Dead Secret

we’re breaking up or I’m getting fired. Since we aren’t going together and technically I work for the university . . .”
    Diane smiled. “It’s something that’s been nagging at me since I nearly fell in the cave, and I need your opinion. Was I reckless? As I was crawling through that tunnel, my mind was on the new opening. . . . I lost track of the moment. You can’t do that in a cave.”
    “No, but we all have. Reckless? No. You’re like me. Safety is automatic. You just didn’t recognize the danger. While you were off on vacation enjoying yourself, I did some experiments on a piece of wood with a hole drilled in it. I poured gravel on the board to see if the rocks that got caught in the hole made any recognizable pattern.”
    Diane raised her eyebrows. “How scientific of you.”
    Mike smiled, showing his dimples. He tried to stretch and winced from the pain. “Son of a bitch.”
    “You okay?”
    “Yeah, just a little pain. If I get my hands on the guy who did this . . . Shit. Anyway, the experiment—I thought maybe we could recognize the formation if we ever ran across one again.”
    “Can we?”
    “Maybe—if all we saw was the plug. The rocks shift toward each other when they get stuck. You can sort of recognize it. But with other breakdown on top of the plug, the pattern was hard to see.” He shook his head. “You weren’t reckless. What brought this on?”
    “It was just something I was thinking about.”
    Mike squinted his eyes at her. “There’s something else that’s bothering you.”
    “Just trying to make sense out of things. Why us?”
    “I’ve been thinking. You know, there is one person who would like to do us both in.”
    Diane lowered her eyes, then brought her gaze back up to Mike’s intent look. His light brown eyes still looked sleepy, but he had a strength in his voice just now when he talked about a killer that got away, almost taking their lives with him—the one who left Neva to die.
    “I’ve thought of him too. But he’s dead. He has to be.”
    “Does he?”
    “Yes. There’s no way he could have survived. I believe that.”
    “Is that why you scan the parking lot every time you leave the museum? I’ve seen you. I do it too.”
    “It’s a good habit to get into.”
    “It’s just a thought I had, trying to figure out who could be so damn mad at both of us. You’re right, though—he’s probably dead. I can’t imagine how he could have possibly escaped the cave, wounded like he was and with no light.”
    “I’ll mention it to Garnett.” Diane stood. “I need to let you get some rest.”
    “Wait. There’s something else I’d like to talk to you about while I’m laid up here looking pitiful and after having saved your life two weeks ago.”
    Diane laughed out loud. “This sounds like you’re going to ask a really big favor.”
    “It’s a proposal.”

Chapter 12
    Diane’s eyebrows rose a fraction. “A proposal?”
    “Business,” Mike added.
    “Okay, shoot.”
    “It’s a job proposal, a rather unusual one. I’ve got it written out, but I don’t have it here. I’ll ask Neva to drop it by your office. However, I’ll tell you about it.”
    Diane moved the chair closer to Mike’s bed and sat back down. “I’m listening. What is your unusual proposal?”
    “Can I have a drink of water?”
    A glass of ice water was sitting on the stand next to his bed. She helped him take a sip from the straw.
    “Can I do anything else for you? Get you an extra pillow?” She felt helpless watching him lie there.
    “I’m okay, really.”
    But Diane had seen him push the button that gave him his intravenous painkiller. She sat back down and leaned forward.
    “I’m listening,” she said.
    “I’ve been asked by a biotechnology and pharmaceutical research company to search out and collect extremophiles.”
    “Extremophiles?”
    “Organisms that live in the most extreme environments on earth, conditions that would kill other creatures. Some grow in very cold or extremely hot temperatures, some in very high- or low-pH environments, and some live under high pressure or in high salt concentrations, and others have very limited nutrient needs.”
    “And they want you to find these . . . organisms? What does this company want with them?”
    “Extremophiles have some very interesting characteristics. For example, you know that polymerase chain reaction test you guys do for the DNA in blood?”
    “Uh-huh. It replicates small samples of DNA to