One Grave Less

Gregory. “But something is going on and we have to find out what it is.”
    He took a notebook from his pocket and began writing. Diane knew he was listing the names of all the people they had worked with in South America—the interviewers, the crime scene personnel, Diane’s assistants. It was not a short list. Most of them had survived the massacre because they had been in the field with Diane.
    Others, like Oliver Hill, Simone’s fiancé, were in the mission when it was attacked. They were support personnel who had administrative duties, handled paperwork. They were all casualties, and they’d had the least dangerous jobs.
    “Do you have an office I can use?” asked Gregory.
    “Yes, I’ll have David set you up,” said Diane. “Knowing David, he already has one set up.”
    “Oh, good. I’ll get to be M to his Q, then,” he said.
    “Be careful what you wish for,” said Diane.
    “How is David doing?” Gregory asked.
    “Good,” said Diane. “Often remarkable.”
    “That’s good to hear. I did worry about everyone,” he said, almost to himself.
    “None of it was your fault either,” said Diane. “I think we all blamed ourselves for not seeing some warning. But in truth, there was none.”
    “I’ve turned my memories over and over looking for a sign I might have missed. There was nothing in the intelligence I was getting. I tracked Ivan Santos constantly while we were working there. He was always well away from us.” Gregory shook his head. “But there was obviously something I missed—something that Simone or Oliver turned up. We will have to find it.”
    “Who did Simone confide in?” asked Diane.
    “Unfortunately, the people she was close to—Oliver, Sister Katherine, Marta—were all killed.”
    “No best friends here in the United States?” asked Diane.
    “Friends, yes. However, she said to me that none of them understood her choice of career. I don’t believe she would have confided in them. Family either.”
    “How are we going to find out what she discovered?” asked Diane as she turned onto Museum Road.
    “With luck, we’ll ask her when she is able,” said Gregory.
    The huge multistoried granite structure had come into view.
    “My goodness,” he said.“This place never fails to impress. It’s a palace compared to my not insubstantial offices.”
    “We’re very fortunate. It suits us well and we have a lot of room to grow,” said Diane as she pulled into a parking space.
    Diane and Gregory climbed the steps and were let in by the security guards on duty. They took the private elevator down to the restricted part of the basement where the DNA lab was located and where David had his own private office and research space.
    “You gave him a lab, did you?” said Gregory.
    “I did. And he’s done some interesting things,” said Diane, laughing.
    “Indeed, has he? I can’t wait,” said Gregory.
    David was just coming out of the DNA lab when the elevator doors opened.
    “I have you an office set up,” said David.
    “That was fast,” said Gregory. “Did you sleep last night?”
    “Enough,” said David.
    David led them first into his own inner sanctum, a cave-like room lined with books and computers, with a darkroom through one door. David taught photography courses, the old-fashioned way, as well as digital, for the museum on occasion. And for that, Diane had given him office space in the basement that was undergoing renovations. Like the proverbial camel, David had, inch by inch, claimed more space. And he had put it to good use.
    David opened one of the other doors and stood back for Diane and Gregory.
    “Good God,” exclaimed Gregory upon entering.
    He had come face-to-face with the enormous mandibles of a spider.
    “That’s Arachnid,” said David.
    “No kidding. What a screen saver,” Gregory said.
    “He means the program,” said Diane. “It’s one of David’s pet projects, and quite secret. There are only a handful of us who know of its existence.”
    Gregory glanced over at David and narrowed his eyes. “Taking this secrecy thing a bit seriously, aren’t you? What does it do?”
    “David has combined web image search with facial recognition software,” answered Diane. “At least that’s what it did the last time we used it. He’s been tinkering with it.”
    “You have to admit that it worked quite well,” said David.
    “Yes, it did,” said Diane. “The problem is, when we find anything useful, we have to figure out what