two major traumas and held some visual similarities, the doll became the code for the rest of it.
“When Juliet first came to work at the museum, Andie made her a gift basket, as she does for all new employees. Because seashells were a speciality of Juliet’s, Andie used that as a basis for the theme of the basket. The centerpiece was a doll-Ariel, the mermaid from Walt Disney.”
Diane saw the frown that briefly creased Laura’s forehead. Ariel was the name of Diane’s adopted daughter, who was killed. Ariel had named herself after the Disney character because she wanted to start a new life with a new name-Ariel Fallon. Diane continued.
“When Juliet saw the basket on her desk, she freaked. I mean really freaked. It was much worse than when Kendel found the museum snake coiled up in her desk drawer-and that was an event we will all remember for some time to come. Juliet was very embarrassed at her reaction and muttered something about being afraid of new dolls. Andie had taken the doll out of the packaging when she made the basket. It wasn’t in a box.”
Diane stopped to let it sink in.
“I’m sorry,” said Laura. “I don’t see the significance of that, and I can see by your face that it is significant, but I need a little more.”
“Juliet said, ‘I remember being in a dark room with new dolls.’ You asked what she meant by new dolls, and she said, ‘Dolls still in the box.’ But we know from her reaction to the welcome basket that she was scared witless by a doll that was not in a box.”
“OK,” said Laura, still sounding unsure. “So what did she mean?”
“There is something else common to new dolls besides the cardboard box they often come in. I saw it last night when I passed the museum store and saw all the Dora the Explorer dolls lined up together on the shelf. It was really very eerie. In the low nighttime lighting of the gift shop, each of the little dolls was peering out at me from behind the cellophane window in its box. Andie’s basket didn’t have the doll in a box, but there was cellophane around the whole basket-and Ariel the mermaid was peering out from inside the plastic.”
Diane could see from the puzzled look on Laura’s face that this really cleared it up for her.
“Are you saying Juliet would be afraid of an old doll if it was wrapped in cellophane?”
“Yes.”
“And this means?”
“The room of dolls she saw in her memory weren’t dolls; they were murdered people wrapped in plastic, and this was the first psychological trauma for her and may have led to Event Two-her kidnapping.”
Chapter 33
If Laura was shocked before, she was stunned into silence now. She sat back in her chair, staring in disbelief at Diane.
Diane pulled out the tape that Laura had sent her.
“Here, play the part where she is telling you what her memories are. Instead of it being a room full of dolls, think mass murder scene and listen to how the rest of her memories sound.”
Laura put the tape in her recorder, found the right place, and played it. At the end of the sequence she stopped the tape.
“It is scarier, hearing it from the perspective you describe, I’ll grant you that,” said Laura.
“The sequence also makes more sense,” said Diane. “The fear she has of the room makes more sense and the running makes more sense.”
“Yes, it does,” agreed Laura. “But…”
“I know. I said it’s tenuous. But I think it is worth investigating.”
“What in the world made you think of murder victims?” asked Laura.
“A couple of things. In the morgue tent, we were short on body bags and had to cover the victims with plastic until bags arrived. Looking at the burned bodies through the plastic was eerie, to say the least. It reminded me of a murder in Atlanta recently where the killer used plastic to wrap the victim and hid him in a wall. Plastic is popular with killers because if you wrap the victim up just right, the blood doesn’t leak out.”
“My God.” Laura shook her head as if shaking the image out. “Can you investigate this?” asked Laura. “Would you even know where to begin? I really don’t want to hit Juliet with this, especially since at the moment it’s no more than speculation.”
“I agree. And, yes, I can investigate it. First, there are some things I’d like to know. We know she was kidnapped from her home in Arizona, but what was she doing in the weeks before the kidnapping? Was she at home in Arizona or was she somewhere else? You can ask her that, can’t you?” said Diane.
“Where she was?” asked Laura. “What makes you think she may not have been at home?”
“Because of something else that struck me on the tape,” said Diane.
“I must say, Diane, you got a lot more out of the short conversation than I did,” said Laura. “What else did you notice?”
“Andie’s basket had the mermaid doll that we think was the trigger that set off Juliet’s fear attack, but the basket also contained a lot of seashells. Even though Juliet likes seashells-she’s made a career of mollusks-the juxtaposition might be important in her memory.”
“How’s that?”
“Do you know where her grandmother lives?” asked Diane.
“No. Is that important?”
“Along with all her fearful memories are also good memories of her grandmother and memories of collecting seashells on the beach. She didn’t collect seashells on the beach in Arizona,” said Diane.
“You think all of these memories are connected in time,” said Laura. She got up and walked over to a small refrigerator and took out a couple of Dr. Peppers and gave one to Diane. “I need something to drink, and they won’t let me drink and take care of patients at the same time. And I don’t like to drink alone.” She glanced at her watch.
“Do you have an appointment coming up?” asked Diane.
“In about fifteen minutes. Go on,” said Laura.
Diane opened the drink and took a sip. It was ice-cold. “I think the memories are connected by fear, at the least.” Diane took another drink.
“Look, Laura,” said Diane. “I’m not really saying anything, except that it’s something to investigate. I agree, you shouldn’t mention this to Juliet. Right now it’s just a flight of fancy of mine, but I’d like to look into it.”
“Well, I must say, you’ve surprised the hell out of me,” said Laura.
“I could be completely wrong and probably am. I’ve certainly not been able to do much with the other cases I’m working on now,” said Diane.
“And why are you working on them at all? I thought your job is to analyze bones and collect evidence from crime scenes. Is Rosewood having a shortage of homicide detectives? Come to think of it, I wouldn’t be surprised, the way Adler has been attacking the police.”
“I got interested in solving those crimes when Patrice Stanton vandalized my car,” said Diane.
“The woman’s obviously crazy. She really thinks you killed her son? I know she said that, but I thought she was just sticking it to you for turning the little carjacker in.”
“No, she actually thinks I killed him. The only bright spot is that she’s stopped her harassment because she thinks I also killed McNair and she’s afraid I’ll come after her.”
Laura threw her head back and laughed out loud.
It was getting colder outside. Diane was glad to be back in her office and warm. She reached for the phone to call Garnett when Andie knocked on her door and stuck her head in.
“You have some visitors from the dark side,” said Andie.
“Send the creatures in,” said Diane.
David, Jin, and Neva all came into her office, pulled chairs away from their places against the wall, and sat down. Jin turned his chair around so that he sat straddling it, resting his arms on the back.
