Scattered Graves

did you find?’’
‘‘Something that’s rather curious,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s a
small thing. I’m not sure what to make of it.’’

Chapter 32
    David came into the room and pulled out one of the chairs at the library table. Izzy moved a stack of books and put them on the floor. Diane noticed that Izzy had one of the notebooks they keep in the crime scene kits and was writing down all the names of the books. She wasn’t sure that was necessary, but she wasn’t going to tell him to stop at this point. He looked to be almost finished.
    David sat down by Diane and put three photo graphs on the table in front of her. They showed dif ferent angles of Jefferies’ body lying in the kitchen.
    David tapped Jefferies’ arm in one of the photo graphs with his finger.
‘‘We hadn’t noticed it before and it wasn’t men tioned in his autopsy report, but his watch was on upside down. If he looked at it, the six would be at the top. He may have absentmindedly done it himself and just hadn’t noticed, but I have a gut feeling it may have been put on his wrist after he was shot. For what reason I can’t fathom. Jin is going to check it for blood spatters. If there aren’t any, then there’s a good possi bility it wasn’t on his wrist when he was shot.’’
‘‘The ME didn’t notice it when he undressed him?’’ asked Diane.
‘‘If he did, he didn’t see fit to mention it,’’ said David.
‘‘Watches keep coming up,’’ said Diane almost to herself.
‘‘We haven’t found receipts for any of the watches, but Izzy’s tracked down the serial number on the one we have,’’ said David.
Izzy smiled and took a small notebook from his shirt pocket with a flourish of his arm. ‘‘It was purchased at Erinette Jewelers in Atlanta right before the elec tions,’’ said Izzy. ‘‘He bought this watch.’’ Izzy pointed to the photograph. ‘‘And he also bought three wom en’s Carter... Cartier diamond watches—all Tank. I can’t pronounce it. F-R-A-N-C-A-I-S-E ,’’ he spelled out. ‘‘And ten men’s watches—three Chase-Durer Fighter Command watches, and seven TAG Heuer sports watches. I have the price here and all the serial numbers in case we run across a nest of expensive watches. And I mean expensive. Most of the cars I’ve owned didn’t cost as much as one of these babies. I don’t get it. They tell time. My fifty-dollar watch keeps perfect time. Of course it ain’t got diamonds, but some of these don’t either,’’ he added. ‘‘What was he doing with them, you think?’’
‘‘Gifts,’’ said Diane. ‘‘When you finish here, we’ll debrief in my museum office,’’ said Diane.
‘‘You found out something, didn’t you?’’ said David.
‘‘Yes, I think so. I don’t want to talk about it here,’’ she said. ‘‘Have you noticed anything... unusual with Rikki?’’
‘‘After we searched the master bedroom, she showed a lot of interest in coming down and helping Izzy sort through all these books,’’ he said. ‘‘Mainly, she’s inter ested in how I’m going to decrypt the mayor’s com puter. By the way, Frank’s working on it today. He said he has to be in Rosewood anyway. I told him to use your museum office. I hope that’s okay,’’ he said.
‘‘That’s fine. You think the two of you can get into the computer?’’ asked Diane.
‘‘Depends.’’ He shrugged. ‘‘We’ll see.’’
‘‘We’ve checked all the artwork, lamps, cereal boxes, everything we could think of for hidden com partments,’’ said David. ‘‘Nothing.’’ He grinned. ‘‘Neva found a Bic lighter in the back of a drawer. You should have seen Rikki’s eyes light up. She thought it was a flash drive. I think she’s definitely waiting for us to find whatever it is they are looking for.’’
‘‘Let’s hope we don’t disappoint her.’’ Diane stood up. ‘‘I need to get back to the museum.’’
‘‘Jin’s found some good blood transfer,’’ said David, rising from his chair. ‘‘Did you see him when you came in?’’
‘‘Yes. He told me about the guest bathroom,’’ said Diane.
‘‘Did he tell you about the stain under the chest in the foyer?’’ said David, pointing to the doorway.
‘‘No, I guess he was saving it. What did he find?’’ she asked.
‘‘We moved the chest to look under it because it was so close to Peeks’ body. We found blood smears with a faint pattern in the middle of them, almost parallel lines.