forty-three years old, with a wife and three children. My relationship with Katrina was entirely professional. There was a good deal of overlap between our two departments, naturally, so we were thrust together on many occasions."
"What do you mean by overlap?"
"I'm in charge of European paintings and sculpture. Katrina's interest was medieval art, which is the reason she was assigned to work at the Cloisters. Her field was a subspecialty of my department's, so I had a lot of contact with Hiram Bellinger and his staff. Quite frankly, I was hoping to lure her away from Bellinger and bring her down to supervise some projects here at the Met."
"So you enjoyed working with Katrina?"
"Yes, I respected her intelligence and her desire to learn. She was mature beyond her years. And very quiet, very demure." Anna Friedrichs laughed. "Not in the meetings I attended. There was a feistiness about her that I loved in a young woman her age. Despite her lack of experience, she wasn't afraid to take on the old boys who wanted to control the show."
"I never saw that side of her. How interesting."
Why were their recollections so different? "Were you two at the same meetings?"
"Rarely. My department is enormous," said Poste. "It was easy for me to break away and attend things in this building. But once the idea for the big show got started, the action moved across the park."
"I usually saw Katrina over at Natural History, after the joint planning got under way. It's a bit looser over there than it is in this mausoleum, as you might guess. That whole place is a lot funkier than the Met," Friedrichs added.
"Had Katrina worked in any other museums before coming here?"
Poste shrugged his shoulders. "I assume so. But I don't know any details."
Friedrichs gave it some thought. "I'm sure she must have had an internship somewhere. The Cloisters would be a pretty plum place to start out. I just don't know where." "Did she confide in either of you?"
"About what?" Friedrichs asked.
"Anything personal. Any bad experience she had while she was here?"
"No. She did seem more somber the last few times we were together. In fact, she broke our dinner date after the last meeting we had. Complained about not feeling well."
"That was in the fall, Anna, wasn't it? That's when she began to talk about going home to help with her father. She was very subdued, as I said. What kind of bad experience do you mean, Detective?" Erik Poste asked.
The telephone rang on a side table in the corner of the room. Gaylord got up to answer it, turning away from us to listen to the caller, then he walked back to the table and spoke to us without resuming his seat. "You'll excuse me, Detective. Ms. Cooper. Erik and Anna will continue to show you around and answer your questions. I've got to go upstairs immediately."
Gaylored ignored Chapman and me, speaking to his colleagues. "Pierre Thibodaux has just resigned."
10
"I'll be happy to talk to you tomorrow, Detective. I've just been ordered up to the director's office. We've clearly got a crisis at the museum that none of us had anticipated an hour ago."
"And I got a dead broad in my locker who croaked on your watch, Mr. Gaylord." Mike walked to the phone. "What's Thibodaux's extension?"
"He--he's not there. In his office, I mean. He was already out the door before Eve got on the phone to me. I wanted to talk to him myself. Honestly."
Timothy Gaylord was as rattled as Mike and I. Thibodaux was either a brilliant actor, able to mask whatever professional trouble was brewing when we talked to him half an hour earlier, or this abrupt resignation might have had something to do with the photograph of Katrina Grooten that we had just stuck under his nose.
"It's Chapman here. I want your boss. I want to talk to him before he leaves the museum, do you understand?" Mike was running his fingers through his straight black hair. I knew he was angry, thinking Thibodaux had pulled a fast one on him. "Yeah?
"What do you mean by overlap?"
"I'm in charge of European paintings and sculpture. Katrina's interest was medieval art, which is the reason she was assigned to work at the Cloisters. Her field was a subspecialty of my department's, so I had a lot of contact with Hiram Bellinger and his staff. Quite frankly, I was hoping to lure her away from Bellinger and bring her down to supervise some projects here at the Met."
"So you enjoyed working with Katrina?"
"Yes, I respected her intelligence and her desire to learn. She was mature beyond her years. And very quiet, very demure." Anna Friedrichs laughed. "Not in the meetings I attended. There was a feistiness about her that I loved in a young woman her age. Despite her lack of experience, she wasn't afraid to take on the old boys who wanted to control the show."
"I never saw that side of her. How interesting."
Why were their recollections so different? "Were you two at the same meetings?"
"Rarely. My department is enormous," said Poste. "It was easy for me to break away and attend things in this building. But once the idea for the big show got started, the action moved across the park."
"I usually saw Katrina over at Natural History, after the joint planning got under way. It's a bit looser over there than it is in this mausoleum, as you might guess. That whole place is a lot funkier than the Met," Friedrichs added.
"Had Katrina worked in any other museums before coming here?"
Poste shrugged his shoulders. "I assume so. But I don't know any details."
Friedrichs gave it some thought. "I'm sure she must have had an internship somewhere. The Cloisters would be a pretty plum place to start out. I just don't know where." "Did she confide in either of you?"
"About what?" Friedrichs asked.
"Anything personal. Any bad experience she had while she was here?"
"No. She did seem more somber the last few times we were together. In fact, she broke our dinner date after the last meeting we had. Complained about not feeling well."
"That was in the fall, Anna, wasn't it? That's when she began to talk about going home to help with her father. She was very subdued, as I said. What kind of bad experience do you mean, Detective?" Erik Poste asked.
The telephone rang on a side table in the corner of the room. Gaylord got up to answer it, turning away from us to listen to the caller, then he walked back to the table and spoke to us without resuming his seat. "You'll excuse me, Detective. Ms. Cooper. Erik and Anna will continue to show you around and answer your questions. I've got to go upstairs immediately."
Gaylored ignored Chapman and me, speaking to his colleagues. "Pierre Thibodaux has just resigned."
10
"I'll be happy to talk to you tomorrow, Detective. I've just been ordered up to the director's office. We've clearly got a crisis at the museum that none of us had anticipated an hour ago."
"And I got a dead broad in my locker who croaked on your watch, Mr. Gaylord." Mike walked to the phone. "What's Thibodaux's extension?"
"He--he's not there. In his office, I mean. He was already out the door before Eve got on the phone to me. I wanted to talk to him myself. Honestly."
Timothy Gaylord was as rattled as Mike and I. Thibodaux was either a brilliant actor, able to mask whatever professional trouble was brewing when we talked to him half an hour earlier, or this abrupt resignation might have had something to do with the photograph of Katrina Grooten that we had just stuck under his nose.
"It's Chapman here. I want your boss. I want to talk to him before he leaves the museum, do you understand?" Mike was running his fingers through his straight black hair. I knew he was angry, thinking Thibodaux had pulled a fast one on him. "Yeah?
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