Dead Past

and fell like a curtain around her shoulders. Diane imagined her mother had combed it for her.
    “How are you feeling?” asked Diane.
    “Pretty good,” said Darcy. “A lot better than a few days ago.”
    Diane pulled up a chair and sat beside the bed. “Everyone at the museum is thinking of you.”
    Darcy closed her eyes. Diane could see she was trying not to cry. Her father caressed her hair.
    “There are some things I need to tell you,” said Darcy, after a moment.
    “I’m listening,” said Diane.
    “I don’t know where to begin,” she said.
    “Just start at the beginning,” said her father. “We’re right here.”
    “I met Blake on campus,” said Darcy.
    Not that far back, thought Diane. But she listened.
    “I was giving a presentation at the library about exhibit planning. He was just . . . just so nice. I’ve never met anyone like him before. He was so interested in what I did, in the museum.”
    Her father cleared his throat in a derisive manner. Darcy threatened to tear up again.
    “Go on, honey,” said her mother.
    “I thought he was really interested in a museum career, I really did. I took him to all the departments and introduced him to all the collection managers. He asked all kinds of questions. I just thought I was so lucky to have met someone like him who was interested in the same things I was.”
    Diane could see from the way her father’s lips were pressed together in a grim frown that he was having to make an effort to keep from commenting.
    “I didn’t know about the dinosaur egg, I really didn’t.”
    “When did you find out?” asked Diane. Dinosaur egg? Diane wondered if that was the first item he stole.
    “About a month ago. The collection manager for the dinosaur fossils said she was missing a fossil raptor egg. I had taken some up to the preparation room where we were working on a fossil exhibit. I returned them all and hadn’t been back down, but I knew Blake had, so I asked him if he’d seen them.”
    Darcy stopped talking and Diane thought she was going to cry.
    “You need to go on and get this done,” said her father.
    Darcy’s lips trembled. “I loved him so much, I really did. I’ve never loved anyone like that before.”
    “What did he say when you asked him about the egg?” prompted Diane.
    “He confessed. He said I’d caught him, but he hadn’t meant any harm. He said it was just one egg that a collector friend wanted and the museum had so many. I told him he had to get it back. He said he couldn’t. The collector had already paid him for it and that he was connected with some bad people. They would beat him up if he tried to get it back.”
    Darcy’s father shook his head. Her mother rubbed the back of the hand she held on to. “It’s all right,” she said.
    “Go on,” said Diane. “Did you believe him?”
    Darcy’s eyes grew wide. “Yes. He wouldn’t lie to me.”
    “Darcy . . .” Her father couldn’t hold it in any longer. “He was lying to you the whole time. Why can’t you see that?”
    “You didn’t meet him, Dad. You didn’t know him like I did.”
    “Darcy . . . ,” he said again and shook his head.
    Diane could see his frustration. Darcy still didn’t know what Blake was. Her father had probably been trying to tell her.
    “Continue your story,” said Diane. “Can I get you something to drink?”
    Darcy shook her head. “Just a week before the party he said the collector wanted some of the gemstones from Geology. He threatened him if he wouldn’t get them. Blake said he tried, but Dr. Seger had put some really strict protocols in place while he was gone. He couldn’t get near the vault. Shelly, the geology collection manager, is a stickler for carrying out Dr. Seger’s orders.”
    Diane noticed that she sounded a little resentful of Shelly, possibly because in her frame of mind right now, she saw Shelly as putting Blake in danger.
    “What did he do?” asked Diane. Though she knew what was coming.
    “He asked me to get them. He said he had to get the Van Ross diamond and several other gems or he’d be in real trouble. He was really scared. He said I could put some of the other gems in their place and no one would find out for a while. He said that would give him time to make things right.”
    Jesse Kincaid gave a derisive huff.
    “Daddy, it’s true.”
    “Then what happened?” asked Diane.
    “I did what he said. I was so afraid for him. I was supposed to bring them to the party and he would get