the museum. The city has never had any stake in it. I have tried to brief Chief Peeks many times about this, but so far he hasn’t had the time, so I’m not surprised that things are a little confused.’’
The silence that followed was uncomfortable. The mayor stared at Garnett for a long, hard moment. Diane couldn’t see his face straight on, but the view she did have didn’t look good. Garnett held his gaze and they were locked that way until Diane spoke.
Gregory Lincoln had been Diane’s boss at World Accord International, where she was a human rights investigator. He was a career diplomat and a good friend. He would often give her little tidbits of his diplomatic wisdom—mainly because Diane had no skills herself in that direction. One of the things he told her was that sometimes it is useful to leave the opposition with something to save face.
‘‘You could move the lab to where ballistics is done. It’s next to the police station and the chief could keep an eye on it,’’ she said.
Not much to save face with, but it was a bone. A bone that they ignored.
‘‘There is another item,’’ said Peeks. ‘‘This docu ment says you own several pieces of equipment in the crime lab.’’
‘‘Yes,’’ said Diane. ‘‘That is true. The museum does.’’
The previous city administration often would not want to foot the bill for a piece of expensive equip ment, holding out for the museum to buy it. And Diane did buy several items and leased them to the crime lab, with the proviso that the museum had ac cess to them as needed. The largest piece of such equipment was the mass spectrometer—an item she was sure the current administration was going to hate to lose.
The mayor turned to Diane and looked at her with his cold, dark eyes. It must have been the way he looked at Garnett a moment ago. Definitely shark eyes.
‘‘Are you sure you want to do this?’’ he said in such a way that Diane was sure it was a warning. ‘‘You realize that you may be arrested at any moment for the murder of Officer Delamore and we can deal with your replacement.’’
Colin sat up straight again. He was starting to look as dangerous as the mayor.
‘‘That has nothing to do with the danger to the mu seum the crime lab represents,’’ said Diane. ‘‘I’m sorry it has come to this, but there is no choice. I can’t have a tenant who deliberately and repeatedly violates the sanctity of the museum. And I certainly can’t have out-of-control people with guns on museum property.’’
‘‘This is out of the blue,’’ Peeks said. ‘‘Why didn’t you try to resolve it instead of broadsiding us?’’
‘‘I did try to resolve it. Bryce told me to go to hell loud enough that everyone in the room heard him.’’
Jefferies and Peeks turned their gazes on Bryce. He visibly cringed.
‘‘We aren’t going to take this lying down,’’ said Peeks.
Diane kept her voice calm and reasonable. ‘‘I didn’t think you would. But I hope you see that I have to protect the museum. We can’t have our visitors or employees endangered and we can’t leave ourselves open for lawsuits when some gun-toting cowboy de cides he’s going to threaten a child.’’
‘‘You know I’ll make calls and inform people that you aren’t the person we are using as forensic anthro pologist,’’ said Mayor Jefferies. ‘‘You won’t have any thing to do in that big lab of yours.’’
Diane laughed. Jefferies first looked surprised, then angry. Diane could see he didn’t like being laughed at.
‘‘You think I’m joking?’’ he said, leaning forward.
Colin started to stand, but Diane spoke before he got to his feet.
‘‘I think you have a big job ahead of you,’’ she said. ‘‘You will have to call every county and city in every state in the United States. Then you will have to start calling cities and countries around the world. I don’t think you know how this business is done.’’
The mayor’s face flushed. He said nothing. But Diane could see he wanted to. He had forayed into an area he knew nothing about and he had made a mistake and an empty threat. He wasn’t going to do it again. Diane had no doubt he would look for behind-the scenes ways to sabotage her career.
‘‘I think,’’ said Colin, ‘‘we would consider that to be defamation and would act accordingly.’’
Diane stood up. ‘‘I think we have said all there is to say.’’
Jefferies, Peeks, and Bryce all looked as though they would like to climb over her desk and strangle her. Instead, they simply rose from their seats. They didn’t shake hands. Diane was glad. They would prob ably crush her fingers.
Peeks stared hard at her. ‘‘As soon as the investiga tion into Delamore’s death is complete, expect to be arrested. Start getting your affairs in order.’’
He turned and they all filed out of the room. Garnett glanced at her briefly, then turned and left with the others. The look in his eyes made her feel dou bly uneasy.
‘‘What was that about my osteology lab and Garnett?’’ she asked Colin after the delegation had gone.
‘‘I don’t know. That was strange and unexpected. They couldn’t hope to get away with claiming the fo rensic anthropology lab.’’ Colin shook his head. Some of his black hair fell in his face and he brushed it away with his hand. ‘‘The only thing I can figure is they were trying to tell you they are going to make it hard for you to get them out of here.’’
‘‘Do you think they will make a lot of trouble?’’ asked Diane. ‘‘The mayor was very angry.’’
‘‘They will make trouble, but I don’t know how much. If they take us to court, we’ll have to present proof and defend our position against their claims, warranted or not.’’ Colin stood up and stretched. ‘‘The idea of moving the crime lab next to the police station is a good one. Maybe they’ll take the suggestion and this will be over soon. I
