“I’ll be there. But don’t tell anyone.”
“Are you sure you can? I mean, you didn’t look too good.”
“Will you ask Mike to come pick me up?”
“Sure.”
Diane got out of bed, put on some makeup and packed. She took the laptop into Frank’s room.
“I have something for you to try out. Kenneth Meyers gave it to me. It’s his new field computer. You can drop it from a height of four feet and it won’t break. I think it’s one he wanted you to look at and recommend for the police department.”
The three Duncan brothers looked at her, dressed, with suitcase in hand. She noticed that their expressions of astonishment made them look almost like triplets. Linc was the first to find his voice.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“I have to go to the museum.”
“Absolutely not. What did I tell you about rest? That’s not like, take an aspirin and call me in the morning. It’s like, you may have internal hemorrhaging if you don’t.”
“Diane,” said Frank, “listen to him.”
“You’re a good one to talk,” said Henry. “You’d be going with her if you could.”
“Look, Frank,” she said, “I wouldn’t, but Andie just called. Mark’s called a board meeting. I think he’s cooked the numbers, but I can defeat him.”
“Diane, you told me you have unilateral power.”
“I do, but with everything that’s been going on, if he has compelling figures-” Anyway, I want to see his face, she thought. “I have to do this. After it’s over, I’ll come back here and rest.”
Linc was looking really angry. “You are without a doubt the worst patient I’ve ever had. At least when I put athletes in the hospital, they stay there until they’re released.”
“I’m sorry. I have to do this.”
“Come back here. I’ll. .?” He threw up his hands. “Fix it with the hospital.”
“Thanks.” She kissed Frank. “You doing OK?”
“Yeah. Fine.”
“He’s had some bad dreams,” said Henry.
“Just reliving the shooting,” said Frank. “It’s nothing. Do what Linc says. He really is a pretty good doctor.”
“I know.”
“I’ll walk you downstairs,” said Linc.
Diane didn’t dare refuse, and he kept muttering his displeasure all the way down to the ground floor. She was relieved when they arrived.
“If you don’t behave yourself when you get back, I’ll have the hospital put you in restraints.” His face softened into a smile. “But I suppose someone’s already tried that.”
Diane had to wait a few minutes outside the hospital. There was a constant stream of people going and coming, an ambulance sped to the emergency entrance, someone was changing a flat tire in the visitors’ parking lot. Hundreds of dramas constantly being played out, she thought, as she saw Mike’s Explorer drive up and stop.
“What’s up?” he asked as he helped her in.
“Board meeting.”
“Couldn’t you just skip it?”
“Not this one.”
“I didn’t realize being a museum director was so demanding.”
Diane laughed, and it hurt.
When they pulled up in front of the museum she was out almost as soon as he stopped.
“Take it easy, Doc,” said Mike.
“I’ll be fine. Thanks for the ride.”
She went straight to her office. Jonas was with Andie. He was writing her a note.
“What are you doing out?” he asked.
“Very long story.” She turned to Andie. “I’ll bet Donald has an advance copy of Grayson’s figures, and I want to see them. Go to his office and tell him you’re delivering a message from me, but don’t tell him I’m here in the museum.”
“Sure.”
“Tell him it’s time for him to choose whose side he’s on.”
Diane turned to Jonas. “Anything new?”
“Yes. I have something I need to show you. I’m not certain, but it may be important.”
“Let’s go to your office. I want to hide out for a while.”
“Not only do I sense a long story, but an unusual one.”
“Andie, have you heard from Korey?” asked Diane as she was leaving.
“No. You want me to call him for you?”
“When you find him, send him to Jonas’ office.”
Chapter 46
Diane led Jonas from Andie’s office through a private door into the Pleistocene room, across the mammal exhibit to the set of elevators that ran up the middle of the museum and opened at Jonas’ office. She managed to traverse the whole area without being seen.
“Who knew this job would call for this much stealth?” said Jonas.
“I know this must seem very bizarre.”
“Yes. Why are you hiding from your staff?” Jonas pulled out a chair, one of the comfortable stuffed ones at the chess table, for Diane, and he took the other one. “Of course, I’ve known a department head or two who’ve hidden out from the faculty.”
“We’re having a board meeting.”
“Ah. They must be like our faculty meetings.”
Diane managed a laugh. “This involves the man who’s been after me to move the museum. I don’t want him to know I’m here until it’s time for the meeting. He thinks I’m in the hospital. We’re at the endgame.”
“I see. Who’s going to win?”
“We’ll see. What do you have to show me?”
He handed her an arrowhead. “Do you remember Rick finding this?”
“At the pit?” Diane thought a minute. “Yes, I remember. They all thought it was rather ironic.”
“He didn’t notice when he picked it up, but after he cleaned it he found a number on it.”
Diane looked at him, not understanding the significance.
“It’s been cataloged. It has provenience,” he said.
“You’re going to have to spell it out for me.” She paused. “We know where it came from. Oh, if it happens to have belonged to the perp or the victim, we know where he got it.”
“That’s our thinking. Rick didn’t notice the number at first. Someone’s tried to scratch it off, which means it’s probably stolen. Makes sense-it’s a nice stemmed point. I’d say Laurentian, from around New York, but I’m not sure. I thought we could look at the number through the microscope.”
They took the arrowhead to his workroom, where he had a dissecting microscope sitting in the corner. Diane looked at the table covered with potsherds and at his small amount of space.
“You need a better lab, don’t you?”
“This is fine for my needs. As I understand it, this is the largest office space in the building.”
“Still, if you ever need more room. .” She put the dark gray chert point on the stage and looked at a strip of partially scratched-off white paint with fine writing on it in black ink. “I see a one and a nine-and what looks like a B or an E.”
“Nineteen. That’s Massachusetts.” He went into his office and came back with a book. “The possibilities are Barnstable, Essex, Berkshire and Bristol.”
“What are you looking at?” asked Diane.
“A map of Massachusetts-these are counties that begin with B and E. Do you have any clue what the second letter might be? The county designations are like the postal abbreviations for states-GA for Georgia, TN for Tennessee. Same principle. The second letter might be a clue as to which county in Massachusetts.”
“No. It’s gone.”
“There should be a third set of numbers after the letters. They reflect the site number within the state.”
“Maybe the first digit is a. . could be a zero, or maybe a nine or an eight. It could possibly even be a two or a three. Only the portion between the cap line and the X line are there.”
“Which means?” he asked.
“The bottom of the number is missing. The second number is a four, I think. There aren’t any more on that line.”