On the way she visited the geology exhibit and had a look at the pyrite collection. They had a pyrite sphere and several pyrite nodules. The sphere looked like it could have been a very fanciful marble. The pyrite collection also contained pyrite suns, flat disks of pyrite with rays radiating from the center; chalcopyrite, copper with the iron sulfide; a fossil pyrite ammonite, an ancient sea animal mineralized by pyrite; pyrite cubes; pyrite inclusions in quartz; plus many other combinations. It was an impressive and beautiful collection. She could see how it could be mistaken for gold. Something this beautiful looked as if it had to be valuable. One part of the exhibit showed pyrite nodules next to gold octahedral nuggets. There was a similarity.
Diane spent about thirty minutes at the conference table in the crime lab with David, Neva, and Izzy going over the cases that were under way. When they finished David told her what they knew so far about the bodies in the cave.
“It looks like they died between three and four weeks ago. The Spearman brothers believe they can tighten up the time line,” said David. “The blood you collected at the creek bank is consistent with the blood types of the victims. Jin will have the DNA info tomorrow.”
Diane nodded at David. Between three and four weeks, she thought. They had already been dead two or three weeks when Liam was hired to find them. “Did you find any usable prints?” she asked.
“The fingerprints on the gold pan were mostly too obliterated to read,” said Neva. “But I did get half a print that was similar to Bruce Gregory’s left thumbprint. There were partial fingerprints on the shiny surfaces of the pyrite that could be a match to Bruce Gregory and Larken MacAlister. But there weren’t enough points of identity to be positive. There were no others.”
“The fiber you found in the woods is from fleece,” said Izzy. “It’s like the hoodie Bruce Gregory was wearing.”
“So, where are we?” said Diane. She shifted in her seat, stretching her muscles.
“Not much further along, if you ask me,” said Izzy. “But it’s not been a day yet.”
“You’re doing good work, all of you,” said Diane.
“I wasn’t fishing for a compliment,” said Izzy.
“Yes, you were,” said Neva, punching him in the arm.
“Okay, I was,” he said, grinning.
Before she got up to go, Diane told them about the call from Agent Mathews of the GBI.
“You mean they arrested Conrad on the basis of his name being on the wall of the cave?” said Izzy. “The guy’s an asshole, but that’s kind of strange.”
“They also arrested him for what he did to me,” said Diane, with a little more sting in her voice than she intended. “Mathews said they have circumstantial evidence on the other murders. I don’t know the details. But what he said when they arrested him was really strange.” Diane related the odd statement that was not exactly a confession.
“I think the guy’s going nuts,” said Neva. “You think he did all those murders?”
“I don’t know,” said Diane. “Look, I’m going to sleep in a couple of hours tomorrow.”
“A couple of hours?” said Izzy. “Somebody needs to tell you how to sleep in. Why don’t you take the day off?”
David and Neva agreed.
“There’s a lot to do,” said Diane. “The museum has a fund-raiser in Atlanta coming up at the end of the month. I have several new exhibit designs I need to look at. The board wants me to find out how much it would cost to convert the attic into environmentally controlled storage spaces.”
“For what?” asked David. “The attic has to be a huge space.”
“It is. It’s another full floor. I’m not sure what they have in mind. I suspect some members want to increase our holdings to the point that we can change out exhibits more often,” she said. “Anyway, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Diane rose and complimented them all again. She left by way of the museum and walked through to the east entrance, where her vehicle was parked.
Outside, she was about to get in her SUV when a car drove up beside her. The occupants were the woman in blue and her husband from the First Baptist Church in Rendell County—Maud and Earl, she thought their names were. Earl got out first, walked around their car and opened the door for Maud.
Chapter 52
What now? Diane subconsciously rubbed her aching lower back and wiggled her aching feet