‘‘So all their plans collapsed,’’ said Janice.
Rikki nodded. ‘‘First, Dr. Fallon shut down the crime lab and locked them out, so they couldn’t get through the connecting door to get into the museum where the gun was and where they wanted to kill her. They didn’t want to risk going through one of the main entrances. That meant passing under the video cam eras and past people who might remember them. They thought about doing the Van Ross woman first, but she was out of town. They were trying to work all that out when Jefferies was murdered. That threw Peeks and Bryce for a loop. Let me tell you, it shook them bad. That’s why I don’t think they did it.
‘‘After they got over being scared that they might be next, Peeks decided to take over where Jefferies left off. He was going to make Bryce the dweeb side kick again, but Bryce wasn’t going to have it. Him and Peeks were at Jefferies’ house waiting for Garnett’s lawyer to come with Dr. Fallon to look at the house when they had a real kickup. I wasn’t there. Bryce told me about it later and said if I didn’t help him, he would say I was in on it and would go to jail too— if I lived that long. I got with the program, but I protected myself.
‘‘He shot Peeks in the back of the head and, just like he planned to do with Dr. Fallon, he took those long tweezers from the crime kit and dug the bullet out. I can’t even bare to tweeze a splinter out of my finger; anyone can tell you that. Anyway, he found the bullet and pulled it out. He was carrying Garnett’s bullet in his crime kit to use on Dr. Fallon, so he took the tweezers and pushed that bullet back through the bullet hole in Peeks’ head. Pretty disgusting stuff, huh?
‘‘Anyway, time was running out. He knew Dr. Fal lon and the lawyer were coming soon. He was in a hurry and got careless. The bullet and the tweezers were knocked under the chest as he was getting the kit out of the way. He couldn’t reach under the chest and he didn’t have time to move it and clean every thing up, so he left them, knowing he could get them later. He texted Garnett, pretending to be Prehoda’s secretary, and told him to come and meet Prehoda and Dr. Fallon at the house. Then he hotfooted it out of there and got back to the crime lab just about the time we received the call from the police. That’s when Bryce told me what happened and threatened me into helping him.’’
She took another long drink of water as if in the telling of it she was reliving it. She actually looked out of breath.
‘‘It was busy when we got to the crime scene. He tried to hurry Dr. Fallon and the lawyer out of the way, but there was you and your partner to deal with too,’’ she said to Janice. ‘‘I found the bullet and the tweezers under the chest and put them in a paper evidence bag and sealed it. I gave Bryce another bag just like it and told him it was the evidence. I took mine to the bank and put it in a safe deposit box. Then I stayed with a friend and didn’t come to work until I found out Bryce had been fired and Dr. Fallon was back in charge. I wouldn’t even take any calls from Curtis. I didn’t really trust him either. I called Bryce and told him what I had and he’d better lay off me. He tried to make all nice and started talking about the money. Him and Curtis were making all these plans to get the computer, but they were so lame. They wanted me to stay working in the crime lab, and that’s what you-all wanted too, so I did. I got to think ing that I’d get the money. I knew I would have to let you guys decode it first.’’
‘‘Who encrypted it?’’ said Diane to the chief. ‘‘Get them to ask that. Find out if it was Malcolm Chen, and ask her what happened to the bones in the field.’’
Chapter 46
The chief of police, Buford Monroe, went into the room with Rikki and the others. He picked up a chair from the corner of the room, brought it over to the interview table, and sat down. Even in profile his face looked stern.
‘‘Young lady,’’ he asked, ‘‘do you know who en crypted the mayor’s computer?’’
Rikki looked at him a moment as if processing the question.
‘‘I assume it was one of the hackers Jefferies hired. He had them over to his house sometimes. But I was never there when they were, and I didn’t know any of them. I think Curtis knew who did it. He was al ways hinting at stuff. And of course Bryce knows many of the hackers. He’s the only one left, in case you haven’t noticed.’’
‘‘Have you ever heard of a man named Malcolm Chen?’’ asked the chief.
‘‘Not until recently when his bones were discovered. That was something else that really freaked them out. I heard Bryce on the phone with Jefferies. I sometimes listened in,’’ she said without any embarrassment.
‘‘Jefferies thought that was going to be the thing that would collapse their world. I didn’t understand what it was about, but I got the idea that the last thing they wanted was for this guy to be identified and his death investigated.
‘‘Bryce reminded them they had their own forensic anthropologist. Up to then they thought he had jumped the gun in hiring one and were giving him a hard time. Everything was cool until Bryce realized the sheriff was sending the bones to Dr. Fallon. Bryce hijacked them and thought he was home free until he found out that Dr. Fallon already had the few first ones that were found. Jennifer told him there wasn’t much Dr. Fallon could do with a handful of bone fragments, that they were too damaged and the DNA was probably de cayed.’’
‘‘Was Jennifer in with them?’’ asked the chief.
‘‘No, I didn’t get that impression. Bryce told her he wanted her to be the one to identify the bones and not Dr. Fallon. That’s how he explained his interest. But I do think Bryce and the others thought they could turn her. Jennifer was just out of the university, and Bryce knew she wanted the job badly. She’d put her career on hold while her husband went to school and she raised the rug rats. Now she was old and desperate. Bryce thought that would make her easier to handle. He also thought she was having an affair with the new medical examiner and he was going to hold that over her. I told you, these were mean guys— Bryce, Jefferies, and Peeks.’’ Rikki smiled.
‘‘It might interest you to know that Dr. Fallon did discover the identity of the person who the handful of broken bones came from,’’ said the chief. He said it as if he wanted her to know that the home team were better all-around players than Jefferies’ team.
Rikki grinned. ‘‘You’ll have to tell that to Jennifer. She’ll have a cow. She got really jealous the way things turned out.’’
‘‘What happened to the bones that disappeared?’’ asked Chief Monroe.
‘‘Curtis took them and threw them in the river,’’ she said.
‘‘Where is the hard disk you took? Is that in the river too?’’ asked the police chief.
‘‘Yes,’’ she said.
