Dead Past

up, her eyes wide and eyebrows raised.
    “I want to know where it’s from. I’ve looked on Google and Project Gutenberg. I heard it spoken in the university library recently, but it goes back at least twenty years.”
    Kendel smiled and tapped the piece of paper on her hand. “I’ll accept your challenge.”
    “Thanks, Kendel. Would you take this to Korey for me? I would like to know if he can give me a ballpark figure on how old the paper is.”
    Kendel took the vial and looked at the piece of paper inside it.
    “Looks too modern for C14,” she said.
    “He’ll probably just have to do a chemical analysis. Something quick.”
    Kendel gave her another smile. “And you thought I might want to work at other museums.”
    When Kendel left, Diane printed out the string of coded letters she had found in the doll and put them in her pocket. Before going back to the crime lab, she called Laura.
    “Diane. How is the Juliet investigation coming?”
    “Interesting,” said Diane.
    “It always scares me when people say ‘interesting.’ ”
    “Funny you should talk about words scaring people,” said Diane.
    “I know. Juliet has a few that scare her,” said Laura.
    “I discovered, firsthand.” Diane explained about Juliet’s breakdown in the aquatic room. “I assume she’ll be calling you about it.”
    “Wow,” Laura said. “It’s obviously associated with her trauma. But how in the world? She said a scary man said it to her? When she was seven?”
    “She was unclear. At first she said he was talking to her; then she said she didn’t know.”
    “I know what papyri is. What is a palimpsest?” said Laura.
    Diane explained what it was and gave her a short history.
    “What could it mean in this case?” she asked.
    “I have no idea. I asked Kendel to track down its origin. She’s good at finding things.”
    “She’s the one who found the snake in her drawer, right? I heard about that.”
    “That was Kendel,” said Diane.
    “Have you had any luck finding a mass murder around the time of Juliet’s kidnapping?”
    “None whatsoever—not in Arizona or Florida.”
    “So that’s a dead end,” said Laura.
    “For now.”
    “You aren’t letting go of that notion, are you?”
    Diane could imagine Laura’s amused but stern face on the other end of the phone.
    “I’m putting it aside until I have more evidence. When you talk to Juliet, ask her where she was in her flashback. It didn’t sound like Arizona. I’ve been to Arizona, and there’s not a lot of vegetation.”
    “There’s plenty of vegetation,” said Laura. “Just not the kind you’re used to.”
    “At any rate, see what you make of her description,” said Diane.
    “You’re determined, aren’t you?” said Laura.
    “I’m thorough,” said Diane. “There’s something else I need to tell you. I called her grandmother. She told me Juliet had visited her the month before she was kidnapped.”
    “Really?” said Laura. “That is interesting. It’s just what you suspected.”
    “That’s also the time she acquired the doll her grandmother accused her of stealing.”
    “OK, that’s interesting, too. What else?”
    “I asked her grandmother to send the doll to me. She delivered it in person. She was with me when Juliet had her flashback.”
    “Maybe the doll is what triggered . . .”
    “She didn’t see the doll. It was wrapped up. My original idea was to give you the doll to integrate into her therapy, or whatever. But her grandmother said something about the doll that reminded me of things I did as a kid. She said the doll had a secret.”
    “And?” prompted Laura when Diane didn’t say anything.
    “Do you remember how I used to play with my dolls?”
    “You mean tear their heads off?”
    “Funny. No, those were my sister’s Barbies. I hid secret messages inside mine.”
    “I remember now. You were a cross between Dr. Frankenstein and Mata Hari,” said Laura. “That’s probably why I went into psychiatry—to understand your childhood, rather than mine.”
    “You’re really full of yourself today, aren’t you? Well, wait until you hear.”
    Diane described her dismemberment of Juliet’s doll and what she found inside.
    “You’re not kidding? You actually found something?”
    Diane smiled with satisfaction at Laura’s amazement.
    “Now I just have to decode it, provided it’s not a meaningless string of gibberish—which it most likely is.”
    “You have surprised me again. Send the doll to me and