One Grave Too Many

checking on her. She was surprised when they put her in the same room as before and brought Star in to see her. Her bandages were off her arms, and Diane could see the four-inch red scars running up each arm. She also noticed that there were no telltale needle marks on either arm. Whatever drugs Star had been taking were not intravenous. That was something.
    “How’s Uncle Frank?”
    Diane told her about the infection. She feared if Star heard it from another source and she hadn’t told her, it would damage the shaky trust Star was building with her.
    “He’s doing well. His brothers are there. One is a doctor himself and he gives me the real poop on how Frank’s doing.”
    “All this is my fault, isn’t it?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “If Mom and Dad hadn’t given Uncle Frank that bone to get the police to look for me . . . that’s what started everything.”
    “First of all, we don’t know if the bone is related to what happened to them. Second, and most important, it’s the person’s fault who murdered them. Don’t lose sight of that.”
    “Still.”
    “Star, don’t borrow trouble. You have enough to deal with. How are the guards treating you?”
    “The one on duty now’s nice. Her name’s Mrs. Torres. She’s good to me.”
    “That’s good. Are you good to her?”
    “You bet. In fact, she wanted me to ask you if there are any openings at the museum for a gardener. Her son’s looking for a job.”
    Diane laughed. “What’s his name?”
    “Hector Torres.”
    “Tell her to have him come to the museum. I’ll give the head groundskeeper his name.”
    Star grinned. Diane could tell she liked the idea of being a broker from her jail cell. If it kept her happy and made her life easier, a job for her guard’s son was a small price to pay. Diane just hoped the guy had something to recommend him.
    She said good-bye to Star and got in her car. As she started it up, she realized she was counting on Star’s being innocent. What if she wasn’t? She didn’t want to think about that possibility.
    The first order of business when she got back to her office was to call the head groundskeeper and ask him to look positively on Hector Torres when he made an application.
    “If he turns out to be a problem, send him to me to work it out.”
    “Sure thing,” he’d told her. “No problem.”
    Whoever was trying to make Diane look irresponsible should have simply waited a while and she’d have done it herself; they need not have tried so hard forging order forms. Hiring someone just to make Star’s life easier, putting both Jonas and Sylvia on the excavation—none of this had anything to do with the museum. She hoped Torres turned out to be a good worker. She shoved her feelings of guilt aside and went up to the second floor to finish with the skeleton.
    As she opened the door to the vault, she half expected the bones to be gone, that someone had come in during the night and taken them away.
    But the skeleton was there, brown bones laid out in basically the order they appeared in the body, on the table waiting for her to discover something else that would help identify them.

Chapter 38
    Before she started Diane gave Jonas Briggs a call at the site to see how they were doing.
    “Just fine. Sylvia just identified a Cebus capucinus .”
    “A monkey?”
    “We also found a Sus scrofa .”
    “Someone had a pig stuffed?”
    “It was hard for me to imagine too.”
    “Interesting finds. How about a Homo sapiens skull?”
    “No, not so much as an H. sapiens tooth.”
    “That’s too bad.”
    “We’re still looking. Have you made another move?”
    She hadn’t. She thought for a moment. “King-side castle.”
    “That’s really the most logical.”
    “Are you going to play both sides now?”
    “You’re not one of those people sensitive to critique, are you?”
    “You’re not one of those cocky winners, are you?”
    Jonas chuckled. “I E-mailed you my report. Testing this new computer, which the entire crew wants now. It’s really nice.”
    “I’ll tell Kenneth. He’ll be pleased.”
    Diane thanked him for the work and started back on those bones of the skeleton that she did have, which was about 86 percent of them. She examined each bone again, looking for any mark that might give a clue as to what had happened to him.
    She had found all the healed breaks and lesions already. She didn’t find any new cut marks or chipped bones that might indicate if he were stabbed or shot. His