that lingered. “I’m glad you were there to help,” he said when he raised his head. “I was pretty frantic. I ran into another parent in the Learning Center looking for her daughter, too. It was scary. I hope she found her.”
“Me too—and I’m glad you’re home. I missed you.”
Diane got only three hours sleep but felt refreshed when she awakened at eight o’clock. Finding Star had rejuvenated her as much as a full night’s sleep. She showered, dressed, and made a call first thing to Chief Garnett.
“Diane, I tried to find you last night. I was told that you and Frank went looking for Star. Did you find her?”
“Yes. Yes, we did. She was studying in the Student Learning Center with another missing student. It was a good end to a very bad day.”
“Good. Good. It’s bad enough when it’s people you don’t know. . . . Everyone around here was worried.”
He paused and cleared his throat. “Uh, McNair’s been on the phone to the commissioner. He’s trying to have you and your team removed from the recovery. Says you are tampering with evidence and compromising the investigation.”
“That son of a bitch. I hope you know better than that. McNair was the one breaking the seals on the evidence bags. He’s the one who compromised evidence. I called him on it. He and I had words.”
“I’m not at all surprised. But he does have pull with the commissioner—at least his uncle does.”
“Well, you know how paranoid David is.”
“Uh, you’ve said that before, but what does that . . .”
“David was pretty worked up about it—as he had a right to be. It would not surprise me if he documented McNair’s misconduct by snapping some incriminating pictures with his cell phone camera. We at the crime lab are prone to that behavior. I don’t know that he did; he didn’t say, but I know David.”
“I see. I’ll be sure to smile from now on whenever I look in David’s direction.”
“If a pic does exist, I’d want to use it only as a last resort. I’d hate to expose us as the sneaky people we are.”
She heard Garnett stifle a laugh. “I’ll have a long talk with the commissioner.”
“There’s another thing. It may be perfectly innocent. . . .” She told Garnett her thoughts about possible drug trade at the student center and about the two girls she had seen.
“When you think about it, that would be a likely place to deal. You didn’t happen to get the girls’ names, did you?”
“Yes, I thought you might want to talk to them. They’re Jessica Davenport and Jamie Dempsey. I also have their picture.”
“Their picture? Where did you get . . . ?”
“Yes, I, well, I took it with my cell phone.”
“I see,” he repeated. “You people in the crime lab are prone to sneaky cell phone behavior, Jeez. I’ve never even used the camera feature on my phone.”
“Well, what can I say? We all grew up watching too many James Bond movies—or Rocky and Bull-winkle. As I said, what I saw may have been perfectly innocent.”
“And it may be a lead. I’ll put a detective on it. And I’ll talk to the commissioner. McNair’s uncle has the commissioner spooked, but the commissioner doesn’t like him, and he does like us, so . . .”
“I’ll leave all that to you.”
After she hung up with Garnett, Diane called her assistant, Andie, to check on the museum.
“We’re doing OK. Did you find Star?” She sounded subdued. Diane guessed everyone in Rosewood did. She could picture Andie’s usually bright, happy face masked with concern. They all knew Star, and Rosewood was a small town. They were all probably waiting to find out who among their friends were dead.
“Yes, we did find her. She’s fine. She was studying on campus. She’s home with Frank now.”
“Whew, that’s so good. I can’t tell you how worried we were here.”
“We all were, but she’s fine.”
“You know Darcy Kincaid?” asked Andie.
“Sure. One of our exhibit planners,” said Diane. “Why?”
“She was at the party.”
Chapter 11
“Oh, no. Oh, Andie. Not Darcy. Not anyone from the museum.”
“She survived the explosion and the fire, but she’s in a coma. They don’t know if she’ll come out of it. We’re all kind of bummed out around here.”
“Do Darcy’s parents know?”
“They flew in from Arkansas late yesterday. Kendel met them at the airport and I found them a hotel room near the hospital. If they have to stay in Rosewood for very long, several of the museum