Galina was alone in the lab right now. She beelined to the closet in Scopes' office. It was locked tight. Galina dragged a chair over,leapt up and with a chisel and mallet ,that she had secured for this moment, removed the vertical bolts  from the door hinges. Proud of herself; she turned open the door from the back and slipped inside the small room.There was a light bulb with a ball chain swinging overhead and she yanked it to illuminate the closet. In front of her was a collection of folders and plastic packages with plants. She started to rifle through them haphazardly. This would take a while.  Then methodically , she began with the folders. Los Angeles, Brazil, Texas were some of the names on the folders. They were not thick, two or three pages each. Surprisingly organized for a guy like Scopes. She picked up the L.A. dossier. There was not much there. A name of a medical doctor rather than a PhD.  That was odd. Scopes looks in bad shape, but she doubted that he would keep the number of his doctor locked in a closet.  It couldn't be personal, it must be some project.  On the wall opposite, something caught her eye. Again this was unusual. It was a plastic bag with the kind of flower that you would find in your grandmother's garden, a straw  flower-- Helichrysum Ruby cluster. She darted out to get a notebook,  returned and scribbled the name of the doc from L.A., and some phone numbers from Texas. Then she had to cut it short , and replace the door before the technician returned. She did not know what she had here, but she was a determined little digger.

                             To be continued