One Grave Less

was good. The idea that it was an attempted theft was not good. But she couldn’t think of a better story. Garnett left, probably to go home.
    Diane was far from that pleasure yet. She had to tell Vanessa Van Ross about the damage to the new special exhibit; that it probably would not be ready to receive the artifacts from Mexico on schedule; and that the Mexican officials were going to worry about the safety of their cultural treasures when they heard what had happened.
    Vanessa Van Ross was a tall, elderly woman who was the real power behind the museum. People called Diane the queen because of the extraordinary powers the museum covenant granted her as director. But she liked to tell them she was only the viceroy. Vanessa was the queen. And now she had to tell the queen that something bad had happened in the kingdom.
    “We’ll meet tomorrow,” Diane told her crime scene team. “Neva, would you put the evidence in the vault?”
    Neva nodded. “This is all very strange.”
    “Yes,” agreed Diane. “I’d like to find out what it’s about as soon as we can.”
    She left them talking amongst themselves and went to her osteology office. David followed her.
    “There is only one it we all have in common,” he said.
    Diane glanced at the lone-wolf watercolor hanging on the wall in her mostly bare osteology office.
    “Yes,” she said.
    She knew what she had in common with Simone: the massacre. They each lost someone close to their hearts in the massacre.
    “But the sentence didn’t make sense, did it? It was one of us. That doesn’t make sense.”
    “If she was referring to the massacre, we know it was Ivan Santos who carried it out. But she meant something,” said David. He rubbed his hands over his face. “She meant something.”
    “And who was the us she was talking about?” said Diane. “Simone and me? The three of us? The three of us and someone else? Who? She was in very serious condition from a head injury. She probably didn’t know what she was saying. It might be nonsense.”
    “Maybe. But we need to investigate this. Garnett doesn’t know the people we know. He doesn’t know Gregory. We need to call him.”
    “Maybe. Let’s see how Simone is doing tomorrow. Perhaps she’ll straighten it out. If not, I’ll call Gregory tomorrow evening, or whatever time corresponds to a decent hour in England. Now I have to tell Vanessa I allowed the special exhibit to get torched.”

Chapter 7
    Telling Vanessa about the fire at the museum had gone better than Diane expected—mainly because of the long silences on Vanessa’s end of the phone line. Diane told Vanessa she was calling a meeting of the board for the next day to tell them the news and to tell them to refer any reporters to her. Vanessa agreed but suggested that Diane leave out certain information. Diane agreed. Until she knew why Simone Brooks was in the museum, it would do no good to tell the board about her and her connection to Diane. Some members of the board had great temptation to gossip.
    So here she stood in front of them in the boardroom on the third floor of the museum. Diane hated meetings in the best of times. She wasn’t looking forward to this one. She had dressed in what Andie Layne, her assistant, said was her power outfit. Diane wasn’t sure why the suit had power, but she bowed to Andie’s superior knowledge of clothes. The linen navy pantsuit with its long fitted blazer looked good with the blue silk blouse she usually paired with it, and it was comfortable. She stood at the head of the long mahogany table and finished giving the board members a brief description of the events of the previous evening, hoping Andie was right about the power thing.
    “Do you have an estimate on the damage from the fire?” asked Harvey Phelps.
    Harvey was usually Diane’s ally, but he was clearly disturbed by this turn of events. Diane didn’t blame him. He had gone to Mexico with Kendel to work out the details for the loan of the artifacts. Now the Mexican treasure’s temporary home had been firebombed.
    “The exhibit designers are working on that right now. They and Korey from Conservation are looking at how much can be restored and how much must be rebuilt. There’s not much fire damage and the water damage is minimal. The smoke left stains that will require some repainting, refinishing, and cleaning. The real damage is to the partnership with the museum in Mexico. They will need to be convinced that their artifacts will be