wall. “What’s this?” she asked Korey.
He laughed. “Enough supplies to last me into the next millennium. I don’t know what’s going on. I suddenly started receiving a triple order of everything. I called the supplier and they said we’d ordered it.”
“Send me the paperwork that came with it,” said Diane. “I’ll take care of it. We’ll send back all the extras that have a shelf life.”
Madge rubbed her bare arms. “How can you stand it so cool in here? I’d turn up the temperature.”
“It’s best for the stuff we work on if the room is kept a little cool,” said Korey. “We get used to it.”
“Would you give Miss Stewart a box and some wrapping tissue? She wants to store a quilt.”
“Sure thing.” Korey went to collect the items.
“I suppose the meeting’s broken up, then.” Signy took the jacket off and laid it on the table.
“Yes, it has. I imagine Mark will be looking for you in the lounge. I’ll show you the way, if you like.”
“Thanks, Korey,” she yelled after him. “I appreciate the tour.”
“No problem, Mrs. G.”
“Korey will take care of you, Madge,” said Diane. “He can give you advice on cleaning your quilt, if it needs it.”
Diane left Madge looking at a tray of resin casts of dinosaur eggs and walked Signy out of the lab to the elevators that led to the staff lounge on the second floor.
“How did the meeting go?” Signy looked at her watch. “You couldn’t have gotten much done.”
“No. We didn’t get much done. Just small business. Did you enjoy your tour of the conservation lab?”
“I did,” said Signy. She sounded surprised that she could actually enjoy herself in a museum laboratory. “Korey’s a good teacher. Very enthusiastic about his work.”
“Mark said you’ve been taking cold medication. I’m sorry you had to spend the night in the conference room. I’ll have to ask the cleaning staff why they didn’t notice you.”
“It’s just as well. I didn’t need to be driving, and Mark was going to be at his office half the night talking to Japan.”
“I would have been glad to drive you home.”
“The couch was very comfortable.”
Diane didn’t press further, but she found the whole thing very odd. They met Mark just outside the staff lounge. He was frowning and didn’t automatically light up when he saw his wife. When he finally did smile, it looked forced.
“I’d better get you home,” he said. “You must be exhausted.” He nodded to Diane, took Signy by the arm and led her across the emerald green tile floors toward the elevators.
Diane headed toward the elevators herself, but was stopped by Donald. The way he was frowning, she thought she was in for another quarrel with him.
“Diane, I didn’t make up that message.”
“What?” For a moment she didn’t understand what Donald was talking about, for her hearing picked up Mark and Signy’s background conversation as they waited for the elevator. Their voices were not much more than a loud whisper, but the words swept her way as if on a breeze.
“Can’t you do anything right?” said Mark.
“If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t even know about them. I’ll drive myself home.”
Diane glanced at them in time to see Mark take Signy by the arm. She jerked it out of his grasp and hurried into the open elevator.
“I really didn’t. I wouldn’t do that,” Donald was saying, “and I’m really disturbed that you think I would.”
Diane turned her attention back to Donald. “I don’t think you did, Donald. I think we both were innocent victims of some prankster.” His frown dissolved into a lopsided smile. What she didn’t say was that she doubted he would do something that so obviously pointed to him.
“Who do you think it was?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Do you have a printout of the E-mail?”
He slipped a page from the folder he was carrying and handed it to her. “It was sent from your computer,” he said.
“Looks like it. Will you forward me the message?”
“Sure. I’ll do that.”
When Donald left, Diane headed for her office. As she crossed the lobby, the guard standing by the intercom stopped her.
“A Frank Duncan wants to see you, Dr. Fallon.”
“OK. You can let him in.”
The guard opened the door and Frank walked in carrying a large envelope.
“Frank, I didn’t expect to see you today. Any news about what happened to your friends?” She gestured toward the hallway that led to her office. They walked through the glass doors labeled ADMINISTRATION and continued down the corridor.
“I know you don’t like being involved in any investigation, but I would really like to talk to you.”
“Is this about their deaths?” Diane fished her door key from the pocket of her jacket.
“Yes. The detectives have picked up their daughter, Star.”
Chapter 10
Diane held her key so tightly in her hand, her knuckles were white. She stopped and turned to face Frank, not even realizing she also held her breath until she spoke. “She’s alive, then? She’s all right? That’s good news. I. . well, I feared the worst.”
“So did I. She’s alive, but the kid’s in a world of trouble. Her parents and brother are dead, the detectives think she killed them, and I’m afraid the whole thing’s being mishandled by the Rosewood police department.”
They entered Diane’s office by her private entrance, and she sat down at her desk. “Mishandled how?”
Frank drew up a chair and laid his envelope on her desk. “Do you know anything about Rosewood politics these days?”
“Some ongoing disagreements involving the mayor and the city council?”
“And the county commissioners thrown in, just to further complicate everything. It’s a hell of a mess.”
“I don’t know much about local politics. I try to stay out of it as much as my job will allow.”
“The short version is that there’s a power struggle between Mayor Sutton and the city council. He thinks Rosewood is Atlanta.” Frank made a face. “He wants to be governor one of these days and he’s using our little city to build his empire.”
“A lot of people are moving here. We’ve had to do demographics for the museum.”
Frank waved his hand. “I work in Atlanta and live here. There may be only sixty-three miles in between, but there’s a big difference. The city council’s just as bad in the other direction as the mayor is. They don’t want any change that might shake up their little kingdom. They have their own fish to fry.”
Diane leaned back in her chair. “What does all this have to do with the murder of your friends? Are you saying it was some kind of political hit?”
“No, of course not. That’s not what I’m getting at.” Frank fidgeted in his chair, moving it closer to her desk. “We finally get a new police commissioner. We needed one. But the mayor wrestled his choice from the city council. The commissioner’s been pushing out people who don’t support the mayor and hiring new people-most of them old buddies of his, who will, like the chief of detectives, keep a low profile and do what they’re told. The chief of detectives, in turn, has been putting his men in. The upshot is that it’s all political cronyism, and nobody knows what the hell they’re doing.”
“The main thing is the crime scene, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation know what they’re doing.”
“The GBI didn’t work the crime scene. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. The chief refused to call them. He’s got this hair up his butt that Rosewood police can handle our crime without outside help.”
“Can they?”
“No. The best homicide cop was Jake Houser, but he wasn’t one of the commissioner’s men. Now that he’s
