Dead Guilty

problem?’’
‘‘I think you need to call the lawyer and talk to him. I mean, in order to make sure what’s supposed to go the museum and what’s supposed to go to his heirs.’’
‘‘I’m not following,’’ said Diane.
‘‘You will.’’ Korey and Mike led her to the climatecontrolled vault in the rear of the lab, where he stored the baseball collection.

Chapter 37
    The vault was cool. Diane shivered and rubbed her hands over her bare forearms. It had rows of shelves filled with items that had to be stored in a stable envi ronment, always kept at the same temperature and humidity. Some items never left the vault until Korey was sure they would not deteriorate outside. Some of the objects couldn’t stand the normal museum envi ronment and had been in the vault since the museum opened. The mummy was there, lying on a table, with the plastic wrapping removed.
    ‘‘Alicia’s working on the wrappings that came with him,’’ said Korey, with a nod of his head toward an other table holding the linen mummy wrappings. ‘‘It’s in pretty bad shape, but we’d like to use it to re wrap him.’’
    A large table in the center of the room held Ray mond Waller’s pride and joy—his collection of arti facts from the Negro Leagues. There was the bat that David mentioned, and the ball. In fact, there were several balls and bats. There were uniforms and pen nants, stacks of photographs, cards, signs and newspa per clippings.
    ‘‘I went ahead and deacidified the paper, checked out the material. I figured you wouldn’t mind me tak ing care of his stuff.’’
    ‘‘Sure. That’s fine.’’
    Korey picked up a handkerchief that had something wrapped in it. ‘‘I was checking out the uniforms for moths and things and I found this stuffed in the pocket of the Birmingham Black Barons uniform with the number ten on it. That’s significant.’’
    ‘‘Korey.’’
‘‘I’m getting to it.’’
He unwrapped the handkerchief. In the center were
    three crystals about the size of marbles, each shaped like two pyramids stuck together at their base. They looked like they were made of clear ice.
    ‘‘When I found these, I called Mike.’’
‘‘What are they?’’
She looked at Mike, who had that amused glint in
    his eyes again.
‘‘You tell me,’’ he said.
‘‘Are you saying these are diamonds?’’
Mike nodded his head. ‘‘Good-quality, uncut dia
    monds. I’ve already mapped and photographed the internal structure—thought it’d be nice to have on file.’’
    ‘‘How much are they worth?’’
    ‘‘Cut price, we’re talking in a range over two hun dred thousand dollars.’’
‘‘For three rocks?’’ said Diane.
‘‘Three very sweet rocks.’’
Diane shook her head. ‘‘You were right, Korey. We have to call the attorney back and let him know.’’
She took the stones and let them rest in the palm of her hand.
‘‘Damn. This is what the thief was looking for. Where in the world did Raymond get them?’’ she whispered almost to herself.
‘‘There is a way to trace a diamond back to the mine of origin,’’ said Mike.
Diane looked up at him sharply. ‘‘How?’’
‘‘Every diamond has a chemical signature that is specific to its origin. It would require drilling a micro scopic hole in it with a laser beam. The only problem is that not all the world’s mines have been cataloged. And there’s also the problem of diamonds mined from alluvial plains that have been washed maybe hundreds of miles from their origin.’’
‘‘I’ll present that option to Mr. Waller’s executor.’’
‘‘It’s a very new methodology. It was developed to help legitimate diamond dealers. There’s a big blackmarket trade in blood diamonds. Those are the dia monds used to finance the various African civil wars, and most dealers want to make sure their diamonds aren’t part of that trade.’’
Blood diamonds, thought Diane. She wondered if that would turn out to be an appropriate name for these stones if indeed they were what caused Ray mond’s death.
‘‘I’m going to have to tell Garnett too.’’ Diane started to put the diamonds back in the handkerchief.
‘‘Here.’’ Mike handed her a jeweler’s box with de pressions in which to fit each diamond. ‘‘Stones like these don’t need to be knocking around against each other.’’
‘‘You put them against black,’’ she said, smiling.
‘‘Well, since we already know the color, you might as well present them