Dead Past (16 page)

“I said it was not my intention to mind your business, but I feel like you’re in this current situation because of me.”

“You? How?” asked Juliet.

“The men were more than likely after me, and you were just an innocent bystander.”

“Really?” She seemed surprised.

Diane wondered why. Did Juliet see everything as her fault?

“Yes, and I’m sorry. However, since I have a responsibility, I feel like I need to urge you to see someone. It doesn’t have to be Laura, and your job doesn’t depend on it. But for your own sense of self, give it a try.”

Juliet nodded, but Diane wasn’t sure she was even listening.

“Maybe,” she whispered.

“That’s good enough,” said Diane. “Now let me drive you home.”

“I can drive. I’m here now. I’m fine.”

“I’ll have the guards walk us out.”

“I’ll agree to that.”

It was good for Diane to be home in her own apartment. “I need a vacation,” she said to herself as she stripped off her clothes and got into the shower.

After a long shower, she slipped on a nightshirt and got into bed, hoping for no midnight phone calls or explosions. She fell asleep wishing Frank were here in bed with her.

It was her clock that awoke her and not the phone. Diane thought that was a good sign. She breakfasted on peanut butter on raisin bread and an apple and dashed off to the museum. As she was getting in the car, she looked through the woods at the tent city being disassembled. She was glad to be working in her own lab from now on. She got in the car and drove off.

After Diane checked in with Andie, she went straight to the Security office. Chanell Napier, her head of Security, was on duty.

“They tell me we had some excitement last night,” said Chanell. “Are you all right, Dr. Fallon?”

“I’m fine, Chanell. Have you found out anything?”

“The police caught the second guy. They have them both downtown. I expect they’ll let us know what it was about when they find out. You know how Chief Garnett hates anything to happen to the museum.”

Diane did. He hated anything that might make Diane rethink her arrangement with Rosewood about having a crime lab in a wing of the museum. He and the mayor had promised that the crime lab wouldn’t attract anything dangerous to the museum. They hadn’t been able to keep that promise, but Garnett certainly tried.

“Keep your ears open,” said Diane. “Find out if anyone else has had any problems at all going to their cars. But I actually came here on another matter. Aquatic Animals have had several valuable seashells stolen.” Diane handed her the folder that Whitney Lester had given her.

“Here are pictures of the seashells. There is a sheet with the value in there, too. I think the theft amounts to over six thousand dollars.”

Chanell shook her head. “Not another one. I’m sorry to hear that.”

“What do you mean?” asked Diane.

“Other departments have had losses. Always rare items and always small items.”

“Why didn’t I know about this?” asked Diane.

“Most of the complaints have come in just recently while you were at the explosion site. The collection managers just now noticed things missing. In some cases, less valuable items were substituted for the real ones, and it took a while to discover the difference.”

“What’s been stolen?” asked Diane, horrified that systematic theft was happening in the museum.

“Just yesterday, the Geology manager said three gem quality stones are missing, including a diamond donated by Vanessa Van Ross.”

“Oh, no, not her ten-thousand-dollar diamond.”

“I’m afraid so. They also have two valuable geodes missing. Entomology reported that a rare”—Chanell got a folder from her desk and opened it—“
Boloria improba acrocnema
is missing.” She pronounced the name syllable by syllable. “That’s a butterfly. The curator said it’s worth about seven hundred dollars.”

“Anything else?”

“Paleontology reported fossils missing, including dinosaur eggs.” She waved a sheet with a list of items. “We don’t know the value yet, but right now we may be looking at about thirty thousand dollars worth of missing items.”

“What’s being done to get to the bottom of it?”

“I’m reviewing the videotapes. So far nothing stands out. The problem is we don’t have a specific time for any of the thefts. I’ve asked all the departments to tell me, as best they can, exactly when was the last time anyone can confirm that the missing items were still here. I’ve been in touch with the GBI and the FBI. Right now the value is not enough for them to sit up and take a lot of notice. But they are helping me look at collectors who are known to buy stolen property. I’ve asked all the departments to go over their inventory. That’s how Geology discovered the gemstones. The collection manager is beside herself. Someone put fake gems in place of the real ones so no one would notice anything was missing. She said Mike was going to be furious when he gets back from wherever he is.”

“He’s searching for extremophiles in caves in Brazil.”

“Lord have mercy . . . whatever that is. It’s an education every time I talk to one of these curators.”

Diane smiled. “Has Archaeology suffered any losses? They have some valuable artifacts.”

“I asked Jonas Briggs. He said no. I think he was a little offended.” She grinned. “But you know him.”

“Keep on this,” she said. “Keep me informed of all developments.”

“We will, Dr. Fallon. We’ve been talking with Dr. Williams while you’ve been working on those poor students’ remains. That whole business is just simply awful.”

“Yes, it is. It’s caused a lot of profound grief. It’s going to take a long time to recover—if ever. You don’t really recover from the loss of a child.”

“No, ma’am, you don’t.”

Diane called Kendel Williams and asked her to meet her in front of Aquatics. She left Security, which was in the east wing, and walked to Aquatic Animals, which was in the west wing. On the way she passed the museum store and she wondered if they had had anything stolen. She stepped into the store and asked the manager. She was putting Dora the Explorer dolls on the shelf.

“Stolen?” She ran a hand through her platinum hair and shook her head. “No. Not here. We occasionally get someone trying to shoplift, but the detector always catches them.”

“Let Security know if anything turns up missing.”

“Of course.”

On her way out of the shop she met Kendel.

“What’s up?” Kendel asked.

“Some personnel business. I need a witness. I think she’s going to be a problem and I’m just being cautious.”

Kendel’s fine brown hair was in a smooth French twist today. Different from the usual turned under, shoulder length do. Her brown eyes and soft voice fooled a lot of people when they met her. She could negotiate for museum items with the best, and was hard-nosed about it. She had acquired several nice pieces for RiverTrail. Diane was glad to have her as assistant director.

“Troublesome. That would be Whitney Lester,” said Kendel.

Diane and Kendel continued on to Aquatics just across the west-wing foyer. The museum hadn’t opened yet, so there was no one among the exhibits. They passed the shells, and Diane lingered a moment at a few of them before she went into the lab.

Juliet was there working on the educational kits. All the kits were popular with teachers. Juliet and her counterparts from different departments put together examples of shells, or rocks, or fossils, whatever the subject was, into a box, along with lesson plans, activities, and educational material. They couldn’t keep enough in stock, even though the kits were not for keeping but for checking out and returning to the museum. Several schools in the area designed their science classes around the kits.

“Hello, Juliet, how are you this morning?” asked Diane.

Juliet looked up, startled. “Oh, fine. I’m fine. Really.” She smiled at Kendel, tugged at her long sleeves, and went back to work.

“Is Mrs. Lester in?”

Juliet nodded without looking up. “Yes. She’s been in about an hour talking on the phone.” Juliet bit her lip. “You should gird your loins.”

“Thanks for the tip.” Diane knocked on the door.

“Juliet, I’m busy. I told you when I arrived that I don’t want to be disturbed. I meant it.”

Diane exchanged glances with Kendel and knocked on the door louder.

 

“Damn it, Juliet. . . .” The door swung open and Diane and Kendel came nose-to-nose with a red-faced Whitney Lester. “Dr. Fallon. Dr. Williams. I didn’t realize. . . . Actually, I’m glad it’s you. I need to talk to you.”

“Then we have mutual needs,” said Diane.

She entered and closed the door behind her. Diane and Kendel sat in the two chairs in front of the desk.

Diane took an index card from her pocket and handed it to Mrs. Lester. “Andie wrote down several dates and times for the management class.”

“That is what I wanted to speak with you about.” Whitney Lester laced her fingers in front of her. “I’ve talked with the state Human Resources Department to find out what my rights are.”

She paused, Diane supposed to let the weight of her words sink in.

“They tell me you can’t force me to take classes that I don’t want or need.”

“No, I can’t. However, I can release you from your job,” said Diane.

“They say you can’t.” Whitney folded her arms across her chest.

“If you want to make this a case of your lawyer versus the museum’s lawyers, that’s your prerogative and I won’t even try to talk you out of it. I don’t know, of course, how you presented your claim to Human Resources, but if I find that you aren’t able to do your job according to the standards laid out in your contract and in the museum’s handbook, I have an obligation to inform you of your shortcomings and provide a way to remedy your deficits. You of course can refuse. I can then let you go.”

“This course”—she flipped the card so that it slid across her desk, stopping near the edge—“has nothing to do with my knowledge of marine life and my ability to keep track of the collection.”

“On the contrary. First, part of your job is to manage staff, not just inanimate objects. As for the inanimate objects that you manage, had you gone to Security with the information of the theft, you would have discovered that almost all of the departments have had recent thefts similar to yours. It was your management style that stopped you from doing that and therefore stopped you from taking more effective action to manage the collection. As it is, Security was delayed getting the information. Time is an important element in recovering stolen items. Security has been looking for the stolen items. They didn’t know to include the seashells.”

Whitney Lester’s mouth sagged. The defiant glint in her gray eyes went out. She looked defeated. Diane imagined the news of the other thefts was an unexpected blow to her carefully constructed scenario of how she had been wronged.

“Other departments have had items stolen?” she asked in a low voice.

“Yes, and Dr. Price is not a suspect in any of them,” said Diane. “I can’t force you to go to these classes. But despite what the person at Human Resources told you, I can and will let you go if you refuse.”

Kendel sat relaxed in the chair with her legs crossed. She always managed to look elegant. Diane envied her for that. She also knew that was part of Kendel’s presentation when she negotiated—looking relaxed before she pounced. Kendel reminded Diane of a lion. Here, however, Kendel was a witness; pouncing wasn’t part of the task. Diane imagined she was content to watch. Kendel kept a pleasant smile on her face as if Diane were discussing the acquisition of a new collection of shells with Whitney.

Diane stood and Kendel stood with her. Whitney remained seated. “I guess I have no choice,” she said.

“We all have choices,” said Diane. “And we all must accept the consequences of our choices. This is not meant to be a punishment.” She and Kendel left Whitney in her office, furious, from the look on her face. Juliet, still looking like she was about to fade into the ether, was working with a tray of
Turridae
.

“Thanks for witnessing, Kendel,” said Diane when they were out of Aquatics.

“No problem.” Kendel walked with Diane until they reached one of the stairwells. Kendel nearly always used the stairs. “I have to visit the Preparation Department,” she said as she started to mount the stairs. “I think that went well. However, I would have hurt her and wouldn’t have had witnesses.” Kendel smiled, turned and walked up the stairs.

Diane laughed and shook her head. She took the elevator to the third floor and crossed over to the wing where the crime lab was located.

David, Jin, and Neva, sipping freshly brewed coffee, were sitting at the round corner table.

“We were just discussing McNair,” said David. “What is that guy about?”

“Glory, control, following his uncle’s agenda,” said Diane, pouring herself a cup of coffee. “This current fiasco is about the coming election. We haven’t had a crime this high profile and McNair and company want credit for bringing justice to all the families who also happen to vote in Rosewood.”

“It’s always politics,” said Jin. “Who was it who said kill the politicians?”

“I think it was Shakespeare,” said David. “And it was lawyers.”

“Yeah, well, I guess I’ll take lawyers over politicians,” said Jin.

“How about my car?” asked Diane. “Have you had a chance to process it?”

“All done and locked in the vault,” said Neva. “When he goes to trial, all the information will be there. What do you want done with your car?”

“I suppose I’ll trade it again. I tell you, the guys at the Ford place must be wondering what kind of life I lead.”

“Speaking of that,” said David. “Did something happen last night? I’ve heard the security guards talking about guys with baseball bats lurking in the parking lot, and something about you and another person. What was that about?”