One Grave Too Many

help me I’ll cut him. Questioning me when it was your sorry-ass son who shot Frank and you knew it.”
    Dylan started fighting hard, breaking Korey’s hold. None of this was going down the way Diane had envisioned. Korey had no intention of killing Dylan, but Jake didn’t know that. Jake aimed his gun at Korey.
    “No, Jake, don’t!” screamed Diane, lunging at him. There was a deafening explosion. “Oh, God, Korey,” said Diane.
    But it was Jake who slumped over, a pool of blood spreading on his chest.
    “Dad!” cried Dylan. He pulled away from Korey and went to his father.
    Diane was shocked to see it was Frank in the doorway holding a gun. The sheriff came running in with a deputy, pulling Dylan away from Jake and cuffing him.
    “Frank? What are you doing out of the hospital?” Diane ran to him, putting an arm around his waist to steady him.
    “The sheriff called and told me what you had planned. What in heaven’s name possessed you?”
    “How did you get past Linc?”
    “I didn’t. I got past Henry,” said Frank as he walked over and knelt by Jake. He felt for the pulse in his neck. “Dammit, Jake,” he whispered.
    Korey picked himself up off the floor and stumbled over to Diane.
    “Are you all right?” Diane asked him.
    “Sure. Just fine. Scared shitless. That’s the last time I do anything like that.”
    “How . . . ?”
    “Jonas was worried about your scheme. He didn’t think a lot of it either.”
    “You could have gotten killed.”
    “Don’t I know it. We all need our heads examined.”

    Diane stood on the third floor of the west wing of the museum in the middle of her new forensic lab. Laura and Vanessa Van Ross had insisted she get back into forensics. It didn’t take much convincing. She really had missed it in the past year. Digging the animal pit was a help in a strange sort of way. So was being able to give the Kavanaghs back their son—and getting Star out of jail.
    Adding a forensic unit to the museum turned out to be a popular idea. Aidan Kavanagh’s father had made a large donation to it; so had Vanessa. It was stocked with the most modern equipment, and Diane had renewed her forensic affiliations, resubscribed to her forensic journals. She wished Ariel was with her, but the pain of her absence wasn’t as sharp and the memory of her face brought a smile before it brought a tear, and that was a welcome improvement.
    Diane sat down at her desk in the lab and reread the letter Frank and Star sent her from Hawaii. His gift to Star for going back to school. Frank sent a picture of Star and Kevin on the beach. Diane wondered if Star would recover from the loss of her family. Frank was trying so hard to give her a life.
    The phone on her desk rang and she looked at it, surprised. As far as she knew nobody had the number.
    “Diane Fallon,” she said into the receiver, expecting it to be the telephone company checking up on the connection.
    “Dr. Fallon. This is Sheriff Tucker over at Cherokee County. We’ve found some bones here and need your help.”
    Diane felt herself smiling as she reached for a pen and paper.