Beverly Connor. One Grave Too Many
(Diane Fallon Forensic Investigation — 1)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A special thanks to GBI crime scene specialist Terry Cooper for his help-and sense of humor. And another special thanks to Genny Ostertag for her amazing work on my manuscript.
RiverTrail Museum
Second Floor
Thrid Floor
Chapter 1
“His head isn’t on straight.”
“It doesn’t seem to fit. Maybe it’s not his.”
“Dr. Fallon-”
Diane Fallon, director of RiverTrail Museum of Natural History, looked up from the work she was trying to finish to see the spectacle of Gary and Samantha, two university students, balancing between a ladder and a construction platform, holding the skull of a giant sloth tilted at an odd angle atop its fifteen-foot skeleton. She raked her gaze over the offending skull as Gary was trying to wire it in place. “Wait a minute,” she said.
Diane climbed the ladder to the platform to have a look at the problem. She glanced at her watch as she lay down on her stomach on the platform. It was late and she was tired. She inspected the bones and shook her head and pointed to the neck of the giant creature. “You have the atlas on backward.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, Gary, I’m sure. Bones are like puzzle pieces. When they’re put together right, they fit together perfectly. How do you think your head would fit if your neck was on backward?” The other students giggled. “Did you follow the diagram I gave you?”
“Yes. . I thought we did. I already have it wired in place.” He said this as if expecting Diane to say, “Well, then, I guess we’ll just have to make the head fit, won’t we?”
“You’ll have to redo it.”
“It’s getting late, Dr. Fallon. I’ve got a big test tomorrow to study for.”
“The opening of the exhibit is tomorrow evening. Test or no test, we have to finish this display. You’ve known the schedule since the beginning of the semester. Lay the skull here on the platform, gently. Unwire the atlas and put it on correctly. Follow the diagram.”
“Ah, man,” Gary whined.
Samantha looked close to tears. Diane could hear the frustration in their voices, but there was nothing else to do. The exhibit had to be finished and they were aware of the timeline.
Leslie, the third of the student threesome, looked at her watch as Diane stepped down off the ladder. “It
“I realize this is terribly unfair.” Diane pulled loose a piece of packing tape that had stuck to her slacks. “Normally, students get to ask fellow students which teachers are a bitch to work for, but I’m new at the museum and have no track record. You guys can spread the word. Do the work assigned, do it correctly and on time. I give only A’s and F’s. We miss the opening, it’s an F.” The three students’ eyes widened in surprise. “You’ve already wired the entire postcranial skeleton and done a good job. Getting the head on straight won’t take as long as you think.”
“Dr. Fallon, telephone.” Andie, her assistant, brought the cordless phone from Diane’s office. Diane took it and retreated across the room away from the grumbling students.
“Yes?”
“Diane, how are you?” It was a voice she hadn’t heard in three years, and she was surprised that the sound of it made her smile.
“Frank? Frank, I’m. . fine. And you? It’s been a while.”
“I’m good.” He hesitated half a beat. “I wrote you several letters.”
“I didn’t receive them.”
“I didn’t mail them.”
“Oh.”
“Could I take you to dinner?” he asked. “There are some things I’d like to talk with you about.”
“I don’t know. This is a bad time, Frank.”
He hesitated again. “I hate to ask a favor of you over the phone.”
“A favor? What is it?” Diane looked over at her students busily working on the sloth exhibit. She hoped she had sufficiently put the fear of God into them so that they wouldn’t mess up again.
“I have a bone that may belong to a missing girl. . ”
Diane’s voice caught in her throat. “A bone? No,” she said a little too roughly, almost choking on the words.
“No, what?”
Andie was standing in front of her, holding out two handfuls of artificial leaves. The interruption gave her mind time to think and her racing heart time to slow down.
“Hold on just a moment, Frank.” Diane placed a hand over the mouthpiece and raised her eyebrows at Andie.
“They sent the wrong plants,
“That’s why we’re here-to teach them the difference. Tell him this is a museum of natural history, not a B- grade movie set-we have to be accurate.”
Andie smiled. “That’s about what I told him you’d say.”
“I’m sorry, Frank. We’re opening a big exhibit tomorrow evening and I’m up to my ears.”
“What do you mean,
“No, I don’t do that anymore.”
“Don’t do what?”
“Forensic work. I don’t do it anymore.”
There was such a long stretch of silence on the phone that Diane thought he might have hung up. “You still there?”
“But that’s what you do,” he said.
“Not anymore.”
“Look, this is off the record. It’s only one bone.”
“I don’t care. There are other bone experts you can take it to. Get them. . One bone? You have only one
