Scattered Graves

better. Obvi ously getting his fears and suspicions off his chest had been good for him.
‘‘David, I’m rescinding your resignation,’’ said Diane.
‘‘What?’’ he said. He stared at her for a moment, then smiled. ‘‘You have the crime lab back.’’
‘‘Yes, with a very tightly written contract—by Vanessa and Colin Prehoda. I want to go over everything and see what we have to do to get everything back on track. And I want to revisit the crime scene at the mayor’s house before I see former mayor Sutton.’’
The relief he felt was obvious. Diane could almost see all the tension drain out of him as he collapsed onto one of the stuffed chairs. He looked like a man whose world was righted again.
‘‘Nice to have things back to normal,’’ said David. He rubbed his hands together. ‘‘What are you going to do with Lollipop?’’ he said.
‘‘Keep her on and see if she leads us anywhere,’’ said Diane.
Diane went to her office and called Colin.
‘‘Since I’m back as director of the crime lab, I can’t be working for you.’’
‘‘Already severed,’’ he said. ‘‘When Edward said he wanted to put you back in the crime lab, I took steps to change our relationship. But I hope you are still going to investigate the deaths.’’
‘‘Yes. We all need to untangle this mess to get Rose wood right again,’’ she said. ‘‘Can you tell me what Garnett says about the gun?’’
‘‘This is certainly difficult. I can tell you that he still maintains his innocence.’’
‘‘I intend to go over the mayor’s house again and see if I can find anything new. I’m sure the prosecutor will share with you any discoveries I make.’’
‘‘You’re sure of that, are you? I’ll have to stand on him to make certain he does. You’ve dealt with Riddmann,’’ said Colin.
Diane frowned. ‘‘Let’s just see what happens.’’
She turned to David when she hung up. ‘‘Now, do you want to go see what condition my crime lab is in?’’
Diane decided to enter the crime lab through her osteology lab. David was with her. So was Izzy. She had called Izzy in case Bryce decided to dig his heels in, and she didn’t want to involve museum security.
‘‘It’s like The Return of the King ,’’ said David. ‘‘I’m Legolas. Though he had more hair and great ears, but I can handle it. Izzy’s Gimli. And of course, you’re Aragorn. You guys have your swords ready?’’
Izzy chuckled. ‘‘I forgot my axe, but I have a gun. Will that do?’’
Diane shook her head. David was far too giddy. He was acting like Jin.
She punched the key code that unlocked the door between the crime lab and her lab. She’d expected it to be like entering a tomb—dark, long, and vacant. It wasn’t, of course. All the lights were on and Rikki was there, sitting in her cubicle working on her com puter. Neva was getting a drink from the water foun tain near the conference table. David had given her a heads-up; Diane could tell by the look on her face. She came over and hugged Diane.
‘‘Welcome back,’’ she said. ‘‘I am so glad to see you. Really glad.’’
However, Diane didn’t think David had alerted Rikki. She looked surprised to see them. But her face quickly reverted back to a sullen expression. It was quite different from the isn’t-this-fun attitude she showed when Canfield was blowing his top at Bryce. Bryce had probably told Rikki he wasn’t in charge anymore.
What do you know about all this? thought Diane as she looked at Rikki.
Diane shifted her gaze to the rest of the room—a series of tiny labs in glass-walled work spaces con taining equipment to examine and analyze almost any thing, whether it was a gas, liquid, or solid. The crime lab could identify alloys, crystalline structures, and so lutions. The techs could separate compounds into their components, separate large molecules from mixtures, or analyze their concentrations in a solution. They could separate and identify sounds, detect their frequency and intensity. They could analyze impressions, tool marks, and documents. The lab had an impressive array of national and international databases at its disposal—CODIS for DNA, AFIS for fingerprint. They had databases for bullet casings, tire treads, ciga rette butts, fibers, shoe prints, animal tracks, hair, fur, textiles, buttons, paint, bugs, plants, and more; and they had software that could match, categorize, corre late, and render a map of all those things. It was a