Dead Guilty

idea.’’
‘‘It’s about time for some of the chemical analysis
on the bones and the toxicology reports from the au
topsies to come back. That could give us a lot of
information.’’
‘‘We’ve finished here.’’ David and Neva came from
the bedroom, carrying an armload of evidence bags. ‘‘Find anything useful?’’ asked Garnett.
‘‘Won’t know until we get back to the lab,’’ said
David. ‘‘By the way, I’m sending you and Sheriff Braden a copy of my report on the insects. Diane was
dead-on about the time of death for Cobber’s Wood.
Twenty-one days before they were found. My insects
don’t lie.’’
Garnett nodded. ‘‘Well, Dr. Webber will be sorry
to hear that. I guess you know she pitched a fit when
you disagreed with her.’’ Apparently, Garnett didn’t
like women who pitched fits.
‘‘I got a call from her myself,’’ said Diane. ‘‘I need to go talk to Ross Kingsley,’’ said Garnett.
‘‘When you have time, come by my office. I need to
talk to you about something.’’
Diane looked at her watch. ‘‘How late will you be
there?’’
‘‘Late. Just call my cell.’’ He went out the door and
to his car.
‘‘How’d the mummy thing go?’’ asked Jin, removing
his cap and gloves outside the door with Diane, David
and Neva.
‘‘I’m going to keep the crime scene seal on,’’ said
David. ‘‘I’ll release it when the parents get to town.’’ ‘‘All right,’’ said Diane. ‘‘The mummy thing went
well. Found a tumor on one of his kidneys.’’ ‘‘Poor fellow,’’ said Jin. ‘‘Suffered all those ab
scesses, a tumor, lower back pain, and the indignity
of a Victorian unwrapping party.’’
‘‘Kendel did find the amulets that were inside his
wrappings and acquired them for the museum.’’ ‘‘Cool,’’ said Jin.
‘‘When I was little,’’ said Neva, ‘‘my grandma used
to have these party favors she called surprise balls. It
was a crepe paper streamer wrapped into a ball. As
she wrapped the crepe paper, she’d put little trinkets
in the wrapping, so that we’d find things as we un
wrapped the ball. It sounds like the idea came from
the Egyptians.’’
‘‘I’ve heard of those,’’ said David. ‘‘Be interesting
if the idea did come from the Egyptians—by way of
the Victorians, maybe?’’
Diane looked at her watch. ‘‘Damn, I’ve got to get
Andie’s car back to her so she can go home.’’ ‘‘Need some wheels, Doc?’’ asked Jin.
‘‘I should have some coming from the insurance
company. If not, I suppose I’ll be spending the night
at the museum.’’
‘‘If you need a ride, we all have cars. Doesn’t the
museum have a fleet?’’ said David.
‘‘Yes, but they are not for my personal use. Neva,
we’ll have the CT data on the mummy sometime to
morrow. I’ll show you how to use the data in the facial
reconstruction software.’’
Neva grinned broadly. ‘‘That’ll be fun. I’m looking
forward to seeing what he looked like.’’
‘‘How do you feel about doing a sculpture of him?
The museum will pay you.’’
‘‘Yes. I’d like that very much.’’
‘‘Cool,’’ said Jin. He waved and went to his car. Diane rushed back to the museum. Andie was busy
at her desk.
‘‘I hope you didn’t think you were going to be stuck
in the museum,’’ said Diane.
‘‘I knew you’d show up sooner or later.’’ Andie
grinned and grabbed her purse.
‘‘Andie, thank you so much for letting me use
your car.’’
‘‘Not a problem. Glad to do it.’’ She handed Diane
a set of keys. ‘‘Ford Explorer down in the lot. Bright
candy apple red. Can’t miss it.’’
‘‘Is this from the insurance company?’’
Andie nodded. ‘‘Nice. Only a couple of years old.
Very clean inside.’’
‘‘Thanks. I appreciate everything you do, Andie.’’ ‘‘Good. I’m working on being indispensable.’’ ‘‘You are. I’ll see you tomorrow. Oh, did they tell
you about the mummy scan?’’
‘‘Kendel and Dr. Briggs came up and told me about
it. Also about the amulets. They said we’re going to
do a three-D reconstruction of the face?’’
‘‘Yes, Neva Hurley will be doing it.’’
‘‘This is going to be so nice. Dr. Fallon, I had this
idea. I’ve been looking at Egyptian stuff and what
their houses looked like with that adobe-looking wall
around the front yard and all, and I thought it would
be fun if we could re-create one in the museum. If we
can’t do a