Last Breath by Mariah Stewart Page B

rounded the corner and faced the courtyard. “That’s the museum?”
    Daria nodded.
    He scanned the front of the building.
    â€œYou said on the phone there’s security.”
    â€œThere is.” She nodded.
    â€œWhere?”
    â€œI guess the guard’s inside. Let’s go see.” She took the key from her pocket and walked across the courtyard to the door, which opened with a push.
    â€œStan?” She called out.
    â€œRight here.” His voice came from the stairwell.
    The guard, a tall, thin, balding man in his mid-forties, came up the stairs from the office level.
    â€œSorry, Dr. McGowan. I had to use the facilities,” he told her.
    â€œYou leave the door unlocked when you take a break?” Connor asked skeptically.
    â€œNo one’s around.” Stan shrugged. “No harm, no foul, right?”
    â€œNext time you leave your post, lock the door behind you,” Connor told him pointedly.
    Stan glanced at Daria.
    â€œStan, this is Special Agent Shields, from the FBI.”
    â€œOh.” Stan stared at Connor with no small interest. “Here to see if anything’s been pinched, huh?”
    â€œHere to assess the situation.”
    â€œI thought there were two guards assigned.” Daria frowned.
    â€œOne of us takes the night shift, the other the day. This week I have day shift, next week we’ll trade off.”
    â€œSo at any given time there’s only one guard,” Connor noted.
    â€œThat’s right.”
    â€œI guess if you’d noticed any activity around the building you’d have notified Dr. Burnette,” Connor said.
    â€œSure. But there hasn’t been any.”
    â€œGo on back to your post, Stan. But Agent Shields is right, the door should be locked at all times,” Daria told him. “Starting now.”
    She locked the door with the key and slipped it back into her pocket.
    â€œI’m going to be showing Agent Shields around for a while,” Daria told the guard, “so you can go back to doing whatever it was you were doing.” She gestured toward the folding beach chair inside the front door. A stack of paperback novels, several crossword puzzle magazines, and a large bottle of water sat nearby.
    â€œGive a shout if you need me.” He ambled over to the chair and sat down, and took the first book from the stack.
    â€œThat’s your security?” Connor whispered to Daria.
    â€œDon’t knock it,” she whispered back. “That’s the most they’ve had here in almost fifty years.”
    â€œAnd Burnette wonders why things went walking out of the museum.”
    â€œWell, they did have the building completely boarded up for a while. It isn’t likely anyone got in then.”
    Connor walked around the perimeter of the room, checking the wide, oversized windows that arched at the top.
    â€œNone of these open,” he noted.
    â€œThey’re really only designed to let in natural light for the exhibits. They’re well placed, so only indirect light is allowed into the room, but no direct sunlight, which could have an adverse effect on the artifacts.”
    â€œAny windows on this floor that open?”
    â€œI’m not sure. I didn’t check them all.”
    â€œLet’s do that now.”
    She led him from one room to the next. In each, he examined the windows, those that opened to the outside, and those that were fixed. When he finished, he said, “I don’t see any sign that any of the windows were tampered with. No indication that anyone’s tried to break in on this level.”
    They went back into the great hall, and Connor studied the door frame.
    â€œI guess Dr. Burnette would know if this door or the frame had been replaced over the years?”
    â€œI would think there’d be a record of the expenditure someplace or a copy of the work order. We can ask Louise to look into that.”
    â€œLet’s check the windows