One Grave Too Many

them—distracting each of them. Slick. And the next day, finding Signy disoriented upstairs, having slept all night on the sofa in the boardroom. So Signy had tried to slip her a Mickey. She must have guessed right away she’d gotten the wrong drink and went somewhere where she wouldn’t be discovered. What was the purpose? To make Diane pass out? What would be the point?
    Perhaps the point was to make a fool of her. They could have slipped her something like Rohypnol—odorless, tasteless, metabolizes in forty-eight hours. A small amount mixed with wine, and Diane could have seemed drunk or worse. She could have made an absolute fool of herself and wouldn’t have remembered a thing. At the contributors’ party, that would have gone a long way toward ruining her credibility. Those sons of bitches.
    “Thanks for telling me, Mike.”
    “I should have when Melissa told me. I’m sorry. I really thought it was probably nothing.”
    “Dylan came to see me the other day. He said Melissa is hurting herself. Alix is her protector.”
    “Some of that’s probably true. Melissa can be self-destructive, but I’ve also seen Alix hit her.”
    “That’s so odd. Why is Melissa friends with her?”
    Mike shrugged.
    They arrived at the hospital. Mike parked, went around and picked up Diane when she got out.
    “I can walk,” she said.
    “And I can carry you. You really don’t look too good, Dr. Fallon.”
    “I don’t imagine I do. Do you know anything about caves?”
    “Caves? Yes. In fact, I’m an experienced caver.”
    “So am I. I’ve got this idea for an exhibit.”
    “You can tell me about it as soon as you’re fixed up.”
    He carried her into the emergency room, where they immediately took her into the examining room. Diane asked if Dr. Linc Duncan was in the hospital. She had to explain that he was a visitor of Frank’s, but he was also a doctor and she wanted him.
    After she changed into the dreaded bare-butt hospital gown, she lay back on the bed and drifted off to sleep. She was awakened by someone taking her hand. She jerked it back and tried to jump off the bed.
    “Hey, it’s me.”
    “Oh, I’m sorry, Linc. Thanks for coming down. How’s Frank?”
    “Better than you at the moment. Are Henry and I going to have to move down here and watch the two of you?”
    “Looks like we need some kind of keeper. Someone attacked me here in the hospital parking lot as I was getting in my car.”
    “Last night? Where have you been? They told me your clothes were all wet.”
    “In the lake behind the museum.”
    “In the water all night? They threw you in the lake?”
    “No, they didn’t throw me. I escaped from them and hid there.”
    “Are you in pain?”
    “Yes. My head hurts, so do my back and abdomen.”
    “Did you get hit in the head?” He looked at the chart where the receiving nurse recorded her blood pressure and pulse.
    “Yes.”
    “Were you ever unconscious?”
    “Briefly—I’m not sure. If I was, it couldn’t have been but for a few seconds.”
    “Any nausea?”
    “A little.”
    “Vomiting?”
    “No.”
    “Let me know if this hurts.” Linc lifted her gown. Diane groaned and put her arm over her forehead. “Are you in pain?” he asked.
    “Just embarrassed. I should have thought of that before I called you.”
    “Is this the first time you’ve ever been examined by a doctor?”
    “By one that I knew.”
    “What? You change doctors after you see them once? That must get tiresome.”
    “You know what I mean.”
    He smiled. “Tell me if this hurts.” He palpated her abdomen. “Any tender spots?”
    “No. Yes, there.”
    “How about when I release pressure?”
    “A little.”
    “And your shoulders?”
    “No. I’m sore, but no specific pain. Why?”
    “Organ injuries sometimes cause referred pain in other areas of the body. OK. I’m going to ask them to order some tests. And I want you to listen to me very carefully, not like you did before, when you didn’t take my advice at all.”
    “All right.”
    “You could have an injury to your spleen, liver, or reinjured a kidney. The thing about organ injuries is that they can bleed slowly or stop—only to bleed again days or weeks later. This is serious. You are going to have to rest.”
    “How’s Frank?”
    “I answered that. Don’t avoid the subject.”
    “I’m not. I was just thinking, maybe you shouldn’t tell him.”
    “He’ll find out.”
    They wheeled Diane for yet another series of X rays and