are going ahead and talking, and you just listen.”
Diane didn’t move.
“I’ll say this for you: You’re good at playing possum. That’s okay. We don’t need your cooperation, or an answer. We’re just delivering a message.”
He was the one with the deviated septum. Probably got it from a fight, she thought. Their voices came from different levels. Deviated Septum was sitting, the other standing. As if verifying it, the first man slid his chair across the tile floor so that he was closer to Diane.
“You control the evidence in the crime lab. All you have to do is get rid of the stuff you took from the cave and the bottom of the lake. That’s all. Just get rid of it. It’s a sixty-three-year-old crime. It’s the past. History. It’s not like you can put anybody on trial.”
“If you don’t,” said the man standing, “well, we sort of own you in a way. We own the museum. We can come and go as we please. We can reach your family.” A chill went through Diane. “We can burn down the museum.”
“So,” said Deviated Septum, “it sounds like a bargain to me. Some old bones for an entire museum full of all kinds of fascinating things.”
“You don’t have to answer. Just know that we can get to anyone. We got to your mother without having to leave our house,” said the other man.
Diane was frightened at first; now she flushed with anger. These were the hackers who had caused her mother to be arrested and put in Tombsberg. “I can’t hear,” whispered Diane through her teeth.
They were silent for a second, as if confused, as if contemplating that the entire speech went unheard.
“My ears. I’m dizzy. What do you want?”
“Well, shit. Do you know how long I’ve been rehearsing that little speech? Okay, let’s do it again.” He got close to her ear and yelled, “With stereo! You are going to lose the bones found in the cave and in the lake and all the stuff found with them or we are going to burn down the museum. Did you hear that?”
“Yes, I hear you. Why do you want me to do that?”
“Why isn’t important. It’s just the way things are. Have I made myself clear?”
Diane’s left ear reverberated with the sound.
“To a point.”
“Just as long as you know what to do. Do you know what to do?”
“Yes.”
He stood up. “Now. .”
“I can’t hear you. The chloroform. My head’s spinning.” He got near her ear again. “We’re leaving a knife twenty feet in front of you. You can get yourself loose. Do you understand?”
Diane nodded. Then she got an extra bonus. The other man, not Deviated Septum, bent to where he could yell in her other ear.
“We got to your mother without breaking a sweat. How is she doing, by the way?”
“My mother? That was you? Why?”
“Oh, I think you can figure it out. You seem to be fair at figuring things out. Just know that we did it.”
“Did you stab me? Why?”
“No, we didn’t do that. But we could have.”
He rose, and she heard the two of them leave the room. She listened to their footfalls echoing in the empty basement. She heard the key put in the lock to call the elevator to the basement. She heard them as they got on and as the elevator rose.
She stayed there after they left and didn’t move until there were no more sounds of movement. Were they gone? Probably. They wanted her cooperation, not to kill her. She tried to rise from the chair, but was tied too tightly to it. She stood as much as she could and half walked and half scooted, feeling with her feet for the knife. She ended up kicking it and heard it bounce off the wall.
She dragged the chair with her in the direction of the sound and felt along the floor with her foot. Several tries and she stepped on it.
Now to pick it up. Briefly she thought about using her toes, but she had very little dexterity in her toes even without panty hose. After half a dozen failed efforts to get to it, she rocked the chair until it fell. She banged her head against the floor and cursed under her breath. Finally she squirmed around until her back was to the knife. Diane grabbed it with her hands and felt the double-edged blade.
It was a dagger. She wondered if it was the one used to stab her and Mike. But why would they have denied doing it and admitted to other things? Avoiding the cutting edges, she grasped the hilt of the dagger and maneuvered it into a position so that she could saw at the tape that bound her. It was a dull knife, not the one used to stab her and Mike. They wanted her to get loose, but to delay her escape, to give them a head start.
She sawed halfway though the tape. The other half yielded more easily. Her hands came free. She wiggled them around until she could maneuver out of the tape around her shoulders, and removed the blindfold from her eyes.
She estimated that it had taken her about fifteen minutes to get free. She picked up the knife and tape, then looked around the room for anything else that might have been left behind by her kidnappers. The chair was all she saw at the moment. She grabbed it too and went for the elevator. They had left the elevator key on the floor. She put it in the lock and rode to the third floor, carrying all the items with her.
She made it to the crime lab. Chief Garnett, Sheriff Burns and Sheriff Canfield were sitting around the table. David was giving them coffee.
“What you got there, Boss?” said Jin, rushing over to help her. “What is all this stuff?”
“Don’t touch it until you get some gloves on,” she said. She turned to her guests. “I have an emergency. I’ll be with you in just a minute.”
“David, Jin, Neva, you’re with me.” She led them to one of the evidence rooms, carrying the items with her, and closed the door. Garnett and the two sheriffs stared after her.
“What’s up, Boss?”
“I just escaped from being kidnaped, knocked out with chloroform and tied up in the basement.”
Neva, Jin and David stood with their mouths open.
“Just now? That’s where you were all morning?” said David.
“Yes. David, I want you to go to the basement and process Room. . Room J, I think it’s called. There’s a temporary paper sign with the letter above the door. Process the far right elevator, the key, the tape, the chair. Look around and see if they’ve been using the basement as a home base.”
She turned to Jin. “I need you to process me.”
“You?” said Jin. “What did they do?” He looked alarmed.
“For one thing, my nails. I tried to scratch them, but I don’t think I got anything. I managed to get them to yell at me close to my ear and I’m hoping a good spray of spittle got transferred. One guy was on the left side, the other on the right. The left-side guy had noisy breathing. I’m thinking he might have had a deviated septum. Anyway, Jin, I want you to take the samples to Atlanta and do whatever you have to to get them processed ASAP.”
Jin went to get his kit to collect the samples. Diane turned to David. “When he gets the DNA results, run them through CODIS and any other DNA database you can get access to. Even if we are not supposed to have access.”
“This is serious.”
“They threatened to burn down the museum unless I get rid of the Caver Doe and Plymouth Doe evidence.”
Neva sucked in her breath.
David’s mouth was agape. “My God. You have to tell Garnett.”
“I will, but I’m not sure who to trust. They didn’t say it, but they seemed to know that we’re putting things together.” Diane shook her head. “I think-or they may simply have bungled the breakin and are now trying intimidation.”
Jin returned, and Diane gave him her jacket. “If you need to cut my hair, go ahead.”
“I’ll try not to make you look too bad,” he said. “How did you get them to yell in your ear?”
“I told them I couldn’t hear because of the chloroform.”
