Kendel stood up and smoothed out her skirt and slipped on her shoes. ‘‘Diane, thanks for sticking by me. You don’t know what it has meant to me. Everyone here . . . I just don’t know what I would do without the support.’’
‘‘Okay, I’m leaving before I cry,’’ said Andie. She stood up and heaved her purse strap onto her shoulder.
‘‘What do you have in that thing,’’ said Jonas, ‘‘rocks from geology?’’
‘‘You know those ceramic tiles with wolf paw prints that the museum store is selling? I bought eight of them. They are just the neatest things.’’ Andie grinned.
Diane called security and told them to turn on the night lighting in the exhibit rooms. She had waited to give Agent Jacobs time to get out of the building. To get to the outside doors from Diane’s office you didn’t need to go through any exhibit rooms, but as Jacobs said, it’s a big building, and she hadn’t wanted him to get confused in the dark. The night lighting was mainly floor lighting, not particularly good lighting for anyone lost among the exhibits.
‘‘I’ll see all of you tomorrow,’’ said Diane. ‘‘Get a good night’s sleep and remember what I told you. We are the victims in this fiasco. Let’s not act like the suspects.’’
The three of them left and Diane closed up her office. She wanted to take her own advice and go home with the rest of them, but she still needed to talk to her crew. She had spoken with them hardly at all since last night. There were things rattling around in her head, questions she had, and she needed to brainstorm with them.
She turned off the lights in her office and left, taking a shortcut through the Pleistocene room with its huge mega fauna looming in the darkness. The bones of a woolly mammoth were the centerpiece of the Pleistocene room. Standing thirteen feet at his shoulder, he was impressive. He stood in the center at the entrance, greeting the visitors from the lobby. In the dark, he looked like he could be fleshed out and alive. She smiled as she walked past him into the mammal exhibit, heading to the elevators.
The brain and its processing of visual images are amazing things. Diane reacted before she realized she had seen anything reflected in the glass of the wolf diorama.
Chapter 29
Diane’s arm shot up in front of her face just as a garrote of rope came over her head. The attacker, a black shadow that she had barely seen reflected in the darkened glass, pulled hard, trying to strangle her. Diane’s hand grasped the knot in the rope that was there to make choking her more efficient. She held on tight while pushing it away from her neck, trying to duck out from under it. She stomped hard on his instep and elbowed him in the ribs. She also managed to scream at the top of her lungs.
‘‘Why don’t you just die, bitch?’’ His voice was a whispered grunt.
Diane recognized the voice. It was the same as her attacker in the hospital.
Diane elbowed him again. She still held the rope, but he had her hand against her windpipe, cutting off her scream and her air. She worked her other hand behind the rope and pulled. She took a gulp of air and kicked at him furiously.
‘‘I hate you,’’ he said. ‘‘I hate you, bitch. What business is this of yours? You’re spoiling everything. You’re going to die right here.’’ His words sounded like acid and came out in short, hoarse bursts.
His anger was giving him strength. Diane’s panic gave her her own adrenaline rush. She focused only on getting free of him. She dug the two-inch heel of her shoe into his foot as she pulled furiously on the rope.
Suddenly he fell sideways to the floor, taking Diane with him. He hit with a groan. Diane pulled the rope off and was scrambling to get away when she saw the silhouette of Andie furiously hitting him over the head with her purse.
Diane ran to help Andie as the attacker rose to his feet and struck out at Andie, sending her flying into one of the display cases. He ran to the hallway door leading to the restaurant. The doors weren’t locked to keep people in, only to keep them out of the exhibit areas when other parts of the building were open to the public.
He pulled his black ski mask from over his head as he pushed the door open and walked briskly into a sea of people leaving the restaurant to go to the concert.
Diane went to Andie and knelt beside her.
‘‘Andie, are you all right?’’
‘‘I’m fine.’’ Andie scrambled to her feet. ‘‘Let’s get that guy!’’
She took off through the door after the assailant, her purse flying behind her, before Diane could say anything. Diane followed at a quick pace.
She chased after Andie, even though it occurred to her that the attacker might have gone the other way, against the crowd, escaping out the back of the museum. She smiled politely at the people coming down the long hallway from the restaurant to the front door. Fortunately, no one tried to engage her in conversation. As she stepped through the front doorway, she saw Andie start running across the parking lot.
Damn.
Diane took off after her. In the distance she saw the back of the attacker as he ran into the woods at the end of the lot. Diane increased her pace, vowing to start wearing running shoes no matter what outfit she chose. She caught up to Andie just as Andie was about to follow the assailant into the woods.
‘‘No, Andie. This man’s dangerous. Don’t go after him.’’
‘‘But—’’
‘‘No buts.’’ Diane put an arm around Andie’s shoulders. ‘‘Thanks for saving my life.’’
Andie was breathing hard and started shaking. ‘‘I had to come back after a phone number and I heard you scream.’’
‘‘Wasn’t there a security guard at the front desk?’’ said Diane.
‘‘No.’’ She shook her head. ‘‘I guess nobody’s going to make fun of my heavy purse again,’’ Andie said.
‘‘I know I won’t,’’ said Diane. Off in the distance through the woods she heard a vehicle engine start. ‘‘Call security. Don’t follow me.’’
Diane started through the woods. She knew where the car was. There was a dirt access road just beyond a few yards of trees. That’s where he parked his car, away from cameras. She ran through the woods as quickly as she could and still stay upright.
Definitely need my running shoes. Heels just won’t do.
She arrived at the spot just in time to see the vehicle go around the curve. It was too far away to see a license plate. But she could see it was a dark SUV, a Tahoe, she thought but wasn’t sure. The quarter moon didn’t provide quite enough light to make out anything but a shape.
She walked back through the woods to where Andie was waiting. Security was just arriving in a white Jeep Cherokee. Two guards jumped out.
‘‘What happened?’’ said the older one.
Both were relatively new. Chanell Napier, head of security, had hired them only last month.
‘‘I was attacked in the mammal exhibit,’’ said Diane, boring her gaze into them. ‘‘Andie, my assistant, rescued me. There wasn’t anyone stationed on the desk in the lobby.’’
‘‘I’m sorry,’’ said the younger man. ‘‘I just went to the office for a minute. It’s down the hall. It wasn’t that long.’’