“You convinced them the chloroform made you deaf? Way to go, Boss.” Jin took samples of her hair around her ears, then swabbed her skin and other parts of her hair. “If they left their DNA, I got it,” said Jin. “You want me to leave now for the lab in Atlanta?”
“Yes.”
“You know, Boss, if we had our own lab. .”
“You get me some usable DNA and I’ll give it serious thought.”
“You got it,” said Jin.
“Send the information directly to David’s computer when you get the results.”
“Sure thing. You okay now, Boss?”
“No, I’m not. I am very angry. They also admitted-bragged about-being the ones responsible for what happened to my mother.”
“Good God,” said David. “I see what happened now. They wanted to steal the bones before you had a chance to look at them, so they went after your mother to get you out of town. Something-or someone-important must be connected to them.”
“Yes, I’m sure you’re right. They had me blindfolded and tied up, but here’s what I gathered from their conversation. One of them said the bones are sixty-three years old-both Caver Doe and Plymouth Doe. Now we have a firm date. At least one of them is a hacker-he took the time right before they left to brag how he could get to my family. I think it is probably the one without the nose problem. He would be the one who yelled in my right ear.”
“I was trying to find you this morning,” said David, “to tell you that I’ve filled in more blanks in our chart out there. The powder from the surgeon’s gloves that we got from the keypad on your bone lab lock is the same as powder found on the photograph of the submerged car. We also found some navy wool fibers on Quarry Doe like the wool fibers we found in the basement security room. So from what you’ve told me, I’d say it was these guys who did the crime lab burglary and murdered the two guys at the quarry.”
“Jin, when you process my jacket, check for powder residue. Feel free to cut it up if you need to.”
“Don’t you worry, Boss; we’ve all but got them.”
“You guys are doing a good job.” Diane turned to Neva. “They’ve been hanging around the museum, probably wearing museum T-shirts. I want you to check the security videotapes and interview the museum personnel- especially security and the docents-for anyone seen hanging around whom they didn’t recognize. That’s not going to be an easy task, since the museum is usually full of strangers. The guys were young-in their twenties. Cocky. They have a sense of entitlement. Both were athletic in build. White.”
Diane searched her memory of the two men in the elevator before the lights went out.
“One was just under six feet. The other about six-two or — three. I didn’t see their faces, but they had tanned complexions. One had dark blond hair, short. The other had brown hair that came below his ears. He was the taller of the two.”
“Wow,” said Neva. “I wonder what they’d think if they knew how much data you got from them.”
Diane shrugged. “Neva, if anyone seems to recognize them, draw a picture. I know you haven’t had any experience doing that kind of drawing, but here’s your chance.”
“I’ll get the videotapes from security and start interviewing the docents,” said Neva. “I’ll get right on it.”
“There has to be a third person,” Diane said. “They were waiting for me in the elevator. How did they know when I was going to the elevator?” She tried to remember if there was someone in the staff lounge when she passed. She thought so, but she passed it so many times during the day. “I have no idea what this person might look like.”
“If I can get a line on the first two, maybe the third was seen hanging around with them,” said Neva.
“I hope someone remembers them, or at least that the damn security cameras worked this time. David, take a couple of the security guards with you. Do a sweep of the entire basement.”
“Isn’t there a subbasement?” said Jin. “Korey showed me some old plans of the building.”
Diane raised an eyebrow. “Yes. But it’s dank and musty. I didn’t get any sense of that aroma from them. And from my times down in the subbasement, they’d definitely come back with a scent. But we’d better check it.” She sighed, suddenly out of breath.
“I need to know if the stabbings were connected to all these crimes. They denied they did the stabbings, but they don’t have a lot of credibility with me. See if you can connect Neva’s house breakin with them. Perhaps when we find them, we’ll see that one has something wrong with a finger.
“Now, I need to ask if any of you have mentioned anything about the current cases to anyone. This isn’t an accusation. I’m having to think about what I might have said to Frank. I was with him when I called David on the cell to discuss my revelation about the cave-witch bones. Someone might have overheard me.”
“I hardly talk about what I do,” said Jin. “I never discuss anything specific.”
“I don’t know anybody,” said David.
“Sometimes I tell Mike about drawings, but only in general terms. He was up here yesterday watching, but he knows not to mention anything about the crime lab, and he wouldn’t. . but I’ll check with him about it.”
“Okay, now I have to have the same conversation with the guys out there.” She pointed to Chief Garnett and the two sheriffs, who were waiting in suspense. “I have a feeling they aren’t going to be as nice as you guys about being questioned.”
Chapter 37
Chief Garnett, Sheriff Burns and Sheriff Canfield looked slightly put out when Diane sat down across from them. They shifted in their seats and finally leaned forward with their forearms on the table. She looked at each of them in turn, still trying to decide how much to say. She should tell Garnett everything, since he was not only Rosewood’s chief of detectives, but technically her boss when it came to the crime lab. The crime scene unit was his baby.
“We have a serious problem,” Diane began.
“You said on the phone that you have evidence that all the crimes are linked,” said Sheriff Canfield, obviously anxious to get on with it. His jurisdiction covered the quarry and the lake because they were in Rose County but outside of Rosewood city limits, where Garnett’s jurisdiction ended.
Canfield handed Diane a report that identified Quarry Doe as Donnie Martin-from his prison tattos. She wrote the name on the chart as she brought the board around to face them. “This is a chart of the crime scene evidence. Not all the evidence in the cases is represented, by any means. Just the pieces that connect two or more crime scenes. The Xs show the connections.” She watched their eyes to see if they were following.
She guided them through the links formed by the rare buttons, the same estimated date for the two old deaths, the picture of the submerged car, the items stolen from the lab, the blue wool fibers, and the powder residue.
The three stared at the table with wrinkled brows and frowns. Sheriff Canfield squinted his eyes, as if that made everything clearer.
“Logically, as you can see, all the crimes are connected,” Diane finished.
Sheriff Burns’s phone rang and Diane felt annoyed. It was stealing the power of the moment, and she needed the impact of the evidence in order to gain their cooperation. Burns grabbed the phone from his belt.
“Yeah?” He listened for a minute before speaking again. “Are you sure? You don’t say? I would’ve been surprised five minutes ago.” He hung up.
Sheriff Burns got up, took one of the dry markers and added to the chart. He wrote
They looked at him, puzzled.
“That was one my deputies. They just discovered that Flora Martin-a.k.a. Jane Doe in the woods-is the great-grandmother of Donnie Martin-a.k.a. Quarry Doe-over in your jurisdiction, Canfield.”
“So,” said Garnett, “all these cases are related. Any idea how?”
“Some,” said Diane, “but as I said, we-or rather, I-have a problem.” Diane decided to lay most of it on the
