One Grave Less

really on their minds—who wanted to ruin them . . . and why.
    “Are we the only ones under attack?” asked Steven.
    “The only ones we can find,” said Gregory.
    “Why us?” Steven said it as if he didn’t expect an answer. “What do we have in common, other than being former coworkers in South America?”
    “All of you discovered the massacre at the mission,” said Frank. “Were there other members of your group who were with you that day—others who weren’t killed at the mission?”
    “Several interviewers were still out in the field when we came in that day,” said Gregory. “I or David have called them. None have been having the same problems we have been having.”
    “By the same token,” said David, “several people who were with us have not had rumors spread about them.”
    “How about Simone?” said Steven. “She was right there with us when we walked into the mission grounds.”
    They were quiet for a moment. Diane looked at David and Gregory.
    “What?” said Steven.
    “Simone is in a coma,” said Diane. She told him about the intruders at the museum, about discovering Simone hurt, about the attack and the fire.
    “My God,” said Steven. “I didn’t know. I’m doubly damned for being so insensitive. She’s going to get well, isn’t she?”
    “We don’t know,” said Diane. “Gregory went to see her today and to speak with the family. They won’t speak with me.”
    She briefly told him about Simon’s mother, the mysterious caller, and his lie that Simone was working for Diane at the time of the attack on her.
    “Wow,” said Steven, “this is like getting hit by a truck. I didn’t see this coming. Poor Simone. You have no idea what she was doing here, why she came to see you?”
    Diane shook her head. She told Steven what they had found—the feathers, the bone, the animal parts. “We don’t know what they mean, or if it was even Simone who brought them, or perhaps tried to hide them. For all we know, there could be a shaman walking around the museum wondering where he dropped his medicine bag.”
    Steven gave a little puff of a laugh. “Odd, however,” he said, putting more sugar in his coffee.
    “Did you learn anything from Simone’s parents, Gregory?” David asked.
    David was still waiting for chocolate to put in his own coffee. It was an odd request that the waitstaff usually forgot, despite David being a regular there. When he saw their waitress, he pointed to his cup. She nodded.
    “You’d think something like chocolate in the coffee would be easy to remember,” he said.
    Gregory smiled at him; then his lips turned down in a frown. “I did learn a few things to add to our list of barely helpful things. I managed to get Simone’s mother to talk to me, which, if I may say, tested all my diplomatic skills. The woman despises us. But I imagine, Diane, you already detected that when you spoke with her. I fear, however, that what I found out isn’t much more than that which your Chief of Detectives Garnett discovered from the family. Perhaps Steven can help us make something of it.”

Chapter 40
    “Mrs. Brooks still insists that Simone was in the process of doing some favor for Diane,” continued Gregory. “And what she was doing was somehow—unknown to Simone—illegal. The man who told Mrs. Brooks this over the phone spoke with a British accent—at least, I suspect he did, judging from her first reaction to my voice.”
    “I don’t suppose she could distinguish what kind of a British accent?” said Steven.
    Steven knew, as did Diane and the others, that there are British accents, and then there are British accents. Just as the sound of spoken American English varies greatly within the United States, varying British accents can be heard within the U.K. and around the world. Simply because the caller had a British accent didn’t mean he hailed from Britain.
    Even in foreign universities, students learning English as a second language must choose between American English or British English. Gifted fluent speakers of English as a second language don’t speak it with a German, Spanish, French, or any other first-language accent. They speak it with an American accent or a British accent. And, of course, many people can mimic accents quite well. The man who called Simone’s mother could be from anywhere.
    “Did Mrs. Brooks tell you what he said exactly?” asked Diane.
    “I did manage to get that out of her. Apparently she had more information