The Stolen Bones (11 page)

“What are they?” Bess wailed.

“Eyes,” I croaked. “Something’s watching us.”

W
e pressed our backs together. My heart pounded in my throat. I took a deep breath and forced myself to think clearly. I tried to speak in a normal voice, but it came out as a whisper. “It must be coyotes. They’ve been tracking us.”

“I thought coyotes didn’t attack people!” Bess said.

“They probably just want to know what we’re doing in their territory,” I said. “Think of them like escorts. They want us out of here as much as we want to be gone.”

“I have a hard time believing that,” Bess muttered.

I forced myself to stand up straight and step away from my friends. “In any case, if we want to scare them off, we should look big and make noise, not huddle together and whisper.”

“Open your coats,” George said loudly. She unzipped hers and held it open so she looked bigger.

“Mine’s a pullover,” Bess wailed.

“Then wave your arms,” I said.

We made ourselves as big, loud, and threatening as possible. The coyotes backed off, although we could still see the eyes glowing red at a distance. “Come on,” I said. “The sooner we are out of their territory, the happier we’ll all be.”

We found our tracks again and walked quickly, using the penlight for speed’s sake. “We should keep making noise,” George said. “Anything you want to talk about?”

“There’s only one subject on my mind,” I said.

“Who got us into this mess?” Bess added.

“Any ideas?” George asked.

I shook my head. “I think we need a lot more information about everyone. Jimmy and Tom were our best suspects, when we knew just enough to be suspicious. But we hardly know anything about Abby, Russell, Grayson, or Felix. George, I think tomorrow you should find a spot where you can get reception and do some Internet research.”

We discussed the various people on the dig, coming up with more and more ridiculous reasons to suspect them, as a way to take our minds off the coyotes.

“Russell is part of a syndicate planning a real
Jurassic Park,”
George suggested. “That phone call he made when we left tonight—he was calling his partners to make sure the lab is ready.”

Bess laughed. “No, it’s Grayson. He wants to be like those thieves he was talking about. He thinks he’s Robin Hood, and he’s going to give the bones to the poor.”

When I could stop giggling, I said, “How about this: Abby wants a dinosaur skull as a talisman. Can’t you just see her with one hanging around her neck?”

“Yeah, a big
T. rex
skull.” George guffawed. “Wait, what about Felix? Maybe he wants to open a restaurant serving dinosaur soup!”

We didn’t even notice when the red dots stopped following us. Finally, our tracks led us to a drop-off. I blinked several times, trying to focus my eyes and brain. Then it hit me. “We made it! We’re back at the dig.”

We whooped and hugged each other. As the tension drained out of me, I realized just how frightened I had been.

“Now we just have one more mile back to camp,” Bess said. “I’m almost sure I can make it.”

“Hold on a second,” I said. “Now that we know we’re safe, let’s take a look for those extra footprints.”

I shone the penlight around, but couldn’t find
anything definite. We had our tracks going out and back. They covered up anything else.

“Maybe we can look again in the morning,” Bess said pointedly.

I smiled and got up. “You’re right. Let’s get back to our sleeping bags.”

George glanced at her watch. “Yeah. It’s already two.” She gave Bess a wicked grin. “Wake-up call in four hours!”

Kyle stepped out of his hiding place as we crossed the hollow. I had almost forgotten about him. We gave him a brief rundown of our adventure. After we assured him that we were okay, he explained that everything had been quiet at the dig site. Finally, we trudged the last mile back to camp.

George reached for the tent zipper, yawning. “Hold on,” I said. “We don’t need any more surprises tonight.”

I stood to the side of the tent and slowly opened the zipper. I peered around the edge and didn’t see anything dangerous. Still, we pulled our sleeping bags outside and shook them out before crawling inside. I fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow.

•   •   •

By the time we dragged ourselves out of our tent in the morning, we could smell the bacon and sausage
sizzling. I started forward, ravenous after our exhausting night.

Bess grabbed my arm. “Nancy, at least brush your hair, please.”

“Oh. All right.” I quickly ran a brush through my tangles and pulled my hair into a ponytail. After two nights camping, miles of hiking, and no shower, I figured nothing much would help my appearance. George just smashed a hat onto her head.

Bess had some kind of gel that was supposed to clean your hair as you brushed it. “Try it,” she said.

I grinned. “Sorry. I can’t hear you over my stomach growling!”

“Hurry up,” George said. “Tom and Kyle are already getting food, and I’ll bet they can eat a lot.”

Kyle was back? I wondered who was guarding the fossil, but first things first. George and I practically pounced on Felix.

“Smells great!” George said. “I’ll take my first and second helpings right now.”

Felix beamed at her and scooped a slab of omelet from an enormous cast-iron pan. “Western omelet, with onions and green peppers. There’s toast on the grill, and coffee in the pot.”

I pulled a chair close to Kyle. After I had a few bites of food in my stomach, I turned toward him and whispered, “Everything all right last night?”

He nodded. He had dark circles under his drooping eyelids. “You were the most exciting thing that happened. Steffi relieved me at dawn and sent me back here for breakfast. If anything had happened since then, we would have heard about it.” He pulled his jacket open enough to show something that looked like a radio.

“Is that a walkie-talkie?”

“Yep. The range is good enough to reach the dig. Steffi has the other one.”

I hadn’t even noticed that she wasn’t at breakfast. I guess hunger interferes with my observational skills. I glanced around and counted heads. Everyone else was accounted for.

Kyle took a last swig of coffee and stood up. “All right, people, this is our last full day. Let’s get going so we can haul out that first jacket before it gets too hot.”

We finished breakfast and loaded our backpacks with water. George whispered, “I’m going to stay behind. I’ll go back up that hill where I can get Internet reception.” She pulled out her handheld computer. “I’ll need everyone’s full name, though.”

“I printed out the e-mail where Kyle listed the people coming on the dig.” I rummaged through the car and found it. “Here you go.”

George took it and walked off with a wave. Bess
and I started for the dig. “My feet hurt,” Bess groaned. I nodded. My legs ached too, but after a few minutes of walking, the stiffness left them.

Kyle walked quickly, but his step had lost its bounce. Grayson alternately yawned and blew his nose. Abby’s violet eyes had lost their sparkle, and the dark circles under them suggested she had not been sleeping well.

Russell looked awake, but caught up in his own thoughts. Out of everyone, Tom looked the most cheerful. He caught my eye and smiled.

We straggled into the dig site. Kyle stopped and looked around. “Steffi?” He took a few steps forward, frowning. “Where is she?”

A muffled grunting and scuffling came from the crack in the
cliff
where Kyle had been hiding the night before. I hurried toward it.

“Steffi!”

A
petite figure squirmed on the ground, her
hands tied behind her back and her feet bound. Even with the burlap bag over her head, I
recognized Steffi.

Kyle pushed past me and tugged the bag off. He gathered Steffi into his
arms. “Are you all right?” he demanded.

Steffi just gasped and squirmed. I knelt behind her and examined her
wrists. Rough twine went around and around them until the ends joined in a complicated
knot. “Hold still,” I said. “I’ll get this off.”

Steffi stopped squirming but she was still trembling. The knots were
unbelievably tight, probably because Steffi had struggled against them so much. My
fingers stung with splinters from the coarse twine.

Steffi twisted her head around. “Get these
things off of me!” she croaked.

“I’m working on it.” I glanced at Kyle. “Give her
some water.”

Someone handed him a water bottle and he held it for Steffi. She took a
few swallows and started coughing. I wasn’t having any luck with the knots, but I
remembered my pocketknife. I slipped off my backpack, found the knife, and started
sawing through the twine. Finally it came apart. Steffi’s wrists were rubbed raw
underneath.

Steffi brought her hands in front of her and started shaking them out as
Tom freed her ankles. She hopped to her feet and paced. Everyone was asking questions,
but she didn’t answer. She grabbed the water bottle from Kyle and took a long
drink. Finally she took a deep breath and snapped, “All right, all right!
I’m fine. Just really, really mad.”

“What happened?” Kyle asked.

“I heard a strange noise. A kind of tapping. I waited a minute, but
no one came into view. Finally I stuck my head around the corner. Before I could see
anything, that bag came down. I got in a few good kicks, but they grabbed me and tied me
up.”

“They?” I asked. “More than one person?”

She nodded. “Two men, I think. I didn’t get a look at either
of them, and they didn’t speak. But one person
pinned my arms
while the other tied my feet. I’m pretty sure I kicked that one in the face. He
grunted, or at least I think it was a man. The one holding me definitely was.”

“Can you remember anything else about them?” I asked.
“The one holding you, was he tall? Did he have any particular smell?”

She paused in thought. “The only thing I could smell was that nasty
burlap bag. But the one holding me was definitely tall. At least as tall as Kyle, but
skinnier.”

Two men, one at least six feet tall and thin. “It sounds like those
two guys who showed up yesterday,” I said.

Kyle muttered something and turned away. “The jacket! They got our
fossil.”

“Of course,” Steffi said. “You didn’t think they
went to all this trouble just for me?”

Kyle smiled crookedly and took her hand. “I must admit, I actually
forgot about the fossil for a minute.”

She grinned up at him. “I’m okay.”

Tom picked the walkie-talkie up off the ground. “So now what? What
do we do?”

I looked around at the others. Everyone stared at Steffi and Kyle, looking
shocked and confused.

“How long ago did this happen?” Kyle asked.

“Maybe ten minutes after you left,” Steffi said.

Kyle scowled. “They must have been watching,
and they waited for me to leave. We thought we were safe, once the sun came up. I
can’t believe it.”

“They had to have had a vehicle,” I said.

Steffi nodded. “I think one of them stayed here while the other went
to get it. A few minutes after they tied me up, I heard the engine. Then some grunting
and thumps. Then they drove off.”

Bess climbed the path up the bluff, to where the off-road vehicle had
parked the day before. She studied the ground and called down, “I’m sure
there are new tracks here, from the same tires.”

Kyle groaned. “There’s no point in trying to follow them now,
I guess. They have at least half an hour on us, and we’re on foot.” He was
silent for a minute, as we all watched in sympathy.

Kyle gave a deep sigh. “All right. Priorities. Let’s get these
other two jackets finished. I want them out of here today, and the sooner we get the
plaster on, the sooner they can dry.”

It didn’t take all of us to jacket two sets of fossils. Kyle and
Steffi drew away to one side and talked in low voices. Grayson started helping Russell
with one jacket, while Tom and Abby took the other.

I paced restlessly. It seemed like we had identified the thieves, but I
still wasn’t satisfied.

Bess joined me. “So, after all we went through,
this is how we find out about the thieves.”

I frowned and shook my head. “I’m not convinced it’s
that simple. Someone from camp is involved.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“The snake. When it showed up in our tent, we hadn’t even seen
those two guys yet. Why would they try to discourage us?”

“They might have just wanted to cause trouble at camp,” Bess
said. “Maybe they chose a random tent and it just happened to be ours.”

“Why would they want to disrupt the camp?” I said. “They
wanted Kyle’s group to do all the work in excavating the fossils. Otherwise they
could have just come out last week, when no one was here. No, someone from camp is
involved. Someone who knows I’m a detective.”

“I told Abby that first morning,” Bess admitted. “But I
don’t remember who else was around.”

“Just about everybody,” I said. “And of course we told
Kyle later that morning. Either Abby or Kyle might have told someone else.” I put
my hands on my hips and looked around. “We need to find out more about these
people, and we’re running out of time. They don’t need us here. Let’s
go see how George is doing with the Internet.”

Bess smiled. “What’s a
hundred-million-year-old fossil, compared to modern snooping?”

•   •   •

We offered to start carrying gear back to camp. Most of the tools could
go, along with the empty buckets. Kyle didn’t want to expose anything new, since
we wouldn’t have time to get it out of the ground. I grabbed one of the
walkie-talkies, too, just in case. They wouldn’t need both at the dig.

We entered camp and put away the tools. George waved and came toward us.
We filled her in on what had happened with Steffi. “I hope you found something
interesting,” I finished.