then, from the furthest edge of consciousness, she felt the iron grip of his hands loosen and fall away. She was still swimming in a sea of dimness when she was jolted by a burst of shouting and an incredibly loud bang.
She rolled over, coughing violently and holding her bruised neck… and suddenly Menzies was there, cradling her in his arms and calling for a doctor. She felt utter confusion. There seemed to be a terrific commotion beyond the desk, a knot of museum guards, shouting… and then she saw a river of blood spreading out across the floor. What had happened?
“I had to do it, he came at me with a knife!” came a desperate voice, edging into her returning consciousness.
“… just a letter opener, you idiot!”
“… a doctor! Now!”
“… tried to strangle her…”
The cacophony of loud, panicky voices continued, the shattered phrases sounding in her head as it all began to come back… She coughed, trying to block it all out, trying not to think, while Menzies eased her down into the wing chair, whispering all the time: “You’re all right, my dear, everything’s fine, the doctor’s on his way. No, don’t look over there… Close your eyes and all will be fine… Don’t look, don’t look…”
Chapter 36
Captain Hayward looked down at the huge puddle of blood on the linoleum floor of the office, all smeared about by the frantic and useless efforts of the EMTs trying to restart a heart that had been obliterated by a point-blank 9mm round fired from a Browning Hi. The scene was now being carefully examined, sorted, tagged, and bottled by the forensic teams and a variety of specialized crime scene investigators.
She backed out of the office, leaving it to the experts to make sense of what was clearly a senseless, tragic act. She had another assignment: to speak with the victim before she was taken to the hospital.
She found Nora Kelly waiting in the staff lounge, with her husband, Bill Smithback; the chairman of the Anthropology Department, Hugo Menzies; and several EMTs, police officers, and museum guards. The EMTs were arguing with Kelly about whether she would go to the hospital for a checkup and treatment.
“I want the guards and museum staff out,” said Hayward. “Except Drs. Kelly and Menzies.”
“I’m not going,” said Smithback. “I’m not leaving my wife.”
“You can stay, then,” said Hayward.
One of the EMTs, who had obviously been arguing with Nora for a while, leaned in for one last try. “Listen here, miss, your neck is bruised and you might have a concussion. The effects can be delayed. We’ve got to take you in for tests.”
“Don’t ‘miss’ me. I’m a Ph.D.”
“The paramedic’s right,” Smithback added. “You need to go for at least a quick exam.”
“Quick? I’ll be in the emergency room all day. You know what St. Luke’s is like!”
“Nora, we can get along quite well without you today,” Menzies said. “You’ve had a terrible shock-”
“With all due respect, Hugo, you know as well as I do that with Dr. Wicherly… Oh, God, this is terrible!” She choked up for a moment, and Hayward used the opportunity to speak.
“I know this is a bad time, Dr. Kelly, but can I ask you a few questions?”
Nora wiped her eyes. “Go ahead.”
“Can you tell me what happened leading up to the attack?”
Nora took a deep, steadying breath. Then she proceeded to relate the events that had occurred in her office just ten minutes before, as well as the pass Wicherly had made at her a few days before. Hayward listened without interrupting, as did her husband, Smithback, his face darkening with anger.
“Bastard,” he muttered.
Nora waved an impatient hand at him. “Something happened to him today. He wasn’t the same person. It was like he had… a seizure of some kind.”
“Why were you in the museum so early?” Hayward asked.
“I had-have-a busy day ahead of me.”
“And Wicherly?”
“I understand he came in at three A.M.”
Hayward was surprised. “What for?”
“I’ve no idea.”
“Did he go into the tomb?”
It was Menzies who answered. “Yes, he did. The security log shows he entered the tomb just after three, spent half an hour in there, then left. Where he was between then and the attack, we don’t know. I looked all over for him.”
“I assume you checked his background before you hired him. Did he have a criminal record, a history of aggression?”
Menzies shook his head. “Absolutely nothing like that.”
Hayward looked around and saw to her relief that Visconti had been assigned to the museum that day. She motioned him over.
“I want you to take statements from Dr. Menzies and the guard who shot Wicherly,” she said. “We can get Dr. Kelly’s when she returns from the hospital.”
“No way,” Nora said. “I’m ready to give a statement now.”
Hayward ignored her. “Where’s the M.E.?”
“Went to the hospital with the body.”
“Get him on the radio.”
A moment later, Visconti handed her a radio. Then he led Menzies off to take a statement.
“Doctor?” Hayward spoke into the radio. “I want an autopsy performed as soon as possible. I want you to look for lesions to the temporal lobe of the brain, particularly to the ventromedial frontal cortex… No, I’m not a neurosurgeon. I’ll explain later.”
She handed the radio back to Visconti, then cast a firm eye on Nora. “You’re going to the hospital. Now.” She gestured to the EMTs. “Help her to her feet and get moving.”
Then she turned to Smithback. “I want to talk to you privately, in the hall.”
“But I want to go with my wife-”
“We’ll have a police car take you after we speak, sirens, the works. You’ll get there at the same time as the ambulance.”
She exchanged a brief word with Nora, gave her a reassuring pat on her shoulder, and then nodded Smithback into the hall. They found a quiet corner and Hayward faced the journalist.
“We haven’t spoken in a while,” she said. “I was hoping you might have something to share with me.”
At the question, Smithback looked a little uncomfortable. “I published that story we talked about. Two, even. They didn’t shake free any leads-at least none that I heard about.”
Hayward nodded, waiting. Smithback glanced at her, then glanced away. “Every trail I tried turned cold. That’s when I… paid a visit to the house.”
“House?”
“You know. His house. The one where he held Viola Maskelene.”
“You snuck in? I didn’t know they’d finished the investigation. When did the crime scene tape come down?”
Now Smithback looked even more uncomfortable. “It wasn’t down.”
“What?” Hayward raised her voice. “You trespassed on an active crime scene?”
