Scattered Graves

‘‘I’ll say,’’ said Albert.

‘‘I thought you ought to know about it,’’ said Diane.

Walter Sutton sat down again. ‘‘I’m sorry the SOB is dead and I can’t get my hands on him,’’ he said. His wife put her hand on his arm.

‘‘Spence Jefferies put a black cloud over many of us who served in your administration,’’ said Diane. ‘‘You, the commissioner, the chief of police, me— and Garnett.’’

‘‘It is just terrible about Garnett,’’ said Sutton.

Diane noticed that he was noncommittal about his support for his former chief of detectives.

‘‘Garnett stayed on the force to help out the depart ment,’’ said Diane. ‘‘Peeks was shifting duties and people around and making a lot of decisions that were not in the best interests of the rank-and-file police officers. And you know about the bulletproof vests.’’

‘‘The state-of-the-art body armor,’’ said Sutton sar castically. ‘‘I saw the picture in the newspaper of Jef feries holding them up.’’

‘‘Those were the only two state-of-the-art vests he purchased. The ones he gave the police officers were long out of date and wouldn’t stop rubber bullets, ac cording to the testimony of officers on the force,’’ said Diane.

‘‘That wicked man,’’ said Eleanor.

Diane could see they were all wondering why she really had come. They were politically savvy people and knew there was something now they would be asked to give in return for this information. Diane took another deep breath.

Chapter 30

‘‘I don’t know if you are aware, but Edward Van Ross placed me back in charge of the crime lab.’’

Diane didn’t want to go into details about Bryce. It would sound too triumphant, and she didn’t want that— even though she did feel it, just a little. She mentally chastised herself. Nor did she want to give away too much information that had to remain confi dential.

‘‘I had heard,’’ said Sutton, ‘‘and was glad to hear Edward is putting things right. You know I worked hard to get just the right people in positions. People who are qualified. I know the victor gets to make the changes that suit him, but the men he hired had no background in police work.’’

Diane nodded in agreement. Be agreeable, she told herself. ‘‘The detectives are trying to find out who killed Jefferies and Peeks,’’ she said. ‘‘They are also trying to learn what Jefferies and his friends were in volved in. And we all want to clear Garnett. I don’t believe that he suddenly became a mass murderer.’’

‘‘No, of course not,’’ said Sutton.

‘‘My people are going over the crime scenes again. And frankly, we are all playing catch-up. I’m hoping your staff collected information on Jefferies and maybe even his associates. We need a head start in this,’’ said Diane.

‘‘Well, you know I always run a clean campaign. I told Loraine that I didn’t want any dirt dug up. Just pertinent information,’’ said Sutton.

Loraine was nodding her head. ‘‘It was my job to do research. Maybe if I’d done it better...’’

‘‘It has been my experience that Jefferies was really good at hiding things,’’ said Diane.

‘‘Who knew he would pull things like this?’’ Her brother gestured at Diane’s maps.

‘‘You probably know,’’ began Sutton, ‘‘that Spence Jefferies was from Atlanta. His mother was, at any rate. He was a military brat for a while. His mother and father divorced, and the mother moved him to Atlanta. You know he went to a good school, one of the ivy league schools.’’

‘‘Pennsylvania?’’ said Diane.

This was just the initial dance. He was telling her ordinary background information to show her that was his focus. But Diane had no doubt he would get to the meatier information after the dance was over.

‘‘That’s it—Penn State.’’

Diane didn’t correct him. And neither did his chil dren, she noticed, though their faces said they noticed the error.

‘‘Good business school. The others, Peeks and Bryce, went there too. They were just his campaign workers then. I had no idea he would reward them with such high positions. No matter how good the business school is, it didn’t prepare them for work in law enforcement.’’

He shook his head. ‘‘Loraine headed up my re search.’’ He smiled at his daughter. The dance was over.

‘‘I knew there was something about Jefferies... his eyes,’’ Loraine said. ‘‘I didn’t like him, and not because he was running against Dad.’’

‘‘He did have that shark-eyed look,’’ said Diane, hoping to encourage Loraine. She could see there was a reluctance to say anything bad about him right off the bat. Diane wanted to tell them to get on with it, that she didn’t have all day. Instead she smiled and took a sip of coffee and a bite of the sugar cookie.

‘‘That was it—like a shark. Cold and dark,’’ she said, giving her body a small shake.

‘‘Did you find out anything in your research?’’ asked Diane.

‘‘I thought I had. I was really concerned that Dad not look like he was digging for dirt. We don’t do that. I mainly tried to find out about a candidate’s positions on issues. It’s not easy if they’ve never held office, but we— the volunteers who were working with me—happened upon something that was suspicious. I told Dad I needed to follow up on this, and I did. But maybe I didn’t go deep enough.’’

‘‘What were you concerned about?’’ asked Diane.

‘‘I was afraid he was abusing young people in some way,’’ she said.