One Grave Too Many Part 21

"I'm not sure."

"What's going to happen to them? I mean, is there any chance I can look at them?"

"Korey will have to a.s.sess any damage to the materials and stabilize them first. Perhaps do some repairs, if that's possible. After that, they can be examined."

"I have an interest in old geologic maps. They could make an interesting exhibit, especially if the rock and fossil collections can be matched up with the maps."

"I don't know if we have any provenience on the rock collection. Many of the things Korey is finding in the bas.e.m.e.nt and attic were stored without much thought to organization or archiving."

"I'd be glad to take a look at the rock collection. I may be able to determine where they were collected."

"I'm not sure if it would be worth the time it would take. We currently have an extensive collection, as I'm sure you've seen."

"Yes, I know. But I might find something interesting. Sometimes a specific kind of rock can get mined out and disappear. And who knows about the fossils? Sometimes new species have been discovered in museum collections."

"By all means. Take a look at them."

"Thanks."

He disappeared up the stairs. Diane stood for a moment wondering about him and Melissa before she went back down to ground level and to her office. Through the adjoining door of her office, she heard Andie talking to someone.

"Yeah, they'd rather chase down somebody trespa.s.sing on some taxidermist's place or some dog peeing on Mrs. Crabtree's flower bed than investigate anything really illegal," Andie was saying.

Diane opened the door between the offices and saw that it was Korey talking to Andie.

"We didn't have another break-in, did we?"

"Oh, hi, Diane," said Andie.

"No," said Korey. "Just telling Andie about the non-action posture the police took. And I was delivering these." He handed Diane an envelope. "They turned out pretty good."

Diane opened the envelope and took out photographs of the fingerprints. "How about your office, Korey? Was anything missing?"

"It had been searched, but nothing missing. Somebody was looking for something, that's for sure."

"I'll see if I can get these prints run through the system. Korey, do you know Mike Seger very well?"

"Just met him. He was looking around in the conservation lab the other day, and I showed him some of the geology stuff we found in the bas.e.m.e.nt."

"What kind of guy does he seem to you?"

Korey shrugged. "He seemed an all right guy. You don't suspect him of breaking into the lab, do you?"

Diane was taken aback for a moment. She'd been thinking about Melissa and not the break-in. "No, not at all. There are a lot of new people coming in from the university, and I just wondered what your take on him was."

"Fine. I like him. Seems to know his business."

"Thanks, Korey. I'll let you know if I find out anything about the fingerprints."

Diane went back to her desk and pulled out her calendar, skimming over today's schedule. There was no urgent business. Dylan Houser wanted to meet about her computer. She could put that off for another day.

She called up her E-mail. Jonas Briggs had sent his next chess move, p.a.w.n to queen four. Diane thought a moment, visualizing the chessboard in her mind's eye. The beginning game moves weren't hard to remember, but before long she would have to go up to the second floor and look at his board before she moved. She E-mailed him to move her knight to the queen's bishop three position.

It hit her suddenly. She jumped up from her computer and hurried into Andie's office.

"Andie, what were you saying when I came in?"

"Hi, Diane?"

"No, before that. When you were speaking with Korey."

"Oh, he was telling me how the police weren't the least interested in finding who broke in to the lab, and I said they were more interested in finding out who peed on Mrs. Crabtree's flowers-oh, and finding trespa.s.sers."

"You were more specific than that about the trespa.s.sers."

"Some taxidermist?"

"Why did you say that?"

Andie shrugged and looked wide-eyed. "I don't know, I was just making conversation."

"No, I mean why did you use those examples?"

"Oh. I like to read the sheriff's incident report in the paper. Sometimes they're real funny, like this woman who reported that someone broke into her house, messed up her bed and left an unused condom on her dresser. Why?"

"Can you tell me more about the taxidermist and the trespa.s.sers?"

"Let me see." Andie rolled her eyes upward, thinking. "It began as a complaint from a woman. Her neighbor was shooting off a gun. The neighbor-a taxidermist-said he heard someone trespa.s.sing. Apparently, they were disturbing the cows in his pasture, or something like that, and he fired a shot in the air. That's all there was to it."

"When did you read this?"

"Just a few days ago. Why?"

"Do you know his name?"

"Something sort of funny." Andie thought a minute. "Luther, Luther Something? Why are you asking me all this?"

"Tell you later." Diane went back to her office, closed the door and dialed Frank's cell phone number.

"Diane, how you doing this morning?"

"I'm fine, really."

"That's good. I was worried."

"It was good to share Ariel with someone. She was special."

"Yes, I can see that she was."

There was a distance in Frank's voice that puzzled her. If she hadn't known him better, he sounded like someone who didn't want to hear from a one-night stand. As she started to speak, she heard a pinging in the background, then an intercom voice calling for a doctor.

"Frank, where are you? Is everything all right with you? How's Kevin?"

"Kevin's fine. But I'm at the hospital. I got a call when I got home. Star tried to commit suicide this morning. She's not good."

"Oh, Frank." Diane's voice trembled. This is not the time to collapse, This is not the time to collapse, she scolded herself. she scolded herself.

"I didn't want to tell you, I mean, after last night, but . . ."

"Do you know what happened?"

"It was after they picked up her breakfast. She used a corner of her bed to cut her wrists. G.o.d, she had to be desperate to go through that. They said she lost a lot of blood."

"An otherwise healthy person can lose up to forty percent of their blood volume before they even require a transfusion." After she said it, Diane realized that it must have sounded so technical and cold. She wanted to be comforting. "I can come over."

"I don't know what to do," he said.

So much sadness. Diane felt guilty. Last night her story, and now this.

"Find out who did this to her family. It won't heal her overnight, but it will help."

"I know, but right now, I don't know what else to do," he repeated. "We got all this information, but what does it leave us with?"

"That's why I called. I think I know where to look for the rest of the skeleton."

Chapter 22

The other end of the phone was silent except for the hospital sounds in the background.

"The skeleton?" Frank finally said. "You mean the one the collarbone was taken from? You know where it is?"

"Maybe. I'm not certain, but it's a good lead. Remember I told you that it might be someplace where animals were processed? Andie told me about an item in the sheriff's incident report about someone trespa.s.sing on land belonging to a taxidermist."

Sheriff's incident report. Diane just realized that probably meant it was in the county and not the city limits-not the jurisdiction of the chief of detectives but in the jurisdiction of the county sheriff. She hoped that boded well for their investigation.

"I remembered the mounted animal heads in George's house, and that sounded like a good lead. This was just a few days ago. The trespa.s.ser could be someone looking to recover a body he left there several years ago, hoping it would never be discovered."

"That does make sense."

Diane could hear relief in his voice. Hope is a powerful thing.

"Do you know the taxidermist's name?" he asked.

"It might be Luther."

"Luther Abercrombie. He's mounted a fish or two for me. Did some work for George too. You too, as a matter of fact."

"Me?"

"If I'm not mistaken, Milo Lorenzo bought some stuffed animals from him for the Georgia collection."

"Can we make arrangements to go see him?"

"Yeah. We can do that. I want to visit with Star first, when they let me in."

"Would you like me to come to the hospital? Could you use some company?"

"No, but thanks. I'll be all right, especially now we have this lead. Maybe I can hold out some hope for her. Look, thanks, Diane. This . . . just, thanks."

"So," said Sheriff Bruce Canfield, "you're asking me if I can help solve one of the biggest murders here in decades and at the same time make a fool of that new chief of detectives in Rosewood?"

Sheriff Canfield was a large man in his late fifties. He had a full head of hair the color of brown that comes from a bottle, and a uniform that looked like it might have shrunk a bit in the wash. He laughed out loud.

"That's not exactly the way we'd put it," said Frank, grinning at the sheriff. "But yes, that's what we're asking."

"Well, who can pa.s.s up a deal like that? Let's go." He stood up and guided them out of his office. "How is George's little girl?"

"Right now she's sleeping and sedated." Frank told him about her trying to kill herself.

"Poor thing. Maybe we can do something here."

Diane and Frank followed the sheriff's car out to the Abercrombie farm, which consisted of three hundred acres of woodland and pastures, a white farmhouse and a garage with a sign that read ABERCROMBIE'S TAXIDERMY. They parked their cars on a gravel drive and walked up to the gate. The sign on the gate read: I'LL GIVE UP MY GUN WHEN THEY PRY IT FROM MY COLD, DEAD FINGERS.

The sheriff opened the gate and hollered, "Luther, you got company."

A man much younger than Diane had imagined came out of the taxidermy shop wearing a leather ap.r.o.n and wiping his hands on a towel. He pushed his straight black hair from his eyes and smiled. His teeth were white against his neatly trimmed, short black beard.

"Frank Duncan, what you need with a sheriff's escort?"

"Hey, Whit. How you doing? This is Diane Fallon. She's the new director of the RiverTrail Museum."

"Come for more business, I hope." He grinned.

"We want to take a look at where your father dumps his carca.s.ses," said the sheriff.

"Now, sheriff, you know he disposes of his waste legally-since he had to pay that fine a couple of years ago."