Dinosaur Lake (7 page)

“Ah, there you’d be wrong. I think it was a beautiful beast.” Justin’s eyes gleamed with his obsession.

Henry glanced at the boy and laughed. “You would believe that, wouldn’t you? But I bet you wouldn’t feel that way if you came face to face with a live one out in the woods? And it happened to be hungry?”

“Probably not.” Justin’s face broke into a grin. “Unless I had a giant tranquilizer gun with me or I was invisible.”

This time both of them laughed.

“So you think some distant descendant of a cross between a Nothosaur and an
Allosaurus
, or a totally new breed of dinosaur, made those tracks, huh?” Henry asked, as he put sugar in his coffee and gulped it down.

Justin must have caught the disbelief in his voice because he closed his empty box lunch, wiped his fingers on a paper towel, and sighed aloud. His glasses came off, and his fingers rubbed at the bridge of his nose around his eyes.

“You’re right, Chief Ranger, this is crazy. As authentic as those prints looked to me yesterday, the idea there’s a genuine dinosaur swimming around in Crater Lake is too bizarre to continue going on about. It’s insane, isn’t it?” He laughed again, but it was flat and tinged with disappointment.

“Yes, it’s insane.” Henry poured fresh cups of coffee and carried them to the table. Empathy in his eyes. Yet what a discovery of a lifetime a real breathing dinosaur would be for a paleontologist. Poor Justin.

“I guess in some ways we never grow up,” Henry said. “Even at my age. For a couple of startling moments yesterday when I first spied those tracks, I
wanted
to believe a real dinosaur could be walking the earth again. Preposterous as the idea is, I wanted it to be true.”

“Me, too. It’d be fantastic to discover one. Or a new breed. I’d go in the history books for sure.” Justin’s gaze was dreamy.

“Well, anyway, it’s been an adventure. You’ve been good company. Interesting to talk with. And we can’t forget those fossils, now can we? They’re real.”

“Yes, they are that.”

Finishing his lunch, Henry opened another book and browsed through it. More information paraded before his eyes.

“Dinosaurs,” he read snatches aloud and tapped the book with his finger, “were dubbed
the terrible lizards
. Hmm. No doubt. Some of them, they say, were gargantuan in size, and probably as unfriendly as hell. Look at this monster. Palaeoscinus. Do you really think it looked like that? Weighed three tons? How do you guys know that?”

The question spurred Justin into a lecture about the battery of scientific tests they performed on the ancient fossils, and all the other research techniques paleontologists used.

Henry realized the scientist was brilliant on his subject. He really knew what he was talking about. An interesting human being. Impressive. He was beginning to respect the man as much as he liked him.

As they lingered in the kitchen, drank coffee and talked, Henry learned more about the scientist himself. He was thirty-three, not much younger as Henry had thought. Out of college for years, he’d worked other places and had traveled to digs on different continents; as he’d said, he’d been working at John Day’s for two years. He wasn’t married, or engaged, or involved with anyone at the moment. Had lofty goals to be a director at John Day’s and to eventually lead the most prestigious paleontological
expeditions around the world. He knew what he wanted. But underneath, Henry sensed a basic loneliness, underlying everything the young man said or did. It was an invisible shadow, but there.

Henry began to look at Justin differently. He was an intelligent man who lacked the knack of making close friends. He’d known men like that, mostly cops.

God, he contemplated more than once, if only his daughter had fallen in love with an ambitious man like Justin instead of that jerk Chad.

They were still gabbing when Ann got home from work. Henry introduced Justin and was pleased when his wife seemed to take an instant shine to the scientist. Before Henry knew it, she’d invited him to supper. Then he recalled that Laura and Phoebe were coming, too.

What a conniving woman he’d married.

***

“So I’m going down there tomorrow sometime and talk to the old man about what he was supposed to have seen.” Ann had been retelling the story about Sam Cutler and the mysterious water creature he’d claimed had rammed his boat.

Like Zeke, Henry knew Sam Cutler, too. He’d gone out on Sam’s boat with tour groups, many times. Sam was a good guy, but spun a lot of tall stories and exaggerated things somewhat. His boat’s compartments were stuffed full of tattered science fiction paperbacks. The old codger had a heck of an imagination.

“Do you believe he saw a monster in the water?” Henry asked softly.

“How do I know, honey? I haven’t talked to him yet.”

He glanced at Justin, whose interest was captured. He had this feverish glaze in his eyes.

To Henry, as well, the tale seemed to have an uncanny coincidence. Why now, of all times, were people reporting these sightings in the lake? Unless…. No, it
had
to be someone’s idea of a practical joke. How many could be in on it? One person could have created the tracks, another mutilated the animal carcasses and another was swimming around in the lake in a monster suit? The thing that baffled him was why would anyone want to go through that much trouble? For attention? Publicity? He couldn’t guess.

But he sure as hell didn’t believe it was a real monster.

“By the way,” Ann turned to catch Justin’s eye, “have you already told the place you work for about the bones up near the rim?”

Justin pulled his eyes away from Laura long enough to answer, “Ah, not yet. In a few days, perhaps. There’s no hurry. Truth is, I want to keep the discovery to myself for a while, before the crowd arrives. Once I let my colleagues know, there’ll be a whole flock of scientists here.”

Ann hadn’t noticed her husband had fallen silent since she’d mentioned Sam Cutler’s story. She was too busy observing Justin’s reaction to Laura, and vice-versa.

All evening the young man had been watching her daughter closely, smiling at her and engaging her in conversation. The repartee between the two appeared natural and unforced from the first minute they’d laid eyes on each other. Usually Laura was withdrawn and uncommunicative, but not with Justin. After an hour or so the two were talking up a storm and Laura seemed happier than she’d been in months. She was excited about going back to school, confided the situation to Justin, and he openly encouraged her.

Ann told Henry when they took the empty plates into the kitchen she was positive something was happening between them. Sparks were crackling. They looked right together, even if Justin was older. Henry knew Ann was crossing her fingers under the table, and then she offered the young man another piece of homemade cherry pie.

She was in seventh heaven and was having a hard time hiding it.

Little Phoebe had also taken a fancy to Justin. She was in his lap in no time, cooing and grabbing at his glasses or his long hair; gurgling and grinning impishly up at him as he patiently dealt with her. He seemed unsure with the child, as if he hadn’t had much experience with kids, but he went out of his way with her.

“Okay, but what exactly did your boss say Sam told him about the thing in the lake?” Henry asked abruptly, sitting forward.

Justin threw him a funny look.

“Honey, I told you everything I know,” Ann spoke. “The man claims some kind of big greenish monster was in the water and it rammed his boat. A serpent-creature is what Sam called it and swears it was after his boat. Doesn’t know why it finally left him alone. It sounds to me like nothing more than a big fish tale,” she laughed, “but our readers eat up stories like that, you know. So I’ll talk to the guy. Sometimes I wonder if I’m working for a small town newspaper or the National Inquirer.”

She caught the surreptitious glance between Henry and Justin. “Are you two keeping something from me?”

“No,” both of them said too quickly.

“All right, you two. What’s going on? I know something is. Tell me now or, I promise I won’t give either of you any more pie.”

Henry tried not to smile as he confessed about the tracks Justin had found down by the lake the day before.

Ann’s reaction wasn’t what he’d expected. “My god, maybe there is something peculiar going on in that lake. What a story that’d be!”

“Oh, no,” Henry groaned, feigning fear. “You’re right. Maybe there is a monster prowling in the water.”

He and Justin chuckled as if it were a big joke.

Ann was watching them. Henry knew he wasn’t fooling her. Her reporter’s sixth sense was humming at full power.

“Well,” she simply said, “now it’s even more important I get those photos of that wall of bones. I could tie that in with the mysterious happenings at the lake.”

Henry and the paleontologist exchanged another startled look.

She turned to her husband. “Since I have to go to the lake anyway tomorrow, why don’t you finally show me where those bones are, at the same time? After I take the pictures, I’ll speak to the captain.”

“Sure,” Henry recovered enough to reply with a faint smile. “Bright and early. You got a deal. No rain in the forecast.” He couldn’t get what Ann had said about tying in the two stories out of his head. He believed in freedom of the press, but he wasn’t sure he liked the idea. It could create problems.

Justin stood up from the table. “I should get going. Let you guys get some sleep.”

It had gotten late. Phoebe was asleep, curled up in her mother’s lap. Henry was yawning behind his hand. Laura had to get up early the next morning for work.

Ann was obviously tickled when their daughter suggested, “Justin, it’s spooky out there, and you haven’t seen dark until you’ve been in the park at night. It’d be easy for you to get lost on your way back to the lodge. But I’m driving by there on my way to the dorm so I’d be glad to drop you off.”

Justin didn’t hesitate. “That’d be kind of you, Laura. I really wasn’t too hot about trekking through the woods in the dark anyway.”

“You ready to go then?” As if she couldn’t see him standing there, books in his arms, coat already on.

“I’m ready.”

Justin smiled at Ann. “Thank you both for a great meal, a nice evening. The food and the cherry pie was delicious, Mrs. Shore.”

“You’re welcome. But call me Ann. Mrs. Shore makes me feel old.”

“If you insist.”

“I do and I hope we’ll see you again soon. You’re welcome here anytime.”

“Thank you. I might take you up on that. The way it looks I’ll be around for a while.” He signaled goodbye to Henry with a salute of his hand.

After Laura hugged him and her mother goodbye, she carried the baby through the door into the night. Justin trailing behind her.

After the sound of the car’s engine moved off into the night, Ann glanced at him. That match maker glint he knew so well in her eyes. “Got a feeling about that young man.”

“You do, do you?” Henry teased back.

“Yes, I do.” Contentment shone on her face and they embraced, knowing each other’s thoughts.

Henry helped clear the table, rinsed the dirty plates and put them in the dishwasher. They straightened up the kitchen. But his mind was somewhere else. Ann’s remark about connecting Cutler’s sighting with the bones haunted him. What would she say if she knew about that other woman’s sighting last summer, about his last night?

There were just too many coincidences, his mind told him. The earthquakes…the bones…George’s dead animals…those tracks. And now Sam Cutler and his water monster. Too darn many coincidences.

“You ready for bed, honey, or do you want to watch television for a while?” Ann asked as they headed for their room.

“Bed sounds better. We have to get up early, anyway. Remember?”

“And I bet after you show me those bones you’ll want to dig around in the dirt with Justin?”

“Possibly.” He was getting undressed for bed. “I’d like to be a small part of this thing. The dig. It’s a dream come true.”

“I know.” Ann laid a kiss on his lips and he gently returned it. They made love as they had so many times before, soft and sweet. Comfortable with each other. Sure of their love.

They were long asleep when the strange night noises began down on the lake. Like some ancient beckoning cry on the wind, something called out across the tranquil water and through the silent trees. Lonely sounding.

And somehow unearthly.

Ann enjoyed walking along the rim, peeking out across the circular expanse of Crater Lake’s shimmering blue water, knowing she was treading upon what was once the inner wall of a volcano. She treasured the primeval ambience of the place, untouched by civilization, and the air full of the woodsy pine scent.

Henry always joked she must be part mountain goat because the heights never bothered her, or the steep climb. Over the years she’d explored all along the rim’s edge and the grounds around it. Each time she found something new, something unique, and was amazed at how much she’d come to love her new home.

She didn’t miss New York at all. Well, maybe sometimes a little. She missed the hustle and bustle, the vast variety of people and food–what she wouldn’t give for a big fat New York bagel with cream cheese or one of those hand-tossed pizzas they used to get at the corner bistro.

It was noon and the sun was high above as she picked her way down towards the water. Lunch was a good time to catch the tour boats docked in Cleetwood Cove. Most of them puttered in for the meal, and tours resumed at around two o’clock.

Dressed in sneakers, a sweater, jeans and a purple jacket; she’d tied a white kerchief around her head to tame her flyaway hair. She traveled light in the rough terrain, with a fanny pack at her waist, a notebook and sketchpad along with her pencils, snuggled in a cloth shoulder bag as she descended toward Cleetwood Trail, the only entrance to the water.

She’d left Henry and Justin at “the dig”, as they’d started calling it. Probably glad to be rid of her and her endless questions about the fossils and dinosaurs. She’d taken a bunch of pictures, seeing right away how an article on the
paleontological
discovery might become a front page story, with updated installments ongoing afterwards. What a circulation builder.

Justin was certainly knowledgeable on his subject. He knew the long dead dinosaur’s ancestors migration and feeding habits, plus their social and sexual structure. Throughout the interview, Henry had chimed in with interesting tidbits Ann had never suspected he knew.

All in all, she had more than enough to write a fascinating story. Justin and Henry had promised her an exclusive. They wouldn’t talk to anyone else until her story had run.

With squinted eyes, she scrutinized the docked boats. The Seabird wasn’t among them. It was early yet, so it didn’t worry her. The Seabird would show up.

Ann plunked her butt down on the wooden dock, her feet swinging out over the water, and pulled out her notebook and sketchbook. She began to jot down ideas and angles for her story, along with questions she’d thought of on the way down to the dock. The sun’s rays were soft on her face, the water glistened below her. It was easy to lounge there and daydream. She switched to her sketchbook and her fingers drew a whimsical drawing of a monster with spots, a big grin, and extra-long lashes over huge expressive eyes.

Ann wished Henry was with her instead of up on the hill digging around in the dirt. She hoped he was having fun.

When he’d been shot eight years ago, she hadn’t left his side at the hospital for days until he came out of intensive care and had actually spoken to her.
Love you, Ann
, was the first words he’d uttered.
I’m sorry I hurt you and Laura. If I live through this, it’s going to change. I promise.
The memory still made her weep. She’d thought she’d lost him that day. The job, finally, and as she’d always feared, had been the death of him. She’d hated him being a cop; always putting her and his family second behind the job. She’d been sick of it. And the night of the shooting she’d been ready to leave him, even though it would have broken her heart. But since the shooting and moving up here, she’d been the most important thing in his life, along with Laura and now Phoebe, and he’d never let her forget it for a moment. It was good they’d left New York. She was happier than she’d been in many years. She had her husband, her friend and her lover back.

She watched the boats fill with visitors and head toward Wizard Island, the Phantom Ship, or to chug around the lake itself, tourists peering up at the steep multicolored lava walls. She and Henry took at least one or two boat tours a summer. The ride was so peaceful, drifting on the water alongside the cliffs, listening to the call of the wild birds swooping above. Exploring the islands was fun, too. The land was mostly untouched by humans and a person could imagine they’d traveled back in time when the mists billowed in from the water and the silence beckoned.

Ann dawdled on the dock, thinking over what might have happened the night before between her daughter and Justin. Gosh, to have a son-in-law that actually read books, talked in complete sentences and had a real job.

Hey, Ann,
she gently scolded herself,
what are you thinking?
Justin and Laura have just met, for heaven’s sake.
Ah, well, she could dream, couldn’t she?

Ann didn’t carry the same guilt concerning her daughter as Henry did. She fretted at times over where they’d gone wrong with Laura and what to do about the girl when she up and married Chad at such a young age. She’d known the marriage wouldn’t last; that sooner or later Laura would end up on their doorstep and they’d have another chance to help set her straight. And she’d been right.

Ann sighed, her eyelashes descending softly, eyes closing. Only so much you could do to help your children, the rest was up to them. Laura had to learn to find her own way in the world.

She opened her eyes and let in the bright sunlight. Laura sped out of her mind, replaced by what she should fix for supper that night.

Ann didn’t suspect something was wrong until the fleet of boats began returning from their first two-hour tour of the afternoon. Still no Seabird. Stretching like a lazy cat, she got up off the dock and headed for Willie Sander’s boat, the Mermaid, which had just drifted in.

Henry had mentioned that Willie and Sam Cutler were poker pals. They played in the weekly poker game every Friday night at the lodge; everyone knew them. Willie had all the luck and Sam usually lost.

Waiting until after the passengers left, she climbed aboard. A man was busy preparing for the next group of landlubbers. He was in the foredeck cleaning up the litter from the last trip when she strode up to him.

“Willie Sander?” She’d seen him around the lake, like most of the other captains, but hadn’t done more than said hi to him before that.

The man, short and muscular wearing blue work pants and a black T-shirt, swung around and winked at her. His arms were loaded with empty Pepsi bottles and crumpled waxed paper. A red ball cap perched on his head of frizzy gray hair, and thin tight lips locked around a dangling cigarette. “Aye, that’s me. What can I do for ya, Mrs. Chief Park Ranger?” He dumped the trash into a plastic bag, circled it with a tie, and edging past her, jumping neatly to the dock. Tossing the bag into a trash barrel, he was back again in a matter of moments.

When he was close enough so she didn’t have to yell, she explained, “I’m looking for the Seabird and Sam Cutler. Would you know where I might find him?”

Willie Sander’s eyes displayed an emotion she couldn’t define. Caution? Fear? She wasn’t sure. Certainly mistrust. The lake folk were private people. Though most of them knew she was Henry’s wife by sight, she was still considered an outsider, even after all this time.

“What you want him for?” Sander stepped further back on his boat and Ann followed.

“Well–” It was best to be truthful. He seemed the kind of man who’d appreciate that. “You know, I work for the Klamath Falls Journal and Sam called the office yesterday morning with some information he thought we might be interested in. I’m here to interview him. He’s sort of expecting me.”

“Really? That’s awful strange, then. I don’t know where he is and I’m getting mighty worried. Last I saw him or his boat was yesterday afternoon and, come to think about it, he was acting pretty squirrelly to boot, if I do say so, even for him.” His bushy eyebrows shot up, the cynical look returned.

“He was acting squirrelly?” A tiny smile curled Ann’s lips.

Sander snorted, gesturing dismissively. “Ah, Sam’s been obsessing about some weird creature in the lake for weeks. Said it’d been dogging his boat, playing with and taunting him. Said it only came out at night and was as big as two houses put together, that’s his exact words, and it had a long neck, huge teeth and was strong as hell.”

He paused, as if to measure Ann’s response, then, seeing encouragement in her manner, went on, “He was scared of the damn thing, but wanted to capture it something dreadful, like it was a damn trophy or something.” He grunted. “That’s why he never told the rangers. He wanted to bag it for himself. Make a load of money.”

“You didn’t believe him?”

Willie chuckled. “Do I look like a nut to you? Nah. I thought he’d been hitting the sauce a little too hard. Started doing that a few months ago. He’s gone on some real binges. Not like him at all. I told him he shouldn’t be on a boat, much less captain one with people in his care, if he was going to drink like that and was seeing things to boot. He got furious at me and went off in a huff. The old coot. Now I wish I would’ve taken his problem a little more seriously. I feel something’s terrible wrong.” Regret softened his words.

He yanked off his cap, wiped his brow, and leveled his eyes at her. “I haven’t seen him since yesterday. Which is unusual because he always comes in every morning to pick up passengers. Not like him to miss a beautiful day like this.” The cap went back on his head and he sent his gaze away and out over the rippling water. “I’m beginning to worry. I didn’t see him anywhere out on the lake today. Nor did anybody else I asked. Mighty peculiar that. There are lots of boats and we get around, but no one’s seen him.”

Ann stared at the grizzled captain. The first flicker of doubt awakened. She could sometimes sense when something wasn’t right with a situation. At that moment, her inner voice was getting louder.

“Could he have packed up and left? Gone on vacation and not told anyone?” Modern day adventurers, the captains and their boats came and went on the lake. They got tired of the same waters or the tourists and moved on. That’s just the way it was.

“Not likely. Sam doesn’t take time off, says being here in the park is like an everyday vacation. He’s been here going on sixteen years now, longer than me. He loved it…until about three weeks ago.”

“Let me guess,” she interjected, “that’s when he started seeing the creature in the lake?”

“Yep. You got it.”

Her obvious concern about the missing captain and the way she was smiling so friendly like must have made him want to confide in her further. “Like I said, I thought he was imagining things. Stress as well as the booze. Ya know, his only son died last spring.” He hesitated.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

“Ah, yep. The boy lived down in Illinois. Willie had a lot of guilt over that kid seeing as he divorced the boy’s mama years ago and never got around to being the kind of daddy he’d wanted to be. Then time was up and he was grieving.”

“So you think this ‘monster’ of his was a figment of his stress? Like his guilt chasing after and tormenting him?”

Sander hesitated long enough to make Ann wonder. “Colorful way of putting it, but yes. No such things as monsters, lady. We all know that. I even know that and I’m not a clever man. There ain’t nothing in this lake but water and fish. Take my word for it.”

After that he didn’t want to talk any more. Clammed up. She thanked him for his help, handed him her card in case he remembered anything else or if Sam Cutler reappeared, and left. Looked like Zeke would keep his twenty bucks.

Ann made her way up to the rim and along the path to where she’d left Henry and Justin earlier, digging around in the dirt like two ecstatic kids.

“You got a whole dinosaur yet?” she kidded as she snuck up behind them.

“Three of them. Each as big as a baseball field.” Henry, dirty-faced, played along, winking. He lifted one of his muddy hands to swipe his hair back. When he grinned, there was dirt on his teeth.

Justin looked as bad. Mudballs both.

“We’re not disturbing the bones, though,” Justin said, his face respectfully awed. “That wouldn’t be right. They’re fragile. Priceless. We’re just chipping away the matrix, dirt and rocks they’re embedded in so we can see what we’ve got, and taking pictures. This is a bonanza.”

He pointed to a hunk of white sticking out of the ground. “Looks like this particular beast was caught in a landslide. Mud. Or snow and ice. Maybe glaciers displaced by lava underneath. Violent but instant deaths. That’s why the specimens are so well preserved. It’s remarkable.”

Ann bobbed her head, trying to stash away everything he talked about in her memory, thinking about how she could use it in her articles.

Henry motioned at the scientist. “Justin, will you look at this?”

Ann sat down on a large flat rock and watched.

“Get your story, honey?” Henry looked over his shoulder at her.

“No.”

“No?”

“Sam Cutler’s nowhere to be found. No one’s seen him or his boat since yesterday. Kind of unusual. I called him yesterday and he knew I was coming to talk. It was all set up, at least I thought so. Willie Sander thinks he went off looking for that creature in the lake. He wanted it for a trophy.”