Dead Guilty

the identity of the vic tims. I need to finish the last set of bones.’’
‘‘Why don’t I stay with you, drive you home when you’re done?’’
‘‘You must be exhausted after your trip back from San Francisco.’’
‘‘Don’t you have a comfortable couch in your office up in that fancy lab of yours?’’
‘‘Yes. But...’’
‘‘There you have it. Problem solved. Let’s eat, then go identify a skeleton—I’ve always wanted to learn how to do that. I’m pretty good at recognizing clavi cles now. I’ll betcha I can tell the left from the right.’’
    Diane called David at the Waller crime scene first to check up on her team.
‘‘How’s everything going?’’ she asked.
‘‘Going fine. I sneaked some pictures of the peo ple watching.’’
‘‘Good for you.’’
‘‘We found a secret closet.’’
‘‘No. A secret closet?’’
‘‘It was next to the main closet, with a bookcase for a door. You can imagine what ran through our minds as we were opening it.’’
‘‘Collections of fingertips.’’
‘‘That’s what we all were thinking.’’
‘‘Well, what was in it?’’
‘‘His collection of memorabilia from the old Negro Leagues. I’m sure he was keeping it hidden from bur glars. You know he’s got a bat signed by Josh Gibson? He hit over nine hundred home runs in his career, eighty-four in one season. I actually held a ball signed by Satchel Paige. I mean, you should see the stuff the guy had.’’
‘‘You think it was a burglary gone bad?’’
‘‘That’s what Chief Garnett thinks.’’
‘‘Was Raymond tied up like Chris Edwards?’’
‘‘No. His hair, face and chest are wet. That’s what Garnett is keeping back.’’
‘‘Do I detect a note of disagreement? Is there any evidence this is connected to Edwards or the Cobber’s Wood victims?’’
‘‘Not exactly. But . . .’’ Diane heard sounds of David walking. She assumed he was going someplace where Garnett couldn’t hear him. ‘‘The place is tossed like Edwards’. Chris Edwards was caught unawares in his bathroom, dazed by a blow to the head and then tied up, but he was able to put up a fight. I think there’s a possibility that the killer tried the same thing with Raymond, but hit him a little too hard, tried to revive him, but he had killed him.’’
‘‘The perp could still have been looking for the baseball stuff.’’
‘‘Yes, he could. We’ll see if there’s anything in the trace evidence similar to Edwards.’’
‘‘Keep up the good work. I hope we are all able to get some sleep sometime this week.’’
‘‘Sleep? You don’t still do that, do you?’’
‘‘Call me if you need me.’’
‘‘Frank not back yet?’’
‘‘As a matter of fact, he is.’’
‘‘Does he know about the flowers?’’
‘‘The flowers. It turns out the person who left them called.’’
‘‘Oh, who was it?’’ David had asked about the flowers in jest, but he sounded cautious now. Diane briefly told him about the caller. David whistled. ‘‘Okay, this isn’t good.’’
‘‘It could be completely innocent...’’
‘‘Normal people don’t act like that—only crazies or people guilty of something.’’
‘‘Can you hand your phone to Garnett.’’
‘‘Sure.’’
After a moment, Garnett’s voice came on the phone and Diane related the story a third time.
‘‘I don’t like this. You say you kept him talking long enough for the phone company to trace the call?’’
Diane hesitated a beat. ‘‘Yes. A policeman went to check it out, but I imagine he’s long gone.’’
‘‘I’ll call and tell them to talk to anyone who might have seen anybody using that pay phone.’’
‘‘I got an answer from the E-mail. You know of a policeman named Lenderman or something like that?’’
‘‘There’s a Marty Lenderman. You saying it’s him? He’s a very down-to-earth guy. I can’t even imagine it’s him.’’
‘‘The person who replied said they didn’t send the message and not to bother them, that their father was a policeman. The address was JMLndrmn. I just added some vowels to what looked like it might be the last name. Does he have a kid with the initials J. M.?’’
‘‘Sure does. Jennifer Marie. She’s only about six teen. You think she did this as a prank?’’
‘‘I don’t know. Can’t spammers hijack E-mail addresses?’’
‘‘I’ll talk to Marty. In the meantime, I’ll have some one trace where the E-mail message came