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Sometime during Nash's story, Cam received a call on his phone. He stepped outside in order to talk to whoever was on the other end while the rest of the members of the team stared at Nash. "We need to stop him before he takes the show on the road," he had finished softly.
"He already did. Cruz has vanished along with a blue diamond as big as an Easter egg," Cam said as he walked back into the diner.
Nash watched as he put the phone into some invisible pocket of his kilt and stood shuffling back and forth, not quite looking at his partner. Nash threw a napkin at him from across the table. "What else?" dreading the news that was to come.
"There's a body."
They drove silently, Nash and Cam in one car, while the rest of the team piled into Burgess's. Since they came to the party together the first time, they could come together the second time as well.
Nash couldn't believe that a few scant hours ago, this place had been teeming with people. He supposed the museum was still bustling with people, only in a different way than before. They stationed uniformed cops at the front doors, standing at parade rest. Nash flashed his badge before anyone questioned who was approaching the perimeter. One lifted the yellow caution tape, allowing them to duck under and enter, before going back to duty with arms folded behind their backs, hands clenched together and feet spread apart. Sentries for crime and death.
He walked through the main doors this time, urgency no longer an issue. No one would remove the body until Victor made it back upstairs to the gemstone room, regardless. People covered from head to toe in white paper jumpsuits whispered and collected evidence through paper masks and gloved hands. Little worker ants crawled all over the Smithsonian looking for any clue—hive-minded and sparsely populated until you reached the center—the diamond exhibit.
Washed with stark light and fingerprint dust, the room didn't appear the same. It isn't quite as charming now, Nash thought. Earlier, many of the patrons would boast of how delightful the space had been before.
A nasty trail of blood—dark liquid coagulating now, the rich scent of rust and the eye-tearing smells of a murdered body letting go—all sights and scents that even a seasoned agent never quite gets used to leading in a grotesque smear toward one display.
If Nash hadn't seen this exhibit before, he could understand how someone would think this part was a horrible art display. Walking in, the first thing they spotted were the splatters flicked into every corner of the room. Not to mention what seemed like strategically placed foot prints and hand prints on either side of the painted line. Only bludgeoning was able to produce results like these, but Nash would wait for Victor to confirm.
The trail of death led toward an empty case, the one where the missing diamond should have rested on its cozy bed. Someone had shoved the broken body into the little storage door of the marble display—under the glass box. Only someone rushed, desperate, and adrenaline-fueled could have made a grown man fit into a space not meant for a human.
There was just enough of the body, free of blood for him to identify that it was the security guard. The same man he had warned earlier lay on the floor. "Someone didn't like Bray watching them. Your man got all the pictures?" he asked Victor. When Victor gave him the nod, he bent down and helped pull the body out. "Burgess, do your magic with the tapes. Cam, help security and uniforms keep everyone out. Victor, what do you think?"
Promptly stained, Victor's gloves were red. He stretched out the body. With a soft prayer, using feather-light touches to cross the man, he answered, "No defensive marks—whether he saw his attacker, I can't tell you. I will tell you more once I take him back to the office and onto the table, but I would hazard a guess of blunt force trauma. The suspects wailed on him." He paused, eyes windows to a soul—saddened and downtrodden. Looking into Nash's face, questioning, he asked, "Why do I feel like we got this man killed? It'll weigh on us."
Nash didn't answer. He stood and gazed at the display, cursing. Victor, of course, was right. But the problem was not that WE got him killed. It was HE who got him killed, and that was something Nash would have to live with.
"The suspect had to use a blunt instrument," he murmured his own thoughts to Victor.
Nash studied the glass. A hole spider-webbed out from the middle, all but breaking the entire box. "They completely crushed the glass." He moved away slightly, eyes roving over the scene, mentally envisioning what had transpired in the room. "The guard was over-eager, and I used that at the ball. I imagine they used his people-pleasing quality to their benefit somehow—promises of a huge break, of congratulations and praise—to accomplish entering this room. Took him out. I get a whiff of something, most likely an inside job."
"Agree. Storm?" Victor jerked his head toward another tech. They were standing in the corner, being careful in bagging a dripping baton. "That is most likely the murder weapon. I'll take the body back to the lab, run a comparison. Do you want me to call you as soon as I rule on it?"
Nash hissed out a breath. The smell of death clung to him and it lay heavy in his heart. "No. Call Cam. I'll make sure it stays our case. Goddamn it."
"You, at this stage, have a history. You talked to both the victim and the suspected perpetrator." Victor pointed out.
"I'm aware." He came back to poke the pool of blood, nudged something silver that sparkled under the roving lights. The sweepers brushed a beam above the marble and carpeted floors, looking for hair or anything that stood out. Anything that would be hard to see with the naked eye or at a different angle.
He had narrowly glimpsed the shine until it had flared again on the return trip. Nash picked up the tiny bauble and put it into the waiting hands of a tech, who added it to the growing pile of clear plastic bags. He recognized the item as a woman's dangle earring.
"Who is stupid enough to beat a man to death with heightened security?" Victor wondered.
Nash shook his head, passing over the sealed treasure. "Let's wrap him up."
When he walked away, an assistant bent down to help with the body bags. If he'd been at a typical crime scene, he would have given it a thorough tossing. He would search for the tiniest clue, gathering anything not nailed down, but this wasn't a typical crime scene.
"Did someone notify whoever is head of museum security?" he asked Cam.
"They are on their way," Cam returned, tapping away on his phone, keeping notes and pertinent information at his fingertips until he could transcribe it to the files later.
"Good. We'll keep the area secure. See if security wants any help from us on this." Tugging on his arm, Nash pulled Cam farther away from the sharp ears of the crime scene unit. "I don't want to lose this case. If we get technical, I should take myself off. I had a previous conversation with the victim and the suspect. It could make the situation sticky."
"I can take the point position. I can request any aid or agent to help with the investigation. The investigator may want to hear what you and Marco talked about."
Nash ignored Cam's fishing. He was not ready to share the rest of his story. Cam may have gleaned some of what transpired in that room, but he would wait till he had the full picture before putting his two cents in. That was just the partner that he was.
"Yeah, we can work with that." He glanced toward Cam. "One guest is missing an earring. It's over there covered in blood."
Cam nodded, making another notation in his phone. "We'll get a list of everyone at the ball tonight. We'll want to look for other suspects, make it look like we're not targeting Marco."
Nash nodded and turned to Burgess, waiting for her to cross the room to them. "What's the security setup for the museum?"
"Cameras, both normal and infrared. Heat sensors. Motion—the works. They are getting me copies of everything," she said.
"Good, leave the originals. They won't say we're trying to take the investigation away from them. The museum will want their people on-site, looking into it themselves," Nash said.