The Night Killer

diary or he’ll have no reason to let her go. But in the event he sees the diary, he needs to think it contains what he wants.”
    “How are you going to do that?” asked Liam.
    “I’m going to see that it says what we need it to,” said Diane.
    “But how can you do that?” asked Liam.
    “She runs a museum and a crime lab,” said Neva. “We can create documents. We can salt a mine if we need to.”
    Diane and the others looked over at Neva. “Damn good thinking, girl,” said Jin. “We can do that. Yeah.”
    “That can help us control the situation,” said David. “Off the top of my head, I can think of several scenarios where we’re in control.”
    “That’s the challenge,” said Diane, “taking control and keeping it when he’s the one with the most valuable treasure—Andie.”
    “I’ll call Mike,” said Neva.
    Diane nodded. “We need to pick a cave.” She paused and looked at Neva and Izzy.
    “You two are more officially with the police department than I am, and we’re not going by the book,” said Diane. “If you have any qualms . . .”
    “Forget it,” said Izzy. “I’m not going to be a tight-ass with little Andie’s life.” He shook his head. “I know her and her parents. Count me in.”
    “Me too,” said Neva.
    “I want to be part of whatever you do,” said Liam.
    “I’m counting on your skills,” said Diane. “They should be considerable.”
    “In certain areas,” he said. “I can’t analyze frequencies, but I am very good at kicking ass, and I have a stealth mode.”
    Liam sounded better, almost optimistic. For all David’s paranoia and pessimism, he had a knack for building confidence in those around him—because he was so competent. Diane smiled at Liam. Good.
    Neva called Mike and told him to hurry as fast as he could and tell no one where he was going. Diane could imagine what he thought. Neva let him in the secured door when he knocked. Mike came in with his hands in his pockets. He grinned.
    “What the heck’s up?” he said. He looked around at the grim faces and frowned. “What’s going on?”
    “Mike, you have to promise to keep this completely confidential,” said Diane.
    “You know me, Doc,” said Mike.
    “Andie’s been kidnapped. We believe it’s by the person who killed the people in Rendell County.”
    “What? No. Andie? No.” His gaze darted to each of them, as if he were hoping Diane was telling some terrible joke.
    “We are going to get her back,” said Diane. “We have part of a plan and need your help.”
    “All right. Just tell me what to do,” said Mike.
    “The kidnapper wants a diary I have. He thinks it will lead him to a lost gold mine. It won’t, but we’re going to make it so it does. If we can get control over where this plays out, I think we’ll have the best chance of saving Andie. We want to salt a mine with gold. You and I need to pick a cave that will work.”
    “Doc, we don’t have a lot of gold, but we do have pyrite. I can get quite a bit of it that looks like gold to the untrained eye. Do you think this person knows what real gold looks like?”
    “I don’t know,” said Diane. “I was looking at the pyrite in the exhibit. Some of it looks more like gold than others. The cubes of pyrite don’t.”
    “I have a lot for the reference collection, plus a lot of quartz with pyrite inclusions. I can make up a sample that looks real. How much do you need?”
    “I don’t know that either. You’re the geologist; you tell me. Whatever will look real in a cave. I thought we would spread it on the floor and draw a picture in the diary to fit what we do.”
    “Okay, that’ll work as long as he’s not a geologist,” said Mike.
    “If it’s not a good idea, tell us,” said Diane.
    “It is. Yes,” said Mike. “I can make it work. What you could do is fix a small piece of real gold in the diary somehow.”
    “Yeah,” said Neva. “Use yellowed tape. This will work.”
    While they figured out the logistics, David worked with the computer in one of the other workstations where he had acoustic software. Diane saw the intensity on his face and she knew what he was feeling. They hadn’t been able to save their loved ones from the massacre. They would save Andie from this killer.
    Diane called Korey, her head conservator at the museum, and asked him to come to the crime lab. She sat down with Mike to work on a map, as soon as they could decide on a cave that they could use. Liam sat down with them,