Dead Past

died together in an instant in the basement of the house-and saved them to a portable memory stick.

Jin, David, and Neva had made significant progress sorting through the cigarette butts. The map was full of small x’s, each representing a Doral. But she didn’t like what she saw. The vast majority of the x’s clustered near the morgue tent and the coffee tent.

“Doesn’t look good, does it?” said David.

She looked up and caught him watching her.

“We’ll need to find out what the people at tent city smoke,” said Jin.

What the people at tent city smoke, thought Diane. None of them wanted to say that who they were looking at as a murder suspect was one of the medical examiners, their assistants, or a policeman. Those were the only people allowed in the area.

“I hate this,” said Neva, “but I’ll find out what the policemen smoke.”

“I’ll do it,” said David. “They’re your friends.”

“Neither of you will do it,” said Diane. “We’re going to give the information to Garnett and let him investigate. That’s what we do: We supply objective information from the scene and he uses it to investigate the crime.”

“Since when?” said Jin.

“I’m not willing to alienate the police department any more than I have to. I’m taking the coward’s way out of this one. It’s up to Garnett now.”

“That works for me,” said Neva.

Diane didn’t hear Jin or David objecting. Good.

“This is something for you to mull over,” said Diane. She laid down the printout of the face she had reconstructed.

“Why did you have the computer draw Marcus McNair?” said Neva. She looked at Diane with a puzzled frown.

“Yeah, Boss,” said Jin. “You testing your software?”

“Is this McNair?” asked David, picking up the page and examining the printed picture.

“We’re waiting for confirmation, but it appears to be Eric McNair, Marcus McNair’s cousin,” said Diane.

Jin grabbed the page out of David’s hand to look at it again. “His cousin? Was he the second guy in the basement?”

“Yes, he was. I’m having x-rays sent over for confirmation,” said Diane.

“What does this mean exactly?” asked David.

“Garnett believes that it connects Marcus McNair to the meth manufacturing. He’s hoping that proving McNair was involved will mean he can prove Adler was involved. Failing direct proof, I suppose Garnett hopes the insinuation that Adler was involved will forever ruin Adler’s political career,” said Diane.

“You sound like you don’t approve,” said Jin. “I wouldn’t waste any sympathy on Adler.”

“I’m not,” said Diane. “I have no sympathy for him. I… It’s just that…”

“You like a clean kill,” said David.

“Blunt way of putting it, but I suppose that’s true. Anyway, that’s not our problem. Our problem is to recover the best evidence we can from the crime scenes. Speaking of which, David, I need you to go meet Garnett at a crime scene. Here are the directions. He found the Chevrolet Impala in a ravine and burned to a crisp.”

“Were the suspects in it?” asked David “No, it looks like they just got rid of the car. Probably got another one. It’s my feeling they’re still in town.”

“Why would they hang around?” asked Neva.

“Because they were after the coded message, and I removed it from the doll before they got it.”

The three of them gave her a blank stare. “Coded message?” said Jin.

“I think you skipped a chapter,” said David.

“I guess I did. The doll had what may be a coded message inside.” She briefly told them the story of Leo Parrish and the missing loot.

“And these guys are looking for it?” said Jin.

“I’m guessing,” said Diane. “I don’t know for a fact.”

“That’s just a weird story,” said David, as if it offended his sensibilities. “How did Juliet get involved?”

“That I don’t know. I have only vague guesses.” Diane didn’t want to give them Juliet’s life history just yet. She turned to Jin. “I have a job for you. I know how you like to solve puzzles.” Diane pulled the printed copy of the code from her pocket and handed it to Jin.

“That was in the doll?” said David. “How did you know to look?”

“Long story,” said Diane.

“It must be,” he said. “It just keeps getting longer.”

“This looks like a cryptogram,” Jin said. “I can do these in my sleep. See, all you have to know is the frequency with which each letter of the alphabet occurs in everyday language-a few other things too-but it’s easy.”

“Good. Do it tonight when you get home. Right now, you and Neva get the cigarette information to Garnett. And David…”

“I know, I’m going,” he said. He grabbed his case and headed for the elevator.

“I’ll meet you out there,” she called after him. “I have some things to do here first.”

“I can do it myself,” he said.

“It’ll be faster if I help,” she said.

The elevator door opened and David stepped in.

“When you guys finish your report, go home,” Diane said to Neva and Jin. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Diane left them and walked downstairs to the conservation lab. She met Korey on the Pleistocene overlook near his lab.

He grinned and his eyes twinkled when he saw her. “I have your forgery, Dr. F.,” he said.

“That’s great. I was just coming to get it. I’m going fishing and I need bait for my hook.” It was in a glassine envelope. She took it out and examined it.

“This looks just like the original,” said Diane.

“I went down to the thrift shop and bought some old books,” he said. “I tore a piece from one of them-they weren’t valuable, I checked. I wrote the message with vegetable ink. It all looks pretty old.”

“Thank you, Korey,” said Diane. “This is excellent. If I decide to go into a life of crime, you’re my man.” She slipped it back in its envelope and put it in her pocket.

“I’m glad to know that’s not what we are doing,” he said still smiling. “Tell me, the jobs you gave to Kendel and Beth, are they related to this?” He gestured to her pocket.

“Yes,” said Diane smiling.

“I really can’t wait for this,” he said.

“I’ll tell you when it’s over, all three of you,” she said and left by the overlook elevator and rode down to the main lobby.

She looked at her watch. Shortly, the night lighting would come on. Andie was probably already gone. She waved at the guard at the information desk and went to her office.

Korey really did a good job, she thought as she moved open the door to the safe. After that, everything went black.

Chapter 46

“Dr. Fallon! Are you all right?”

Who is that talking? Diane was confused and had a pounding headache-and she was on the floor. But someone was helping her to a chair. She sat down and put her head in her hands for a moment, then looked up.

Clarice, one of the night cleaning crew, her long hair in a high ponytail, wearing jeans and a museum sweatshirt, was standing over her with a look of fear on her face.

“You need to go to the emergency room, Dr. Fallon. Your head’s bleeding.”