‘‘Dr. Fallon,’’ he said. ‘‘What can I do for you?’’
‘‘The soil sample from the sphinx is from the region of Abydos in Egypt,’’ she said. ‘‘Jin thinks it may have been dug up recently. There was very little other contamination to suggest it had been sitting in a warehouse or some other place for any length of time.’’
‘‘That’s good information. Thanks,’’ he said.
‘‘You’re welcome,’’ said Diane.
‘‘So,’’ said Andie when Diane was off the phone, ‘‘you know where the stuff came from?’’
‘‘Not exactly. But we are a fraction closer.’’
‘‘What about that money?’’ whispered Andie.
‘‘I don’t know.’’ She stood up and slipped her cell in her pocket. ‘‘Call if you need anything. I’m going up to the crime lab.’’
Her crew was there—Jin, Neva, and David. Jin had news; Diane could tell by the look on his face, as if the news would fly out of his mouth at any moment or he would choke. But before she sat down with them for a debriefing she went to check on the progress of the searches. The face recognition software was working away, applying its formula to each face in the official databases at lightning speed, but so far there was nothing. Diane felt a stab of disappointment. She checked her e-mail. Nothing from Colonel Kade yet either. She was hoping to wake up this morning and everything would be solved—or at the very least there would be a clue. Of course, there was still Arachnid. She would go down later and see whether it had found anything.
Diane did have some results from her query of Internet Listservs—five e-mails from disgruntled lawyers. They were short, basically polite, but terse statements, like ‘‘this isn’t appropriate’’ or ‘‘I’ve spoken with the list owner.’’ One was more explicit, asking her if she knew ‘‘how f**ing long’’ it took him to download the picture. Diane thought that only five complaints out of the hundreds of attorneys on the various lists was pretty good, especially from a group of people who file complaints for a living. There was no telling how many complaints the list owners got. But she imagined they were used to putting out fires.
Her crew had been looking over her shoulder as she checked the progress.
‘‘Nothing, huh, Boss?’’ said Jin.
‘‘It’s early yet,’’ said Diane. ‘‘You guys want to tell me what progress we’ve made so far?’’ Diane got up from the chair, and after casting a wistful glance at the face recognition program still running, she went to the debriefing table and sat down.
‘‘What I want to know,’’ said David as he sat down, ‘‘is what’s with the money? There’s four thousand dollars in there. Did someone just send it to you?’’
‘‘What money?’’ said Jin and Neva together.
‘‘Yes, someone just sent it to me,’’ said Diane. ‘‘With the note. I don’t know if it’s supposed to be a bribe, a payoff, or a donation from an angry contributor who still wants to give but is pissed at me.’’
‘‘What are you talking about?’’ said Neva.
‘‘Yesterday, when we had a room full of law enforcers—with guns,’’ said David, ‘‘Diane hands me this envelope filled with packets of one-hundreddollar bills.’’
‘‘You’re kidding,’’ said Jin. ‘‘Someone sent you bundles of money?’’
‘‘Yes, and I haven’t a clue what it’s about. We can add it to the long and growing list of things I don’t know anything about.’’ She looked at David. ‘‘Were you able to find anything on it?’’
‘‘Yes, I did. You know that tiny piece of paper with blood on it I gave you, Jin?’’ said David.
‘‘That piece was cut from money? Is that legal?’’ asked Jin.
‘‘It was cut from one of the wrappers,’’ said David, glaring at him. ‘‘Apparently the guy got a paper cut.’’
‘‘Wow, Boss, that’s my news,’’ Jin said. ‘‘We’re making some progress, now.’’ He rubbed his hands together.
‘‘Well finally,’’ said Diane. ‘‘What is it?’’
‘‘The blood on the money wrapper has the same DNA as the hair pulled off Andie’s purse, the one she hit your attacker with.’’
Diane stared at him. She wasn’t sure her surprise was because the attacker and the money sender were the same, or because they had actually found out something.
‘‘Are you sure?’’ she said.
‘‘Of course I’m sure,’’ said Jin. ‘‘And neither one is Clymene or even related to her.’’
‘‘Is he in the system?’’ asked Diane.
‘‘No,’’ said Jin.
‘‘Why is he paying you?’’ said Neva. ‘‘That’s so strange.’’
‘‘I don’t know. Did you find anything else? Fingerprints?’’ she asked David.
‘‘No, and I found that odd. How did he get the paper cut if he had gloves on?’’ David said.
‘‘You know,’’ said Jin, ‘‘not everyone leaves prints. If you have very dry skin, or handle a lot of paper in your job, or—’’
‘‘I know,’’ said David. ‘‘Your prints get sanded off, so to speak. I know that. It’s still strange that there weren’t any prints from anyone.’’
‘‘What about the postmark?’’ asked Diane.
‘‘Rosewood,’’ said David.
‘‘Was there a—’’ began Jin.
‘‘No, there was no return address,’’ said David.
‘‘Just asking,’’ he said.
‘‘What about the note?’’ asked Diane.
David smiled. ‘‘That was a little more helpful. The writing is simple block letters. The pressure was very heavy. I think this is an angry guy.’’
‘‘What did the note say?’’ asked Neva.
‘‘Bitch,’’ said David.
‘‘And you needed to look at the amount of pressure he used to figure out he was angry?’’ said Neva. She grinned at David’s scowl.
David ignored her. ‘‘What was kind of interesting was what was indented in the paper. He wrote the message on a piece of lined school paper that had been underneath a page that had been written on.’’
‘‘I’m assuming you used the electrostatic machine,’’ said Diane.
‘‘I did but really didn’t need to because the pressure was hard there too,’’ said David.
‘‘What was it?’’ asked Diane.
‘‘Words,’’ said David. He jumped up and went to his desk inside one of the glass rooms and came out with a piece of paper. ‘‘Back, red, blue, have, dog, play, and face.’’
‘‘What the heck is that?’’ said Jin.
‘‘Spelling words,’’ said Diane. ‘‘First grade, if I’m not mistaken.’’
David nodded and put the paper down. There in a neat but unmistakably child’s printing was a vertical list of words.
‘‘That’s good,’’ said Neva. ‘‘You can narrow down a community with that information.’’
‘‘I know. Now all I have to do is figure out what I’m going to say—hello, I’m from the Rosewood police and I need to get a list of your first-grade spelling words.’’ David started to laugh before he even finished. Jin and Neva started, so did Diane, and for a moment the four of them sat at the table laughing.