Dust to Dust

“I appreciate your help in this.”
    “We should all get a chance to work on the dark side. Lawrence Michaels is just all tickled to have been asked to lecture on the other side.” Jonas laughed.
    “I need to give everyone in the museum a tour of the crime lab so they won’t think it is so mysterious.”
    “It won’t help. What you do there is mysterious by definition,” said Jonas.
    Diane shook her head and sighed. “I’m going up to call Hanks. I need to keep him apprised of the latest developments. He’s going to love this one.”
    Diane left Jonas working in Marcella’s office. She didn’t get up to her own office as quickly as she would have liked. Too many people stopped her to ask questions. Docents stopped her to introduce her to the group they were giving a tour to. She happened across one of the curators, who wanted to know the status of a requisition. Diane did eventually make it to her office, but not to her phone. Ross Kingsley was waiting for her.
    “I thought we could go interview some of the people Stacy Dance talked with during her investigation,” he said.
    “Sure,” said Diane. She could call Hanks on the way.
    She turned to Andie, who sat behind her desk putting together budget reports for the upcoming board meeting in a few days.
    “When is Kendel going to Australia?” Diane asked.
    “Tomorrow. She got the call from the museum today. She was very excited. She said they have a collection of really neat dinosaur species we don’t have.”
    “Tell her I’ll call her tonight,” said Diane. “I’m going back to Gainesville. Call my cell if you need anything.”

Chapter 22
    They drove back to Gainesville in Ross’ silver Prius. Diane’s mind was not on Kingsley’s case, but Marcella’s. She had tried to call Hanks, but he hadn’t answered his cell. She left a message telling him she would call back.
    “I interviewed Stacy’s boyfriend and her band members,” said Kingsley, when he got on the interstate.
    “What kind of band did she have?”
    “Rock . . . and a little bit of everything. They seemed to be trying to find themselves.”
    “How did it go?” she asked.
    Kingsley changed lanes a little too abruptly for Diane and she had to hold on to the handle at the ceiling to keep from leaning hard against the door.
    “There is a problem establishing a solid alibi for any of them, since the ME gave only a ballpark time of death. Doppelmeyer decided Stacy did this to herself, and he just didn’t do a proper autopsy. I don’t suppose your friend Lynn can determine the time of death,” he said.
    “No, not now,” said Diane.
    “Besides Stacy, there were four members of her band, including the boyfriend. A female drummer, the boyfriend, who is the keyboardist, and two singers—a female and a male, who also plays the guitar. Stacy was a third singer. All had alibis of sorts. Which means the alibis aren’t solid by any means.”
    Kingsley had a turnoff coming and he eased over into the right lane. This time Diane didn’t have to hold on to the handle.
    “I couldn’t find any motive for any of them. I spoke with the father again and he said they had all been friends since high school. Two of them were students at the community college with her. If they are involved, we need something to come out in the evidence, because I couldn’t detect anything.”
    “Who found her?” asked Diane.
    “They were thinking about inviting another member into the band, a girl who they said is really good on the guitar. She’s the drummer’s cousin. The cousin and the drummer came together to talk to Stacy about it, and found her. That’s another discrepancy. The police report said the cousin was the one who found her. The father and the others said it was the two of them,” said Kingsley. He shook his head and took the off-ramp. “Perhaps I should go practice psychology. I’m not really cut out for investigation.”
    “What do your psychologist’s sensibilities say about them?” asked Diane.
    “That they are telling the truth. I’ve checked all their backgrounds. None have any known involvement in drugs. But I’ve been fooled before. They practiced in the garage, so Stacy’s father saw them frequently. He doesn’t remember them ever arguing about anything serious. At most, a disagreement about what songs to sing at an event.”
    “You think her death has something to do with her brother’s case, don’t you?” said Diane.
    Diane didn’t like being a passenger.