Dust to Dust

naturally didn’t know what to say. He tried to reach Dr. Webber, but she’s been in meetings all morning. Who exactly does she meet with?”
    “I don’t know,” said Diane. “She likes to keep on good terms with the hospital administration, since her offices are there, so . . .” She let the sentence hang.
    “Is there anything I should know about?” he asked.
    Apparently her nonanswer hadn’t been as subtle as she’d hoped. Well, damn .
    “It depends on how you feel about plausible deniability,” said Diane.
    She heard him sigh. “How deep are we in this thing?” he asked.
    “At the request of a private investigator, and on my own time, I reworked the Stacy Dance crime scene,” said Diane. “It had been released by the Gainesville police more than a month ago and the case closed. Based on what I saw at the crime scene and in the police report, I suggested that the private firm currently involved in the case arrange for a new autopsy. At the father’s request, the court order was obtained. The victim’s father was very eager that this be resolved. He never believed it was an accident. Lynn was brought in to redo the autopsy. Jin helped with collecting the evidence and he is readying it to give to the Gainesville police when they call.”
    “Was Rosewood’s crime lab involved in this?” he asked.
    “You forget, I have labs and fancy equipment all over this building,” said Diane.
    “All right, then. Is this thing going to bite me in the ass?” he asked.
    “I think it will turn out to be a good thing,” said Diane. Eventually .
    Garnett didn’t ask any more questions, such as how did the newspaper get hold of the story? He probably thought Mr. Dance called them. Diane was happy Garnett didn’t ask. She might fudge a little when telling him certain things, but she was very careful to protect the honest relationship they had.
    Garnett ended the conversation and Diane hung up the phone. She frowned at it a moment before she turned back to Kingsley.
    “Is her article a problem for you?” she asked.
    “No, not really. But I don’t understand why she said some of the things she did,” he said.
    “The reporter added a lot of her own thoughts about comparison of the two murders,” said Diane.
    “That explains a lot.” Kingsley steepled his hands. “Actually, it might shake up things enough to cause the killer to react,” he said.
    “Shaking things up is what the reporter said she was trying to do. I’m not sure I approve of the shaker method of finding the truth,” said Diane.
    Kingsley gave a noncommittal shrug of his shoulders. “You’re probably right. But you never know.”
    “The article made the Gainesville police look bad. That’s not a good thing,” said Diane. “Maybe they did miss the boat, but they were kind of broadsided on this.”
    “Not really,” said Kingsley. “Dance has been calling them every other day trying to get the case reopened.They should have known something might be coming their way.”
    “I’ve noticed you have a lot less sympathy with the authorities now that you’ve made a career change,” she said.
    “I guess I’ve been seeing a little more of the other side,” he said. He put the tips of his fingers in the fountain on her desk. “Nice. I like the way you did the rocks.” He took his fingers out and patted them on his jacket. “Did Frank say he could decipher the diary?” he asked.
    Diane nodded. “Frank said it should be fairly straightforward. He may have even used the word fun .”
    “I’ve never quite understood how deciphering works,” said Kingsley.
    “It helps that there’s always a pattern,” said Diane. “Seriously, what did your employers say when they saw the newspaper?” she asked.
    “They were sorry they weren’t mentioned by name,” he said, and gave her a rather lame smile. “What can I say? It’s about business. However bad the article looked to the police, to my bosses it showed the effectiveness of their firm—and the speed with which we can determine the truth.”
    “Is that what we did, determine the truth?” said Diane.
    “Part of it. Didn’t we? The rest is up to the Gainesville police now. They will be wanting the evidence you collected. I’m going to suggest they send someone over here to sign for it. My bosses wanted to personally deliver it to the Gainesville PD, but I told them we need to have a simpler chain of custody from one official agency to another, and they agreed.”
    “All