Dead Secret (26 page)

Chapter 37

Chief Garnett, Sheriff Burns and Sheriff Canfield looked slightly put out when Diane sat down across from them. They shifted in their seats and finally leaned forward with their forearms on the table. She looked at each of them in turn, still trying to decide how much to say. She should tell Garnett everything, since he was not only Rosewood’s chief of detectives, but technically her boss when it came to the crime lab. The crime scene unit was his baby.

“We have a serious problem,” Diane began.

“You said on the phone that you have evidence that all the crimes are linked,” said Sheriff Canfield, obviously anxious to get on with it. His jurisdiction covered the quarry and the lake because they were in Rose County but outside of Rosewood city limits, where Garnett’s jurisdiction ended.

Canfield handed Diane a report that identified Quarry Doe as Donnie Martin—from his prison tattos. She wrote the name on the chart as she brought the board around to face them. “This is a chart of the crime scene evidence. Not all the evidence in the cases is represented, by any means. Just the pieces that connect two or more crime scenes. The Xs show the connections.” She watched their eyes to see if they were following.

She guided them through the links formed by the rare buttons, the same estimated date for the two old deaths, the picture of the submerged car, the items stolen from the lab, the blue wool fibers, and the powder residue.

The three stared at the table with wrinkled brows and frowns. Sheriff Canfield squinted his eyes, as if that made everything clearer.

“Logically, as you can see, all the crimes are connected,” Diane finished.

Sheriff Burns’s phone rang and Diane felt annoyed. It was stealing the power of the moment, and she needed the impact of the evidence in order to gain their cooperation. Burns grabbed the phone from his belt.

“Yeah?” He listened for a minute before speaking again. “Are you sure? You don’t say? I would’ve been surprised five minutes ago.” He hung up.

Sheriff Burns got up, took one of the dry markers and added to the chart. He wrote
woods
on the crime scene line and
relatives
over the evidence column and put an X where the relatives column crossed the quarry and woods lines.

They looked at him, puzzled.

“That was one my deputies. They just discovered that Flora Martin—a.k.a. Jane Doe in the woods—is the great-grandmother of Donnie Martin—a.k.a. Quarry Doe—over in your jurisdiction, Canfield.”

“So,” said Garnett, “all these cases are related. Any idea how?”

“Some,” said Diane, “but as I said, we—or rather, I—have a problem.” Diane decided to lay most of it on the table.

“I was late because two men chloroformed me in the elevator and took me to the basement, where they tied me up and proceeded to tell me that if I don’t destroy evidence, they will burn down the museum and harm my family.”

Like her staff, the three law officers stared at her in disbelief. Garnett’s face twisted into anger and he slammed his fist on the table.

“Here? Someone got you here?”

“What evidence do they want you to destroy?” said Sheriff Burns.

“Evidence from the cave and from the lake bottom.”

“For God’s sake, why?” said Sheriff Canfield. “Those are ancient cases.” He tapped the table. “Didn’t you say the lake-bottom victim could have died in 1942?”

“And if they all are connected, why not demand you destroy all the evidence?” asked Sheriff Burns.

“I’m guessing,” said Diane. “But I think when we find out what happened in the cave and at the bottom of the lake in 1942, the evidence will point directly to someone who, even after all these years, has a great deal to lose. My attackers were cocky. They think they’re too smart to get caught. They don’t think we can connect them to the murders of Jake Stanley, Donnie Martin and Flora Martin. And they realize that I can destroy the evidence from the cave without arousing a great deal of suspicion, but I can’t destroy evidence from current cases.”

“Do you know who they were?” asked Garnett.

“No. I have my staff looking for trace evidence.” Diane held back that she might have their DNA.

“We’ll give the museum extra protection, of course,” said Garnett.

“I’m going to be beefing up security, too. And I’ll have the day lighting stay on at night until we sort this out. That will make it easier for security.”

“So you weren’t tempted to destroy the evidence?” said Burns. It wasn’t an accusation, but simply a comment, something a reasonable person might do, given the alternatives.

“No,” said Diane. “Destroying evidence of a crime is not an option. Neither is having my museum burned to the ground or having my family harmed. What I’m going to do is get the sons of bitches.”

“We’ll help you,” said Burns. “Let us know.”

Diane gave them a brief description of what happened to her mother and how the two thugs bragged about it. “They were proud that they could get to anyone without leaving the house.”

“Son of a bitch,” echoed Sheriff Canfield. “People can do something like that?”

“Yes, they can,” said Garnett. “We have a unit that deals with computer fraud. It’s frightening what a hacker can do. So these guys are computer geeks?”

“At least one of them has to be.” Diane took a deep breath. Here she had to be her most diplomatic self. “One thing you can do,” said Diane. “I got the impression that the guys knew that we’re making progress. I’m checking my staff and phones to see if there is a leak, a bug or any way someone might have overheard a conversation between me and my staff. I’d like you all to do the same.”

They took the suggestion that they might have a leak much better than she had hoped.

“My big leaker is in the hospital,” said Burns. “Deputy Singer is our county commissioner’s brother-in-law and a pain in the butt. I try to keep him on easy things, like serving papers and the like. I understand he shoveled up the bones of Flora Martin and delivered her to you in a garbage bag.”

“Yes, he did.”

Burns shook his head. “That’s not how I taught him. I sent him to Atlanta for training with the GBI. I don’t know why he didn’t learn anything.”

Having Burns admit—in a manner of speaking—to a potential leak loosened up Canfield to the possibility.

“I’ll talk to my secretary and deputies. You know, we talk all the time about a break in this case or that, without giving details.”

“That’s the problem,” said Diane. “So do we, and that’s all the information they needed. They didn’t need details.”

“It’s impossible not to talk at all about a case within earshot of the people you work with,” said Garnett. “Like Canfield, we don’t give out details, just . . . ‘we’re making progress’ kind of thing. Frankly, I’m surprised anyone takes that seriously.”

They all laughed.

“I may be all wrong,” said Diane. “Maybe they just assumed that we’d be making progress by this time.”

“If they’ve been hanging around the museum,” said Canfield, “they might have picked up something here.” He was not accusatory, but there was still a slight defensive edge to his voice.

“I agree. That’s most likely,” said Diane. She saw Canfield relax, but Garnett frowned. “That’s why I’m checking the phones. We know they have the ability to hack into secure computers. They also bypassed our electronic locks and alarms and disabled the security cameras for the lab break-in. They most likely have other electronic talents, such as tapping phones.”

“We’ll check our offices,” said Canfield.

Garnett’s frown softened. Diane knew it was important to him that the crime lab seem invincible and infallible, but she wasn’t going to get any cooperation from the two sheriffs if she put the burden of a possible leak entirely on their shoulders. In reality, she was concerned that someone overheard her phone call to David when she and Frank were in the restaurant.

“I appreciate all of your cooperation. I’ve got reports for you on the evidence found at your crime scenes.” Diane passed out papers from a stack David had put on the table in preparation for the meeting. She stood up. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to go talk to my security personnel.”

Garnett stayed after the others left. Clearly he needed more debriefing.

“What are you doing to find these guys?”

“David is working the basement. He’ll also be searching the databases for hackers—maybe our guy did time, possibly as a juvenile. We’ll be reviewing the videotapes. Neva is interviewing museum personnel to see if anyone remembers seeing them on the third floor. We don’t have any exhibits up there. It’s all docents, exhibit planners, archives—and us. Jin is processing the evidence we do have.”

“I don’t like this at all. Someone thinks they can come in and bully their way out of trouble. We can’t allow them to get away with these kinds of tactics. I’m glad you didn’t succumb to their threats.”

“That wasn’t going to happen. I have very strong feelings about terrorists. I had to deal with a lot of them when I worked for World Accord International in South America. However, I have to protect the museum, and I will.”

“I’ll do everything I can. All you have to do is tell me what you need.”

Diane knew he meant it. If for no other reason than that she had the power to break the arrangement with Rosewood about the crime lab and he knew it.

Diane called Kendel, Andie, Chanell Napier, her head of museum security, and Lane Emery, head of crime lab security, into her office, closed the door and told them about the threat to the museum. She was beginning to get accustomed to the bug-eyed, openmouthed look. When they recovered she asked for suggestions about closing the museum.

“Should I close the museum for a while? Say we’re putting up exhibits?”

“Can’t give in to terroristic threats,” said Chanell.

“I have to think of the safety of the visitors and staff,” said Diane.

“I agree with Chanell,” said Kendel. “However, we can go to shorter hours and give the same reason—changing out exhibits. God knows, the paleontologists have been wanting us to close so they can assemble the velociraptors without spectators looking over their shoulders. But if we were to close, how would we know how long to stay closed? We couldn’t just stay closed indefinitely.”

“What about the restaurant? Closing would cost the owner,” said Diane.

“The restaurant has its own entrance and exit. It can stay open even when the museum is closed,” said Kendel. “But that doesn’t help, does it? They are still in this building.”

“Andie? Any thoughts?” asked Diane.

“I say business as usual. Don’t give an inch. Another thing you can do is solve it real fast.”

“You haven’t said anything, Mr. Emery,” said Diane.

He had been sitting silently, his lips in a thin grim line.

“I don’t like to give in to terrorists either, but I say we close down the museum—say for the weekend—so we can give it a thorough search.”

“Search?”

“Burning down a place like this wouldn’t be easy; it’s not like they can light a match to a set of draperies. From what you said, it sounds like they’re confident they can carry out their threats. If they’ve been able to come and go at will, they may have already planted a device in the building.”

“Device? Like a bomb?” asked Diane.

Emery nodded. “They could use incendiary bombs loaded with jellied gasoline. There may be more than one. Down deep, I think they’re bluffing. But if we shut down just for the weekend—and say something like, ‘The environmental controls broke down’—we can get dogs in here. If there is a device here, we can find it. But we’ll need everybody out of the building.”

Diane closed her eyes and thought about all the options, everything that everyone had said. Her thoughts were churning. Was the threat credible? She had no choice but to treat it as if it were. There was a silence that began to get uncomfortable. Throats were cleared; there was some squirming in the creaking chairs. A decision suddenly came to her in a flash of insight—or paranoia; she didn’t know which. She opened her eyes and looked at Emery.

“Mr. Emery, I think your points are well-founded. Prudence dictates that we take every reasonable precaution. I want you to organize the search, but let’s do it in such a way as to minimize the disruption. This is Friday. When normal quitting time for the day staff arrives at five o’clock, I want the museum closed, and to remain closed for the weekend.”

There were sounds of surprise from some of the staff. Chanell looked taken aback. After all, she was head of security for the museum. For a moment Diane thought Chanell was going to object. She looked at Diane and shook her head, but then gazed down at her hands and said nothing. It probably seemed to her, thought Diane, that she was being taken out of the loop.

“Andie, I need you to see what tour groups and special activities we have scheduled for the weekend. Offer our apologies and ask them to reschedule. Offer them a seventy percent discount if they will.”

Andie nodded.

“I would hope that twenty-four hours is plenty of time to make all preparations for the search. So let’s say the search will officially begin tomorrow at six P.M. Mr. Emery, can you make arrangements?”

“Yes. I’ll get right on it.”

Diane looked at her watch. “It’s three o’clock now. We’re locking down at six o’clock today, including the restaurant. The only people who will stay will be museum security personnel and the crime lab crew. Mr. Emery, I want your security people fresh when the bomb unit gets here tomorrow, so you and yours can go home now for rest, and Chanell’s people can secure the building until tomorrow afternoon. Is that okay with you, Chanell?”

She nodded. “I’ll notify my people and call in a couple of officers on leave to double up until Mr. Emery’s people come in tomorrow,” she said.

“Okay, all of you tell any of your people who will be affected,” Diane said. “But do not discuss with anyone what has been said in this room. The official reason for closing is a breakdown of environmental controls, to be repaired over the weekend. Security is extremely important. We can’t take the chance that any information might leak out of here about what we’re doing. Maybe we’ll get lucky and resolve this whole thing in a few days and can get back to normal.”