Dead Guilty

diamond. Does Chris have a lot of money that the thieves may have been after?’’
Kacie looked at her ring. ‘‘He said he was going to show my parents. They don’t really like Chris.’’
‘‘Why not? He was a nice guy with an advanced degree. He had a job.’’
‘‘My parents consider forestry blue-collar.’’
‘‘Ah, they must know my parents.’’
Kacie looked up at Diane, her blue eyes puzzled.
‘‘My parents consider anyone not a doctor or a law yer to be blue-collar—unless he owns a Fortune 500 company.’’
‘‘That’s sort of my parents.’’ She smirked. ‘‘It’s not going to look good in the hometown paper that I was arrested for his murder.’’
Diane guessed that Kacie really was looking for ward to it coming out in the hometown paper.
‘‘You don’t have any clue who might have done this? Could Steven Mayberry have killed him?’’
‘‘Steven? The police asked that. No. No more than I could. We’re students—we don’t kill people.’’
‘‘I thought Steven and Chris had graduated.’’
‘‘They’ve finished their course work. They both have to finish their thesis, but they’re almost done— were almost done.’’
Diane wasn’t getting anywhere talking to Kacie. She now believed Kacie had no idea why her fiance was killed.
‘‘Do you have any idea where Steven Mayberry might be?’’
‘‘He has family. Haven’t the police contacted them?’’
‘‘I’m sure. But I thought you might know some place he would go.’’
‘‘If he’s not with family, then . . .’’ She let it trail off.
‘‘Why did you go over there so late?’’
‘‘Chris’? I had to work late. I didn’t get off till eleven.’’
‘‘A witness said you were there earlier than eleven.’’
‘‘That’s what the police kept asking me. I was there, but I didn’t go in—not all the way in. I had a twentyminute break, and I ran over to check on him. He’d been coming down with something. I knocked, opened the door a little and called out. The house was dark. When he didn’t answer, I thought he was asleep and I didn’t want to wake him up.’’ Tears sprang up in her eyes. ‘‘I thought he needed rest. Maybe if I’d gone in, maybe— I always lock the door when I’m there. Chris never did. If I’d been there and had the door locked, whoever it was wouldn’t have gotten in and he’d still be alive.’’
‘‘There was nothing you could have done. Don’t blame yourself.’’
‘‘You don’t think I did it?’’
Not without a lot of help, she thought. ‘‘No, I don’t think you did.’’
Kacie wasn’t very hungry. Diane had Kacie’s meal put in a carryout. She dropped her off at her apart ment and walked her to her door.
‘‘Try to get some sleep. Do you have a friend you can call?’’
Kacie nodded. ‘‘I’ll be all right.’’
    Diane spent the remainder of the day working at her museum job, doing something she liked the least— meeting with the board. She handed out budget and income reports for them to review, including a report on the initial findings on the mummy, hoping that would keep them busy and off any discussion of the crime lab. Board members also got some of the crank E-mails whenever she appeared on television in con nection with the work of the crime lab.
    She needn’t have worried. All they could talk about was the mummy, as if having one made the place a real museum, as if all museums worth their salt had to have an Egyptology exhibit.
    ‘‘So, do you know what he did for a living?’’ Laura Hillard was one of Diane’s oldest friends. They first met in kindergarten, and remained friends even after Diane moved away with her parents when she was in eighth grade.
    ‘‘I know he spent a lot of time sitting slumped over. There are a handful of jobs in ancient Egypt that would have kept him long hours in that position. Jonas and Kendel will be giving us more information. I just know about the bones at this point.’’
    ‘‘And where is Miss Williams?’’ asked Madge Stew art, another member of the board. ‘‘I haven’t met her yet. I was really hoping she would be here.’’ Madge looked around the room as if Kendel might be sitting in a corner keeping quiet.
    ‘‘She went to Virginia to try to acquire some arti facts that belong with our mummy.’’
Diane explained that mummies of a certain time were wrapped with amulets that represented luck, pro tection and help in getting into the underworld after