commit suicide, all are devastated. It’s easy to see how someone could hold a great desire-perhaps an overwhelming desire-to make the guilty pay. Among many there is a great need for justice. And among a few there may be a righteous outrage growing from the perception that justice may not be served and the guilty could go unpunished for a horrendous crime.”
Garnett sighed and bent his head, staring at the slate floor between his feet. “You’re talking about a vigilante. I can’t say I haven’t had the same suspicions. I don’t like it. I would hate having to arrest someone for doing something that in the right circumstances I might do myself,” said Garnett.
“I know,” said Diane. “I have similar feelings. That’s why I’ve decided to simply collect evidence and turn it over to you. But there’s one thing to remember. If I’m right and someone’s desire to bring vengeance on the guilty was the motive, they were wrong with Blake Stanton. He was probably innocent of those deaths. He was simply a thief.”
“Yeah, I’d thought of that, too,” said Garnett.
“I’m reconstructing the skull of the second basement victim with the bones we got from the warehouse. I’ll let you know when I have a face.”
Garnett nodded. “I’ve been so caught up in sticking it to Adler, that I’ve”-he stood up and shrugged-“I need to get back to work. I’ll keep you informed.”
Diane started to ask him not to, but she didn’t. After he left, she went to the crime lab to check on things there. Only David was in.
“How did things go last night? Did any of you get any sleep?” asked Diane. From the bags under his eyes, she thought not.
“No,” he answered. “Neva followed Jin home this morning. She said she was going to make him get some rest.”
“How was he last night?”
“Good. He seems OK. He’s pissed that someone stole his cigarette butts. He’s convinced they would have broken the case,” said David.
“I think the perp was convinced also.”
David nodded and yawned.
“Why don’t you go home and get some sleep?” said Diane.
“You didn’t get any sleep. I saw the reconstruction you were doing in your lab last night.”
“Actually, I did get a few hours. I stayed the night in my museum office. Nice and comfy. Why don’t I take you down to the restaurant for breakfast and send you home?”
“That sounds great. Yeah, I can get behind that idea. By the way, I put some more bones in your lab. We concentrated on retrieving bones last night because we thought that would yield the best results,” said David. “Early this morning Garnett told us that the GBI will be handling the evidence from here on out. So, our plan worked out well. I’m glad to hand it over to them. I wasn’t looking forward to going through all the junk.”
“I’m glad they are involved, too,” she agreed. “I’ll work on the skull today. I have a feeling that Jin is going to get his DNA lab.”
“There’s something he wants to know but is afraid to ask,” said David.
“What’s that?” asked Diane.
“Does he still get the lab if the police are the ones to break the case?”
“They’ll probably break it on our evidence, so yes,” said Diane.
“You’ve already decided on a lab haven’t you?” said David.
“If you tell Jin, I’ll transfer you to taking care of the dermestid beetle colony for the rest of your life.”
“He won’t hear anything from me,” said David.
Diane treated herself and David to a big breakfast in the restaurant. She wished her personal choices weren’t always centered between either food or sleep lately. And she hadn’t even had a run in the past week and a half. Maybe this evening.
After breakfast she sent David home, and she went back to the museum office to call Juliet’s grandmother.
Chapter 37
Diane dialed the number that Laura had given her. After seven rings, an older woman answered.
“Who is this? I don’t know anyone at a museum.”
Mrs. Torkel obviously had caller ID. Diane started to speak, but Ruby Torkel started again before she could get a word out.
“Unless it’s Juliet. Is that you, Juliet? What are you doing calling me from work? Does your boss know you’re calling me from there?”
Diane smiled. “Mrs. Torkel, I’m Diane Fallon, the director of the RiverTrail Museum of Natural History.”
“Well, what are you doing calling me?”
“I’m also the director of the crime lab in Rosewood… ”
“Crime lab? Juliet’s not in trouble is she? She’s not a bad girl,” Mrs. Torkel said, concern evident in her voice.
“No, Mrs. Torkel, Juliet is not in trouble,” said Diane. “I’m helping to find out what happened to her in 1987.”
There was silence on the other end of the phone for a long moment.
“She got snatched, that’s what happened.”
“She was a child and it was a great trauma for her. She is very frightened by what little she remembers.”
“It’s best not to remember,” said Mrs. Torkel.
“Her fears are very real. She wants to know what happened so she can get rid of those fears once and for all. What she does remember is blurred and fragmented.”
“She never remembered anything before. Lord knows the police tried to get something out of her.”
“Juliet is a lovely young woman now, but she’s haunted by this incident from her past. I’d like to help her; she is a good employee.”
“What does she do there exactly?” asked Mrs. Torkel.
“She takes care of our seashell collection and she makes kits to teach schoolkids about seashells,” said Diane.
“She always did like to collect seashells with me. She calls them mollusks now. I don’t know what that is. What do you want to know?”
“She told me about a doll that you said she stole,” said Diane.
“You thinking that had something to do with her kidnapping?”
“Maybe,” said Diane.
“I don’t see how. She was kidnapped in Arizona. She got that doll here in Florida.”
“I thought it might help her remember that time in her life,” said Diane. “Didn’t she get that doll just before she was kidnapped?” It was a guess on Diane’s part, but she had a feeling she was right.
“Why, yes, she did. She was visiting me just a month before she got kidnapped. She came home with that doll. She was playing with some child she met on the beach. That’s where I live, here on the beach, here in Glendale-Marsh. It was a nice doll and people don’t just give away nice things.”
“Do you know where the doll is now?” asked Diane.
“Sure. I got it. I took it away from her. I told her she couldn’t play with something she stole. I was going to give it back to the child she took it from, but I never was able to find out who she was playing with. I asked some of the little girls on the beach, but they didn’t know Juliet. The child might have belonged to a tourist family. We get a lot of them here. They come and rent cottages on the beach. Lots of people come and go here. Will it help Juliet if I send you the doll?”
