Dead Guilty

seat and punched in 911.
    Mike looked pale against the white hospital pillow. The bullet had nicked his intestines, but luckily did no organ or spinal damage.
    ‘‘You were caving in the dark? God. What were you thinking—that you could feel your way through the cave?’’ He grinned at her. ‘‘You got guts.’’
    ‘‘I thought I could negotiate in the dark better than he could,’’ Diane said. ‘‘It barely worked.’’
‘‘We could hear the gunshots. Didn’t know what to think.’’ He touched the bruise on her face left by the flashlight. ‘‘So how about it, Doc, willing to take care of a wounded friend?’’
Diane grabbed his hand and held it. ‘‘I think the hospital’s doing a fine job.’’ She paused a moment. ‘‘Mike, I’m sorry.’’
He put a finger on her lips. ‘‘Not your fault, Doc. It’ll make a good chapter in my caving journal.’’
MacGregor wheeled in in his wheelchair. Both feet were immobilized in casts and his arm was bandaged. La Salle had shot him in the metatarsal portion of both feet. Bad enough, but they were injuries that were easier to deal with than had he hit the closely packed tarsal bones. Diane had expected MacGregor to be angry and never want to see them again. Instead, he’d bonded. He sat there and grinned at Diane, showing off the autographs on his casts.
‘‘The doctor says I’ll be in walking casts real soon. I’ll be ready to go caving with you again in no time.’’
‘‘We’ll keep a guard at the entrance next time,’’ said Diane. MacGregor cackled. ‘‘Take care,’’ she said. ‘‘I’m going to check on Neva.’’
‘‘She was a real trouper,’’ said Mike. ‘‘Hung on to that rope like you told her to, didn’t complain. That had to be scary.’’
‘‘I hope it hasn’t put her off caves,’’ said Diane.
‘‘We’ll get her back out there as soon as our wounds heal.’’
Diane was silent for a moment watching Mike. ‘‘I’m glad you followed my instructions and stayed alive.’’
‘‘You were pretty firm about that,’’ he said.
Diane left them and walked down the hall to Neva’s room. She was dozing. Jin and David were sitting in chairs by her bed.
‘‘How’s Mike and that fellow?’’ asked David.
‘‘Doing well. Mike’ll be back to work in about a month,’’ said Diane. She gestured toward the bed.
‘‘Good,’’ said Jin. ‘‘Neva’s doing just fine.’’
Neva’s rescue had been complicated. The rescue team rigged a rope system for themselves so they would have the support needed to work in safety. Get ting a harness around her chest was a big step. It gave her arms a rest. One of the rescuers had to hang over the edge with Neva and chisel out the rock from around her to free her so she could be pulled to safety.
Neva opened her eyes. ‘‘Hi,’’ she said. ‘‘How are Mike and Dick?’’
‘‘They’re doing fine. How about you?’’
‘‘Glad to be out of that crack.’’
‘‘Think you’ll want to try caving again?’’
‘‘I have to. I bought all that equipment—hard hat, backpack. I had five backup flashlights in my back pack.’’ Neva sobered a moment. ‘‘Jin was telling me they didn’t find LaSalle, just a trail of blood leading off to a wild part of the cave.’’
‘‘The police are going back in to look for him. Gar nett said a team of federal marshals who are also cav ers are coming down to join the search.’’
‘‘Jeez, that’s scary. What do you suppose happened to him?’’
‘‘I can’t imagine he got far, the way he was wounded. He couldn’t have stood on his feet. I think he probably crawled somewhere and got into trouble.’’
‘‘I can’t say I have much sympathy,’’ said Neva.
‘‘No, I can’t say I do either,’’ said Diane.

Epilogue
    The museum was closing for the day. Diane stood in the new Egyptian exhibit, taking another look before its opening the next day. It was in a small room on the second floor that suited the few artifacts on display and made it seem like a larger exhibit than it was. Also more personal.
    The walls were painted in colorful but muted tones like the worn walls of an Egyptian tomb. The real star of the exhibit was Neva’s sculpture, sitting crosslegged in the middle of the room. The entire face and body were a 3-D reconstruction made using the measurements gained from the CT scan.
    Neva sculpted him from clay first. The museum then had experts from Madame Tussaud’s make a wax fig