Dead Secret

rumor that Mike had abused his former girlfriend.
    Annette Lymon was standing in front of the candy vending machines, rattling one of the knobs. She raked her hands through her auburn hair to get it out of her face. She was a lean woman with toned muscles and a tan from spending time outdoors. She appeared to Diane to be in her forties, but Diane found the older she got, the harder it was to estimate age—at least in a living person. Dr. Lymon wore a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows, and brown trousers. To Diane she looked vaguely as if she might have been going horseback riding.
    “Dr. Lymon,” said Diane. “I’m glad I saw you.”
    Annette Lymon looked at her and frowned, then smiled thinly, smoothing out the lines around her lips. “Yes, I needed to speak with you too. But, please, what did you want?”
    The woman looked haggard, her face drawn. She smelled of cigarette smoke. Diane hoped she had been doing her smoking outside. Probably so, because if the collection manager had ever caught her smoking in the museum, she’d definitely have told Diane about it.
    “Neva, one of my crime scene specialists, came to me with a disturbing story you told her about Mike.” Diane paused and watched Dr. Lymon’s lips turn up in what looked like gratification.
    “I was concerned about her welfare.”
    “And I wanted to thank you for your concern and put your mind at ease.”
    “Oh?”
    Diane measured her words carefully. “I have personal knowledge of the circumstances of his last girlfriend. Mike was not abusing her. I know for certain who was. Mike tried to help her; so did I.”
    Annette Lymon’s lips turned down again. She gave the knob on the machine another jerk and a candy bar dropped into the tray.
    “I thought it was important for you to know that,” finished Diane.
    Lymon grabbed up her candy. “Did you? Well, I’m glad. I hated to think that of him.”
    “You needn’t. Mike is a fine young man.”
    “I had to terminate his assistantship.”
    “Is that so?” said Diane. It was an effort making sure anger didn’t show on her face. Even so, her own words sounded harsh to her ears. Dr. Lymon didn’t seem to notice, for she went on talking without missing a beat.
    “He just doesn’t work as hard as he should, and there are others who really need the assistantship who will do the work.”
    “I’m surprised to hear that. I’ve heard nothing but good things about Mike from the geology collection manager.”
    “She’s female, isn’t she? Females tend to like Mike.” Dr. Lymon eyed Diane up and down.
    Please, you can be more subtle than that, thought Diane as she smiled grimly at her. “Everyone likes Mike. Males and females. I’ve gotten reports of his work not only from the collection manager, but from the exhibit planners and other staff as well. I pretty much know who in the museum works and who doesn’t. His work on the Journey to the Center of the Earth exhibit has been exemplary.”
    “But that’s just play, isn’t it? It’s not real geology, and that’s his problem.”
    “It’s instructional work and research, the kind of work we do here. However, we don’t need to argue the merits of research versus fieldwork. You wanted to see me about something?”
    Dr. Lymon glared at Diane a moment before she spoke. “Yes. I’ve been appointed head of the Geology Department.”
    “Congratulations.” Diane’s smile was getting harder to maintain.
    “I’m going to be making some changes. This . . . ” She made a broad gesture with her arm. “This relationship the department has with the museum isn’t working out for us as well as it has for you, I’m afraid, so I’m cutting it out of next year’s budget.”
    “I’m sorry to hear that.”
    “The extra lab space is nice, of course, but splitting my time between two labs just makes more work. And the office space is terribly small. I’m sorry to inconvenience you, but it’s the best thing for the Geology Department.”
    “I understand completely. It’s not an inconvenience for us.”
    “I didn’t want to leave on bad terms.”
    Throughout the conversation, Diane tried to gauge whether Annette Lymon was the type of person to knife someone. It struck her as odd that not once during the conversation did she mention Mike’s being in the hospital. Maybe she didn’t know, but the news was all over the museum.
    It was a good place to end the conversation; there were suddenly several voices in the