Dead Secret

check his condo. Neva went to help Mike pack a few clothes. Jin and Korey went to the conservation lab so that Korey could show Jin how he had revealed the writing on the receipt.
    She looked at her watch. In just three hours, security of the museum would be turned over from Chanell’s personnel to Emery’s people. In the woods the police were watching the building. Everything was calm. She went up to her lab with Mike’s notes. She had just enough time to call John Rose and give him a preliminary report on his bones.
    She entered her osteology lab to find it dark, but not so dark that she couldn’t see a gun in her face.

Chapter 44
    “Lane Emery,” said Diane in a voice that was far calmer than she felt. “Jin’s not going to be happy. He bet a lot of money that you weren’t going to do this tonight. You’re early, you know. I expected you much later.”
    Even in the relative darkness of the night lighting in the lab, she could see that Lane Emery held a Glock 20 five feet from her chest. Diane didn’t doubt that he knew how to use it. There was no way she could outrun it or dive for cover, even in the dim light. She thought she saw his hand shake, and that sight made her heart beat harder. The sound of blood pulsing in her ears was already deafening. The only thing she could think of was that the Glock held lots of bullets. She closed her eyes and opened them again, trying to regulate her breathing. From the sweat on his brow and upper lip, he wasn’t happy either.
    “You really took me by surprise, setting a trap for me,” he said, “bringing in the bomb squad last night. How did you know? What tipped you off?”
    “Just my own paranoia. I never believed that Valentine and MacRae could gain access to the museum past your security system and have free run of the place without some inside help. The only question was, Who on the inside was helping them? When we were in the staff meeting discussing what to do, hearing you talk about shutting down the museum—that just didn’t sound like you. Your record is of a man of action and courage who would secure and protect, not someone who would take cover at the first sign of threat. And you introduced the prospect of an incendiary bomb, almost as if you were trying to scare the staff. I just thought to myself, If the museum is shut down, what an opportunity to destroy the evidence the two bunglers didn’t.”
    As Diane spoke, she tried to think of what to do. She hadn’t a clue.
    “How did you know about the museum security sweep last night?” she said.
    “One of my men told me. That kind of thing is hard to keep secret. I was trying to avoid your trap. If I came early tonight before the changeover of security, I just might get away with the evidence.”
    “Are you really going to kill me?”
    “This isn’t something I enjoy, but I’ll do what it takes. I have a museum van parked by the outside elevator. All I need to do is load the evidence into it and drive away. Your security people won’t stop a museum van. But then I discovered that you’ve moved all the evidence. Where is it? In your vault?”
    “I can’t tell you that. Were you in with Valentine and MacRae?”
    “No, you were wrong about that. I wasn’t even approached until after they failed. They’re buffoons. All they know is computers and electronics. It wasn’t me who helped them. But your paranoia served you well.”
    “Why are you doing this? You’ve always had a good record—an exemplary record. No one—including me, really—believed you’d do this.”
    “That’s a fair question. I want you to know: It’s for my family. I got a bad diagnosis from my last physical. I want to leave them something. A large bank account in the Cayman Islands is too good to pass up.”
    “How about leaving them a history of being a good man?”
    “One of the things I’ve discovered is that there’s no reward for being a good man. It’s never bothered me until recently, you know, goodness being its own reward and all, but this happened. . . .”
    He tapped his abdomen as if that was where the offending illness was seated.
    “I had to take a good hard look at things—at what I had to leave my kids. No offense, but after all my years of hard, honest work in the military, I end up guarding a museum?”
    “A crime lab, actually. It’s something we value. That’s why we tried to get the best person we could for the job. And even if it were the museum, it’s something worth