One Grave Too Many

computer, if Warrick didn’t take it. Maybe I’ll find some clue as to what he was doing out late that night.”

    Diane had prepared a small maze of string when she realized it was getting dark outside. Subconsciously, she heard muted sounds of Frank in a far bedroom moving things around. Other than those muffled noises, she was aware of nothing but numbers. Tuning out the grimness, the gore on the walls, the smell of the room—there was nothing but the silent crunch of numbers creating lines of trajectory.
    “How about a break?” Diane started at the sudden voice coming from the doorway.
    “Oh, hey. I lost track of time.” She looked at her watch. “A break’s probably a good idea. I could use a couple of minutes out of this room.” She anchored the end of the string she was holding and the two of them went downstairs and out on the porch.
    It had gotten dark and there was only a sliver of a moon. Out here the stars shone bright in the night sky. The light from the living room windows gave off only a dim glow, so the two of them sat mostly in the dark on the top step. Diane watched the fireflies and listened to the crickets.
    Beside her, Frank patted his pocket. “Wish I hadn’t given up smoking. I could use a cigarette about now.”
    “Did you find anything in Jay’s room?” she asked.
    Frank didn’t say anything for a moment, and Diane looked over at him. She could see his eyes were misty with tears.
    “His fishing gear, soccer uniform, his CD player—all the things left of his life. Jay and I used to go fishing a lot. George liked to hunt, but Jay really didn’t like the idea of shooting things. But he liked fishing. He was good at fly-fishing, too. You know, that’s not easy. On weekends during the summer, me, George and Jake Houser would take our sons and go up to my cabin. George, Jake and Dylan would go hunting. Jay, Kevin and I would fish. I was thinking as I went through his things, at least it’s easier on George and Louise. I’d go crazy if I lost Kevin—especially like this.”
    Diane hugged her legs to her and lay a cheek on her knees, listening to an owl in the distance.
    “They’d taken his computer,” Frank continued. “I guess I should be glad that Warrick at least made like she was collecting evidence. But I’d sure like to take a look at his hard drive.”
    “Maybe your cop friend—Izzy—can tell you what’s on it.”
    “I’d like to examine it myself. It’s like you and blood spatters—you have to know about computers to be able to extract all the evidence that’s on them. You have to know where to look and how to look. Besides, Izzy’s a uniform cop and there’s a limit to what he can get for me from Warrick’s investigation. Izzy’s gone out on a limb as it is.”
    Diane didn’t say anything for a moment. She imagined that the police department had somebody who could look at the hard drive. Then she remembered that Frank was an expert in computers and computer fraud. “Maybe they’ll let you look at it.”
    Frank looked over at her. “Yeah, right.”
    “You can ask.”
    “I searched Star’s room too. Nothing helpful. Except it seemed to be empty of current personal things—it was more like looking at her past. I’ve been thinking about George and Louise being both shot and beaten. That usually means two perps, right? Two different weapons.” Frank seemed to be struggling for words. “I can’t help but wonder . . . I mean, there’s Star and her boyfriend . . . on drugs. It’s just, I can’t imagine Star with that much hate. . . . You have to have a lot of pent-up hate to overkill. Isn’t that right?”
    “Don’t go reconstructing the crime scene before we’ve collected the evidence. We don’t know anything right now. We know that they were shot. The coroner did say that at the scene, didn’t he?” Frank nodded. “And at least one was also hit. We don’t know if both were beaten, and we don’t know how many people were involved. Now we just have a crime scene. Let me finish processing it. Tomorrow we’ll sit down and talk about it.”
    “You’re right.” Frank stood up and pulled Diane up with him. “Look, neither of us has had anything to eat. There’s a Krystal down the road. You like those little square cheeseburgers, don’t you? Why don’t I go get some food and bring it back.”
    “Sure . . . that’s a good idea.” Diane stretched the kinks out of her back. “And bring back plenty of coffee too.” She opened the