Chapter 38.

Chief Garnett stayed after Russell Keating went back to his office. It was not the first time he'd been in Diane's museum office, but he hadn't paid any atten tion to the decor that first time, as Diane recalled. It had been strictly business. He stared at the photo graph of her dangling at the end of a rope from the vertical entrance to a cave.

"This is what you do for fun?"

"Yes. It's very relaxing."

"If you say so. It doesn't look relaxing to me." He turned his attention to the Escher prints on the other wall-an impossible waterfall, a castle with its equally impossible ascending and descending staircase, and a tessellation of angels and devils. "I wonder what our profiler would think of all this," he said.

"How's he working out?"

"Actually, I don't find him very useful. He has to change his profile substantially every time we get a new bit of information. He was the commissioner's idea," he added.

"He'll have to change the profile again, after this. You realize we have two victims now with diamonds that they shouldn't have been able to afford."

"So you don't buy the backyard deal?" said Garnett with a tired smile.

"Of course not."

"Where did they get them?" He sat down again across from Diane and crossed his legs.

"The choices are: he bought them, he stole them, he found them, they were given to him," said Diane. "It seems unlikely that he bought them. He may have stolen them, but he didn't have theft in his background."

"A lot of money adds up to a lot of temptation."

"Yes, it does. Perhaps Raymond Waller, Chris Ed wards and Steven Mayberry worked together," said Diane. "They got hold of the diamonds, had a fallingout and killed each other. Perhaps Steven Mayberry is the last man standing."

"For the first time, we're getting somewhere." Garnett unfolded his legs and leaned forward, his fore arms on his knees.

mind was racing another thing Chris through possibilities. and Raymond had in Diane's "There's common afford-a victims."

"Coincidence," argument.

"Maybe. Let's were found hanging. That is a very uncommon way to murder someone. They were all dressed alike in clothes that didn't fit. In fact, all the clothes were the same size-extra-large coveralls."

"Were they?"

"It was in the report."

"That's right."

besides having diamonds they couldn't direct connection to the Cobber's Wood Garnett offered, as a counter look at them for a moment. They "That could have been to conceal their ident.i.ties too," said Diane. "He wanted to get rid of their clothes, but he didn't want them naked." She shrugged.

Garnett pulled up his chair and leaned on Diane's desk. "And the tips of their fingers were cut off. That was either to thwart identification, or to collect a trophy."

"I can see why the profiler thinks it's a serial killer," said Diane. "That's what it looks like. The guy who was calling me certainly sounded would peg him as a candidate for like a nutcase. I a serial killer-I mean, the flowers, then attacking me."

"But he also suggested he was angry about some in bullying-he talked justice. What was it-gossip, about?"

"Yes, he did. Let's look at way," said Diane. "He said he is not a murderer. He seems obsessed with justice-and injustice. If he com mitted the Cobber's Wood murders, perhaps he hanged them for their real or imagined crimes, what ever they might have been. He dressed them up like prisoners. Perhaps he really believes himself to be their executioner for just cause, not their murderer.

Their fingers were cut off to avoid them being identi fied if they were found."

"What if they'd been found before their faces rot ted? They could have been identified that way." Diane frowned for a moment. "Maybe there is a reason the fingerprints are a greater threat to identifi cation than their faces or their teeth."

"How's that?" asked Garnett.

"They grew up in the northeast, not here. Maybe that's where they lived, and he thought being far away from home would delay identification."

the killings another "They grew up in the northeast? How do you know that?"

"We got back the chemical a.n.a.lysis on the bones.

Different regions of the world have different chemi cals in their soil and different kinds of air pollutions.

These chemical combinations show up in bones. I sent the report to your office."

"I haven't seen it. You're thinking that he thought they might not be recognized down here, far away from home?"

"Yes. But he might have realized we'd put their fingerprints through a database and get a hit, so he cut their fingers off."

"Speaking of fingerprints," said Garnett. "David hasn't gotten a hit off any of the fingerprints we've found and he's been through all the databases we have access to."

Diane realized that she hadn't yet told Garnett about the tasks she'd a.s.signed to Jin and Neva. She explained her idea about the plastic surgery discussion boards and Neva's idea about the tattoo discussion boards.

"It's a long shot," she said.

"But that was a good idea. What did we do before the Internet?"

Diane ignored his comment and continued. "The DNA results on the shed hair may take a while, or it might not work. I haven't heard from Jin." Garnett stood up. "I feel like we made some prog ress. It was good to talk it out." He sounded surprised as he said it, as if he hadn't really expected he could talk to Diane and get anywhere.

Diane's door swung open and Star peeked in. "Star," said Frank. "Ever heard of knocking first?" He came in behind Star and put his hands on her shoulders.

"It's all right. We're finished," said Diane. Frank and Garnett shook hands. Star stood staring.

She suddenly held out her hand to shake Garnett's. "h.e.l.lo, I know who you are. I'm the girl who didn't kill her family."

"Star!" said Frank and Diane together.

Garnett had a pained look on his face, muttered something about being sorry for her loss, said good bye to Diane and hurried out.

"Well," said Star when he was gone. "When you use bad judgment, there are consequences. Isn't that what you are always telling me, Uncle Frank? So, can I see the mummy and the Victorian pickle jar?" Frank and Diane looked at each other and sighed. "The mummy's upstairs."

She took them up to the conservation lab and showed them the amulets and the mummy. Star was fascinated with both, but disappointed that the object in the pickle jar had been used to get blood and tissue samples. Frank was more interested in the baseball collection that Korey showed him. Afterward, they had dinner in the museum restaurant and Diane fol lowed them home in her rental SUV.

Diane curled up on the couch with Frank and a gla.s.s of wine, hoping that there wouldn't be any mur ders tonight.

"This has been a nice evening," she said. "We had a good time. Loved that baseball col lection."

"I needed to slow down. Too much has been hap pening."

"I've planned for your relaxation," he said. "The doors and windows are locked and barred. Star is stay ing in tonight, so all is well. Oh, and I caught two of my ident.i.ty thieves today. Two seventeen-year-olds from upper-middle-cla.s.s families. They would have just gotten a slap on the wrist, but one of the people whose ident.i.ty they stole has a brother who is a state senator, so their b.u.t.ts are in trouble."

"Do you believe in coincidences?"

"They happen, but as a rule, no."

"As a rule, I don't either. And that's what is nag ging at me. There doesn't appear to be any logic to the connections that Edwards, Mayberry and Waller had with the hanging victims. We can't figure out if it means anything. But the odds seem so much against pure coincidence."

"Don't think about it. Just let it relax in your brain and the answer will come to you."

"You're right. I'll just enjoy you and my wine." Star came into the living room and sat cross-legged in a chair opposite them.

"I get to pick out the clothes, don't I? I mean, I know you're paying for them and all."

"You get to pick them out. Does this mean you are going to give college a try?"

"Jennifer's going to Bartram. Stephanie's going to the University of Georgia. If they can do it, I suppose I can give it a try. It's just a year, isn't it? I can do anything for a year-even prison time." She settled back in the chair. "I have a question."

"What's that?" asked Diane.

"Is it a whole year, like, I mean, most schools let out in the summer. Does a year mean I have to go to summer school too?"

"Star," began Frank. "It sounds like you're trying to figure out how to do as little as possible." "No, I'm just trying to get the rules straight so I know what I have to do."

"One academic year. You don't have to go to sum mer school. But you do have to have a two point seven GPA."

"What if I work real hard and only have a two point six?"

"That would be tragic," said Diane.

"Okay." She unfolded herself and bounded out of the room.

"You know," said Frank, "family life can be nice." Diane nodded, but the talk of family life always made her feel the sharp pain of Ariel's absence.

Chapter 39.

Jin bopped into Diane's crime lab office and slammed a folder down on her desk.

"We did it, Boss. It's in there." He did a little dance and spun around.

"You're going to have to be a little more specific. We've got so many things working."

"The hair. The hair. They matched the hair," he sang.

"The shed hair protocol worked?"

"GBI came through. They're all very excited. It matched with the blood in your apartment perfectly- I'm talking nuclear DNA. This is exciting."

"Jin, you've earned your pay. Would you like to take a copy of the report to Garnett?"

Jin grinned. "Sure. I'd love showing him the kind of magic we can perform, and wipe some of those smirks off those guys downtown. Of course, most of them won't even realize what a feat it was to get read able nuclear DNA from shed hair."

"Do you get those smirks too? I thought it was just me," said Diane.

"No. We all get them. It's especially bad for Neva, since she used to be down there. They see us as geeks, I guess. However, there's more. The DNA was the cake, but I have some more evidence that lights the candles."

"I see you're on a roll. What's the other evidence?"

"Cheap orange carpet fibers."

"In Kacie's apartment?"

"No. Yours. I went over before I came here and did a sweep of your apartment." He stopped. "I hope you don't mind."

"No, of course not. I hope you vacuumed the whole place."

"By the way, you have some strange neighbors across the hall."

"Tell me about it. You don't know how strange."

"They asked me if I was moving in, did I have a cat. I told them no, that I was from the crime lab, and they asked me if I knew anything about the best fu neral homes. What's that about?"

"It's their hobby. They love funerals. They go to funerals for people they don't even know."

Jin stood gawking at her. Apparently left speechless.

"The landlady told me they had seven children," said Diane. "All of whom died. They showed her pho tographs of their funerals."

"Now, that's downright scary. You live across the hall from those people?"

"Last year, when she thought I was harboring a cat her husband was allergic to, she lifted the landlady's keys and snuck into my apartment. I came home and found someone hiding behind the curtain and almost brained her with a cast iron skillet."

Jin was laughing now. "You're yanking my chain."