Dead Guilty Part 29

Madison took the card, turned it over and looked at the numbers. She nodded. "I will, I promise."

Her tears had dried and her nose had stopped bleeding, but Madison looked profoundly sad. Diane wanted to say something that would help, but she felt completely helpless in the face of grief. She should know a lot about grief, and she did, but she didn't know how to make it go away.

"Do you have someone to stay with?"

"I think I'll go home-to Columbus. Jerry, the cameraman, will drive me. He's been after me for a date. I guess I'll see what kind of stuff he's made of."

They were almost finished with the CT scan when she returned. The image on the monitor was of the abdominal cavity.

"We're thinking he had a tumor on his kidney," said Lynn. She pointed to the screen. "You know, if we could just get a piece of that tissue."

"I can try again with the endoscope, now that I know where to look," said Korey.

"We'll have you a great three-D image of your guy," said one of the doctors. "You going to do one of those facial reconstructions?"

"Yes," said Diane. "It'll be a lot of fun to know what the guy looked like."

"Well, we are happy to be of help. Interesting case."

Before she left, Diane thanked the hospital person nel for their help. She thanked Lynn and asked her if she had time, if she'd like to write a report. Diane had a couple of motives. One, she genuinely wanted her expert input. She also wanted to pat down her ruffled feathers. As long as Lynn stayed at her job, Diane would have to work with her. If she could build up some good interactions, when the inevitable dis agreement came about time of death, or whatever else that ticked off Lynn, they'd at least have established a good rapport.

Diane went from the hospital to Kacie Beck's apart ment. Garnett was there, along with David and Neva. The body had been removed. We probably pa.s.sed somewhere along the way, We probably pa.s.sed somewhere along the way, she thought. she thought.

Kacie had a small one-bedroom apartment close to campus. Diane had seen it from the outside, but hadn't gone inside. Perhaps she should have. Was someone waiting for Kacie in the dark? The thought sickened her.

Diane shook her thoughts and looked around the room. Kacie's decorating tastes included import shops. She had carved end tables with a scroll design, a carved wooden elephant coffee table with a gla.s.s top, several colorful silk throws of fuschia, lime green and blue tossed on the chairs and sofa along with a multi tude of ornate throw pillows. The apartment smelled of death and incense.

Kacie had been found in her bed-strangled, beaten and raped. This one didn't look anything like the oth ers. Except someone had gone through her drawers. They had also taken her ring and had skinned her finger pulling it off.

Diane told Garnett about Madison Foster and re lated the information she had gained from her.

"She was at the hospital reporting on your mummy?" He shook his head. "It's about time some of the coincidences worked in our favor," he said.

Diane was relieved. She feared that she was going to have to explain to him just why she was inter viewing witnesses.

"So there was something the boys were into," said Garnett, almost to himself.

"It appears so. Have you any leads on Mayberry?"

"None. We still don't know if he's dead or alive."

"Where's Ross Kingsley?"

"He's in his motel room working on his profile."

"What's his thinking?"

"Different from mine, especially with the new infor mation. I think our boys were into something with the three Cobber's Wood victims. They had a falling-out, and Edwards and Mayberry hung them. Then Mayberry and Edwards had a falling-out, and Mayberry killed him. I'm thinking that Edwards tied the knots for the Cobber's Wood victims and Mayberry tied the knots that strung up Edwards."

"What about Kacie? Mayberry do her too?" asked Diane.

"Either that, or this really is a coincidence. She was raped. This could be a rapist who also steals."

"That sounds reasonable," said Diane, "but there's one thing."

"What's that?"

"Who's calling me? I spoke with Mayberry at the Cobber's Wood crime scene, and it wasn't him."

Garnett winced. "Maybe that's someone else too. You said you get lots of E-mail every time they run that interview."

"Yes. That's true. I do."

"d.a.m.n, all this is too complicated." Garnett ran a hand through his thick hair.

"What's the profiler saying?" Diane asked.

"That the Cobber's Wood victims were done by a serial killer who's probably done some people before. We're looking for similar killings in other states now."

"And the other murders?"

"Separate. He said something about Cobber's Wood being an organized scene and Edwards' scene being disorganized. He thinks Raymond Waller was killed for his collection. He talked to one of your curators or conservators, or whatever you call them, and it seems that the collection is real valuable. We ran a check on Waller's finances, and all his spare money for as far back as we can check has gone into the collection."

"That makes sense too," said Diane.

But something she couldn't put her finger on both ered her. Looking at all the crime scenes was like looking at an illusion and not being able to perceive the alternate point of view. If she could just see through the illusion.

"You're right," she said. "This is too complicated. Perhaps we should quit looking for a connection and look at each scene as separate until we know better."

As she spoke, Jin showed up at the door. "Hey, Boss. I thought you'd like to know, I've connected two of the crime scenes."

Chapter 33.

Jin gathered up his hair and doned a cap just before he stepped into the room. He picked up a pair of latex gloves and put them on. "I just finished with the Crown Vic, and I tell you one thing, we can find this guy by looking to see who's walking around with a handheld vac. He's cleaned that sucker up. Obviously been watching too many crime scene shows."

"You said you've discovered a connection," said Garnett. He sounded a little testy, but Jin ignored that.

"Sure did. You know the b.l.o.o.d.y glove print with the tear we found at the Chris Edwards crime scene? Well, I found that same glove print on the left front fender and on the left front door of your car, Boss. He's the guy who attacked you."

Diane must have looked dumfounded. Garnett certainly did. He stood there in his suit that he'd worn to Raymond's funeral, his mouth hanging slightly open.

"I thought you'd be surprised," said Jin.

"Are you serious?" said Garnett.

"As a heart attack," said Jin. "It's the same glove.

Still had traces of blood on it."

"Well, now we've got something," Garnett said.

"Okay, where does that leave us?"

"The person who attacked Dr. Fallon is the same person who killed Chris Edwards," said Jin. "He is also the same person who stole the Crown Victoria." "That means, if you're right on the voice recogni tion, Diane, that it was not Mayberry who killed Ed wards. This is beginning to get as complicated as one of those logic problems that my daughter likes to work in her game magazines," said Garnett.

"I love those," said Jin. "Can't get enough of them.

I've even had a few of my own published in those mags." Garnett looked at Jin as if affronted by his intelligence. Jin, obviously enjoying the moment, pressed on. "If he's the same person who's been call ing you, Boss, then that makes for a very interesting problem."

"How's that?" asked Garnett.

"Because," said Diane, "the person who's been call ing me said he was inspired by the television interview-that was shown before Chris Edwards died."

Garnett looked surprised again and fell silent.

"Okay," he said. "He was contemplating killing some one, picked out Edwards from the interview to kill, and you to call and chat about it."

Diane was tempted to laugh, but she could see Garnett was serious.

"You need to give this information to the profiler,"

she said. "He'll need it before he gets too far into his a.n.a.lysis. And I have an idea. See if the university has someone in the linguistics department who specializes in recognizing accents and dialects. We have the caller on tape. Maybe we can place where he grew up." "That's an idea. What department would I call?" "Anthropology and English. They both teach lin guistics. I'll ask my archaeologist if he knows anyone.

You also might try someone in speech. Sometimes they have someone with that skill."

"That's a good idea."

"It's about time for some of the chemical a.n.a.lysis on the bones and the toxicology reports from the au topsies to come back. That could give us a lot of information."

"We've finished here." David and Neva came from the bedroom, carrying an armload of evidence bags. "Find anything useful?" asked Garnett.

"Won't know until we get back to the lab," said David. "By the way, I'm sending you and Sheriff Braden a copy of my report on the insects. Diane was dead-on about the time of death for Cobber's Wood.

Twenty-one days before they were found. My insects don't lie."

Garnett nodded. "Well, Dr. Webber will be sorry to hear that. I guess you know she pitched a fit when you disagreed with her." Apparently, Garnett didn't like women who pitched fits.

"I got a call from her myself," said Diane. "I need to go talk to Ross Kingsley," said Garnett.

"When you have time, come by my office. I need to talk to you about something."

Diane looked at her watch. "How late will you be there?"

"Late. Just call my cell." He went out the door and to his car.

"How'd the mummy thing go?" asked Jin, removing his cap and gloves outside the door with Diane, David and Neva.

"I'm going to keep the crime scene seal on," said David. "I'll release it when the parents get to town." "All right," said Diane. "The mummy thing went well. Found a tumor on one of his kidneys." "Poor fellow," said Jin. "Suffered all those ab scesses, a tumor, lower back pain, and the indignity of a Victorian unwrapping party."

"Kendel did find the amulets that were inside his wrappings and acquired them for the museum." "Cool," said Jin.

"When I was little," said Neva, "my grandma used to have these party favors she called surprise b.a.l.l.s. It was a crepe paper streamer wrapped into a ball. As she wrapped the crepe paper, she'd put little trinkets in the wrapping, so that we'd find things as we un wrapped the ball. It sounds like the idea came from the Egyptians."

"I've heard of those," said David. "Be interesting if the idea did come from the Egyptians-by way of the Victorians, maybe?"

Diane looked at her watch. "d.a.m.n, I've got to get Andie's car back to her so she can go home." "Need some wheels, Doc?" asked Jin.

"I should have some coming from the insurance company. If not, I suppose I'll be spending the night at the museum."

"If you need a ride, we all have cars. Doesn't the museum have a fleet?" said David.

"Yes, but they are not for my personal use. Neva, we'll have the CT data on the mummy sometime to morrow. I'll show you how to use the data in the facial reconstruction software."

Neva grinned broadly. "That'll be fun. I'm looking forward to seeing what he looked like."

"How do you feel about doing a sculpture of him?

The museum will pay you."

"Yes. I'd like that very much."

"Cool," said Jin. He waved and went to his car. Diane rushed back to the museum. Andie was busy at her desk.

"I hope you didn't think you were going to be stuck in the museum," said Diane.

"I knew you'd show up sooner or later." Andie grinned and grabbed her purse.

"Andie, thank you so much for letting me use your car."

"Not a problem. Glad to do it." She handed Diane a set of keys. "Ford Explorer down in the lot. Bright candy apple red. Can't miss it."

"Is this from the insurance company?"

Andie nodded. "Nice. Only a couple of years old.

Very clean inside."

"Thanks. I appreciate everything you do, Andie." "Good. I'm working on being indispensable." "You are. I'll see you tomorrow. Oh, did they tell you about the mummy scan?"