Frank laughed from the doorway. “Half the nurses think he’s a new doctor here.” Frank came in and took a seat beside Diane’s bed. “How’s she doing?”
“I think you can stop worrying, at least about this current episode.”
“I’ve put you through more than you bargained for,” Diane told Linc.
“It’s been good for me. I’ve enjoyed visiting with Frank. I’ve gotten to spend some time with Kevin. I just wish it were under better circumstances.”
“You look good,” Diane told Frank. “Your color’s back.” She gave his cheek a gentle pinch. “You growing a beard, or going for the rugged look?”
“I’m feeling better every day. I think they’ll let me go home in a few days.”
Diane looked up at Linc. “Can I go home?”
“You think one night’s rest does the trick? You can go home if you only go home and not to the museum. Will you do that?” Diane stared at him, and he shook his head. “You know, I can see it in your eyes. You have no intention of staying home.”
“I’ve identified him,” she said.
“Who?” Linc hesitated a moment. “The remains? You know who he is?” He pulled up a chair. “How? When?”
“Just now.”
“You figured it out from your hospital bed?” Frank grasped her hand and held it tight. It felt good that his grip was strong again.
“Actually, from that chair over there. I searched the Internet for missing persons.”
“Good idea. What made you think of that?” said Linc.
“Lying here with nothing to do but think. I have to look at the X rays, but he fits everything—he’s a hockey player, had all the symptoms we saw in the bones. He even dabbled in archaeology.”
“I don’t remember that,” said Linc. “How did that show up in his bones?”
Diane told him about the arrowhead with a site number on it. “I called the father and he’s flying down from Washington State with X rays. He’s coming to the museum. Can I go, huh, can I?”
“You’re really impossible. You think you can stay out of trouble?”
“Sure. We’re sliding home now. If we can solve this, things can get back to what passes for normal.”
“All right. But listen to me. No running, jumping, lifting, getting into fights, no late hours. I want you in bed, asleep, early at night and set up regular appointments with your doctor for a few weeks. We have to watch for any internal bleeding.”
“I can do all that.”
“I’ll see to your release. Don’t make me regret it.” Linc left the room, and Diane turned her attention to Frank.
“I was thinking, when you’re ready to go home, why don’t you stay at my place a few days? We can take it easy together.”
“Or you can stay at my house. I’m not sure I want to stay across from the Odells.”
“Linc told you about them?”
Frank laughed and held his chest. “God, it hurts to laugh. Yes. Strange people. Ben Florian, my partner, called. He apologized up and down for sending the information to the Rosewood police.”
“It’s all right now. I really think we’ve found the guy, and I think he’ll lead us to the murderer of your friends.”
Diane drove her car and parked in front of the museum. It looked like home. She was getting to love it more every day. Now that the problems with the Graysons were over, there’d be only the normal problems of museum life. Not that they couldn’t be difficult, but it wasn’t like dealing with snakes in the grass. Snakes. She wished she hadn’t thought of snakes.
Mike was there changing a flat tire on his SUV. He had the flat off and was about to put on the spare.
“Looks like I picked up a nail somewhere,” he said. “You look much better than the last time I saw you.”
“I’m doing good. Thanks for the information you gave me. It helped.” Diane looked at the brake disc exposed by the missing tire and rim. Her gaze shifted over his heavy SUV and back down at the disc. “That’s a heavy vehicle.”
“Yes. It is.”
“If the brake disc fell on you, it would do some damage, especially if you were on a hard surface.”
He looked up at her. “Is that a threat?”
Diane looked at his puzzled face and realized she was thinking out loud and he had no idea what was running through her mind. She had to laugh.
She squatted down beside him and put a hand on the disc. “This is what caused the damage.”
“My Explorer? What damage?”
“No. Not yours, but one like it.” Diane was thinking about the damage to the shoulder girdle on the bones of the skeleton. “Before you put your tire on, will you make me a cast of the bottom part of the brake disc?”
“Sure. I can do that. It’s a little weird, but that’s what I’ve come to expect.”
“There should be some quick-drying stuff in the museum.”
“I’ve got some in the geology lab. I’ll get right on it.”
They walked into the museum together. Diane went to her office, Mike to the second floor.
“Diane, you look great!” Andie gave her a hug. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine. Just have to take it easy.”
“Anything you need, just ask. By the way, Donald was very relieved when he discovered your attack was about the bones. He thought it was Mark Grayson and the real estate business. He is really being nice. I hope it sticks.”
“It will for a while anyway.”
“I can’t believe what Signy Grayson tried to do to you. What if she’d gotten away with it?”
“She didn’t.”
Things seemed back to normal at the museum. It was a comfort. Andie and the staff had done a good job keeping up with things. She called Jonas’ office.
“Hi. We found the skull,” he said when he heard who it was. “I have it here. It had fallen through empty cavities in the pile, like you thought. The team is wrapping things up. Oh, and I got the correct site number.”
“I’ll be right up.”
The skull was resting on a doughnut ring on Jonas’ desk. The mandible was beside it. Diane picked it up. It was a typical male skull: prominent brow ridges, large nuchal crest at the back of the head to hold the heavier male neck muscles, large mastoid process, square jaw. Not that females couldn’t have these characteristics; they sometimes do, and some male skulls downplay the characteristics most often consistent with maleness. The skull also had typical Caucasoid characteristics. It was nice when everything fit.
However, the feature that was the most prominent was the angle shaped compression fracture on the frontal bone over the right orbit and another similer fracture higher up on the parietal. She now had the cause and manner of death: blunt force trauma to the head—murder.
She told Jonas who he was.
“I’ll be damned. Good girl. You can turn everything over to the sheriff now and be done with this. No one will have a reason to be after you.”
When he said that, Diane realized she wanted to finish it. She wanted to be sure the person was caught. “Where was the site?” she asked.
“The site was in Massachusetts, like the nineteen indicated, near the border with New York. It was excavated about twenty years ago by the archaeology department at Harvard.”
“Twenty? That long. So it might not have been associated with Aidan Kavanagh at all?”
“Twenty years doesn’t change anything. It was probably stored in the department, and he could have somehow gotten his hands on it.”
“He dabbled in archaeology.”
“So that fits.”
“Yes, it does. He later switched over to the Harvard Business School.” Diane was struck by a sudden insight. “Oh, my God,” she said. “That’s not possible.”
“What?” Jonas looked at her with concern. “Sit down, you look pale.”
“Jake’s son, Dylan Houser, also went to Harvard Business School around the same time.”
Chapter 49
She picked up the
phone book and looked up the number for the city jail. She dialed and asked for Star Boone, telling them it was an emergency. She knew that would scare Star to death, but if she was right, she wanted to act quickly. It took about ten minutes, but Star came on the line.
“Is Uncle Frank all right?”
“Yes, he is, Star. This is Diane Fallon. He’s fine. I’m sorry to have frightened you. I have an important question I need to ask you. It’s important,” she said again. “Did Jay know Dylan Houser?”
“Sure. They went hunting and fishing together with Dad and Mr. Houser. Jay idolized him.”
“What did you think of him?”
“I thought he was an arrogant prick. Mom and Dad thought he hung the moon. What’s this about?”
“Right now it’s confidential, so don’t tell anyone about this conversation. I mean it.”
“OK. I can keep a secret. You don’t think . . .”
“Don’t think about what I just asked. Forget about it. OK?”
“You’ll tell me later?”
“Sure. I’ll tell you everything later. I talked to Frank this morning. He’s up and around and looking really good.”
“When they called me to the phone and said it was an emergency, I was afraid . . .”
“I know. It is an emergency, just not with Frank. I’m sorry I scared you.”
“They told me you were in the hospital too.”
“You have a pretty good grapevine going there.”
“If it’s something that tortures me, they tell me about it. Actually, Mrs. Torres told me about you. She said her son found you in the lake and you were OK.”
“I was in the hospital, but I’m fine now.”
“Is everything going to be all right?”
“Yes, Star, it is. I don’t think you’ll be there much longer.”
Diane got off the phone just as Jonas was opening the door for Mike Seger. He had a semicircular cast in his hand. “OK, you going to tell me what I’m doing with this?”
Diane took the cast from him. “This is great. Thanks. Now, would you mind getting your tire iron for me and meet us in the conservation lab vault?”
Mike looked at Jonas, who shrugged at him.
“Sure. Be right back. I have to say, you’re the most unusual boss I’ve ever had.”
“Why, thank you, Mike.” She smiled at him.
Mike went on his errand. Diane and Jonas went to the conservation lab, carrying the skull and the cast.
“You found the skull,” said Annie. Several of Korey’s staff followed her and Jonas into the vault.
She opened the double boxes and took out the right scapula, the one with the damage, and aligned the cast of the brake disc with the straight indentation in the crushed bone.
“Not an exact match, but close—it’s a good possibility.”
Mike came in with the tire iron and laid it on the table. “So that’s why you wanted the cast. You think a jack slipped.”
“He’d have to slip too,” said Diane. “And somehow end up with his right shoulder under the disc.”
“That hurts just thinking about it,” said Mike, rubbing his own shoulder.
Diane set the scapula down and gently picked up the skull and tire iron, fitting the curved heavier end into the compression fracture. It was a good fit.
“What happened?” asked Mike. “The guy has a car fall on him and somebody caves in his skull with a tire iron? That’s a bad day.”
“Perhaps the car falling was afterward, to make the murder look like an accident,” said Diane. “But then why dump the body someplace else? I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it.”
Diane put the scapula back in the box. “Look, guys, don’t mention the bones are here in the vault to anyone. I’d rather people not know it.”
“Sure thing,” they all agreed and went back to work, muttering about the undesirability of having a car fall on you.
“Can I put my tire on now?” asked Mike.
“Yes. You’re a good sport, Mike. I appreciate all your help.”
“Anytime you need something really odd done, just give me a call.”
Diane carefully packed the skull and taped the box closed. She turned to Jonas. “Let me call the sheriff, and then I’ll beat you at chess.”
“You’re going to have to work hard to win. You’re in a bad situation.”
“That makes it interesting.”
The sheriff wasn’t convinced right away to investigate Dylan Houser.
“I know it’s a stretch, Sheriff. But bear with me. Both Dylan and the victim were in Harvard Business School together. There was a good chance they knew each other.”
“So did a lot of people. That’s a big school, and they may never have met.”
“I know. I don’t have anything in stone, but you could at least ask if he knew the guy.”
“I could do that. Do you have anything else?”
“Not a lot. I believe that whoever killed the Boone family was afraid that if the bones were found and identified, the identity would lead us to them. The only way that would be true is if it could be proved that the killer and the victim knew each other or had some association with each other. The fact that the bones were here in this county, all the way from Massachusetts, suggests that the victim may have been visiting someone he knew. If the killer was a random stranger, why would he care if the bones were identified or not?”
“I don’t have any quarrel with that, but it’s a long way from the Houser boy.”
“I know. Dylan was idolized by Jay Boone according to Star. He’s one person who could have lured Jay out of the house, even asked him to bring a gun to him. The person who killed Jay was taller than either Star or her boyfriend, Dean. He was about Dylan’s height.”
“Being tall isn’t rare among young men these days, even young men with a Harvard education,” he said.
“I know. George Boone may have hit his attacker with a bat. Dylan has a bruise.”
“How do you know?”
“I was told by someone who knows him,” said Diane.
“That’s something, but not much. He’s an active boy.”
“Whoever kidnaped me knew the skull was missing. It wasn’t a secret, but not many people knew. One of the people who was in a position to know was Dylan’s father.”
“Now, hold on here.”
“I know, Sheriff, but just listen. You can tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about later.”
“I’ll do that.”
“Jake Houser also knew that the bones had been there for several years. Not many people knew that either. And before you ask, that’s very tenuous. It’s based on a reaction he had.”
Diane explained about Janice Warrick not knowing how long the bones had been dumped, but Jake did.
“I know that’s very little, but why didn’t Warrick know? She’s been following everything I do, and Frank’s partner sent her the report on the bones. There’s a possibility that the report was intercepted so no one would query missing persons.”
“So you think Jake’s son, Dylan, for one reason or another killed this Kavanagh kid and dumped the body. George finds evidence of it, and he and his entire family have to be killed because any member might know where the bone came from. One thing led to another, and Dylan had to go after you and Frank to keep his secret. Jake found out and is trying to help his son cover everything up. Is that about it?”
“I know the whole argument leaves a lot to be desired. But what if Dylan was friends with Aidan Kavanagh, and Kavanagh just happened to disappear in his hometown?”
“I’ll grant you, flimsy though your argument is, it makes a kind of sense. But why go to all that trouble to kill the Boones when he could just deny knowing anything about Kavanagh?”
“I don’t know. That’s a good point. It might be that he’s going into a career where there can’t be a hint of scandal. Will you talk to Dylan?”
“I’ll talk to him. I’ll confirm first that they did go to the same sc
hool at the same time with the same major. That’s enough right there. As for the rest, well, we’ll see.”
“One last thing, Sheriff. When I was attacked the first time, I jerked one of my attacker’s fingers back really hard, left a bad bruise on one of his arms where I bit him and kicked his shins half a dozen times.”
“That ought to be pretty easy to spot,” he said. “You’re a damn tough woman.”
As Diane and Jonas sat playing their game of chess, she tried out her reasoning again with him. He looked as skeptical as the sheriff had sounded.
“I know it’s a terrible thing to accuse someone of anything they didn’t do, especially something so dreadful as a multiple murder.”
“I’m not saying your logic, as far as it goes, isn’t sound. But it’s the ‘as far as it goes’ part that’s troubling. You’re right. It’s very tenuous.”
“I know. There’s no proof. Do you want to resign?”
Jonas looked startled. “What?”
“You can’t win. I’ve got you beat in five moves.”
“Oh, you scared me. I thought this was a side of you I hadn’t seen. The woman who can’t handle disagreement.” He chuckled and scrutinized the chessboard.
“I don’t believe it. You’re right. There’s no way I can get out from under all the ways you have me pinned and forked. How did this happen?”
“When you fell for my queen sacrifice.”
Jonas met her gaze. “You are a devious woman.”
“I didn’t have a lot to do when I spent the night in the lake, so I worked out my chess strategy. Too bad I can’t apply that to this case.” She thought for a moment. “Perhaps I can. I need to call up the sheriff and ask him if he’s talked to the Housers yet.”
Chapter 50
Diane sat in her office looking over exhibit proposals. She’d sent Andie on an errand and told her to just go home after she was finished. Her hand shook as she took a sip of hot tea, and she almost jumped when the knock on the door finally came.
“Yes?”
Jake Houser stood in the doorway with his gaze on Diane. She took another sip of tea and forced herself to be steady.
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