"It has its ups and downs," said Diane. "On the whole, it has turned out to be a good deal for us."

From there they went to the conservation lab. Diane introduced him to Korey, who helped Diane lay out all the questionable artifacts and the doc.u.mentation.

"This item"-Diane pointed to the girdle-"turned up on NSAF as stolen from the Cairo Museum in 1957."

Jacobs took a pair of gla.s.ses out of his pocket and looked at the piece. "I believe you're right. They will be glad it finally turned up. I wonder where it's been." He looked over at Diane. "You're aware that Golden Antiquities burned and Randal Cunningham was killed."

"I had heard. Was it the elder Cunningham or his son?" asked Diane.

"The son," said Jacobs. "There was never any suspicion surrounding Golden Antiquities while the old man ran things. Since he turned it over to his son . . . well, it's one of the places I watch."

Jacobs pulled up a nearby stool and took a pair of white gloves out of his pocket and slipped them on. He looked at the pectoral and opened the doc.u.ment that was supposed to be its provenance.

"Okay, the doc.u.mentation is of a pectoral showing a vulture G.o.ddess with wings surrounded by lotus flowers. The doc.u.ments say it's lapis lazuli, gold, turquoise, carnelian, and amethyst. Very nice. The artifact we have here is Maat in a boat. You know Maat is the G.o.ddess of truth, balance, order. Hope we find some truth here, eh?" Jacobs seemed to like to talk as he worked. Diane and Korey stood by and listened.

"The stone pieces here"-he pointed to the stone bust and face-"they are Ramses II, nineteenth dynasty. The doc.u.ments are for similar items, but of Senwosret III, which would have gone nicely with your sandstone amulet with Senwosret III's name inscribed on it. You say these were at the Pearle?"

"Yes," said Diane. "We had hoped to purchase them directly from the Pearle, but . . ." She let the sentence trail off as he went to another item.

"The canopic jar is also from the nineteenth dynasty," he muttered as if talking only to himself.

He got up and walked over to the sphinx, still in the crate. "Again, the doc.u.ments say Senwosret III- this is Amenemhat III. He's of the twelfth dynasty too, however. Nice piece. All of them are." He stood up and took off his gloves.

"Other than the Mereret girdle, I don't recognize any of the pieces as being in our database. That doesn't mean they weren't recently looted or stolen. You won't mind if I confiscate them until we can sort this out?" he said almost guiltily.

"No. They aren't ours," said Diane. "But we would like to have the items we ordered, if they weren't destroyed in the fire. Failing that, we would like to get our money back. We have an arrangement with our dealers that we pay a quarter of the price up front and the rest after we receive the items and they are verified. That quarter is a substantial sum for us. And"- Diane waved an arm, encompa.s.sing the artifacts-"this has damaged our reputation. We would like that back too. We didn't do this. If you would like to look at our books, I'll have Andie take you to Accounting."

Jacobs smiled. "Ross said you would be cooperative. He thinks very highly of you and the museum."

Diane smiled back, grateful that Ross Kingsley had spoken to Jacobs. "We've worked a couple of cases together," said Diane. "I appreciate him giving us a good reference."

"When he's up and about he said he will get back in touch with you."

"Up and about?" said Diane.

"You didn't know? Last night on the way home from . . . actually from here, he fell asleep at the wheel and wrecked his car."

Chapter 25.

"Fell asleep at the wheel?" repeated Diane. "Is he all right?"

"Fine. Banged up a little-treated at the hospital and released. He seemed rather embarra.s.sed by it. He said he'd never done anything like that before." Agent Jacobs paused a moment. "What?" he said as Diane stared at him.

It happened here, she thought. "Did you and he talk about his latest case?" said Diane. "Clymene O'Riley?" she thought. "Did you and he talk about his latest case?" said Diane. "Clymene O'Riley?"

"A little. Actually he wanted me to tell you something. He mentioned the name Clymene Clymene and I, in my usual pedantic mode, mentioned that in Greek mythology Clymene was a girl whose father sold her into slavery." Jacobs stopped and pointed at Diane's face and grinned. "Ross had the same expression." and I, in my usual pedantic mode, mentioned that in Greek mythology Clymene was a girl whose father sold her into slavery." Jacobs stopped and pointed at Diane's face and grinned. "Ross had the same expression."

"That may explain a lot about our Clymene," said Diane. "She can't have chosen that name by chance."

"That's just what Ross said," Jacobs replied.

Diane grabbed her cell. "I need to speak with Kingsley," she said. "Korey can show you the way back to either my or Jonas' office. I'll catch up to you in a little bit."

"That information must be really important," said Jacobs.

"Both things are," called Diane as she went out the door.

Before she was out of hearing range, she heard Korey telling Jacobs, "It's like that here all the time."

Diane retraced her steps to the geology section and to Mike's office and knocked.

"Doc," said Mike when he opened the door. "Nice surprise. What can I do for you?"

"I'd like to borrow your office for a minute," she said.

"Sure. Come in. Shall I leave?" he asked.

"I hate to throw you out of your office, but would you mind?" Diane asked.

"No. I have some things to do in the lab. Take all the time you need."

"Mike, thanks," said Diane as he was leaving.

He lingered at the door a moment. "Sure, Doc. You know you can always count on me." He closed the door.

Diane wanted a private place to talk with Kingsley, and Mike's was the closest office. She looked up his number on her cell.

"Diane," Kingsley said, answering. "I'm relieved to hear your voice. I was just reading about you. Are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine. I haven't seen the paper; what does it say?"

"Not much, really. Something about a home invasion and an unknown a.s.sailant who might be injured or dead. What happened?" he asked.

Good ol' Garnett, thought Diane. He had a knack for totally confusing a news story. thought Diane. He had a knack for totally confusing a news story.

"A lot more than in the papers. How are you?"

"I guess Shane told you about my accident. Asleep at the wheel...I-"

"I think you may have been drugged," interrupted Diane.

Kingsley was silent for a moment.

"Drugged?" he said. "What do you mean? How? You mean at the museum?"

"Do you have a bruise or-I know this is going to sound a little appalling-but do you have any clothes with your blood on them from the accident?" said Diane.

"I don't know. Bruises, yes, but my wife took my clothes. What's this about?" he asked.

"I'm sure you've metabolized it out of your system by now, but the blood in a bruise or in your clothes can be a.n.a.lyzed for barbiturates," Diane said.

"Barbiturates. Okay, what's this about?" he asked.

"Last night I apparently slept through a violent homicide in my apartment. At the hospital they found barbiturates in my blood sample. If it weren't for that, I'd probably be under arrest for murder."

There was a rather long silence at the other end of the phone. Diane was beginning to wonder if he had hung up-or pa.s.sed out.

"You better tell me about this," he said at last.

Diane heard sounds like he was rearranging himself in his chair, or bed. She explained about waking up to the sound of the police knocking on her door and then falling in the pool of blood.

"It turned out to be Clymene's blood," Diane told him.

"Clymene's? I don't understand. Is she dead?" asked Ross.

"She has to be. It was fresh blood and there was too much blood loss for her to still be alive." Diane explained everything she knew about the incident. "When I heard you had fallen asleep while driving home, it made me wonder if both of us had been drugged at the restaurant. Perhaps someone found it easier to drug both our drinks than to try and make sure I got the tainted drink. That's always tricky. I'm going to the restaurant to question them now."

"Clymene dead? I can't believe it. What was she doing in your apartment?" he said.

"I have no idea," said Diane. "I don't understand how she even got in. I didn't hear anything, nor did any of my neighbors. And the person in the apartment directly below me hears every little footfall."

"The newspaper account was wholly inadequate," he said.

"Garnett tries to keep anything to do with the crime lab, in this case me, out of the papers. He usually does a pretty good job."

"This is strange. In a bizarre way I'm a little relieved. My wife, Lydia, is convinced that something came loose in my brain. She wants me to take all these tests. If I was drugged . . . well, I actually feel a little better."

Diane laughed. "I'm glad you can see the silver lining in this."

"Lydia almost had me convinced, and I was getting a little worried," he said. "You say they almost arrested you?"

"That was mostly political. The DA was very upset with me," said Diane. "And of course I couldn't account for all that blood in my apartment."

"The DA? Oh, I'm sorry, Diane. I didn't call him," said Kingsley.

"That's all right. I'm glad you're safe. I'm also glad you spoke with your FBI friend in art theft about me. I appreciate that."

"Shane's a good guy. Knows a lot about the subject," he said.

"I'll let you know what I find out from the restaurant staff," said Diane.

"Tell me," asked Ross, "how are you doing, really? You had a hit on the head, the paper said?"

"It wasn't serious." Diane told him about the trip to the hospital and the attack there. She left out what the attacker had said to her about being a dirty dealer. She didn't know why, except she didn't want people to start questioning her honesty.

"You were attacked again? The same day? Do you think it was the same person who killed Clymene?" he asked.

"I don't know. I haven't really had time to sit down and think things out," she said. "Like, who had a motive to kill Clymene?"

"I imagine anyone of her victim's family. You know, someone could have recognized her picture from the trial publicity and tracked her down. It may be a family from a victim we aren't even aware of. You really are going to have to discover who she is."

"I know. And I don't know if it was in the papers, but Rev. Rivers was murdered right after Clymene escaped," said Diane.

"Rivers murdered? Oh, no. He was really a decent guy. Clymene must have convinced him to help her escape. I told you she was good-and no good."

"That's what I was thinking," said Diane, "that she got to him. He looked so disappointed when I shared the evidence against her with him."

"I'm really not in bad condition. Tomorrow I'll drive to Rosewood and we can talk about it," he said.

"You don't think you should at least take another day or two to recover?" said Diane.

"I was lucky," said Ross. "I just ended up in a ditch. The air bag was the worst part of it. The hospital didn't even keep me."

"I'll see you sometime tomorrow, then."

After Diane hung up with Kingsley she called Frank.

"Babe," he said, "how are things going?"

"All things considering, they're going pretty well. I avoided getting arrested, thanks to Garnett. Right in the middle of that interview, an agent from the FBI art theft division came to talk to me. I'm still a free woman, so I guess things are going pretty well."

"Why don't I come and pick you up?" said Frank.

"I still have to talk to my crime scene people. And I have an FBI agent wandering around in the building that I need to keep track of. I also have to speak with the museum restaurant people."

She told him about Kingsley's accident and her suspicion about the source of the barbiturates.

"I hardly know what to say," Frank said when she finished.

"I know. It's not easy being me." Diane fingered a geode on Mike's desk. She picked it up and examined it. It looked like a tiny cave filled with sparkling crystal.

"You need to alert your security people at the museum to watch out for you."

Diane could hear the concern in his voice and it made her feel guilty. "Thanks for letting me stay at your house."

"You know you can stay here as long as you like."

She put the geode back down and leaned back in the chair. "I know, and it's tempting."

"If you ever get back here, I'll really tempt you," Frank said.

Diane smiled. "That's worth hurrying up for. Oh, I almost forgot. The marshals said they know you- Chad Merrick and Dylan Drew. Do you remember them?"