isn’t going to get his rabbits.”
“Neva mentioned something about that. They thought it was someone on drugs.”
“He called this morning and told Mike that Neva would make a pretty little rabbit.”
“Oh, my God.” Talking with Vanessa had had a calming effect on her, but now she was scared again.
“It shook him up pretty bad,” said Frank. “He was going to ask you to ask me, but he said you had a lot on your plate and he didn’t want to bother you. What’s going on?”
Diane told him the whole story as she fingered the feathered ink pen on the desk. She wondered if anyone ever wrote with it. She could just see him staring at the phone with his mouth open.
“Did they hurt you?”
“They made my arm sore again. Pissed me off royally. But I’m basically all right.”
“So you think one is a hacker?”
“Yes.”
“I have a database of known and suspected hackers.”
Diane smiled. “David would be envious.”
“Tell me everything you know about him and I’ll start looking for possibilities. If Jin can get his DNA, he may be in CODIS. That was good thinking, by the way, getting them to yell into your ear and leave their DNA.”
“Thanks. I think better in a blind panic.”
Diane told Frank everything she could think of about the men. It wasn’t much, but maybe he could find something useful.
“I’ll come stay with you tonight,” he said.
“That would be a comfort. Bring a bedroll; we’ll be sleeping in the museum.”
Diane hung up the phone. “Thank you, Vanessa. I appreciate your lending me your support and giving me some perspective.”
“I hardly said anything, dear.”
“Just talking it out helped.” Diane looked at her watch. “I need to get back to the museum. I just wanted you to know what’s going on, so you wouldn’t be shocked when I close it up.”
“I appreciate your keeping me informed. Take care of yourself.” Vanessa saw Diane to the door.
Diane drove back to the museum and straight to the crime lab, hoping that David had heard from Jin. He hadn’t. But he had swept the lab and her office for electronic bugs.
“We’re clean,” he said.
“We’re probably giving these guys too much credit,” she said. “At least I know I can talk on the phone now.”
Neva came in from the osteology lab carrying a stack of her drawings of the various victims. She laid them out on the table side by side.
“I have some new drawings,” she said, spreading them out on one of the empty tables.
Diane and David walked over to examine them.
“Frank told me about the phone call. Are you all right, Neva?” Diane asked.
“I’m fine. I think Mike is making too much of it.”
“What phone call? What’s going on?” asked David.
“You know how I told you that Mike’s been getting a bunch of strange messages?” said Neva. David nodded. “Whoever it is called again and made it more personal.”
She related the latest thing he said to Mike. Diane could see she was trying to downplay it.
“Mike’s not making too much of it,” said David. “You know, he’s looking to me like the guy who stabbed Mike.”
“Well, what if he comes back after him while I’m at Frank’s playing Monopoly?”
Neva’s voice was getting high-pitched. As much as she tried to hide it, she was scared.
“I’m staying at the museum for a while, so I’ll ask Mike to go over to my place,” said David. “You can go there too, if you like.” David explained to Neva why he would be at the museum.
While they were talking, Diane was examining the photographs.
“This last one-is this Jane Doe. . I mean Flora Martin?” she asked.
“Yes. The one next to it is the aged version of the woman in Caver Doe’s snapshot. I sort of thought she would turn out to be Flora Martin, but they are completely different,” said Neva.
Diane had had the same thought, that the snapshot would turn out to be the older woman found in the woods-she wasn’t. But Diane did recognize her, and she could almost hear the dominoes clinking against each other as they started falling.
Chapter 39
Diane surprised David and Neva when she told them who the aged version of the woman in the snapshot looked like.
“It could be a coincidence,” said David, “but her family does have money.” David paused a moment and rubbed his bald head. “You know, you can publish the drawings in the newspaper or give them to the TV stations in Atlanta. I bet you’d have people coming out of the woodwork who recognize the drawings.”
“I agree, but first, I need to secure the museum.” Diane turned to Neva. “David and I are staying in the museum for a few days. You are welcome to stay, or-”
“I’ll stay here with you. Can Mike stay?”
Diane shook her head. “I don’t want any civilians. No one outside the crime unit staff.”
Neva didn’t want to give up. “But what if whoever it is follows Mike to David’s? He would be safest here.”
“I’ll ask Frank to pick Mike up. He’ll see if anyone is following.”
Neva nodded reluctantly. “I hate this. It’s like somebody is after all of us.”
“Not all of you,” said David. “Just you guys who found the body in the cave.”
Diane was taken by surprise at David’s statement. He was right. Finding the body in the cave was like stumbling over a tripwire. Everything started happening after that event was in the newspapers, including all the current murders.
“He’s right,” whispered Neva. “Why didn’t we see that?
It’s so obvious. I mean, obviously Caver Doe is central. We knew that. But I never quite realized that all of us who were in the cave have become targets. The newspaper article named us all.”
She looked at Diane. “MacGregor,” they both said simultaneously.
Diane took out her cell, punched up the list of caving buddies and called MacGregor, who was also with them in the cave.
“MacGregor.” Diane was relieved to hear him answer.
“It’s Diane Fallon, Mac. How are you?”
“I’m fine. How are you?” He sounded slightly puzzled but glad to hear from her.
“Mac, has anything strange happened to you lately?”
“Strange like what?”
“Has anyone broken into your house?”
“No. But there is something kind of weird going on.”
“What’s that?”
“I’ve been getting these calls for the past couple of weeks-some guy tells me that he’s the one who’s the top of the food chain and I’m just a bottom-feeder and that I can’t have his rabbits.” MacGregor laughed. “It cracks me up just thinking about it. I asked him what the heck he was talking about and he just hung up. He’s called several times. Once in the middle of the night. I told him the calls had to stop, and if it made him feel better, I wouldn’t get any of his rabbits.”
“What did your caller ID say?”
“No data. I was hoping to be able to call him back in the middle of the night and tell him I’d changed my mind, that I like rabbit stew.” MacGregor chuckled.
