ends
before they leave,’’ said Frank. He rubbed the back
of her hand with his thumb.
Tying up loose ends—
thought. She could just see the headline now: CRIME
LAB DIRECTOR BROUGHT IN FOR QUESTIONING IN MYSTE
RIOUS BLOODY DEATH. She shuddered at the thought and silently thanked Garnett for scheduling the meeting at the crime lab.
‘‘Why is the DA going to be there, I wonder.’’ said Diane.
Frank shook his head. ‘‘I have no idea. I wouldn’t worry about it. However anyone wants to spin this, it still gets down to the fact that Clymene O’Riley was an escaped murderer who somehow got into your apartment in the middle of the night.’’
‘‘Just as long as they don’t think I invited her and we had a falling out,’’ said Diane.
Frank shook his head. ‘‘That’s a long stretch.’’ He looked at his watch. ‘‘I’ll drive you over. Neva said I should let you off at the loading dock at the side entrance to the museum. You are to go to Mike’s office in geology first,’’ said Frank. ‘‘And I would imagine avoid being seen if you can, though she didn’t say.’’
‘‘What? Did she say why I’m to be so mysterious?’’ Diane asked.
‘‘No, but apparently it’s important,’’ said Frank. He grinned. ‘‘I have a pretty exciting job, but around you it pales by comparison.’’
He let her off at the museum side-door loading dock and extracted a promise for her to call as soon as she could. Diane thought there was just a little too much cloak-and-dagger about the whole thing. However, she slipped into the building, taking back staircases and service hallways to Mike Seeger’s office in the geology lab.
Mike was the head curator for geology, one of Diane’s caving partners, and a good friend. He also worked part-time for a company that searched for and collected extremophiles, organisms that live in the most extreme environments on earth. It wasn’t just his knowledge of geology that made Mike valuable to the company, but his skill as a rock climber and a caver. He had recently returned from one of his expeditions. Mike was also Neva’s boyfriend. He, Diane, Neva, Jin, and another friend frequently went caving together. Diane knocked on his door. He opened it immediately and Diane slipped in. He closed the door behind her.
‘‘God, I love working here,’’ he said with a broad grin. ‘‘There’s always something adventurous going on.’’ He gave her a quick hug and stepped back to look at her. ‘‘You okay, Doc? I haven’t had a chance to talk with you since I got back.’’
‘‘I’m muddling through business as usual,’’ she said. Mike’s office was crowded with crates of rocks— probably volcanic. Each trip, he brought back geologic samples for the museum. These were from his latest. Along the walls he’d hung huge posters of rock formations and caves from around the world. On a bookcase stuffed with geology books was a photograph of all of them at the entrance to a cave.
Mike had the body of a rock climber—lean, no fat between his skin and hard muscle. His boyish face was getting a slight weathered look from all his outdoor activity. He wore jeans and bright white Richard III Tshirt. He pulled up a chair for her and one for himself.
‘‘What’s this about, Mike?’’ asked Diane. He reached for some papers on his desk. ‘‘Neva said the DA told her and the others not to
talk to you or show you the crime scene report.’’ He grinned. ‘‘Of course he didn’t tell her not to talk to me, nor did they tell me not to show you their notes.’’
That was Diane’s team all right. On occasions like this you had to explain exactly all the things you didn’t want them to do, or they would find a loophole in the instructions. She reached for the pages.
‘‘My team can be very sneaky,’’ she said.
‘‘I’ll say. They made the notes and gave them to me with instructions before they spoke with the district attorney. David said they would be warned off from talking to you once the DA had been informed. He was right.’’
A small laugh escaped Diane’s lips. ‘‘David should write a book—a practical guide to paranoia.’’
‘‘Jin wanted you to know that he hated calling Garnett,’’ said Mike.
‘‘He had to,’’ said Diane. ‘‘He didn’t have a choice once he identified the blood.’’
‘‘Well, he’s real bummed out about it,’’ said Mike. ‘‘He kept muttering about how he gets this brand-new DNA lab and the first person he gets in trouble from it is you.’’
Diane shook her head and smiled. ‘‘He did the right thing.’’
