Into the Badlands
Caron Todd
It's not easy working with the man who almost ruined your career before it even started. It's even worse when he's your new boss.Paleontologist Susannah Robb just lost a prestigious job to her rival Alexander Blake, and she has to figure out a way to work with him. But that quickly turns out to be the least of her problems.Someone is stealing fossils from the site she discovered in Alberta's Badlands. And now she and Alex must team up to stop them.
“Is there something about me in particular you distrust, Susannah, or are you just paranoid?”
Paranoid? How many judgments did Alex Blake intend to throw around? “It’s something about you.”
“I see. I can take a certain amount of unpleasantness but you’re part of a team. This kind of behavior could sabotage the museum’s work if it goes on too long. Care to have it out?”
That would be some conversation…make that some outburst. “There’s nothing to have out.”
“Then I suggest you hold your bitterness toward me in check. I wouldn’t want it to be a barrier to the way the museum functions.”
It was a threat. How on earth had she gone from being Bruce’s anointed successor to being seen as an expendable liability?
She stood as straight as she could on her sprained ankle. “I’m not confident that you have this museum’s best interests at heart, Dr. Blake. If you don’t, you can expect a lot more than a few hostile words from me. So it’s really up to you how well the museum functions.” She wished she could stalk out of his office, but lopsided hopping was the best she could do….
Dear Reader,
I’ve gone three times to the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alberta, and although I just got back from the third trip, I already want to go again. The place fascinates me. From small pieces of smooth shale bearing detailed imprints of tiny organisms that lived more than five million years ago to huge-jawed carnivores that make you gulp even now, the museum explores the variety and complexity of living things. There’s a time line in the layered hills and hoodoos nearby. You can see dark shale deposits where the skeletons of marine reptiles might be found, lighter shale where tyrannosaurs might lie and the thick K-T boundary containing iridium from a meteor that may have contributed to the dinosaurs’ extinction.
During the drive home after my second visit, I began planning Into the Badlands. The museum in the story is a fictional place, and some details of the surrounding area have been changed to suit the story’s needs, but the qualities I find so intriguing—the exotic terrain, the anticipation of discovery and the dedication of the people who search for clues to our planet’s distant past—are part of the daily lives of paleontologists Susannah Robb and Alexander Blake.
I’d be glad to hear from you. You can reach me at P.O. Box 20045, Brandon, Manitoba R7A 6Y8 Canada.
Sincerely,
Caron Todd
Into the Badlands
Caron Todd
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER ONE
THE BONEBED LAY in a narrow, winding gully in the Alberta badlands, edged by layered hills and eroded hoodoos. Susannah Robb worked in the shade of an orange tarpaulin surrounded by members of her team and a dozen children—dinosaur enthusiasts who had signed up for two weeks at the museum’s science camp, eager for a chance to dig at a real paleontology quarry.
She had found the fossil site that spring, after hiking along the same dry riverbed where she’d walked many times before. Nearly at the point of returning to the museum for the day, she’d sat on a boulder to rest, and looked down to see part of a hadrosaur skull protruding from the wind-worn rock at her feet. Now there were bones everywhere, nearly spilling out of the ground, helped by each gust of wind and every rainfall.
With an ungloved hand, she brushed debris from a tibia that peeked through the crumbling sandstone. “This is a beauty.”
Her assistant didn’t look up from the trench he was digging on the other side of the fossil. “It’s in great shape,” he agreed. James had been working for Susannah off and on for five years, as his studies allowed. This summer he was running the science camp, as well.
She let one fingertip drift over the huge specimen, tracing its curving line, feeling gravelly rock matrix, fine dust and solid fossil. Like a psychic trying to sense someone’s whereabouts or history from an article of clothing, she rested her hand on the sun-heated leg bone. She imagined the powerful muscles that had driven it, contracting and expanding with leisurely heaviness during the animal’s constant foraging, then letting it explode into desperate flight when a predator appeared at the edge of the herd.
Cretaceous herbivores were Susannah’s specialty. The contradiction of their power and vulnerability had drawn her to them. They could have easily crushed a human, if a human had existed to get in their way, but their only real defense was that they traveled in herds. Good for the species; not so good for the individuals whose capture and demise allowed the others to escape.
“I think we’re going to find a complete skeleton here, James.”
“Are you backing that opinion with anything more than wishful thinking?”
She reached for the clipboard that held the project’s grid maps. “Look what we have so far. There’s the skull, the spinal column—”
“A few sections of it, anyway.”
“We haven’t dug far enough to find the rest, but it’ll be there.”
“No ribs, yet.”
“But the legs have begun to appear. Look at the way the bones are lying. There’s form to it—they’re not just scrambled like most of the others.”
James nodded slowly as he studied the drawing. “That would be great…exciting for the kids, too.”
With a soft groan, Susannah straightened her back. “I’m getting old.” Her age was usually the last thing on her mind, but her most recent birthday had startled her. Thirty-three little flames gave off a surprising amount of heat.
James grinned. “That’s okay. I like older women.”
“Too bad for you. I’m no cradle robber.”
“You wouldn’t be stealing.”
Susannah smiled tolerantly and stepped out from under the tarp, stretching to loosen stiff muscles. James followed, brushing sand from his bare knees.
“It must be forty degrees out here today.” She threaded her fingers through French-braided hair, lifting the dark strands to cool the skin underneath. In seconds, that slight relief was erased by the burning sun. Despite the August heat, she wore khaki slacks and a long-sleeved loose white shirt to protect her skin. “The kids are wilting.”
“I’ll take them for a swim soon,” James promised. Not far from the camp there was a swimming hole, a loop in the Red Deer River shaded by wolf willows. The children spent most afternoons there, and returned to the quarry in the cooler evening.
Susannah pulled a watch out of her shirt pocket and checked the time. “Could you sketch in that tibia for me, and paint on the preservative? I need to get back to the museum. I told Bruce I’d be in by one o’clock.”
“Did he say he’d have news for you by then?”
“He hasn’t said a word. I promised to help him get some paperwork done.”
“We’re all rooting for you, if that makes you feel any better, Susannah.”
“It does. Thanks.” Watching her friends waiting to hear if she was the new head of dinosaur research was even harder than waiting herself. It couldn’t be much longer before they all heard. Bruce was leaving Friday, just four days away.
SUSANNAH SWUNG OPEN her office door, rippling papers on her bulletin board. As she went by, she straightened one, a crayon drawing of a tall, thin stick lady with a long black braid, wide gray eyes and a big smile. It was labeled Auntie Sue and signed “XXX OOO Tim,” in spidery letters that careened across the page. Tim was her best friend’s five-year-old. Diane’s office was just across the hall.
While she waited for her computer to boot up, Susannah started a pot of coffee dripping and checked her answering machine for the morning’s messages. There was just one, from a Calgary television producer named Sylvia Hall. The message didn’t give any details. Curious, Susannah sat at her desk to return the call.
Ms. Hall’s voice was calm and confident. “I saw a piece in the Herald about your hadrosaur quarry. It sounds fascinating. I’m not exactly sure where it is, though. The article was a bit mysterious about that.”
“We don’t publicize the locations of our quarries,” Susannah explained. “Fossils can be surprisingly fragile, so we like to restrict traffic, even foot traffic. Unfortunately, sight-seers have been known to make off with whatever they can carry.”
“I understand. Could we bring a camera out there in a week or two? Of course, we’d be careful to keep the location secret.”
“I’d be glad to show you around.” Susannah began to jot notes on a pad of paper beside the telephone. “We’ve barely started, though. By next year we’ll have more concrete information—”
“My viewers are fascinated by the process. They don’t need to wait for the results. You’re part of the story. Picture this—one of those gigantic old bones upright against the sky. A petite paleontologist standing beside it proudly—”
Susannah put down her pen. “I’m not all that petite.”
“You get the idea. We want to capture that eureka! feeling when you find something wonderful, the adventure of the experience—”
“Adventure?” Susannah repeated mildly. “The most exciting thing I’ve done out there lately is try escarole on my tomato sandwich. It was kind of bitter.”
There was a pause. “I sense you have a problem with the concept, Dr. Robb.”
“What you’re describing is entertainment, not science. That’s not my style.”
The producer’s cool voice encouraged Susannah to be reasonable. “Why shouldn’t my audience be entertained by your science? You’ll catch their interest, they’ll want to visit your museum—”
It was exactly the kind of thinking that got under Susannah’s skin. “When we’ve had a chance to assess the significance of what we’ve found, I’ll be glad to do a program.”
Crisply Ms. Hall said, “That’s science, dusty chalk on a blackboard science. I’m afraid that’s not my style. Give me a call if you change your mind.” There was a click as the phone disconnected.
Susannah sat back in her chair, fuming. Was there any chance she was wrong to resist pop paleontology? Maybe inaccurate publicity was better than none…she knew her cautious style didn’t attract a large audience.
Pushing the conversation from her mind, she clicked on the computer screen to open one of the files Bruce had asked her to handle. He wanted to drum up funding for a closed-circuit television system in the lab that would give museum visitors a technician’s-eye view of fossil preparation. Funding was only part of the problem. Charlie Morgan, the museum’s head conservator, opposed the idea. Of course, Charlie was chronically opposed to new ideas. She could almost see his point on this one. The system would be great for visitors, but you’d hesitate to blow your nose or scratch an itch with the world looking on.
“Susannah? Got a minute?”
Kim Johnson, a student who was getting field experience at the Bearpaw Formation quarry, stood hesitantly at the door. Her slight build and willowy arms suggested she should be waving a fan, not swinging a geologist’s hammer, but sharp eyes and a delicate touch with fragile specimens made up for her lack of muscular strength. For one distracting moment, Susannah imagined her on a television screen dwarfed by a King Kong bone. I know somebody who can make you a star…
“Come on in. Taking a break?”
Kim sat on the edge of a chair across from Susannah’s desk. She glanced at the open door and lowered her voice. “I wanted to talk to you about Bruce’s party.”
“How are the plans coming?”
“We’ve got a couple of problems. The baker’s having trouble with the cake, for one thing. He says the tyrannosaurus either falls on its snout, or its head falls off. He wants to do a centrosaurus.”
“Bruce is a carnivore specialist. It’s got to be a tyrannosaur.”
Kim nodded. “I know, but he says a centrosaur stands on four short legs. It’s got a good base.”
“What if the T-Rex attacked a centrosaurus?”
“And it could hold the T-Rex up,” Kim said quickly. “That should work.”
“If it doesn’t, we’ll just say the centrosaurus won.”
Kim laughed. “Okay, could happen. I’ll suggest it.” Her smile faded. “The other problem is with the decorations. Paul’s insisting on an idea that probably goes too far.”
“Again?” Paul was the field technician who helped run the Bearpaw Formation quarry, but he didn’t let his responsibilities interfere with having a good time.
“He wants to lie down in the tyrannosaur exhibit, splashed with ketchup, with a spotlight on the whole tableau. I thought you might not want him to do it, in case the T-Rex got damaged.”
“Bruce would love it. As long as Paul doesn’t try to climb into the skeleton’s jaws, it’s all right with me. You don’t look happy with the idea, though.”
Kim hesitated. “It’s not that.”
“Is something else worrying you?”
“I’d like your opinion…” Kim’s voice trailed off.
Susannah waited.
“I don’t want to make trouble for anyone.”
“No, of course not.” What could be wrong? A dry bank account? Unsatisfactory field experience? Gossip at the quarry? The Bearpaw team was having an unproductive summer; tempers might be fraying. Even small problems could become irritating when a team worked for a long time under a hot sun.
After another moment of uncertainty, Kim seemed to make a decision. “You know, I think I should try to handle it myself first. It’s kind of embarrassing to come here and make a fuss, and then duck out.”
“Don’t worry about it. We can talk later if you change your mind. In the meantime, tell Paul he can go ahead with his bloodthirsty scenario.”
Kim dredged up a smile. “He’ll be so pleased. And I’ll stop at the bakery on my way to the quarry. Thanks, Susannah.” She left the office, still radiating worry.
Moments later, footsteps sounded in the hall, and Bruce appeared in the doorway, bearded and shaggy haired. When Susannah saw his face, her stomach began a free fall.
He got right to the point. “The board has gone with someone else, Susannah. Alexander Blake. Heard of him?”
She nodded. Alexander Blake was a high-profile kind of a guy. Anyone who dug up bones for a living had heard of him. Although she hadn’t seen him in more than ten years, the man had got in her way a few times.
“He’s a little older than you are,” Bruce said, “a little more experienced. Well traveled, good contacts. I made it clear what I wanted, but they had their own ideas. I don’t know—maybe it’s for the best. You came awfully close.”
Close? Susannah looked away from Bruce’s sympathetic eyes. “We’ll be lucky to have someone of Blake’s caliber here.”
IT WAS NEARLY NINE o’clock when Susannah finally let herself into her small cedar house. She had showered and eaten dinner at the museum, then poured her frustration into Bruce’s paperwork and got it done.
She moved quickly past the unconcerned eyes of relatives who stared from a family tree of photographs on one wall of the living room, then the unperturbed residents of a large aquarium that separated the galley kitchen from the dining area. She filled a glass with filtered water from the fridge, and drank thirstily before turning to the aquarium. She hardly noticed the fish pounce when she sprinkled flakes of food and some freeze-dried shrimp onto the water’s surface.
In what way was she inadequate? Knowing she was Bruce’s choice, the board had looked past her to a stranger. Timid. That’s what Blake had thought of her. Did the board agree? Was she too mild, too immersed in her own work, too female, too tall, too short, too young? Bruce had said it might be for the best. Did he doubt her ability to do the job?
Tired, but too tense to sleep, she went out onto the screened porch and sank into a wicker chair big enough to curl up in. She looked past the river that meandered behind the house, and watched as the setting sun turned the sandstone and ironstone of distant hoodoos gold and pink. Glossy blue-black swallows swooped to and from nests in the river’s bank, chestnut breasts and forked tails flashing.
There was a photograph she couldn’t get out of her mind, a picture illustrating one of Blake’s magazine articles. It showed a tall, sandy-haired man standing perfectly at ease in the hot sun and red sand of the Gobi Desert. He had a geologist’s hammer in one hand, and an open, boyish grin on his face. Huge white ribs curved out of the sand behind him. Susannah kept trying to file the photo away, under something harmless and dull like “miscellaneous.” Tuck it into the folder, close the drawer and forget about it. But the damn thing wouldn’t stay filed.
Staring into the gathering dark, she thought of the confusing summer she’d worked with Alexander Blake at an Australian quarry thirteen years before. He’d been a graduate student from the University of British Columbia then, assisting the leader of a joint Canada-Australia dig, but no one would have known it wasn’t his quarry. He was the kind of person who always seemed to be in charge. He’d probably advised his kindergarten teacher on the finer points of printing.
It had been her first quarry, her first trip outside Canada, the first time—the only time—she’d met a man like him. With the overbrimming confidence of someone who apparently had never done anything awkwardly and for the first time, he had noticed her just long enough to issue a damaging assessment of her performance.
She could take the disappointment about the job. She knew she was still young to head a research department. In a way, it was better not to have administrative distractions just when the hadrosaur quarry was looking so promising. It might even be interesting to work with Blake again. He might have changed. Maybe that photo was an old one, and really he had a potbelly and a mellow disposition and five kids.
Her smile faded. It was more likely that he hadn’t changed at all.
CHAPTER TWO
SUSANNAH WAS ALONE in the museum. Except for Charlie, of course, down in the preparation lab, always up to his elbows in work when most people were just pressing the snooze button. She’d come in earlier than usual, anxious to finish her report on the hadrosaur quarry. Almost the minute he’d got the job, Alexander Blake had sent a fax saying he wanted summaries of all the museum’s current projects on his desk when he arrived. There was less than an hour to go, and her report wasn’t anywhere near ready.
She swiveled her chair toward the window, turning her back on the computer screen and its constantly flashing cursor. Outside, the grassy hills edging the badlands rolled on for miles. Cars were beginning to arrive, almost as steadily as if there was going to be a wedding, or a funeral. She could see gradually smaller clouds of dust all along the road from town.
She missed Bruce already. After the farewell party on Friday, complete with Paul in his role as a dinosaur’s meal and a chocolate T-Rex that leaned heavily on a helpful vanilla centrosaur, he’d left with hardly more than a wave, suitcases visible in the back seat of his car. He’d seemed glad to go.
Now everything would change. Blake would take Bruce’s chair at the conference room table, armed with plans she knew wouldn’t be good for the museum. How could she go to his meeting this morning, listening meekly, when everyone knew she’d expected to get the job?
Abruptly Susannah turned off the computer, without bothering to save the changes she’d made. She wouldn’t sit timidly waiting for Blake’s arrival. There was plenty of work to be done at the quarry. Why should it stop just because a new staff member was coming to town?
She hurried to the closet for her backpack, always filled with water bottles, sunscreen, insect repellent, a hammer, chisel and brush. Halfway to the door, she stopped. The way was blocked by her closest friend, Diane McKay.
“Hey, Sue.” Diane sipped coffee from a mug that had World’s Greatest Mom emblazoned on its side. Dark smudges underlined her bleary eyes. “Ready for today?”
“Nope.”
“Me neither. I keep wondering if I’ve turned in all my samples to the lab, if Tim, when I let him play computer games, deleted all my notes…you know how it is.”
“Like Cinderella waiting to meet her stepmother for the first time.”
Diane smiled. “Will he be mean? Will he make us work too hard? I’m hoping he’ll be like Bruce was, and just leave us to get on with our work, but what are the chances of having two decent bosses in a row?” She started across the room. “Can I take the comfortable chair?”
“Help yourself.” Susannah didn’t move from her spot near the door. “You look as if you’ve been up for days.”
“Just about. I drove all night from Mount Field, got home in time to have breakfast with Richard and Tim, then felt my way here.” Yawning, she sank into the upholstered chair behind Susannah’s desk. “I still can’t believe you didn’t get the job. We all thought you were a shoo-in. Nobody knows this area better than you.” She took a long, restorative gulp of coffee.
Susannah smiled fondly at Diane. They both knew Blake was more qualified. “Dr. Blake has a few things going for him. He’s worked at all the major quarries…he’s been published in all the major journals…he’s been on the Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel and a couple of major networks. The board probably thought he’d do a better PR job. I’m terrible at hooking people’s interest. Look at our articles. Mine are as dry as sandpaper, his are pure entertainment.”
Diane nodded. “Tim loved the one about Blake and his team stumbling across Paleolithic cave paintings by accident while they were looking for fossils.”
“Exactly. Wherever he goes, he and his sidekicks always have adventures.” Susannah heard a trace of resentment in her voice and tried to cover it with humor. “Just call him Indiana Blake.”
“He won’t stay long, Sue. He’ll get bored in no time. Then our employers will wonder what on earth they were thinking and do what they should have done in the first place.” Diane noticed Susannah’s backpack. “Are you going somewhere?”
“To the quarry. James has his hands full out there.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“Blake won’t care where I am.” Susannah lifted her hand in a quick wave. “Good luck today.”
She hurried downstairs and out the back door to the staff parking lot. She chose her usual field vehicle, a faded blue pickup truck that tended to be temperamental. The engine’s irregular rasping didn’t start a moment too soon—as she steered out of the parking lot, a black Dodge Stealth glided past her. Susannah caught a glimpse of the man inside. She got an impression of height and strength.
Sending up clouds of dust that obscured the Stealth’s reflection in her rearview mirror, she accelerated. The old Ford rattled over the narrow access road, turned onto a gravel road and continued through a treeless landscape, past arid fields dotted with rhythmically dipping oil pumps.
When she was out of sight of the museum, she drove more slowly, unhappy eyes on the lookout for potholes and prairie dogs. She was already having second thoughts about playing hooky. Provoking her new boss might not be a wise strategy.
After a long ten miles, Susannah turned onto an uneven rock-strewn track leading into a gully. She stopped beside the science camp’s school bus and sat for a moment, fascinated as always by the extraterrestrial appearance of the deeply rilled hills and time-carved hoodoos.
He can’t change this.
She grabbed her backpack and slid from the truck to the rocky ground. A fifteen-minute walk would take her the rest of the way to the quarry.
ALEXANDER BLAKE TURNED into the museum parking lot just as a battered pickup truck clattered out. He got a quick look at the tense-faced woman at the steering wheel. Dark hair pulled back from a pale, oval face. Slender. Whoever she was, she was in a hurry.
He parked in a reserved spot, then stood beside his car surveying the place that had lured him away from the field. The museum was long and low and the color of sandstone. It fit right in with the sedimentary hills and dry, rolling prairie. To the east, there was a wide, winding river. Far to the west, the Rocky Mountains’ faded blue foothills merged with the horizon. Not a bad place to spend a couple of months.
He swung open the staff door and stepped inside. To his left was the preparation lab. Through the small window that let visitors watch technicians free bone from rock, he saw that someone was already at work.
The galleries, off to the right, were still quiet. They’d be humming with voices soon, when visitors crowded in to see the displays: the primordial invertebrates, the fish that had dragged themselves from the sea onto the land, and the dinosaurs, frozen in flight and ravenous frenzy.
There was an elevator, but Alex took the stairs two at a time and arrived at the top breathing easily. The nameplate on the first door to his right caught his eye—S. Robb. Hadrosaur nesting habits, he remembered. She’d been short-listed for the job he was about to start.
An auburn-haired woman was in the room, reading at the desk…the World’s Greatest something or other, according to her mug. Her desk was free of clutter, free, even, of dust. Neat rows of journals, textbooks and color-coded file folders lined a ceiling-to-floor bookcase along one wall. On another, six identically framed photos of quarries formed a perfect rectangle. A collection of rocks stood in orderly rows on shelves under the window, as straight as soldiers on parade. World’s Greatest Organizer?
The woman noticed him and said warmly, “You must be Dr. Blake.”
“That’s right. Dr. Robb?”
She looked surprised. “Oh! I forgot where I was. No. Diane McKay.” She went around the desk to meet him, hand outstretched. “My perfectly usable office is across the hall. I just couldn’t overcome my inertia once I’d sat in Susannah’s chair.”
“McKay,” he repeated. “Burgess Shale?”
Diane nodded. “My team has been up there for most of the summer, but I’ve been going back and forth. I want to spend as much of August as I can with my son.”
“You must have a reliable team.”
“Don’t tell my boss, but they hardly need me. The same group has been with me for years.”
Alex could hear morning clatter coming from the other offices. “I’d like to hear more about your quarry, but I don’t want to be late for my own meeting.”
“You’ll have to come up to Mount Field with me. There’s no place like it anywhere in the world.” The soft-bodied creatures from the Burgess Shale site often seemed like reckless experiments of nature. One, the Opabinia, had five eyes and claws on its nose.
The suggestion fell in nicely with Alex’s plans. “Are you going back soon?”
“In a couple of weeks, just for a few days.”
“Sounds perfect. I’ll be able to take some time away from the museum by then.”
Diane walked with Alex to the conference room. He sat at the head of the long table and waited for the staff to get settled. He didn’t recognize most of them. Field and lab technicians, probably, or the teachers and artists who helped prepare exhibits. A few paleontologists working at faraway quarries, like those in South America or on Ellesmere Island, near the Arctic Circle, hadn’t made it back to the museum to meet him.
He could only identify four people at the table. George Connery, a rumpled, dark-haired man fidgeting with his pen and looking as if ten weeks of sleep would do him good. He headed the Bearpaw Formation quarry, studying marine reptiles. Diane McKay, still grasping the mug he now saw praised her parenting skills. Lynn Seton, a dignified older woman…where had he met her? A conference at UBC, he thought. She’d lectured on fossil pollens. She leaned away from a young man sitting beside her…Jeff Somebody, studying links between dinosaurs and modern birds. Had a few too many last night, from the look of it. Alex wondered if it was habitual. Guilty conscience? Stress? Maybe just a special occasion, somebody’s birthday. Across the table was a man of medium height and early middle-age, white coated and frowning, with faint chemical smells clinging to him—probably Charlie Morgan, the head conservator. Susannah Robb seemed to be absent. That was odd. Her quarry was just half an hour away.
Alex sat forward, a small movement that signaled the meeting was about to start. Shuffling and talking stopped. Twenty faces looked back at him. A lot of people to get to know before he could prove that at least one of them was a thief.
AT FIRST NO ONE NOTICED Susannah had arrived. She stood on the periphery of the site, watching James work with the new group of children from the science camp, the last group of the summer. Some of the campers used chisels and toothbrushes to chip and brush soft rock away from the specimens. Others painted exposed fossils with preservative, or wrapped them in plaster, to protect them during their trip to the museum.
“Dr. Robb!”
Susannah was already familiar with that excited voice. Matt was the busiest, most talkative ten-year-old she’d ever met. He ran toward her, clutching something to his chest. Sand sprayed against her leg when he skidded to a halt at her side.
“Look what I found!” He was so bursting with eagerness he seemed to take up several feet of space in every direction. He handed her a saucer-size fossil. “It’s a backbone, right?”
Susannah used her cuff to rub dirt from the specimen. “It’s part of a backbone,” she agreed. “How did you know?”
Crowding next to her, he traced the fossil’s shape with his finger. “It’s like the backbones on my models at home. It’s a circle, and it’s got these two points.”
“Those are the pedicles. They formed part of the neural arch, where the spinal cord went through. Any idea how old it is?”
Matt hesitated. “Seventy-five million years?” James and Susannah had explained how old the site was, and had tried to help the kids make sense of that amount of time. He added, “Before pyramids. Even before people.”
“That’s right. It’s from the Late Cretaceous period. Where did you find it?”
“Over there.” He pointed vaguely along the dry riverbed.
“Exactly where over there? We need to know, because we might find more vertebrae in the same place.”
Matt’s small body expressed the beginnings of agitation. “Um…”
“Retrace your steps in your mind,” she suggested quietly. “You left the site and walked…where?”
“Up the hill.”
“Up the hill!” Susannah reminded herself the problem at the moment was the exact location of the fossil, not the fact that Matt had ignored warnings about disturbing delicate ecosystems, damaging specimens or falling down sinkholes. Time enough for that later. “Okay. Up the hill and then?”
“Then I slid down it.” Matt darted an exploratory glance in Susannah’s direction. When she didn’t comment, he continued more confidently. “Then I followed the riverbed, and I saw the backbone just lying there on the ground.”
“Where those new hoodoos are forming?”
He nodded.
“Okay. Ask one of the counselors to help you map it, and add it to the collection.”
Matt didn’t move. “Dr. Robb? How did you find the bonebed?”
“I just went for a walk, and there it was.”
“Really?”
“Almost. Really, I went for lots of long walks, looking at the ground, and looking at the ground—like you did this morning when you found the vertebra—and then one day, I saw part of a skull, just barely nudging up out of the rock.”
“And that’s how you find dinosaur bones?”
“Absolutely.”
“Like me this morning,” he repeated. Matt’s eyes wandered past Susannah, to the badlands stretching beyond the quarry. He had the bug: he was clearly imagining the dinosaur he would find one day. The biggest, the best, the first of its kind.
“What are you going to do now, Matt?” Susannah prompted.
His eyes met hers, questioning. “Oh! Map the vertebra.”
“Good. And, Matt, don’t wander away from the group again. You have to stay with the other kids. It’s important.” She watched him hurry off without giving any sign that he’d listened to her warning.
A young woman stepped carefully around a chiseling camper to join Susannah. With sun-streaked blond hair scraped back into a ponytail, and a bright yellow T-shirt and denim shorts that revealed long, tanned arms and legs, Amy looked more like a teenage baby-sitter than a fourth-year geology student. “I didn’t expect to see you here today, Susannah.”
“It was a sudden decision. How are the kids doing?”
“Settling in. They’re already finding out how boring paleontology can be.” Amy gestured toward a small girl with short, curly hair and pink-framed glasses. Her head was bent low, her chin tucked into her chest. “Julia had a tough night. Homesick. Think you can do anything to help?”
“I can try. I’ll put these water bottles in a cooler first.”
“I’ll do that for you.” A little more insistently than Susannah liked, Amy put a hand out for her backpack. “Julia’s going to burst into tears any minute. She’ll get all the younger ones started.”
Susannah quickly relinquished her pack. She’d been at the campsite on Saturday afternoon to welcome the children, and had spent that evening getting to know them. Julia had seemed upset right from the start, as if she really didn’t want to be there. She looked and acted younger than ten—she probably wasn’t ready to spend two weeks away from home.
Hoping she wouldn’t say or do anything to release pent-up tears, Susannah knelt on the ground near Julia. “Finding anything?”
The small, curly head shook from side to side.
“I get days like that, too. I had about five years like that when I was just a bit older than you. I grew up on a farm in Manitoba. Not prime dinosaur country.”
“Wheat,” Julia muttered, still looking at the ground.
“Lots of wheat,” Susannah agreed. “But I was interested in paleontology, so I’d go out into a pasture, rope off an area and start digging.”
Julia glanced up. “But you didn’t find anything?”
“Not much. Rusted metal that broke off a plough about a hundred years ago. Bone from a bison. One summer I lucked out—found a pioneer garbage dump.”
Julia had stopped her halfhearted digging and was giving Susannah her full attention. She wrinkled her nose. “Yuck.”
“It wasn’t yucky. There were old medicine bottles and broken dishes and a pretty chamber pot with hand-painted flowers on it. Do you know what a chamber pot is?”
Julia shook her head.
“Maybe I shouldn’t tell you.”
The girl’s gaze intensified. “You can tell me.”
Susannah whispered in her ear. Julia drew back, her face twisted in pleased disgust. “Eew! With flowers on it?”
Susannah nodded. “Those pioneers must have had a sense of humor. The thing is, where I turned up bottles and dishes and chamber pots, you’ll turn up a hadrosaur bone.”
Using her geologist’s hammer and a chisel, she began to chip at the ground. Julia watched Susannah’s even motion and began to copy it. It wasn’t long before they uncovered the tip of a bone.
“Finally. A rib. We found this animal’s skull, its spinal column, and its tibia, but we couldn’t find its ribs. Good for you!”
Julia smiled up at Susannah, her glasses glinting in the sun. Smiling back, Susannah realized she had passed thirty minutes without a single thought about Alexander Blake.
THE SUN, STILL HOT, was in the west. A few plaster-coated specimens lay drying on the ground. Some of the children worked slowly, obviously tired; others sat together, resting and talking.
“James?” Susannah said. “I don’t see Matt.”
“Again? He’ll be around somewhere.”
“I told him not to go too far.”
“Your definition of too far and Matt’s are probably very different.” James raised his voice. “Matt!” He listened for an answer, then called again. “Matt, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll get back here pronto!” But no apologetic Matt, full of explanations, trotted back to the bonebed.
“I saw him near the dining shelter,” one boy said. “Maybe fifteen minutes ago.”
“He was just here, wasn’t he?” asked another camper. “Wasn’t he talking to Julia?”
Julia, her eyes huge, shook her head. She looked from James to Susannah, ready to panic.
One of the older girls said, “I was digging with him about an hour ago. He left to get some preservative, but he didn’t come back, so I just got it myself and kept working.” Uncertainly she added, “I guess I should have looked for him.”
“He’ll be somewhere nearby, Melissa.” Susannah spoke quietly to James. “Let’s take a quick look around. He could be behind any of these hills or walking along the riverbed—he found a vertebra there this morning. Maybe he went bone hunting again.”
When they didn’t find Matt near the quarry, in the dining shelter, supply tent, or back at the school bus, Susannah and James organized a more thorough search. Four pairs of one counselor and one camper fanned out from the quarry, carrying whistles as a simple form of communication. Hoping useful action would help ease the girl’s worry, Susannah asked Melissa to be her partner.
As she walked, Susannah thought about how often Matt had been told not to wander off. She hadn’t paid close enough attention to him. For most of the day, she’d been preoccupied with work and angry feelings about Alexander Blake, sometimes almost forgetting the children were there. In all the years the museum had run a science camp, no one had ever got lost.
Self-recrimination at this point was counterproductive. Nothing bad would happen to Matt. He was lost. They would find him. Later—alone and awake at night, or assessing the summer camp at the end-of-season board meeting—there would be lots of time for guilt.
They were nearly a mile from the quarry when Susannah noticed a pile of shale at the foot of a hill. Scraped ground leading to the top suggested someone had climbed up recently.
“Look at that, Melissa. I’ll bet Matt slid down the other side. He’s probably sitting happily in the shade, making sand castles.” She called Matt’s name, waited, then called again, louder.
“I think I heard something,” Melissa said eagerly. “It sounded really far away, though.”
“I’ll go up for a look. Wait here.”
Carefully Susannah edged up the side of the hill. At its crest she saw what she had been afraid of seeing: a hole about two feet across, with an uneven edge. She wriggled closer on her stomach and looked down into the stale darkness. “Matt?”
A faint voice reached her. “I’m down here!”
Susannah fumbled in her backpack for her flashlight and shone it down. There: a ghostly reflection. She called to Melissa, waiting at the base of the hill. “Have you got the whistle? Try to get someone’s attention—three blows means help.” She wished she could see Matt better. The flashlight’s beam barely reached him. “Are you hurt, Matt?”
“Get me outta here, Dr. Robb!” His voice quavered.
Get him out. Good idea. But how? From the sound of him, Matt couldn’t wait for the others to arrive, if they ever did arrive. There was no guarantee anyone would hear the whistle.
She could hear and see Matt, so the sinkhole wasn’t all that deep. She tried to estimate the distance to the pale face illuminated by her flashlight—thirteen feet, maybe more. Not a long enough drop to kill you, but long enough to hurt you, long enough to keep you stranded. She had to make sure Matt wasn’t hurt, reassure him, get him out.
His voice wafted up to her. “Dr. Robb? Are you there?”
“Of course I’m here. I won’t leave you.”
She couldn’t get him out. She could throw the flashlight down so he’d have light. She could send Melissa back to the quarry for help, and lie there with her head down the hole carrying on a long-distance conversation to keep Matt calm.
Bad idea. She didn’t want another child wandering alone in the badlands, and she wanted to have a good look at Matt, as soon as possible. He was talking, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t hurt.
She’d have to go in after him.
Her body tensed at the thought. She didn’t like heights or the dark or jumping. She didn’t like fast sports or danger. But here she was, proposing to plunge into a dark void. Without a net. Well, she wasn’t exactly a couch potato. She did a lot of on-the-job hiking and climbing. She was fit.
Again she shone the flashlight into the hole. About a yard from the top, she noticed a small outcropping. Here and there along the sides were uneven areas that might provide hand- and toeholds.
“Melissa, I need you up here.” She waited until the girl joined her at the top of the hill. “Lie on your stomach so your weight is spread out—the ground could cave in again. I’m going down to see if Matt’s okay, and I’ll try to help him out.” She spoke calmly, as if she were just going to walk down some stairs to check on him. “Be ready to give him a hand.” She tucked the flashlight into the backpack.
“Matt? Is the ground clear? I don’t want to land on rocks.”
Several seconds passed while she waited for his answer.
“It’s clear!”
“Move out of the way—I’m coming down.”
Susannah sat on the crumbling edge of the hole, feet dangling. I can’t do it. She willed her muscles to relax. Do it. She let go and felt herself falling. She hit the ground and rolled, and pain shot through her left ankle and shoulder. Seemingly very far above her, she saw a small circle of evening light, and Melissa’s anxious face. Two small hands clutched her.
“Are you okay, Dr. Robb?”
“I’m fine.” Cautiously she flexed her arms and legs. It didn’t take much movement to convince her she’d injured her shoulder and ankle. Not seriously, though. Grimacing, she sat up. “Throw down the backpack, Melissa!”
The pack landed with a thump near her feet. She retrieved the flashlight and shone it on Matt. Apart from a few blood- and sand-encrusted scrapes, he seemed to be in good shape.
“Are you mad at me, Dr. Robb?” One hand still clung to her shirtsleeve.
“Definitely. But it’s nothing you can’t survive.”
“I was hiking, like you did. I wanted to find another bonebed. Then I fell in and I thought, wow, there really are sinkholes.”
Susannah’s eyebrows rose in surprise. What did he think, sinkholes were the bogeymen of the badlands? She had a strong urge to give him a good, long lecture, even though she knew it wouldn’t do any good. Instead, she said, “I’ve got a plan. Are you any good at math?”
“Yeah.” Matt sounded puzzled.
“If there are enough stones down here to make a big pile to stand on, you plus me plus the stones should just about equal the height of that ledge near the mouth of the hole. See it?” She shone the flashlight upward.
Matt peered up into the faint light. “I think so.”
“If you can reach that ledge, Melissa will grab your hands. The sides of the sinkhole are closer together there. You can plant your feet against them and climb out.”
“I dunno…I’ll try.”
“That’s the spirit!”
Susannah shone the flashlight around the floor of the sinkhole. There were plenty of stones, large and small, scattered here and there. She didn’t want to think about what would have happened if she or Matt had hit a knee or head on one of them. “I’ll need your help to move some of these rocks, Matt.”
He sprang to her side and helped her roll and push some rocks into place. He seemed glad of a chance to demonstrate his strength. With some difficulty, Susannah climbed onto the pile. “Can you jump up on me, piggyback?”
“Sure.” Matt’s confidence was streaming back.
Susannah put one hand against the cold wall of the sinkhole, but she still swayed under Matt’s weight. She tried to ignore the stabbing pains that accompanied his climb. A pointed elbow, then a bony knee, dug into her. Fingers grasped her forehead. Their bodies swayed.
“I can’t reach,” he gasped, fear returning to his voice.
“You’re nearly there, Matt,” Melissa called. “A couple more inches. Stretch!”
Finally he was on the ledge. She waited, ready to break his fall if he couldn’t hold on. She heard scraping sounds and the children panting, then Melissa called, “I’ve got him!” Loosened sand rained down on Susannah’s head.
Two faces appeared at the mouth of the hole. “How are you getting out, Dr. Robb?”
She hadn’t planned that far. “I’ll just hang around here for a while. I’ve always wanted to study the ecosystem inside a sinkhole.” The children didn’t laugh. “So I’ll get started on that. Any sign of the others?”
“I don’t see anyone coming,” Melissa answered. “And I didn’t hear a whistle.”
“Then you two trot back to the quarry. Ask someone to look after Matt’s knee, and to come back for me. Tell them if they bring a couple of tent poles and a rope, I should be able to climb out.”
Matt seemed unwilling to go. “Maybe I should stay and keep you company.”
“I want the two of you to stick together.”
As soon as the children left, there was total silence. Susannah stood in an eerie puddle of light thrown by her flashlight. “At least I hope I’ll be able to climb the rope. I was never much good at it in gym class.”
She picked up her backpack, wincing when she put weight on her ankle. It was beginning to swell over the top of her shoe. Bending down, she loosened the lace but left the shoe on for support.
She shone the flashlight around the ground and the walls. “The bad news is, I’m all alone down here. And the good news is I’m all alone down here.” Black widow spiders and rattlesnakes liked the damp coolness of sinkholes.
It was a narrow hole, irregularly carved by rainwater that had soaked in from the top and chiseled through the rock until it forced its way out somewhere along the hill’s sides. The inner walls were layered in the same distinctive way as the outside: there were beige and ocher seams of sandstone, gray mudstone, black coal and whitish-gray volcanic ash. She could even see the reddish K-T Boundary, the layer of sediment that was like a lid closed on the dinosaur world. No dinosaur fossils were found above it.
“This is creepy. That’s my scientific conclusion. I’ve observed, I’ve gathered data, and I’ve concluded that sinkholes are creepy.”
She decided to check the floor to make sure there were no soft spots that might cave in to a deeper hole. Sometimes seeping rain carved out a series of openings until the water reached an underground stream. She had almost finished her inspection when her injured foot twisted on a damp rock, sending waves of pain up her leg. She gasped and dropped the flashlight. It went out.
“Oh, no.” Susannah eased down onto her knees and felt the ground for the flashlight. She found it and flicked the switch. Nothing. She twisted its head to be sure it was tight. She shook it. It shone faintly for a moment, then went out. And stayed out.
She sat still, her breathing audible, her senses instantly alert. The sudden darkness seemed endless and full of threat. Sitting in the middle of the sinkhole floor, she felt like a target. Slowly she crept along the uneven ground until the rock wall was at her back.
It was so dark. There was nothing like the darkness of a hole in the ground. It was different from the darkness of night. Blackness thick enough to pick up by the handful. She turned her face to the opening far above her. She would keep her eyes on the small circle of light.
“It’s just the same place it was a second ago,” she whispered. “No more holes, no snakes, no tyrannosaurs. Darkness is a good thing. Nature’s protection. Of course there are predators, like owls, that hunt very successfully in the dark. Not that there are any owls here. And not that I’m a rodent.”
Alex Blake would understand…she never would have thought that could happen. In one of his articles—the one about finding a Paleolithic cave by accident, while hunting for fossils—he’d mentioned the dank darkness only found underground. The words flowed back to her…blackness before and behind us, pressing against our eyes, creeping into our lungs, cocooning us, or entombing us…the monsters that politely stay under the beds and in the closets of modern children knew no rules here.
He’d had company, though, and he and his friends hadn’t been trapped. Curious and hopeful, with a sense of adventure rather than fear, they had climbed through a winding passage until they were delivered into a large, high-ceilinged cave. Red and yellow ocher and black charcoal figures had flickered in the beams of their flashlights, appearing to move as the light played over them.
Even though she disliked Blake’s pop paleontology approach, the story had excited her. She had seen the glowing pictures in her mind’s eye. She had wanted to be the one who first held up the flickering light to see a painted aurochs galloping toward her. Was is possible she was a little jealous of the man? It was an unpleasant idea. She wasn’t used to feeling petty.
It seemed like a very long time since Matt and Melissa had left for the quarry. “With his sore knee, Matt might be slow,” Susannah said. “They’d have to explain, and James would have to take down a tent to get the poles, then find his way here. It could take an hour and a half, maybe more. They won’t be much longer, though, and when they get here, I’ll scurry up the rope like a chimpanzee and that will be that. Teatime.”
She tried not to think about the other possibility—that James might not find her before nightfall. If that happened, he’d have to put off the search until morning.
CHAPTER THREE
THE LIGHT AT THE MOUTH of the sinkhole was fading. Susannah shivered. A chill had crept into her bones. She wished she were at home, in her bed, with soft blankets around her. Books and sweet-smelling flowers on the bedside table. Music—something slow and tragic? Billie Holiday? Something calm and balanced? Bach, Pachelbel? Chocolate bars…
She went still. There were scraping, dragging sounds overhead. Bobcat? She sprang to her feet, setting off a new wave of pain. “James?”
A head blotted out the light, and a familiar, teasing voice drifted down to her. “Whatcha doin’, angel?”
“Oh, bit of this, bit of that.” Her voice shook. “What about you?”
“Nothing much. I’ve been out walking.”
“The flashlight died, James. I’ve been here in the dark.”
His tone changed. “We’ve brought the tent poles. We’ll get the rope secured right away. It has knots every couple of feet…can you climb a rope, Sue?”
“Sure.” It had sounded like a good idea a while ago, when she was still awash with adrenaline from jumping in after Matt. Now it seemed ridiculous.
“It’s all yours.”
Susannah felt for the rope and reached above her head for a knot. Stifling a groan, she pulled herself up until her feet clasped a knot, too. She waited for protesting nerves to stop yelling, then, trying to keep most of her weight on her good arm and leg, she felt for the next knot and pulled with her arms and pushed with her feet again.
Getting out of the hole was worse than staying in it. The rope dug into her hands, scraping her skin. Sharp pains stabbed through her ankle and shoulder with each push and pull of the climb.
Her face drew closer to the light. She could feel fresh air tantalizingly close. One more knot, then the poles. All I have to do is grab them and swing. Up and out. She knew she couldn’t do it. If she let go of the rope to reach for the metal tent poles, she would fall.
“James?” Her voice wavered. “I can’t—”
A pair of strong arms reached toward her and grasped her securely. Her right arm hooked around his shoulder, but the left, weakened by the climb, dangled. She felt his muscles flexing under the soft cloth of his shirt as he pulled her over the edge. They both fell to the ground, and she half lay on a pair of denim-clad legs. She kept still for a moment, feeling the burning of her muscles and the firmness of the ground beneath her. As she rested, she realized this couldn’t be James, unless a massive dose of steroids had transformed his build in the past few hours.
She looked up, knowing whose face she’d see, but needing proof. The eyes were the clincher, intensely blue—too blue to be real, she’d always thought. His arm was firmly around her. When she drew away, he let go.
Cobalt-blue? She didn’t really know what shade cobalt was, but that was the color that occurred to her. Those eyes had emptied her mind thirteen years ago. She’d seen them while she carefully chiseled and brushed. She’d seen them while she waited to fall asleep in her tent at night. Then the field assignment had ended and she had forgotten all about them. Not true. She’d seen them in the pages of her textbooks that first term back at the university. Eventually, she had forgotten all about them.
He hadn’t changed…hardly at all. Sandy hair, traces of red highlighted by the evening sun…she had always wanted to touch it, slide her fingers through it. An outdoor face, tanned, with laugh lines in the corners of the eyes…the lines were new. She had forgotten what it was like to be near him. Magazine photographs, showing him three inches tall and frozen in two dimensions, only hinted at his energy and strength.
She realized she was staring. Aware of his hard, warm body half under hers, she moved sharply, grimacing when pain shot through her shoulder.
“Hang on. I’ve got you.” His voice was kind. That was new. He’d sounded different in Australia—edgy, intense. He untangled his legs from hers and his arms came around her again as he helped her sit up. “You’re chilled through.” He pulled a blanket from his backpack and wrapped it around her shoulders. Her skin tingled where he touched her.
She heard James’s anxious voice behind her. “Are you okay, Sue?”
“I’m fine.” She hadn’t expected to feel like this. It was as if no time had elapsed since the Australian quarry ended. She felt twenty again, bowled over by the most charismatic man she’d ever met, and too inexperienced to figure out how to handle it.
“I’m sorry we were so long getting to you,” James said.
“That’s okay.” An odd cloud around her muffled everything. She closed her eyes, willing it away. If it were just the two of them, just herself and James, she’d be all right.
“It took a while to organize the kids and get the tent poles,” he continued. “It’s amazing how similar all these hills look when there’s a person you want to find in one of them. We climbed several—didn’t we, Alex?—till we found the right one.”
Alex. So he and James were already friends. Bonding quickly in a crisis. She didn’t want James to like this man. “Are Matt and Melissa all right?”
“Safe and sound. Everybody’s back at the camp, except Matt. Diane took him to town so the doctor could have a quick look at him.”
“Diane was here?”
“She showed me the way to the bonebed,” Alex explained. “We got there at the same time as the kids. She was alarmed when they told us you were down a sinkhole. She said you’re afraid of the dark.”
It was true, but an embarrassing thing to hear said aloud.
“I should introduce myself—I’m Alexander Blake.”
“Yes.”
Her vague answer provoked an exchange of worried glances between the two men. Susannah wondered why Blake had come to the quarry and why Diane had agreed to bring him. She edged closer to James. “Trust Matt to find a sinkhole.”
James grinned. “I’ll bet he could find one anywhere. Like those pigs that nose out truffles.”
Susannah meant to smile. Instead, she started to cry. She stopped right away, but a few tears were there for Blake to see. He sat back on one heel, leaning an elbow on one bent knee, looking at her assessingly. What was he thinking? That she was a lot of trouble? That she was a mess? That she’d really screwed up the day, running off in a snit and needing to be helped out of a sinkhole?
“I don’t like the look of this,” he said to James. “She seems dazed and emotional. That could indicate a head injury.”
“I didn’t hit my head.”
“Are you sure?” His voice was gentle, warmer than the blanket. “Sometimes when things happen quickly, dangerous things, the mind can’t handle all the information at once. You could hit your head and not be aware of it at first.”
“I’m sure I didn’t.” Was her behavior so odd that only a head injury could explain it? Susannah tried to pull herself together. She’d wanted to meet Blake while she was at work over a prize hadrosaur skeleton or busy at her desk, on her territory, on her terms. Not like this.
“I suppose it’s shock, then,” he said. “It’s no wonder, after the evening you’ve had. I’d like to check you over before you move around too much, just to be on the safe side.”
He reached into his backpack again and brought out a first-aid kit, then scanned her body from head to toe. He’d never really seen her before, not even when she’d put on blush and lipstick before heading to the quarry each day all those years ago, but he was taking a good look now. Now, when dust and sand clung to her, and her ankle was puffed up like a huge white slug. He didn’t seem to recognize her. Not so great for the ego, on the one hand, a relief that her fiasco of a summer had slipped his mind, on the other.
His long, tanned fingers curved around her hands, turning them over to expose abrasions inflicted by the rope. “It’s probably best to leave those alone for now. There’s not much bleeding. Let’s have a look at your arm.”
Alex unfastened the top two buttons of her blouse and eased the cloth away from her shoulder. “Ouch,” he said quietly, when he saw the bruises that reached toward her neck. “I doubt anything’s broken, or you wouldn’t have been able to climb the rope as far as you did. I’ll fasten a sling to take the pressure off your shoulder. James, would you wrap a tensor bandage around her ankle? Figure eight. Right over the shoe for now.”
He was taking charge, just as expected. James ran the science camp; James knew the canyon. If anyone was going to get bossy, it should be James.
“It’s a long walk out of here,” Alex said. “Good thing we brought the truck.”
“You brought the truck?” That news jolted Susannah out of her daze. For years she’d protected the delicate fossils that might lie just under the surface. Now Blake had threatened them his first day on the job. “Think of the damage you’ve done!”
He seemed surprised by her outburst. “We thought you might be hurt.”
“And you are,” James pointed out.
Susannah looked past the two men and saw the roof of the pickup’s cab at the base of the hill. If it had been just one path, two tire tracks from the bonebed to the hill, at least the damage would have been limited, but James had said they’d taken a few wrong turns looking for her. Who knew what specimens they’d crushed under those tires…a juvenile hadrosaur, a nesting site, a clue to the dinosaurs’ extinction…
Still, they had a point. She couldn’t have walked all the way back to the parking area.
Leaning on James, she pushed herself up, putting her weight on her uninjured foot. Alex rose, too, keeping a steadying hand under her elbow. Susannah was tall, accustomed to being as tall as many of the men she met, but when she turned to thank him, she found she was looking directly at his stubble-covered chin. She had to tilt her head to look into those steady blue eyes. Steel-blue?
Almost as a reflex, she felt for her backpack. When she realized she didn’t have it, she glanced toward the sinkhole.
“Did you leave something down there?”
“My backpack…”
Before she could add that she didn’t really need it, Alex had pulled on a pair of leather work gloves and eased himself down between the tent poles. Dangling from one hand, he gripped the rope with the other and disappeared. Moments later, she saw his hands on the poles again. He easily swung himself up onto the ground, her backpack hanging from one shoulder. “Cold and nasty down there.”
“It could have been worse.”
He nodded. “You could have had some dangerous company. Now we’ll get you to the doctor and then home. A couple of pain pills and bed sound good?”
“I’d just as soon skip the doctor.”
“You could wait and see how you feel tomorrow, but I think it’s safer to go tonight.”
She knew he was right. What if something were broken, rather than sprained? The main thing was getting some distance from Blake. Once they got to the road, he and James could go their own ways, and she could get to the hospital by herself. Then, after a good night’s sleep, she would turn back into a thirty-three-year-old scientist who was perfectly capable of handling anything life threw at her.
“HAD A RUN-IN with a tyrannosaurus, did you?” Bob Smythe made a variation of the same joke every time someone from the museum came in with injuries.
“If you think I look bad, you should see the T-Rex.”
The doctor shone a flashlight in Susannah’s eyes. “Headache? Nausea? Faintness?”
“No, nothing like that.” She was beginning to feel normal again. Stiff and aching everywhere, but herself. “Bob, did you see Matt, the boy from the camp? Is he all right?”
“He’ll be fine. From what I could tell, he couldn’t wait to get back and entertain the other kids around the campfire.” Bob turned his attention to her ankle. “Who was that who brought you in? He looked familiar.”
“That’s my new boss. Alexander Blake.”
“Of course. I saw him on TV a while ago, on a program about a carnivore that was bigger than the T-Rex. Hard to imagine.”
Bob picked up a chart and began writing. “You were lucky this time, Susannah. I wouldn’t recommend that you try a jump like that again. A nurse will bandage your hands, and I’ll order a strong painkiller for tonight. We’ll get you a crutch, although with two sprains on the same side of your body, walking will still be difficult. Get in touch with Outpatients if you decide you need a wheelchair. You’ll have to take it easy for a while—keep your foot elevated, your shoulder immobilized, your hands clean and dry.”
Take it easy? The consequences of her injuries hadn’t occurred to Susannah yet. “No digging?”
“You’re joking, right? Absolutely no digging.”
SUSANNAH WATCHED DROWSILY as the headlights swept past the town, the stands of cottonwood, clusters of rounded hills and the occasional hoodoo. Soon she would be home, and Blake would disappear. He hadn’t disappeared when they’d got to the parking area outside the gully, but he would disappear after he took her home. She would crawl into bed and stay there till Christmas.
“Friendly emergency room.” His voice sounded soft in the darkness of the leather-upholstered car. No edge at all.
Susannah closed her eyes, too tired to talk. If she had gone to his meeting, she would be at home sleeping by now. She wouldn’t have told Matt about taking lots of long walks to find fossils, and he might not have wandered so far from the bonebed. The worst part of her day would have been listening to Blake’s plans for the museum. The next time she had an impulse, she would make a point of ignoring it.
“Everyone I’ve run into in town seems interested in the work we do,” Alex went on. “On Saturday, I was in that little grocery store on Main. The lady who runs it— Dorothy—packed my groceries, told me the history of paleontology in the area, and brought me up-to-date on world events, all at no extra charge. Several other people, who didn’t seem to be there to shop, wanted to know what’s going on at every quarry.”
Reluctantly Susannah opened her eyes and tried to do her part for the conversation. “It’s a small town. Everybody knows one another.”
“And one another’s business, I suppose.”
“I’m not sure about that. People probably manage to keep a few secrets.”
“Where do I turn?”
“At the next road. Left.” Five minutes, tops, and he’d be gone. It would be a relief to let her guard down. “Here we are.”
Susannah hadn’t expected to be out after dark, so she’d left the yard light off. It was difficult to see where the road ended and the ditch began. Alex nosed onto the driveway and drove slowly to the front of the house. “I’ll leave the headlights on so you can see to get in.”
Susannah swung the passenger door open as soon as they stopped. “Thanks for everything, Dr. Blake.” She tried to maneuver her way out of the car, but the left half of her body was no help at all. Alex was at her side before her good foot hit the ground. He helped her to stand, and waited while she struggled with the crutch. She leaned her whole weight on it, hopped a few inches forward, then rested.
“Can you manage?”
“I think so.” Inch by inch, she made her way to the house. She stopped when she reached the porch steps. They looked impassable. They were impassable.
“Need a lift?”
She tried to smile. “I’m being punished.”
“For what?”
“For skipping your meeting.”
After a brief silence, he said calmly, “You must have really wanted to avoid me.”
“I really did.”
“So…if that had worked better today, what were you going to do about tomorrow?”
“I didn’t think that far ahead.” She took a deep breath. “It was a mistake. A very childish mistake. I apologize.”
“It’s probably not as bad as all that. Shall we just get this transportation business over with, then?”
Susannah nodded. Alex lifted her easily. He carried her up the few steps and through the screened porch to the front door. He set her down, holding her until she regained her balance.
“I don’t have my keys. They’re in my desk.” She always locked her valuables in her office when she went to the quarry, just taking the truck’s keys and her driver’s license with her. She kept an extra house key hidden, but she didn’t like to broadcast where.
Alex looked around the darkened porch. Two wicker chairs sat at the far end, separated by a round wicker table. “I’ll pull a chair over so you can get off that foot while I look for a way in.”
Susannah hesitated, then pointed toward the wall of the house. “There’s a spare key behind one of those boards.”
“One of these?” Alex touched several of the wide cedar planks. One responded, just barely moving inward. He hooked his fingers underneath and pulled. It came away in his hand revealing a small cavity, and a key. He unlocked the front door, felt for a switch and flicked it on. Soft light filled the living room.
Most of the house—the living room, the shadowed kitchen and dining area beyond and the bedroom loft above—could be seen at a glance. Light sandy walls, hardwood floors and a few patterned rugs in shades of burnt sienna and ocher repeated the colors found in the layered stone of the badlands. Through the living room’s large window, distant pillars and giant toadstools of rock glowed in the moonlight. The house’s interior had a soothing effect, but the view outside was eerie and unsettling.
“Thank you for all your help, Dr. Blake. Again, I’m sorry about the meeting.”
“Will you be all right now?”
“I’ll flake out on the sofa. Anything more complicated can wait till tomorrow.” He was standing just inside the house, and she couldn’t shut the door. Shutting it would be tricky, anyway—her one good hand was clutching the crutch and her one good foot was keeping her upright.
“I think I should stay until you’re settled. You could fall—”
“Dr. Blake,” she began, making an effort to keep her voice civil, “I appreciate your help. But I managed to deal with life before you arrived today, and I can continue to do so.” Her voice started to rise. There didn’t seem to be anything she could do about it. “James could have helped me out of the sinkhole and taken me to the hospital and brought me home, and when I said good-night, he would have known that meant he should leave—”
She stopped abruptly. Part of her wanted to keep going; part of her wished she hadn’t said a thing. She sank onto the sofa’s soft cushions.
“I’m not sure what’s going on here,” Alex said slowly. “Is this about the job? I heard you were short-listed—”
“I was more than short-listed.”
He nodded as if he understood. “It was down to the two of us, was it? Well, that would be a disappointment.” He stared at her, frowning. “I can see I should have let James take care of things tonight. I tend to jump in headfirst, and find out later whether or not it’s a good idea. Like you, I suppose.”
Susannah’s sudden anger faded, leaving her more tired than before. She didn’t bother explaining that she almost never jumped headfirst into anything. This had been the least typical day of her life. “We’re letting bugs in.”
Alex shut the door, leaving himself on the wrong side of it. “Look, Dr. Robb, it’s clear you’re going to need help. Why don’t you just give me directions? After you’re settled in, I’ll get out of your hair.”
It was past midnight. She couldn’t call anyone else to help her. If she only needed to sleep, she could manage, but she was filthy and hungry, too. “I’d like to wash. While I do that, would you mind finding something for me to eat?”
“No problem. Can you walk to the bathroom by yourself?”
“I think so.”
She struggled to her feet and made her way to the kitchen, pausing by the aquarium to feed the fish. Their dinner had never come so late. She watched the surface feeders leaping at the flakes and wondered where she would find the energy to walk the rest of the way to the bathroom.
“Alex?”
He had started rummaging in the fridge. He straightened, a bag of oranges in hand. Without a word, he picked her up, crutch and all, and headed to the bathroom. He set her down carefully, then leaned over to put in the plug and turn on the taps. An assortment of bottles crowded a shelf over the tub. “Do you want bubbles?”
She nodded. Without the use of her hands, bubble bath was as close as she’d get to soap. He chose the bottle closest to him and poured a generous amount of liquid into the water gushing from the faucet. Soft bubbles started to form, and a lavender scent filled the room.
He gestured toward the window, almost level with the side of the tub. “That’s unusual. Don’t you feel like you’re onstage when you bathe?”
“It’s the back of the house. No one ever goes by. I can close the blind if I want more privacy.”
He stared outside. “You can see hoodoos from here.”
“And stars.”
When the tub was three-quarters full, with bubbles reaching to the rim, Alex turned off the taps. “I guess you can…look after the rest of the procedure?”
Susannah blushed. “I’ll be fine.”
As soon as the door closed, she struggled out of the shoulder sling, the tensor bandage and her sand-encrusted clothes. Balancing on one foot, and holding her left arm across her chest, she sank thankfully into the soothing water. Dust and dirt from the quarry and the sinkhole had settled into her skin, glued to her by the sunscreen she had applied so liberally. She could only hope the grime would dissolve on its own.
She gazed tiredly at the view framed by the window. The whitish wash of the Milky Way, made pale by the moon, curved through the sky. Absentmindedly, she found the Big Dipper and used it to trace an imaginary line toward the huge, far-distant star, Deneb, and the two other stars of the Summer Triangle, Vega and Altair. She tried to visualize the different constellations to which the three stars belonged: Cygnus the swan, Lyra the harp and Delphinus the dolphin, but, as usual, the fanciful shapes eluded her imagination.
Blake hadn’t just taken the job she wanted—he had rescued her. She didn’t know which was worse. He didn’t stay in his own space like most people, at his own desk and his own quarry, quiet and focused. When he was on the scene, he was everywhere. And there was a complication. He was kind.
WHY HAD HE THOUGHT he was the obvious person to help a strange woman get ready for bed? He hadn’t thought about it, that was the problem. He’d just swooped in on his jungle vine. That was Heather’s phrase, from the early days, when she’d still liked his tendency to do that.
At least he knew why Dr. Robb hadn’t made it to his meeting, or prepared a project report. In a way, her obvious resentment was refreshing. Some people would have hidden their anger behind cold eyes and a tight smile, and waited for a good chance to trip him.
The confusing thing was, when they’d talked on the phone last week, Bruce Simpson had told him Susannah was reliable, the person Alex could count on most for any help he needed. How could he count on someone who was so mad she couldn’t stand to be anywhere near him?
He knocked on the bathroom door and heard a startled splash. “Dr. Robb? I’ve pulled out the sofa bed. Can you tell me where to find sheets?”
“In the cupboard upstairs.” Her voice sounded strained. “Fourth shelf.”
He found the cupboard easily, tucked between the sleeping area and a computer nook. His hand hovered over a plain white sheet set, then moved to a pair with pink rosebuds. His mother liked flowery things. Maybe they’d cheer up Dr. Robb.
Now for a blanket—the sinkhole had chilled her, and the nights could get surprisingly cool. There were two deep drawers under the shelves. One was full of scarves, mitts and hats; the other held blankets. He felt his way through the pile and chose one that was relatively lightweight. As he pushed the drawer shut, something not quite covered by the blankets caught his eye. He crouched to look closer.
Reaching into the drawer, he picked up a stonelike object. It was a coiled ammonite, about twelve inches in diameter, a common fossil whose presence in a rock sample could help date it. Other fossils sat at the bottom of the drawer: a trilobite, a cluster of clam shells imprinted in limestone, a fern leaf in a flat slab of coal, another piece of limestone bearing a rough pattern that looked like fish scales.
An odd collection for a Cretaceous herbivore specialist, and an odd place to keep it. One by one, Alex lifted the pieces to get a better look. They were real, not copies. Not rare, not particularly valuable. He pushed the drawer shut and stood frowning at it. Most paleontologists kept a few fossils around. They probably weren’t important.
Grabbing a couple of pillows from the bed, he returned to the living room. He could hear the bathtub water draining, so he made the sofa bed quickly, leaving the top sheet and blanket untucked so they wouldn’t be tight against her injured ankle. He was fluffing the pillows when Susannah hobbled into the living room.
The sight of a blanket that had shared space with hidden fossils didn’t seem to worry her. She looked vulnerable—exhausted, struggling to keep her composure, her hair still full of sand and a soft, blue nightgown draping her body. She brought a faint scent of bubble bath into the room with her. Alex felt an unexpected surge of desire, complicated by an even less expected tug of tenderness. Surprised at himself, he shut the feeling down.
Avoiding his eyes, she eased herself onto the bed and leaned back against the raised pillows. She’d slipped the sling back on, but she hadn’t been able to manage the bandage around her ankle. Alex found it in a pile of sandy clothes on the bathroom counter. He shook most of the sand into the sink, then returned to the living room.
“That’s really not necessary,” she said, as he approached the bed. “I’ll have to shower in the morning to get the sand out of my hair, and I’ll just have to take it off again.”
She seemed flustered, and she was blushing again. There was something familiar about her, but Alex was sure they hadn’t met before. “Your ankle will swell more overnight without support. If that happens, you’ll have to wait even longer before you can get back to the quarry.”
“I suppose you’re right.”
“It won’t hurt to put it on, you know. It’ll feel better.” He lifted the covers away from her ankle and began rolling the bandage around her foot. When his hand brushed her toes, she shivered.
“Cold? I’m almost done.” He kept his eyes on her ankle, away from the curve of her leg above her knee, and the flimsy nightgown that didn’t cover her all that well. Halfway up her calf, he fastened the end of the bandage with two thin metal clips, then pulled the covers back in place. “Comfortable?”
“Yes. Thanks.” She lifted a bandaged hand to cover a yawn.
“Think you can stay awake to eat your dinner, such as it is?”
“I’m starving.”
“It’ll just be a minute.”
A peeled and sectioned orange, and a raisin scone cut in half and spread with butter and strawberry jam already waited on a tray in the kitchen. Alex poured simmering soup into a mug and carried the tray to the living room.
“I strained the noodles out of the soup, so you could drink it. A spoon seemed a bit much for you right now.”
“Thank you.” Holding the mug awkwardly, she sipped the warm broth. “You’ve been very nice, Dr. Blake.” She sounded grateful, but surprised, as if the big bad wolf had declined to gobble her up on the way to her grandmother’s.
“I’m glad to help.” Alex relaxed in an armchair near the sofa bed. He was tempted to mention the fossils in her cupboard drawer. Almost certainly, she’d have an innocent explanation and he could forget about them. The trouble was, her explanation could be a lie, and then he’d have warned her of his suspicions.
“Why did you go out to my quarry this evening?” she asked. “Were you looking for me because of the meeting?”
“Someone from your team called the museum for help. Amy, I think? When you didn’t get back to the bonebed after looking for Matt, she went out to the road, away from the gully, where her cell phone would work.”
“I guess we should have done that earlier.”
“You rescued Matt. That’s the main thing. I just wish it hadn’t taken us so long to find you.”
Susannah yawned and the mug tilted. Alex jumped up and caught it, then lifted the tray to the end table. She slid down in the bed and curled up on her uninjured side.
“I can’t stay awake anymore,” she muttered. “Could you bring my alarm clock down, and set it? For seven?” Her eyes closed. In seconds, she was asleep.
Quickly Alex did a few chores. He shook her clothes out the back door to get rid of the worst of the sand, then put them in the laundry room. He swept the bathroom floor and rinsed away the sand he’d left in the sink. She hadn’t managed to eat much of her meal. He put the leftover food in the fridge and washed the dishes.
Was there anything else she needed? Painkillers. He found a bottle of acetaminophen and set it on the table beside the sofa bed, along with a glass of water. Remembering how weak her left arm was, he removed the bottle’s childproof lid. There was a pen and some paper by the phone. He scribbled a quick note and propped it against the water glass. Gently, careful not to wake her, he pulled the blanket around her shoulders.
The blanket rose and fell slightly as she breathed. She looked soft and unprotected, as if she didn’t have an angry or defensive bone in her body. Tangled, sand-filled hair had escaped here and there from her braid. Alex was surprised by an almost overwhelming urge to trace the pattern of freckles over her nose.
There was no way she was a fossil poacher.
CHAPTER FOUR
ALEX ROLLED OUT OF BED and tugged the top sheet more or less straight before heading to the kitchen. The one-bedroom suite, with its discolored linoleum and chipped porcelain kitchen sink, had been the only place he could find to rent on short notice. It was luxurious compared to his last home. During the months he spent at a quarry in Mongolia, he’d cooked over a camp stove, washed from a metal basin and shared a tent with a variety of six-legged roommates. Sometimes, especially after a few months in the city, he thought that was the best way to live.
He shook some Cheerios into a bowl and sloshed in some milk. The kitchen window faced north, so rather than enjoying a view of the foothills or the badlands while he ate, Alex looked out at a line of beige brick buildings. In the distance, he could see deciduous woods and rolling meadows. A herd of Charolais cattle, as small as plastic toys, grazed in one of the fields, white splotches against the green.
It was nothing like Susannah Robb’s view. Her place was small and comfortable, but sprouting on the edge of the badlands the way it did, it had a feeling of wildness, too. Maybe he could stay put and work in one place for as long as Bruce Simpson had if he lived in a house that didn’t crush him. Or maybe not.
The sun was still low when Alex headed to the museum, fifteen minutes from town. It had been a short night, but he had too much adrenaline in his bloodstream to feel tired. He was glad to see that the staff parking lot was empty. Aware that he might not be alone for long, Alex quickly let himself into the museum, then into the prep lab.
Labeled cupboards ringed the main room, and heavy metal shelves holding bones and rock stood in rows at one end. Most of the space was filled by wide worktables with overhead lamps the technicians could raise and lower as needed. A second room, where skeletons were put together, branched off from the first.
Surprised that more advanced technology hadn’t found its way onto such an important door, Alex sorted through a ring of jangling keys to find the one that would unlock the fossil storage room. This room was larger than the other two. It had to be, when a single bone could be as large as an average human. On the other hand, some of the fossils could fit in his pocket.
Security cameras recorded traffic in and out. The door was kept locked at all times. Individual drawers inside the room were locked and a locked mesh protected specimens stored on shelves. Stealing from this room wouldn’t be a casual affair, but Bruce Simpson thought someone had managed it. The board was clinging to a hope that the discrepancies in the collection were due to honest mistakes.
Alex decided to double-check Bruce’s findings first. He opened one of the drawers of Diane McKay’s samples. They came from a black shale deposit in the Rockies, an area that had been under water millions of years ago, before the earth’s plates had crunched together, forcing it into the sky. Boneless organisms weren’t usually preserved. These gave a rare glimpse into ancient invertebrate life.
The label on the outside said the drawer contained pieces of shale with thirty-five one-inch-long Marella imprints. The drawer looked full. Handling the specimens carefully, Alex counted. Just as Bruce had said, there were only thirty-one. He checked the next drawer, which was supposed to hold eleven Hallucigenia, a cylindrical creature with seven pairs of tentacles.
There were nine.
The Opabinia was the rarest of the Burgess Shale fossils. Seven specimens should be here. Aware of tension he hadn’t noticed earlier, Alex unlocked the drawer and pulled it open.
Six.
It was the same in several drawers that held groups of small fossils. Instead of ten oyster-laden pieces of shale, there were eight. Instead of thirty small brachiopods, there were twenty-five. Someone had been confident that a casual glimpse in the drawers wouldn’t reveal the loss of a few specimens. The brachiopods wouldn’t fill anybody’s bank account, but the Burgess Shale fossils were well worth the risk.
Alex paced away, too angry to continue counting. He’d spent his adult life finding and studying fossils, trying to build an image of a very different world through keyhole glimpses and guesses. Most of the people he knew did the same thing. He couldn’t imagine the greed that let someone destroy that work. Not just anyone. Someone on staff, who understood the harm he or she was doing.
He flipped through the circulation log, checking who had signed specimens in and out of the storage room. He went back days, then weeks. There was no record of the brachiopods or oysters being borrowed, but three people had recently taken out Burgess Shale specimens. Diane, of course, someone called C.W. Adams from the University of Alberta, and one of the lab technicians, who had only signed her first name—Marie. Diane and Marie had signed the fossils back in the same day they looked at them. C.W. Adams, whoever he or she was, had taken several specimens to the university. Would it help to watch security tapes from the days in question? If the images were clear enough to show the actual number of specimens being removed from, and returned to, the drawers—
“What in the hell are you doing?” The voice was loud and angry.
Alex looked calmly toward the open door. “Morning, Charlie.”
“What are you doing, skulking in here—”
“Skulking?”
“The lights are off, there’s nobody here to see what you’re up to—”
“The cameras can see.”
Charlie stopped quivering at the door and stalked into the room. “There’s a system here, Dr. Blake, a rather intricate cataloguing system. Until you understand it, you shouldn’t be here alone. It’s very easy to mess things up and then the whole thing falls apart—”
Surprised by the conservator’s rudeness, Alex said mildly, “I’ve put everything back the way I found it.”
“As far as you know.” Charlie started pulling drawer handles. “Have you locked up after yourself? We have a security system in place—”
“I’m acquainted with the security system.”
Something in Alex’s voice caught Charlie’s attention. He took a deep breath, then spoke more calmly. “Everything seems to be locked.”
“I made sure of it. The board has asked me to do an inventory—”
That set Charlie off again. “Why didn’t they ask me? It’s my system. I don’t want people in the lab when it’s not open. That’s asking for trouble.” He tilted his head toward the door. “Ready to go?”
Bruce had warned Alex that Charlie tended to be territorial. He’d been running the lab for so long he seemed to forget it wasn’t his personal property. For now, Alex was willing to keep the peace. “I’ll have to continue the inventory, though, so prepare yourself for regular company.”
As he stepped out of the storage room, Alex nearly bumped into a woman just outside the door. His hands reached out to steady her. He took in, at a glance, blond hair twisted into a chignon, smooth, tanned skin and curves apparent even under a lab coat.
“My fault,” she said, a little breathlessly. “I was eavesdropping. What a horrible job they’ve given you. Can I help?”
“I appreciate the offer, but I don’t want to take you from your work.” Alex realized he was still steadying the woman, even though it was no longer necessary. He dropped his hands and took a step back. “I saw you at the staff meeting yesterday. I’m afraid I don’t remember your name.”
She held out a slender hand. “Carol Hughes. I’m a technician here in the lab.”
“Would you have time for coffee this afternoon?”
She smiled. “I’ve got lots of time. For coffee, for a sandwich, for a few days in Bermuda.”
SUSANNAH’S EYES JERKED OPEN. Bright hot midmorning sunlight filled the house. She wasn’t in the loft—she was on the living room sofa bed. She lay still and sifted through jumbled impressions, trying to sort out what had happened.
Blake. Alexander Blake had happened. He’d pulled her out of the sinkhole, he’d brought her home, and he’d tucked her in. She groaned softly at the memory. Never let the competition tuck you in.
While she’d slept, Susannah’s bruised shoulder had set like cement. Painfully she pulled herself up in the bed. Sand sprinkled from her hair onto the sheet when she moved. Under the bandages, scabs had formed on her palms, stiffening her hands. She edged her legs over the side of the bed and flicked off the metal clips fastening the tensor. Her ankle was vividly colored. Shades of purple, blue and red spread out like a sunrise.
“I made a mess of yesterday,” she muttered to her toes. “Why did I let him get to me?” She knew how to get along with colleagues and employers, even if they were difficult. She never acted on impulse. Maybe never was pushing it. She rarely acted on impulse, precisely because she messed things up when she did.
Her clock radio sat on the end table, calmly beaming the time—ten-fifteen. The alarm hadn’t gone off. She was more than two hours late for work, she could hardly move, and she had enough sand in her hair to bury a brontosaurus.
She saw the note first, then the water and the open bottle of pills. Thankfully, she shook two tablets into her hand and transferred them to her mouth, lips against gauze. She needed both hands to manage the glass. Even then, she nearly dropped it.
The note was next. Large sprawling letters covered the page.
Dr. Robb,
You were sound asleep before I put away your dinner tray. I took the liberty of leaving the alarm off in the belief that sleep is in your best interests. Please take some time off—let those injuries heal. I’ll tell James you won’t be at the quarry for a while.
Alex Blake
Susannah let the paper drop onto the bed. She would have to disappoint him. Taking time off was out of the question. She wanted to check on Matt, and she had a quarry to run. More importantly, she had to behave noticeably like a grown-up in Blake’s presence.
It was nearly noon by the time she was able to get to the museum. When she stepped off the elevator on the second floor, she heard animated voices coming from Diane’s office. Grasping her crutch, she made her way toward the sound.
“How about Coprolites Incorporated?” she heard Diane suggest. “It has an almost poetic ring.”
“Nah, nobody’ll know what we’re about. We need something catchy and to the point, like We Do Dinosaur Doo-Doo.”
“That’s awful, James. I want something with a little dignity.”
“Who needs dignity? We’re going to make our fortunes here.” James broke off, looking toward the door. “Sue!” He reached her side in one giant step. “What are you doing out of bed? Look at you!”
“I’d rather you didn’t. Not today.”
“You look better wearing bruises and bandages than most women look wearing silk,” James assured her. He kicked a basket of toys out of the way and guided her to a chair. “How’d you get here without your car? Don’t tell me you hopped.”
“Taxi. The driver acted like it was an international trip—all the way from town to my place, then here. I’ll have to make the payments in installments. A year should do it.”
Diane scooped a pile of textbooks from an extra chair and eased Susannah’s foot onto it. “Shouldn’t your ankle be bandaged?”
“Could you help me with it, Di? I couldn’t get the tensor back on after I showered, if you can call it showering. I stood there with my hands outside the curtain like a zombie, hoping the force of the water would be enough to get the grit out of my hair. What’s all this about coprolites?”
Diane took the bandage and started a couple of turns around the instep of Susannah’s foot. “Sophisticated collectors are paying big bucks for the stuff.”
“Really? What do people want them for? Bookends?”
“Or paperweights, maybe. Organic decor is in.” The tensor, just wound, was already coming undone. Diane sighed and started over.
“So we’ve decided the amateur bone hunters have the right idea,” James said earnestly. “Why spend all those years in university so we can make a living working with fossils when we can do better selling dung?”
“Can I join? I’d love to get rid of the last of my student loans.”
“You know I’d do anything for you, Sue, but this is my pet project and my loans come first.” James looked at his watch and jumped up. “Gotta go. I have a meeting with Alex.”
“Is it about Matt? Wait, I’ll come with you.”
“Thanks, Sue, but he asked for me. If I’m not back in half an hour, come looking for me.” James hurried out the door.
Susannah looked after him worriedly. “Poor James. It’s not the way you hope to start out with a new boss…in the middle of your biggest screwup.”
“Sounds like the voice of experience.” Finally Diane fastened the end of the tensor. “There!” She sat back to admire her handiwork. “Don’t ever take it off, Sue. I worked too hard to see it thrown away, as if it were nothing but a disgusting bandage.”
“Agreed. It feels great.” Susannah looked at Diane more closely. “You still look tired. What’s up?”
“I just didn’t get enough sleep last night. There’s too much going on around here.”
“I guess I didn’t help, dragging you out to the quarry.”
“You didn’t drag me.”
Cradling her arm, Susannah said, “I can’t believe I stalked off like that. Blake must think I’m a complete idiot.”
Diane shook her head. “He wasn’t even annoyed when he found out you’d gone to the quarry instead of the meeting. He just accepted that you were busy. Maybe you don’t have anything to worry about with him, after all.” She hesitated, then added, “Actually, I thought he was a sweetheart yesterday.”
“I wouldn’t go that far. He seems to have mellowed, though. So I’m going to apologize, and thank him, and be my usual professional self. The next thing you know we’ll be working together just like any two sensible people.”
SUSANNAH KNOCKED on Alex’s office door. After a moment it swung open, and he stood before her, only inches away.
“Dr. Robb,” he said lightly. “You’re never where I expect you to be.”
Her good intentions evaporated. She forgot she’d ever had any. “Don’t you mean I’m never where you’ve told me to be?”
He looked surprised, then cautious. “I suppose you could put it like that.”
“Wouldn’t it make your life easier if you just stopped telling me?”
“You might be right.” His voice had cooled. “In any case, I’m glad you’re feeling well enough to come to work. Would you like to sit down? It’s just a suggestion. You’re free to do whatever you like. I have a guest who’s been worried about you.”
Susannah craned her neck to look past him. Sitting on a hard chair in front of Alex’s desk was Matt, happily examining a plastic triceratops model. He didn’t look like someone who’d been called on the carpet, but Susannah’s protective instincts flooded through her anyway. “You have a list of people to deal with today, I see. I know James was here earlier. Flexing your authoritarian muscle?”
“I was going to leave you until you were feeling better.”
He was close enough that Susannah could feel his breath on her ear when he spoke. Eager to put some distance between them, she made her way to his desk and sank thankfully into a chair near Matt’s.
“Have you seen this, Dr. Robb?” Matt held up the triceratops model.
“Not that particular model, but in my office I have a wooden hadrosaur skeleton that I made myself.”
He nodded without much interest. “Look at this one. It’s really cool. You can take the skin off to see the bones. And Dr. Blake’s got a sand table where you can see how dead dinosaurs got covered up, and you can practice digging them up. Dr. Blake says the current in the river washes them downstream, and then they get caught where the river turns a corner, so that’s a good place to dig.”
Dr. Blake says…? She and James had said the same thing on the first day of science camp. She looked from the sand table to Alex, lounging against his desk. Her eyes followed the long line of his body, from the sandy hair and broad shoulders to the firm stomach and casually crossed legs. Strong, tanned arms were folded across his chest, seeming to cuddle a bloodthirsty tyrannosaur that glared out of a silk-screened subtropical forest. The shirt was more appropriate for a kid like Matt than a man in his late thirties. It suited him, though.
Alex’s attention was on the boy. “Where were we?”
Matt shifted uncomfortably. “You were talking about a…contract.” He clearly didn’t like the word. “For me to remember the rules.”
“How far did we get?”
“I’m supposed to stay off the hills and stay with the other kids.”
“Two things to remember,” Alex agreed. “Tough things, but I think you can do it. Now, my part of the contract is the consequences.”
His expression mutinous, Matt stared at the floor.
“Here’s the hard part. If you break the rules, I’ll send you home.” Alex waited for that to sink in. “But the flip side is that if you follow the rules, you can earn a reward. Would you be interested in spending an afternoon in the prep lab putting together a dinosaur skeleton?”
Matt looked up. “A real one?”
“As real as it usually gets. The technicians have been working on a triceratops—just like that model. They’ve made fiberglass replicas of the fossil bones. Would you like to help put them together?”
Face glowing, Matt nodded.
“Then it’s a deal. We both sign the contract, and we shake on it.” Together, they walked to the door. “Amy’s just down the hall. She’ll take you back to camp. Good luck, Matt.”
Alex closed the door and turned to face Susannah.
“A contract?” she said. “Isn’t that a bit cold?”
He didn’t answer until he returned to his desk and sat down. “I suppose it could sound cold. My sister’s a teacher and she swears by contracts. She says they help kids stay focused and grown-ups stay consistent. The stakes are too high at the quarry. Matt won’t be safe there unless he remembers the rules.”
Susannah nodded, thinking of the rocks on the sinkhole floor. “I’m concerned about your offer to take him into the lab.”
“Oh?”
“We’ve all learned what he’s like. There are tools and chemicals he could get into, and specimens he could break.”
“I’ll keep an eye on him.”
Alex’s attitude was frustrating but not unexpected. “Despite that disagreement, I appreciate the way you handled Matt. It’s easy to get mad at him. Your approach gives him a chance to learn.”
“I know the type—from experience.”
“Do you have kids?” She hadn’t noticed any family pictures around the office, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t a family.
He shook his head. “I was a lot like Matt—full of energy and enthusiasm. Rules were mere speed bumps. They just slowed me down a little as I ran over them.”
Susannah didn’t have any trouble believing that. “You probably climbed a few hoodoos in your time, too.”
“I couldn’t find any in North Vancouver, or I would have. There were other things to do, though, like jump into rivers from canyon walls.”
She stared at him. “Lynn Canyon, you mean? But people die doing that.”
He nodded. “That’s what my parents kept saying.”
“But it’s illegal, isn’t it?”
“They said that, too.”
She tried not to smile. “You’re telling me you were bad.”
“I was never bad. I just liked having fun.”
The conversation had strayed far from the direction Susannah had intended to take it. “I came here to apologize—”
“For the meeting? You already have. And I’ve accepted.”
“All right.” He was making it too easy. “I wanted to thank you again for helping me yesterday. Taking me to the hospital and home, fixing dinner. The pills, too, and leaving the bottle open…” She paused, then continued with a trace of embarrassment. “And I saw this morning that you cleaned up after me…the sand, and the clothes. I’m really very grateful.”
“But?”
“But…I’d prefer a more professional relationship. I’d like you to stop deciding what I need when I haven’t asked for help. I didn’t want to sleep in today, and I don’t need to take time off.”
Alex gave a brisk nod. “You’re right. We met in a strange way. I guess the sense of emergency blurred the usual boundaries.”
“The situation with Matt…”
“Yes?”
“Nothing like that has ever happened before. I take full responsibility.”
“So did James.”
“I knew what Matt was like. I should have arranged to have him partnered with an adult.”
“That’s a good idea. You don’t have to rake yourself over the coals about this, Dr. Robb. Accidents happen. James will step up supervision at the quarry, and the contract should help.”
“Good. That’s settled, then.” She smiled uneasily. It was hard to reestablish control when he was so reasonable.
“There’s one other thing,” Alex said. “The next time you go out to the quarry—I understand it’ll be a while before you’re up to the rigors of that kind of day—I want to go along. Since you weren’t able to meet with me yesterday, and I don’t have your report, I’m not familiar with your project. You can walk me through it.”
Susannah’s neck stiffened. It was a reasonable request from the head of dinosaur research, but she’d seen his sense of ownership in Australia. “Do you plan to visit all the current projects?”
“Eventually.”
“You want to put your stamp on all the work?”
Alex looked puzzled, then a little angry. “That’s an odd thing to say. Is there something more going on here than you told me last night? You’re not just miffed about the job. Is it something about me in particular you distrust, or are you just paranoid?”
Paranoid? How many judgments did he intend on throwing around? “It’s something about you, Dr. Blake.”
“I see. I put your hostility yesterday down to shock. Is that still the problem?” When Susannah didn’t reply, he continued, “I can take a certain amount of unpleasantness, but you’re part of a team. This kind of behavior could sabotage the museum’s work if it goes on too long. Care to have it out?”
That would be some conversation—make that some outburst. “There’s nothing to have out.”
“Then I suggest you hold your bitterness toward me in check. I wouldn’t want it to be a barrier to the museum’s functioning.”
It was a threat. How on earth had she gone from being Bruce’s anointed successor to being seen as an expendable liability?
She stood up, as straight as she could. “I’m not confident that you have this museum’s best interests at heart, Dr. Blake. If you don’t, you can expect a lot more than a few hostile words from me. It’s really up to you how well the museum functions.” She wished she could stalk out of his office, but lopsided hopping was the best she could do.
More than anything Susannah wanted to go home, but she was determined not to leave before closing. Or later. She was up to the rigors of her job, whether it was lying in the sand with a chisel or sitting at a desk with a keyboard.
Slowly and painfully, she made her way to the preparation lab. She detoured around a crowd of visitors pressed shoulder to shoulder at the observation window. Another group was inside the lab, being shepherded around by a public education staffer. Charlie wouldn’t be happy. He didn’t like sight-seers taking up elbow room, getting perilously close to the fossils under his care.
As she searched the long rows of metal shelves for specimens from the quarry, she couldn’t help overhearing a snippet of conversation between Marie and Carol, lab technicians who had been at the museum nearly as long as Susannah.
“Did you notice his eyes?”
“Mmm. So blue—so kind and amused.”
“He’s got all that muscle and intensity of purpose and he just gleams with intelligence. I never could resist a brainy guy with a tan.”
Marie raised her voice. “I hear Dr. Blake pulled you out of a sinkhole, Susannah. That must have made your day! Those strong arms wrapped around you. That broad, muscled chest—”
And that broad, muscled ego. “I’m afraid it was wasted on me. All I noticed was light and fresh air.”
“Too bad.” With pitying expressions barely hidden, the women pulled on their gear—gloves, masks, earplugs and goggles. Carol bent over a large chunk of rock. A quiet roar filled the air as she turned on a power drill.
“Susannah!” Charlie made his way through the rows of worktables toward her. They moved away from the noise. “You don’t look much the worse for wear. Adventure must agree with you.”
She gestured at the storage shelves. “I’m looking for my stuff.”
He indicated one of the tables. “We’ve just unpacked the most recent specimens. Cretaceous flotsam and jetsam, most likely.”
“I thought we crated some great specimens.”
“At this point you’ve had a better look at them than I have,” he admitted. “We’ll see, once we get the plaster off and the rest of the rock chipped away.”
“Is my skull ready yet?”
“Carol’s been working on it. It should be ready sometime next week, I think. Unless Dr. Blake has lost it.”
Susannah smiled at Charlie’s aggrieved tone. “How would he have done that?”
“You can smile, but I’m serious. I found him in the storage room early this morning. He claimed to be doing an inventory. He left quite a mess.”
“That’s odd.” Whatever she thought of him, she had trouble believing Alex would be careless with specimens. On the other hand, it hadn’t bothered him at all to drive through the gully, probably crunching fossils as he went. Only half-joking, she asked, “My skull’s still there, isn’t it?”
“It’s there.” Charlie gave a sheepish shrug. “I’m exaggerating.”
“Is it holding together all right?”
“So far, so good. It’s fragile in places. You’re lucky it got safely past your herd of dinosaur fanatics. How can you stand having all those kids milling around?”
“They slow down the work a bit, but they’re lots of fun. They think we’re an exciting bunch, you know.”
“Naive little things.”
“I don’t mean to rush you with the skull. It would be awful if it broke—I’m beginning to think we might find a complete skeleton. That doesn’t happen all that often.”
Charlie smiled reassuringly. “We’ll be extra careful.”
THAT EVENING, Charlie drove Susannah home. “You going to do this to yourself again tomorrow?”
“I don’t think I can.” She was throbbing from head to foot. “I’ll probably have to take some time off, like it or not. I hate to look weak in front of Blake, though.”
“To tell you the truth, Sue, you don’t come across as all that strong, wobbling around covered with bandages, looking like you’re going to cry.”
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