Dead Past

about?” asked Garnett.
    “I’m not sure. I think it’s a hunt for lost treasure,” said Diane.
    “Lost treasure? You’ve got to be kidding,” said Garnett.
    “I’m not kidding, but I may be wrong,” she said. “It’s kind of a long story. I’ll give you the complete rundown later.”
    “In your 911 call, you said there may have been two perps?” said Garnett.
    “Two or more. He told me not to move for five minutes while ‘ we get out of here.’ ”
    “You may have found us the break we needed,” said Garnett.
    “I wish I could take credit, but he came to me,” said Diane as she walked across the museum in the direction of the crime lab.
    “That was a dangerous experience for you. Are you all right?” asked Garnett.
    “I’m fine. He got what he was after,” she said. “I was more mad than scared.”
    Diane walked past the lounge and across the dinosaur overlook and came face-to-face with Darth Vader. She stopped in her tracks.
    “I have to go,” she said. “Something’s come up. Let me know if you find him.” Diane flipped the phone closed.
    A life-sized cardboard cutout of Darth Vader stood holding a sign that read:
STOP HERE MUSEUM PERSONNEL ONLY
    He stood just behind one of the museum’s velvet covered chains used for roping off nonpublic areas. Kids sometimes break away from their group and decide to make their own tour of the museum. Some get lost in the huge building and require rescuing. So, the docents post Authorized Personnel signs in various places. Today was an especially busy day for tours of schoolchildren. One of the docents must have wanted to keep the kids out of the west wing and thought this particular sign was a funny inside joke. Diane stepped over the rope past Darth Vader and went to the dark side.
    Jin and Neva, counting cigarette butts, were in one of the glassed-in rooms with their booty spread out on a long table.
    “Hey, Boss,” said Jin. “You all in one piece? We saw the video image of the guy with the gun on you.”
    “I’m fine. How are you doing here?” she asked.
    Jin gestured to a table full of evidence bags. “We got a lot of butts.”
    Also lying on the table was a large piece of white butcher paper with a map drawn on it showing the relative locations of the morgue tent, the coffee tent, the media tent, and where the onlookers stood. Jin and Neva wore gloves and were sorting through the butts looking for Dorals. Apparently they hadn’t found any yet, for there was nothing on their map.
    David entered the room just as Diane donned a pair of gloves to help with the sorting. It looked like hundreds of them.
    “I got the photos from museum Security,” said David. “That was a big gun he had trained on you. Must have been scary.”
    “Made me more mad than scared. All he wanted was the doll. Were you able to clarify the photographs?”
    “I got a partial plate. AXE and it looks like a Georgia plate.”
    “AXE,” said Jin. “You think that was on purpose?”
    “I doubt it. What criminal has vanity plates?” said Neva.
    David shook his head. “I also got the interior. The seats look blue. I imagine the carpet is, too.”
    “Garnett’s chasing down a lead to the car right now,” said Diane. “If he finds it and them, I’m going to need you guys to process the car and their clothes too, ASAP.”
    “Sure thing, Boss,” said Jin.
    “What about the face?” asked Diane. “Could you do anything with that?”
    “Not really,” said David. “He had on sunglasses. My face recognition software needs to see the eyes. But I cleared it up as much as I could and sent it to the police department. They can use it to show around. Someone might recognize him.”
    “OK, I’m going to finish the facial reconstruction. David, do you mind helping Jin and Neva sort the cigarette butts?”
    “Not at all,” said David, putting on a pair of gloves. “By the way, why did the guy steal a doll? Was it valuable? And what did it have to do with Cipriano?”
    “Because of what was inside the doll,” said Diane. “Cipriano, I think, was a mistake. I’ll tell you more later. Right now we’ve got evidence to process.”
    Diane left them sorting cigarette butts and went to her lab where the bones were still waiting for her. She had already pieced together most of the face the last time she worked on them. There weren’t that many pieces left. She made quick work of it, and when she finished she had two complete skeletal faces.
    She took them both