Scattered Graves

Izzy chuckled. ‘‘I forgot my axe, but I have a gun. Will that do?’’

Diane shook her head. David was far too giddy. He was acting like Jin.

She punched the key code that unlocked the door between the crime lab and her lab. She’d expected it to be like entering a tomb—dark, long, and vacant. It wasn’t, of course. All the lights were on and Rikki was there, sitting in her cubicle working on her com puter. Neva was getting a drink from the water foun tain near the conference table. David had given her a heads-up; Diane could tell by the look on her face. She came over and hugged Diane.

‘‘Welcome back,’’ she said. ‘‘I am so glad to see you. Really glad.’’

However, Diane didn’t think David had alerted Rikki. She looked surprised to see them. But her face quickly reverted back to a sullen expression. It was quite different from the isn’t-this-fun attitude she showed when Canfield was blowing his top at Bryce. Bryce had probably told Rikki he wasn’t in charge anymore.

What do you know about all this? thought Diane as she looked at Rikki.

Diane shifted her gaze to the rest of the room—a series of tiny labs in glass-walled work spaces con taining equipment to examine and analyze almost any thing, whether it was a gas, liquid, or solid. The crime lab could identify alloys, crystalline structures, and so lutions. The techs could separate compounds into their components, separate large molecules from mixtures, or analyze their concentrations in a solution. They could separate and identify sounds, detect their frequency and intensity. They could analyze impressions, tool marks, and documents. The lab had an impressive array of national and international databases at its disposal—CODIS for DNA, AFIS for fingerprint. They had databases for bullet casings, tire treads, ciga rette butts, fibers, shoe prints, animal tracks, hair, fur, textiles, buttons, paint, bugs, plants, and more; and they had software that could match, categorize, corre late, and render a map of all those things. It was a good lab. Diane was proud of it. Now she had to see what Bryce had done to it.

She inspected each room. It didn’t look too bad, but in some of the rooms she was dismayed to see a thin layer of dust.

‘‘Something’s happened to the air filtration,’’ said Diane.

‘‘We tried to keep the equipment clean,’’ said Neva. ‘‘But . . .’’ She didn’t finish her sentence.

Diane knew by we Neva meant herself and David. Rikki’s cubicle was the worst. There were food crumbs, coffee rings, and clutter all over her work space. And a jar filled with suckers— lollipops.

‘‘You can drink coffee at the conference table, but nowhere else. No food is allowed in the lab at all,’’ Diane said to her.

Rikki’s frown deepened. ‘‘Bryce let me eat in my own space,’’ she said.

‘‘That’s irrelevant,’’ said Diane. ‘‘These are the rules now.’’

Rikki didn’t say anything. Diane could see she wanted to glare at her but had the good sense not to. Diane wondered if she would quit. And if she didn’t, why? She had been thinking about Edward’s suggestion—let Rikki work here and see if she led her to any information about what the heck was going on. She may be just an innocent person who wasn’t trained right, or she may be involved in whatever Bryce was. Diane wanted to find out.

‘‘David is going to be assistant director of the crime lab,’’ Diane continued. ‘‘In my absence, he’s the boss. Miss Gillinick, since you’re new here, you will be going on calls with either Neva or David until you get used to the way we do things.’’

‘‘I’ve gone on lots of crime scenes by myself,’’ said Rikki. ‘‘I do good work.’’

‘‘That may be true, but I do things a little differently. Just consider this a refresher course,’’ said Diane. ‘‘Now, David, call TechClean and have them go over the lab. This would be a good time to get a mainte nance check on the equipment and have instruments recalibrated. Find out what is wrong with the air fil tration. Do whatever it takes.’’

‘‘Sure thing, boss,’’ said David. Diane thought he gave the word boss a little too heavy an emphasis.

‘‘Neva, I want you to catch me up on all the pending cases. We’re also going back to Jefferies’ house to go over the crime scenes again.’’ Out of the corner of her eye she saw Rikki come alert. Diane couldn’t tell whether she liked or disliked the idea. Maybe this would be a good learning experience for all of them.

Diane motioned to the conference table. ‘‘Rikki, I would like you to sit down and tell me everything you know about Sheriff Canfield’s bones.’’

Rikki looked startled. ‘‘What? I don’t know anything about them,’’ she said.

‘‘I just want you to tell me what you remember about them. Please, sit down,’’ said Diane.

Rikki reluctantly walked over to the table and sat down, interlacing her fingers in front of her. The oth ers sat around the table, including Izzy. Diane was surprised he didn’t take his leave.

‘‘What do you remember about the bones?’’ said Diane. ‘‘We need to try to find them. It’s important.’’

‘‘It has nothing to do with me. That was Jennifer’s thing,’’ said Rikki.

‘‘But you’re a member of the team; we need you to help. What do you remember?’’

Rikki looked very uncomfortable with all their eyes on her.

‘‘Bryce brought them up here. He said the sheriff’s deputy gave them to him in the parking lot, and I believe him.’’ Rikki lifted her chin as if daring them to disagree. ‘‘He gave them to Jennifer and she took them to the darkroom that Bryce told her to make into a lab.’’ Rikki smirked. ‘‘Jennifer was really pissed about having to go from that big lab to a dinky dark room. She hated it.’’

‘‘What did she do with the bones?’’ said Diane.

‘‘She got some plastic tubs and started sorting them. I watched her for a while. It’s boring work. I don’t know how she was sorting them. They all looked about the same to me. Just chunks of bone. I quit watching after a while. She worked for a long time.’’