Dead Hunt Part 17

Vanessa laid a hand on Diane's arm. "What does all this mean?" she asked. "Clymene O'Riley is dead? I can't say that it makes me unhappy. Archer O'Riley was a good man. I liked him very much."

"She's dead, but we don't have a body. Someone dragged it out of my apartment and dumped it using my car." She paused again and looked over at the saber-toothed tiger. The long, sharp canine teeth reminded her of the knife found in her car.

"What? Why?" said Vanessa.

"I don't know," said Diane. "None of it makes any sense, except to cast suspicion on me for some reason. If the attack at the hospital was related to the homicide at my home, why didn't they just kill me there? I was completely vulnerable. I'm thinking that the hospital attack was related to the artifacts because of something he said. I believe he thought I deal in stolen antiquities, but why, I don't know. Now I really have to go. Follow me and I'll let you out the doors into the lobby."

After Diane saw Laura and Vanessa off, she headed to her office. The knife, The knife, thought Diane. Why clean it, then leave it in my car with other blood? That doesn't make any sense-nothing did-Clymene's murder in her apartment or the stolen artifacts. She hurried to her office to see Agent Jacobs. thought Diane. Why clean it, then leave it in my car with other blood? That doesn't make any sense-nothing did-Clymene's murder in her apartment or the stolen artifacts. She hurried to her office to see Agent Jacobs.

Chapter 28.

When Diane walked into Andie's office, Agent Jacobs had just finished speaking with Jonas Briggs. Jonas sat down on Andie's sofa next to Kendel. Diane looked at the two of them. They didn't look beat up, so she supposed it went well. She smiled at them and went into her office, where Agent Jacobs was gathering his notes. He glanced up at her.

"I appreciate your cooperation, really," he said. "You don't know how many times I get stonewalled by museums."

If stonewalling would work, I might do it, thought Diane. "We need this solved," she said. "Do you have any idea who the artifacts belong to?" thought Diane. "We need this solved," she said. "Do you have any idea who the artifacts belong to?"

"Only the girdle is in the database, but I haven't had a chance to check with my sources for the latest looting," he said.

"Is there any chance we can get the items we purchased? I suppose you don't know if they were burned in the fire?" asked Diane.

"Not all of the building was consumed. The contents are being inventoried. And fortunately a lot of the artifacts are stone, so something will be left. I hate to think of all those antiquities gone forever." He sighed.

Diane could see that he loved his work-saving the world's historical treasures.

"I didn't get a chance to look at your books," he said, "so I'll be back tomorrow."

"Let me know what you need," she said. "Kingsley will be coming tomorrow also. Perhaps you'll run into each other."

Jacobs made a face. "Should he be up and about?"

"Probably not, but this Clymene thing calls like a Siren," said Diane.

Jacobs smiled. "It must. Maybe the two of you can fill me in over lunch. You've gotten my curiosity up."

Diane wanted to ask him what he thought about the investigation here so far, but she knew he wouldn't tell her. She walked him to the door and gave him directions to a good bed-and-breakfast.

She returned to her office to debrief Jonas and Kendel. She pulled up a chair across from them and leaned forward, resting her forearms on her thighs.

"I'm so sorry," said Jonas. "I'm supposed to be curator of archaeology and I've completely fallen down on the job. I just don't know how this happened."

"It's not your fault," said Diane. She reached over and squeezed his arm. "Come on, I get enough illogic from my board. Don't you start."

"It just doesn't make sense," said Kendel. "I told Agent Jacobs that." She sat with her shoes off, hugging her legs.

"We'll sort it out," said Diane. "I promise. There's some sense to it. We just haven't found the key yet. Why don't you go home and relax. Come in late tomorrow if you like."

"He's going to be back tomorrow," said Kendel. "He said he might have more questions. I don't want it to seem like I'm avoiding him."

"Okay," said Diane. "If you need to relax tomorrow, you can use my office couch."

It occurred to Diane that if she had told Jacobs about the attack on her at the hospital and what the guy said, it might have taken some of the suspicion off Kendel. She hadn't thought about that angle. She'd have to tell him tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow her mind would be clearer.

"We'll sort everything out. I have David on it and he's very good," she told the two of them.

Kendel smiled. "He did ask more questions than the FBI agent," she said.

"Is this going to hurt the museum?" said Jonas, still looking glum.

"I'll tell you what I told the board. We are going to run across problems like this sooner or later. We have to acquire objects in a field filled with looters and smugglers, and sometimes it's tough. Right now it's tough, but we'll be okay."

Diane turned to Kendel. "Vanessa said when this is sorted out, she'll do everything she can to restore your reputation. You're the one who has taken the biggest hit on this. We'll do everything we can to fix it."

Kendel nodded. "You know, it's usually people who are afraid of me me, not the other way around. I'm not used to this. I don't know what happened."

"You were blindsided. You'll get your mojo back," said Diane. "Now, you two go home. You too, Andie."

"I told them you would make everything right," Andie said.

Diane hoped that was true. It was useful for them to believe that she could, if only for a good night's sleep.

"How can we help?" said Jonas.

"Right now, cooperate with Jacobs. He's definitely going to be looking for a culprit, but I don't think he's looking to pin it on just anyone," said Diane. "Remember too, no one has claimed these artifacts as theirs. Only one piece showed up in the FBI National Stolen Art File-the girdle-and that was stolen fifty years ago. So far there's actually no crime. The artifacts had just arrived when the newspaper article came out. We can prove what objects we intended to purchase. I showed Jacobs our exhibit and told him how the artifacts we thought we were buying were to fit into our display. The artifacts that Golden Antiquities sent don't fit in. We are the victims here because we didn't receive what we ordered and paid for."

"When you put it like that, it doesn't seem so bad," said Jonas. "But I have to tell you, I hate being the department that has the first scandal."

"It's because of what archaeology has to display," said Andie. "n.o.body's going to show up and accuse Mike of stealing rocks."

Diane laughed. It felt good. Jonas and Kendel joined in with a weak chuckle.

"Golden Antiquities burned. David told me," said Kendel. "Randal Cunningham was killed. How is that going to affect us?"

"Not much, I would think," said Diane. "It looks like Cunningham Jr. was neck deep in something bad. The FBI were already watching him. Jacobs said the father was clean, but when the son took over, things started to get shady."

Kendel stood up and smoothed out her skirt and slipped on her shoes. "Diane, thanks for sticking by me. You don't know what it has meant to me. Everyone here . . . I just don't know what I would do without the support."

"Okay, I'm leaving before I cry," said Andie. She stood up and heaved her purse strap onto her shoulder.

"What do you have in that thing," said Jonas, "rocks from geology?"

"You know those ceramic tiles with wolf paw prints that the museum store is selling? I bought eight of them. They are just the neatest things." Andie grinned.

Diane called security and told them to turn on the night lighting in the exhibit rooms. She had waited to give Agent Jacobs time to get out of the building. To get to the outside doors from Diane's office you didn't need to go through any exhibit rooms, but as Jacobs said, it's a big building, and she hadn't wanted him to get confused in the dark. The night lighting was mainly floor lighting, not particularly good lighting for anyone lost among the exhibits.

"I'll see all of you tomorrow," said Diane. "Get a good night's sleep and remember what I told you. We are the victims in this fiasco. Let's not act like the suspects."

The three of them left and Diane closed up her office. She wanted to take her own advice and go home with the rest of them, but she still needed to talk to her crew. She had spoken with them hardly at all since last night. There were things rattling around in her head, questions she had, and she needed to brainstorm with them.

She turned off the lights in her office and left, taking a shortcut through the Pleistocene room with its huge mega fauna looming in the darkness. The bones of a woolly mammoth were the centerpiece of the Pleistocene room. Standing thirteen feet at his shoulder, he was impressive. He stood in the center at the entrance, greeting the visitors from the lobby. In the dark, he looked like he could be fleshed out and alive. She smiled as she walked past him into the mammal exhibit, heading to the elevators.

The brain and its processing of visual images are amazing things. Diane reacted before she realized she had seen anything reflected in the gla.s.s of the wolf diorama.

Chapter 29.

Diane's arm shot up in front of her face just as a garrote of rope came over her head. The attacker, a black shadow that she had barely seen reflected in the darkened gla.s.s, pulled hard, trying to strangle her. Diane's hand grasped the knot in the rope that was there to make choking her more efficient. She held on tight while pus.h.i.+ng it away from her neck, trying to duck out from under it. She stomped hard on his instep and elbowed him in the ribs. She also managed to scream at the top of her lungs.

"Why don't you just die, b.i.t.c.h?" His voice was a whispered grunt.

Diane recognized the voice. It was the same as her attacker in the hospital.

Diane elbowed him again. She still held the rope, but he had her hand against her windpipe, cutting off her scream and her air. She worked her other hand behind the rope and pulled. She took a gulp of air and kicked at him furiously.

"I hate you," he said. "I hate you, b.i.t.c.h. What business is this of yours? You're spoiling everything. You're going to die right here." His words sounded like acid and came out in short, hoa.r.s.e bursts.

His anger was giving him strength. Diane's panic gave her her own adrenaline rush. She focused only on getting free of him. She dug the two-inch heel of her shoe into his foot as she pulled furiously on the rope.

Suddenly he fell sideways to the floor, taking Diane with him. He hit with a groan. Diane pulled the rope off and was scrambling to get away when she saw the silhouette of Andie furiously hitting him over the head with her purse.

Diane ran to help Andie as the attacker rose to his feet and struck out at Andie, sending her flying into one of the display cases. He ran to the hallway door leading to the restaurant. The doors weren't locked to keep people in, only to keep them out of the exhibit areas when other parts of the building were open to the public.

He pulled his black ski mask from over his head as he pushed the door open and walked briskly into a sea of people leaving the restaurant to go to the concert.

Diane went to Andie and knelt beside her.

"Andie, are you all right?"

"I'm fine." Andie scrambled to her feet. "Let's get that guy!"

She took off through the door after the a.s.sailant, her purse flying behind her, before Diane could say anything. Diane followed at a quick pace.

She chased after Andie, even though it occurred to her that the attacker might have gone the other way, against the crowd, escaping out the back of the museum. She smiled politely at the people coming down the long hallway from the restaurant to the front door. Fortunately, no one tried to engage her in conversation. As she stepped through the front doorway, she saw Andie start running across the parking lot.

d.a.m.n.

Diane took off after her. In the distance she saw the back of the attacker as he ran into the woods at the end of the lot. Diane increased her pace, vowing to start wearing running shoes no matter what outfit she chose. She caught up to Andie just as Andie was about to follow the a.s.sailant into the woods.

"No, Andie. This man's dangerous. Don't go after him."

"But-"

"No buts." Diane put an arm around Andie's shoulders. "Thanks for saving my life."

Andie was breathing hard and started shaking. "I had to come back after a phone number and I heard you scream."

"Wasn't there a security guard at the front desk?" said Diane.

"No." She shook her head. "I guess n.o.body's going to make fun of my heavy purse again," Andie said.

"I know I won't," said Diane. Off in the distance through the woods she heard a vehicle engine start. "Call security. Don't follow me."

Diane started through the woods. She knew where the car was. There was a dirt access road just beyond a few yards of trees. That's where he parked his car, away from cameras. She ran through the woods as quickly as she could and still stay upright.

Definitely need my running shoes. Heels just won't do.

She arrived at the spot just in time to see the vehicle go around the curve. It was too far away to see a license plate. But she could see it was a dark SUV, a Tahoe, she thought but wasn't sure. The quarter moon didn't provide quite enough light to make out anything but a shape.

She walked back through the woods to where Andie was waiting. Security was just arriving in a white Jeep Cherokee. Two guards jumped out.

"What happened?" said the older one.

Both were relatively new. Chanell Napier, head of security, had hired them only last month.

"I was attacked in the mammal exhibit," said Diane, boring her gaze into them. "Andie, my a.s.sistant, rescued me. There wasn't anyone stationed on the desk in the lobby."

"I'm sorry," said the younger man. "I just went to the office for a minute. It's down the hall. It wasn't that long."

He looked to be about twenty-two, probably a student. Many of the security staff were.

"It was long enough," said Diane. "I'm getting all of you red s.h.i.+rts until you straighten yourselves out." Diane started walking back toward the museum.

"What did she mean?" she heard the younger one say.

"Something from Star Trek Star Trek," his partner said. "I think we're dead."

"I'll need to see the video," Diane called back at them.

She was about to rethink the policy of hiring students. Several times in the past few months people had secreted themselves in the museum after closing.

Jin was out in the woods trying to find tire tracks to make casts. Neva had taken Andie's purse and found two hairs snagged by the metal parts. Diane, Garnett, and David sat and watched the tape of the intruder on the security monitor. Frank stood behind them lending another set of eyes. Unfortunately there was no video of the a.s.sailant's face. Not even a fuzzy image for David to clear up.

"This was the same guy as in the hospital?" said Garnett.

"Yes, I'm sure of it," said Diane. "And it sounded personal. At first I thought it had something to do with the artifacts, but now I don't know." She just realized that she may have seen him earlier while she was speaking with Laura and Vanessa-the fleeting shadow she saw among the saber-toothed tiger's flora.

She s.h.i.+vered.