Scattered Graves

David spoke, not inter rupting. Diane wasn’t sure where this was going, but she was developing a hard knot in the pit of her stom ach. Frank’s living room was lit only by task lighting, and in the growing darkness the recesses were fading into shadows. Diane got up abruptly and turned on the overhead chandelier, and suddenly everything in the room was made visible again.
‘‘I’m sorry,’’ she said, looking at Frank and David staring at her. ‘‘I just needed light.’’
David hadn’t taken a drink of his coffee for a while, and it was probably growing cold. One reason he said he liked putting chocolate in it was that it tasted better when it got cold. Diane thought she should warm it for him. But then she wondered if she was just trying to delay hearing what he had to say, delay the dreaded thing to come, whatever it was. She mentally shook herself. This is just stupid, she thought. It’s the time of year. It always does this to me, keeps me off balance. As it does David.
‘‘Go on,’’ she said.
David pulled out the autopsy photos.
‘‘Where did you get the autopsy photographs?’’ asked Diane. ‘‘I had to camp out in Shane’s lab practi cally to get him to give me anything.’’
‘‘I hacked into his computer,’’ said David.
Diane and Frank both raised their eyebrows.
David raised his palms and shrugged. ‘‘What do you do when it’s the people in authority you suspect of being criminals? I collected most of this stuff before I resigned, so technically I was authorized to see it.’’
‘‘Go on,’’ said Frank. From the deep crease in his forehead and the frown on his face, Diane could see he was worried too. She wasn’t sure whether he was concerned about David or about what David was saying.
‘‘Lloyd Bryce worked the crime scene. He wouldn’t allow either me or Neva to come with him. Got rather sharp about it, as I recall. He came back with the evidence for me to process. I found all this trace.
‘‘Now, I happened to know Judge Karen McNevin and her husband. They were friends. Karen was deathly allergic to peanuts. She had a very fast reaction when she came in contact with them and always carried an EpiPen. She couldn’t even touch them. At parties she stood far away from anyplace where there were mixed nuts. She wouldn’t have any in her home.
‘‘On the other hand,’’ continued David, ‘‘Evan Don ovan, the man accused of strangling her to death, is an avid peanut eater. I spoke with his friends. He even does that thing where he puts them in his Coke. His house is littered with salted peanut parts. I know, be cause I broke in and looked. The trace evidence came from his house and not the crime scene.’’
David sat back and waited.
‘‘Couldn’t it be transfer?’’ said Frank.
‘‘On the lifts, the salt residue covers the entire square from corner to corner. If it was transfer, it wouldn’t have covered the tape that thoroughly and evenly. Bryce lifted the fingerprint and trace from Donovan’s house and was rather sloppy about it. Also look at the autopsy report. There is no evidence in the pictures or mention by the ME of an allergic reac tion. She would have had a serious skin reaction if Donovan had touched her throat with peanut residue all over his hands.’’ David let out a breath. ‘‘This evi dence is why I quit.’’
‘‘You’re saying Donovan was framed,’’ said Frank. He said it more like a statement than a question.
‘‘Evan Donovan was made to be a fall guy. He was raised in an abusive home. Both he and his brother Bobby have low-normal IQs. Evan has a temper. He threatened Judge McNevin when his brother Bobby was sentenced.’’
‘‘Why was she killed?’’ asked Frank.
‘‘If you wanted to take over a town, what would you do?’’ said David. He didn’t wait for an answer. ‘‘Get elected as mayor, start appointing friends to powerful positions, get yourself a crime lab, a bone lab, a DNA lab, and get your own judge appointed. But there was a little hitch. There was no vacancy on the bench. So one of the current judges had to go.’’
‘‘This is some conspiracy theory. If the mayor had been successful in all this, what was the point? What was he going to do with it?’’ said Frank.
‘‘I don’t know,’’ said David. ‘‘But if he was into criminal activities, like drugs, for instance, it’s good to have the crime lab on your side. If you want to control who goes to jail and who goes free, it