Dead Hunt

purchase of a used car,’’ said Jonas. ‘‘But I examined the catalog and the copies of the provenances. Everything was just fine.’’
Jacobs nodded. ‘‘I’ll come by again after I’ve finished looking at the artifacts,’’ he said. ‘‘Thank you for waiting.’’
Diane looked back at Jonas as she left with Agent Jacobs. He looked miserable. She smiled at him as if to say, It will be all right. She took Jacobs through earth science across the overlook to the Pleistocene room. Jacobs stopped to look over the railing at the mammoth and other giant Pleistocene creatures.
‘‘Are the bones real, or are they casts?’’ he asked.
‘‘The Pleistocene bones are real. The bones in the dinosaur room are casts purchased from the Bickford,’’ said Diane.
‘‘Good museum. You know they’re looking for a new director. Harold Marquering’s retiring, I hear,’’ said Jacobs.
‘‘I had heard also,’’ said Diane. ‘‘He had only been there, what, six years?’’
‘‘About that,’’ said Jacobs. ‘‘You have lots of room here.’’
‘‘We do. We offer lab space to university faculty in exchange for their curative services.’’
‘‘How’s that working out?’’ he asked, grinning.
From his expression, Diane guessed he had worked with professors before.
‘‘It has its ups and downs,’’ said Diane. ‘‘On the whole, it has turned out to be a good deal for us.’’
From there they went to the conservation lab. Diane introduced him to Korey, who helped Diane lay out all the questionable artifacts and the documentation.
‘‘This item’’—Diane pointed to the girdle—‘‘turned up on NSAF as stolen from the Cairo Museum in 1957.’’
Jacobs took a pair of glasses out of his pocket and looked at the piece. ‘‘I believe you’re right. They will be glad it finally turned up. I wonder where it’s been.’’ He looked over at Diane. ‘‘You’re aware that Golden Antiquities burned and Randal Cunningham was killed.’’
‘‘I had heard. Was it the elder Cunningham or his son?’’ asked Diane.
‘‘The son,’’ said Jacobs. ‘‘There was never any suspicion surrounding Golden Antiquities while the old man ran things. Since he turned it over to his son . . . well, it’s one of the places I watch.’’
Jacobs pulled up a nearby stool and took a pair of white gloves out of his pocket and slipped them on. He looked at the pectoral and opened the document that was supposed to be its provenance.
‘‘Okay, the documentation is of a pectoral showing a vulture goddess with wings surrounded by lotus flowers. The documents say it’s lapis lazuli, gold, turquoise, carnelian, and amethyst. Very nice. The artifact we have here is Maat in a boat. You know Maat is the goddess of truth, balance, order. Hope we find some truth here, eh?’’ Jacobs seemed to like to talk as he worked. Diane and Korey stood by and listened.
‘‘The stone pieces here’’—he pointed to the stone bust and face—‘‘they are Ramses II, nineteenth dynasty. The documents are for similar items, but of Senwosret III, which would have gone nicely with your sandstone amulet with Senwosret III’s name inscribed on it. You say these were at the Pearle?’’
‘‘Yes,’’ said Diane. ‘‘We had hoped to purchase them directly from the Pearle, but . . .’’ She let the sentence trail off as he went to another item.
‘‘The canopic jar is also from the nineteenth dynasty,’’ he muttered as if talking only to himself.
He got up and walked over to the sphinx, still in the crate. ‘‘Again, the documents say Senwosret III— this is Amenemhat III. He’s of the twelfth dynasty too, however. Nice piece. All of them are.’’ He stood up and took off his gloves.
‘‘Other than the Mereret girdle, I don’t recognize any of the pieces as being in our database. That doesn’t mean they weren’t recently looted or stolen. You won’t mind if I confiscate them until we can sort this out?’’ he said almost guiltily.
‘‘No. They aren’t ours,’’ said Diane. ‘‘But we would like to have the items we ordered, if they weren’t destroyed in the fire. Failing that, we would like to get our money back. We have an arrangement with our dealers that we pay a quarter of the price up front and the rest after we receive the items and they are verified. That quarter is a substantial sum for us. And’’— Diane waved an arm, encompassing the artifacts—‘‘this has damaged our