“Darcy’s crazy about him,” said Juliet, sipping on her orange juice. “She doesn’t like his parents much. She said his mother’s a real nut job.”
“Was he at the museum often? I don’t recall seeing him here,” said Diane.
“He was here with her a lot. He said he was thinking about going into a career in museum work, so Darcy showed him around all the departments and let him watch her plan some of the exhibits. Some people actually thought he worked here. He was really helpful to everyone.”
I’ll bet he was, thought Diane. A little con artist in training-gain their trust and raid their pantry.
“He was a student.” It was a statement, but Diane made it sound like a question.
“He’s one of those students who never graduates.” Juliet sighed. “Darcy is going to be devastated. She was really in love with him.”
“I get the feeling you didn’t think too much of him.”
“I don’t-didn’t really,” she said. She put her juice on the table. “I got the impression he didn’t really like her as much as she liked him. You know when a guy likes you, he looks at you a lot, even when you aren’t looking at him. He never looked at her. He looked at other women, but rarely at her.”
Interesting observation, thought Diane. “I appreciate you talking to me about Darcy,” said Diane. “We’re all hoping she recovers quickly. I met her parents. They’re nice people.”
“Darcy’s crazy about her parents. She really cares what they think of her. A lot of people my age don’t. Myself, I have much lower expectations. I only care that they don’t think I’m crazy.” She smiled.
Diane smiled with her. “They can put their minds at ease if they think that. There’s a big difference between coping strategies and crazy.”
Juliet picked up her orange juice and stood up.
“That’s what Dr. Hillard says.”
She smiled again as she headed for the door.
“Maybe she’ll give me a certificate of saneness that I can frame and hang on the wall.”
“Say hello to Darcy for me,” said Diane. “By the way, how is Whitney Lester treating you?”
“She sort of gives me the cold shoulder, which I accept gladly.”
After Juliet left, Diane sat on the couch for several minutes thinking. The problem had been solved of how Blake managed to gain access to the back rooms of the museum, and she didn’t like the answer. It presented a new and more difficult problem. Did Darcy know what he was doing? Was she helping? Diane didn’t want to interrogate Darcy while she was recovering, but she wanted to get the museum’s property back. Damn.
Of course Diane had known it had to be someone on the inside, but she’d been rejecting the idea. She got up from the couch and headed for Security.
“Chanell,” she said as she knocked on her open door.
“Dr. Fallon, I was just about to come and see you. We found Mrs. Van Ross’ diamond, along with several other stones from the geology exhibit.” Chanell’s black eyes glittered with triumph.
Diane closed the door and sat down in the chair near her desk. “You found them? Where?”
“Actually, it was a fourth grader on one of the tours late yesterday. He was digging in the potted palms near the entrance and came up with a bag of jewels. His teacher saw him pocket them and brought them to the information desk. It turned out to be the missing stones. And I’m sorry, I haven’t a clue as to how they got there.”
Diane could only imagine. Had Blake gotten cold feet?
“I found out who the thief is,” said Diane. “His name was Blake Stanton. He’s the young man who was murdered.”
“That boy?” said Chanell. “I’m sorry, Dr. Fallon, I don’t know how he got access to the museum. But I’ll sure be looking into it.”
“Unfortunately, I know that, too. He’s the boyfriend of Darcy Kincaid.”
“Oh, no, not Darcy. That’s a shame. Is she in on it with him, do you know?”
“I don’t know and I’m reluctant to ask right now,” said Diane.
“I understand. Now that we know who’s behind it, we can get a line on the other stolen items. How did you find out it was him?”
Diane explained about the shells being found in her car with his prints on them.
“So, you’ve recovered the shells?”
“Just the golden cowrie shells,” said Diane. “I don’t know where the others are.”
“I’ve instituted a search of all the plants,” said Chanell. “In case that’s where the items were stashed for later pickup or something. Darcy Kincaid.” She shook her head. “I hope that child isn’t involved.”
“Me too,” said Diane.
Diane wasn’t feeling as perky as when she awakened this morning. Finding out about Darcy had depressed her. She didn’t believe there was any way Darcy couldn’t have known what Blake was doing. At least, some things were falling into place. She went back to her office and called to make an appointment with Laura Hillard.
Chapter 32
Before going to her appointment with Laura, Diane walked upstairs to the crime lab. It was early and she didn’t expect anyone to be there, but she would leave a note. To her surprise, all three of her crew were in the lab working.
“Do you guys spend the night here?” asked Diane.
“Just about,” said Neva. “You can get only so much warmth from a webcam, so I might as well work. By the way, Mike told me to go by and have a look at the crystal skull he got for you-do you have it yet?”
“It’s in my museum office on my desk. It’s very nice. I like it a lot.”
“Crystal skull? Like the Mayan skull, the Mitchell-Hedges skull?” asked David. “Really? Are you going to display it?”
“It’s similar to the Mitchell-Hedges skull,” said Diane. “Jonas Briggs wants to put on an exhibit on archaeology and legend or false archaeology, something like that. The provenances are suspect on all the crystal skulls, but there’s a lot of myth and superstition surrounding them. Jonas said he’s been working up an exhibit. Apparently everyone but me knew I was getting one.”
Before Mike began dating Neva, it was no secret he was interested in Diane, an interest she made it plain she could not accept or reciprocate. Even now he played at flirting on occasion but never seriously. Diane sometimes felt uncomfortable with his faux flirtations because of Neva, but Neva seemed to recognize it as no more than teasing. Mike appeared always to be up front with Neva in everything he did. Diane was relieved to know that. They were all caving partners, she, Neva and Mike-and Jin, too, now. Because of his skills in rock climbing and caving, Mike was the best caving partner she’d ever had. She was loath to lose that. In any other instance she would never accept such a gift from someone she was not involved with, but this was, after all, a crystal skull.
“Enough about the skull,” said Diane. “I just found out something I need to talk with you about.”
“What’s that, Boss?” said Jin.
“I’d like to go see the skull,” said David. “You know they are all supposed to communicate with each other?”
“Who?” asked Jin.
“All the crystal skulls,” said David.
“Are you serious?” said Jin, giving David a sidelong look. “You don’t believe that?”
“Why not? Transmitters are made from quartz crystals,” said David. “And it makes more sense than that white noise you listened to trying to hear dead voices all last month-driving us all crazy. I still hear white noise in my sleep.”
“Any dead voices?” asked Jin.