Dead Guilty

life-sized one, maybe a miniature city.’’ ‘‘Andie, I think that’s a great idea. Tell Jonas about
it tomorrow.’’
‘‘See? Indispensability—that’s who I am. See you
tomorrow.’’
Diane envied all her staff who were going home.
She sat down at her desk to have a look at her mail
and remembered that she was supposed to be having
dinner with Frank tonight. She looked at her watch.
He wouldn’t be getting home from Atlanta for an
other hour. She’d have time to go see what the heck
Garnett wanted, then go to Frank’s.
She gave her mail a brief look. Most of it was things
that Andie could take care of—or already had taken
care of. She looked at her E-mail and responded to
messages from two of her curators.
Her final message was one line, no signature. I
THINK WE SHOULD MEET.
A chill ran through her. She stared at the message
for several moments and realized that she was holding
her breath. She exhaled and started to type a re
sponse, and stopped. What would she say? What did
he want? To give up? She didn’t respond. Maybe she
and Garnett could set something up. Right, some inner
voice said, put your life in the hands of the Rosewood
police. That’s a plan.
She shut down her computer and headed out the
door. The candy apple red Ford Explorer was parked
in front of the museum. It was indeed very red. Hard
to miss. She got in and drove to the police department,
calling Garnett on the way to tell him she was coming. She showed her identification to the policeman at
the duty desk. Of the four policemen who were there,
all of them smirked at her. Even the sergeant on duty
was trying hard to make his face an objective mask.
One of these days, she’d have to sit them down and
ask what the hell their problem was.
In the detective’s squad room she was met with
more amused stares and half heard a comment that
someone would like to be a fly on that wall. Great,
Kingsley probably profiled her out to be an axemurdering maniac. She knocked on Garnett’s door.

Chapter 34
    Garnett rose from behind his desk as Diane entered his office. ‘‘Diane. Please sit down.’’ He motioned toward his conference table as he pulled out a chair and sat down. Diane pulled up one of his chairs and sat down opposite. He formed his hands into a steeple and looked very uncomfortable.
    ‘‘Diane, I don’t want you to take this the wrong way.’’
‘‘Douglas, I pride myself in always taking things the right way.’’
He was taken aback for a moment. He looked at Diane as if there might be some coded message in what she said. Or perhaps it was her uncustomary use of his first name. But he was making this sound like a trip to the principal’s office, and she was going to stay on equal footing.
‘‘Yes, of course. It’s come to my attention . . .’’ He paused.
Come to his attention. Hadn’t she had this conversa tion before . . . with the mayor? Perhaps that’s why he looked so uncomfortable.
‘‘Appearances are very important.’’
Okay, she thought, am I not wearing enough makeup...too much?
    ‘‘Yes, appearances are important, among many things.’’
‘‘What I mean is, when you get on the witness stand, you must not only be above reproach, but appear to be above reproach.’’
‘‘Like Caesar’s wife.’’
‘‘Who?’’
‘‘Never mind. Is there something you’re trying to say?’’
‘‘Defense attorneys look for the least sign of impro priety to impugn the character of a witness in order to win a case.’’
‘‘Some do. Where are we going with this con versation?’’
‘‘It has come to my attention that you are...’’ Garnett seemed to be searching for the right words. ‘‘. . . Dating men half your age.’’
Diane threw back her head and laughed—which did bewilder Garnett. He looked at her with a frown. She hardly knew where to begin her response to such an asinine statement.
‘‘I won’t even address the point of view that a woman dating younger men somehow impugns her character. I’ll simply cut to the truth of what has come to your attention. Frank Duncan is two years older than I am. Now, I realize that spending all that time in the jungle sun put a few wrinkles on my face that I wish I didn’t have, but really, Douglas, I don’t think I look almost eighty.’’
Garnett opened his mouth, then closed it and opened it again. ‘‘I don’t mean Frank.’’
‘‘He’s the only man I’m dating.’’
‘‘You’ve been seen having a romantic dinner with a