Dead Guilty

promise.’’
Her tears had dried and her nose had stopped bleeding, but Madison looked profoundly sad. Diane wanted to say something that would help, but she felt completely helpless in the face of grief. She should know a lot about grief, and she did, but she didn’t know how to make it go away.
‘‘Do you have someone to stay with?’’
‘‘I think I’ll go home—to Columbus. Jerry, the cameraman, will drive me. He’s been after me for a date. I guess I’ll see what kind of stuff he’s made of.’’
    They were almost finished with the CT scan when she returned. The image on the monitor was of the abdominal cavity.
    ‘‘We’re thinking he had a tumor on his kidney,’’ said Lynn. She pointed to the screen. ‘‘You know, if we could just get a piece of that tissue.’’
    ‘‘I can try again with the endoscope, now that I know where to look,’’ said Korey.
‘‘We’ll have you a great three-D image of your guy,’’ said one of the doctors. ‘‘You going to do one of those facial reconstructions?’’
‘‘Yes,’’ said Diane. ‘‘It’ll be a lot of fun to know what the guy looked like.’’
‘‘Well, we are happy to be of help. Interesting case.’’
Before she left, Diane thanked the hospital person nel for their help. She thanked Lynn and asked her if she had time, if she’d like to write a report. Diane had a couple of motives. One, she genuinely wanted her expert input. She also wanted to pat down her ruffled feathers. As long as Lynn stayed at her job, Diane would have to work with her. If she could build up some good interactions, when the inevitable dis agreement came about time of death, or whatever else that ticked off Lynn, they’d at least have established a good rapport.
Diane went from the hospital to Kacie Beck’s apart ment. Garnett was there, along with David and Neva. The body had been removed. We probably passed somewhere along the way, she thought.
Kacie had a small one-bedroom apartment close to campus. Diane had seen it from the outside, but hadn’t gone inside. Perhaps she should have. Was someone waiting for Kacie in the dark? The thought sickened her.
Diane shook her thoughts and looked around the room. Kacie’s decorating tastes included import shops. She had carved end tables with a scroll design, a carved wooden elephant coffee table with a glass top, several colorful silk throws of fuschia, lime green and blue tossed on the chairs and sofa along with a multi tude of ornate throw pillows. The apartment smelled of death and incense.
Kacie had been found in her bed—strangled, beaten and raped. This one didn’t look anything like the oth ers. Except someone had gone through her drawers. They had also taken her ring and had skinned her finger pulling it off.
Diane told Garnett about Madison Foster and re lated the information she had gained from her.
‘‘She was at the hospital reporting on your mummy?’’ He shook his head. ‘‘It’s about time some of the coincidences worked in our favor,’’ he said.
Diane was relieved. She feared that she was going to have to explain to him just why she was inter viewing witnesses.
‘‘So there was something the boys were into,’’ said Garnett, almost to himself.
‘‘It appears so. Have you any leads on Mayberry?’’
‘‘None. We still don’t know if he’s dead or alive.’’
‘‘Where’s Ross Kingsley?’’
‘‘He’s in his motel room working on his profile.’’
‘‘What’s his thinking?’’
‘‘Different from mine, especially with the new infor mation. I think our boys were into something with the three Cobber’s Wood victims. They had a falling-out, and Edwards and Mayberry hung them. Then Mayberry and Edwards had a falling-out, and Mayberry killed him. I’m thinking that Edwards tied the knots for the Cobber’s Wood victims and Mayberry tied the knots that strung up Edwards.’’
‘‘What about Kacie? Mayberry do her too?’’ asked Diane.
‘‘Either that, or this really is a coincidence. She was raped. This could be a rapist who also steals.’’
‘‘That sounds reasonable,’’ said Diane, ‘‘but there’s one thing.’’
‘‘What’s that?’’
‘‘Who’s calling me? I spoke with Mayberry at the Cobber’s Wood crime scene, and it wasn’t him.’’
Garnett winced. ‘‘Maybe that’s someone else too. You said you get lots of E-mail every time they run that interview.’’
‘‘Yes. That’s true. I do.’’
‘‘Damn, all this is