Dead Hunt

her some slack,
especially since I’m sure she is sorry’’—he looked at
her when he said the word sorry —‘‘for not being as
cooperative as she could, but that’s understandable.’’
He looked at Diane and gestured with his head
toward Riddmann.
Diane knew what he meant. He wanted her to apologize to the DA. Damn . But the museum and the
crime lab were worth more than her pride at the
moment.
‘‘Garnett is right,’’ said Diane. ‘‘Mr. Riddmann, I’m
sorry. You are certainly due more cooperation than I
have given, especially in front of guests.’’ She nodded
at the marshals. ‘‘I’m also sorry for the misuse of statistics. I hate it when other people do it and I regret
doing it myself.’’
Riddmann had been smiling—or smirking—at her,
she couldn’t really tell the difference, but now he
looked confused. Diane turned to the marshals. ‘‘The police commissioner in Rosewood asked the
DA’s office to accept cases that have weaker evidence
than they would normally prosecute. The aim is for
Rosewood to get as many criminals off the streets as it can. Although we do get more people off the streets, a consequence is a statistically lower conviction rate for the DA’s office.’’ A policy which Diane, herself, disagreed with because another consequence was that too many innocents got convicted. ‘‘If Rosewood had the same policy as, say Atlanta, the conviction rate
stats would be much higher.’’
Riddmann looked as though he hadn’t realized that
before. He probably tucked it away to use in his
next campaign.
‘‘I didn’t know you were attacked at the hospital,’’
said Riddmann. ‘‘With this new evidence, I think we
can wait.’’
‘‘Thank you,’’ she said, and Garnett looked relieved. ‘‘This attack,’’ asked Deputy Marshal Merrick, ‘‘do
you think it was connected to the incident in your
apartment?’’
‘‘I don’t know,’’ said Diane.
She didn’t say that she thought it was connected to
the museum, and she wasn’t sure she was going to tell
the FBI. She believed she had a better chance of solving it than they did. If someone thought she was dirty
and was willing to kill her for it, the FBI would, of
course, see her as a suspect for buying stolen antiquities. That would be a blind alley, and valuable time
would be lost. But leaving out important information
when talking to the FBI was very risky business. Diane
was beginning to feel stuck—like she was fighting wars
on too many fronts.
She got back on the phone with Andie. ‘‘Ask him
to wait in my office. I’ll be right there.’’
‘‘Where are you coming from exactly?’’ asked Andie. Diane smiled into the phone. ‘‘I’m in the crime lab.’’ ‘‘Oh, okay. I’ll tell him you’ll just be a few minutes,
then,’’ she said.
‘‘Thank you, Andie.’’ Diane hung up the phone. ‘‘We will be in the area a few more days,’’ said
Merrick. ‘‘If...’’
‘‘Why are you still on the case?’’ asked Riddmann.
‘‘We have jurisdiction now.’’
‘‘Because we don’t have Clymene’s body,’’ said
Merrick. ‘‘It makes the paperwork harder.’’ Merrick turned to Diane. ‘‘If your apartment is a
crime scene, where will you be staying?’’
‘‘I’m staying with Frank Duncan; he’s a detective
in—’’
‘‘We know Frank,’’ said Drew. ‘‘We apprehended
one of his white-collar fugitives. Good guy to work
with.’’
‘‘If we need you, then you will be either at his house
or here, somewhere in this building,’’ said Merrick. ‘‘Yes,’’ said Diane.
She saw them out of the crime lab on its private
elevator side, the side that didn’t go through the museum. She supposed she should be grateful that Riddmann appeared to be satisfied with her apology, but
the whole thing left a sour taste in her mouth. By the
time he got to his office, she imagined Riddmann
would have the story embellished to the point that
Diane got on her knees and begged him to forgive her. Before leaving the lab and going to her museum
office, she called down to the basement. She was right.
That’s where her crew was waiting.
‘‘How’d it go, Boss?’’ said Jin.
‘‘I’ll tell you later. I have to go meet with the FBI
now,’’ said Diane.
‘‘Gee, Boss, you don’t get a break, do you?’’ he
said.
‘‘Apparently not. I want you to know I appreciate
you guys,’’ she said.
‘‘Sure—’’ he began.
‘‘Jin, did you find anything