Scattered Graves

scurrying. I told him he was making one mistake
after another dealing with you, but he wouldn’t lis
ten. Typical male. But I’m not that way. I get to
know people. And I know that more than anything,
you will protect the museum. You don’t want me
even firing a gun into the air on museum property,
and certainly not firing inside the building. You want
no danger and no bad publicity; that’s why you’re
going to let me just walk out of here with my bank
numbers and my gun. You’ll be willing to take the
chance that I’ll be apprehended when I’m well away
from the museum. I know this about you, just like I
know my mother will always choose the wrong men
to shack up with and my father will always be a
drunk.’’
‘‘You’re smarter than we gave you credit for,’’
said Diane.
Rikki smiled. ‘‘It’s the blond hair. Fools ’em every
time.’’
‘‘I suppose I don’t need to tell you that you won’t
get far off museum property,’’ said Diane.
‘‘I have an escape plan,’’ said Rikki. ‘‘Now, give me
the numbers.’’
‘‘They’re in the printer tray in my office,’’ said Diane,
nodding toward the locked door. ‘‘That’s where this’’—
she gestured to the computer—‘‘this thing printed the
list.’’
‘‘How convenient. I knew you would crack the secu
rity. Bryce in his stupidity wanted to get the computer
himself. Like he could have broken the encryption. I knew David could—given time. And for the record, I know you guys were on to me. I knew you weren’t
going to keep me on.’’
‘‘For the record,’’ said Diane. ‘‘We knew that you
knew. We figured there must be a really big payoff.’’ ‘‘You see now that there was,’’ said Rikki. She opened the door behind her. ‘‘I’m going out to
your office. If the list is not there, I’m going to be
pissed, and you don’t want that.’’
‘‘Before you go,’’ said Diane, ‘‘since you’re clearing
things up, did you kill Jefferies and Peeks?’’ ‘‘No, I didn’t. I liked Jefferies. He was an odd duck.
He was a hard-ass for sure, but he was good to
women. He gave me the watch,’’ she said.
‘‘He gave a lot of people watches,’’ said Diane. ‘‘I know. But mine was the most expensive,’’ said
Rikki. She backed out into Diane’s office, still holding
the gun. She glanced at the printer and back at the
group in the sitting room. She reached for the paper
in the printer tray, looked at it, and smiled. ‘‘Three hundred million dollars. All mine. Now,
David, I want you to take the hard disk out of the
machine and put it in this bag.’’ She threw the book
bag over to them. ‘‘And please hurry. You don’t have
to be careful.’’
Diane nodded to David, and he began to dismantle
the computer.
‘‘It wasn’t Bryce who tried to break in, I would have
recognized him,’’ said Diane. ‘‘Was it Curtis?’’ ‘‘The two of them cooked it up. I told them they
were being stupid, but they wouldn’t listen. Curtis was
sure he could just waltz in and take it, after I told
them the lab was closing down for repairs. Bryce ex
plained to him about the guard. I told him who it was.
And I’m sorry about that. Curtis is a loose cannon.
He almost messed everything up.’’
‘‘Where is Curtis now?’’ said Diane.
‘‘Don’t know. He said he had his own plan. I
haven’t seen him since. Personally, I don’t care where
he is.’’
‘‘You may think you have a good getaway plan,’’
said Frank, who sat leaning forward with his forearms
on his knees and his hands clasped in front of him
like this kind of thing happened to him all the time
and was no big deal. ‘‘But it’s not easy to get away
clean. Your best bet would be to simply give yourself
up. I don’t think you were directly involved in the
murders.’’
‘‘You’re a policeman, aren’t you? Let me worry
about my plan,’’ she said. ‘‘Have you got that thing
out yet?’’ she said to David.
‘‘Just a minute,’’ said David.
When the screen to Jefferies’ computer went blank,
the first thing Diane thought of was who she had been
talking to. He was gone now. Oddly, it made her a
little sad.
‘‘Pick up the book bag and put the hard disk in it,’’
said Rikki.
David put the disk in the bag and held it out to her. ‘‘It’s heavy,’’ he said.
‘‘Set it down,’’ she told him.
David complied. Rikki picked it up.
‘‘It’s not that heavy,’’ she said. ‘‘I